Thursday, March 26, 2009

Your health.

Please please please, Don't hide any information as regards you health from your treating dentist.

A couple of days ago at the hospital, we had a patient who suffered from major complications during receiving his dental treatment. All of this was because he withheld a piece of information about his health, he thought irrelevant.

So, please be frank about your health.

9 comments:

Shimaa Gamal said...

May I ask what was the piece of information that patient withheld?
I am a bit curious about medicine these days :)
I think it would be easier if doctors asked the patient direct questions about what they know will be relevant to certain treatments. It will be easier and fool-proof because patients don't really know.

Belya said...

The patient didn't tell us that he was under treatment for hypertension. Not that it contra-idicates dental treatment but it's of importance to be noted.

And yes, we do ask patients about the most common diseases and ask them to mention anything we didn't ask about.

The problem is despite we asking these questions, a lot of patients still believe it's irrelevant info. and we are just doing it to waste his/her time.

A very common scenario we face: We ask for investigations for a patient who informed us of a certain problem, instead of thanking us here's what they say. " I shouldn't have told you, now you'll be wasting my time, it's only a dental treatment for God's sake. "

Shimaa Gamal said...

The problem with patients is that they probably think they know better than the doctor.
I personally commit the crime of self treatment a lot. But not that I know more than the doctor, it is mainly out of ignorance of how even minor things could lead to terrible ends if mis-treated.
Next time any patient says that you are wasting his time by unnecessary questions tell him it is better to waste time now than wasting his life later :)
So, for my medical record what did his hypertension treatment caused? Is it related to the anesthesia?

Belya said...

This might be a year later.

I really apologize for that, I've just noticed your reply.

The patient suffered from a brain stroke, we really don't know if it's caused by the anesthesia or because of his elevated blood pressure at that time.

We only found out about his medical condition by locating anti-hypertensive drugs in his pockets.

The incident might still be a mere coincidence.

Shimaa Gamal said...

:)Thanks for replying

This is really sad, a brain stroke while at the dentist's.

But dentists don't check patients' blood pressure before treating them, or should they do?

I don't think anyone could have seen this coming. It is really sad. I hope he recovered.

Belya said...

We don't check all patients' blood pressure. But I personally check those with history of hypertension.

At my work place, we check blood pressure for all adults above the age of 45.

Shimaa Gamal said...

A completely irrelevant question, can an endodontic treated tooth develop an abscess?

Belya said...

Unfortunately yes.

Shimaa Gamal said...

and the poor guy with the stroke by any chances had an abscess?