Doctors find ‘sick’ Air India pilots missing from home – Hindustan Times
Air India pilots who called in sick and have not reported to work for a week, were not found at home by doctors sent by the airline; nor have they reported to the doctors empanelled by the national carrier. According to the medical summary accessed by Hindustan Times, 48 of the 53
Delhi-based crew who reported sick weren’t at home, or their residences were locked and their mobiles unreachable.
Eighteen outstation pilots were examined at Hotel Hyatt, most complaining of bad stomach and backache. They were found medically fit.
The aviation ministry’s medical summary makes for interesting reading — there appears to be a sudden epidemic in Air India’s pilot community, with 9 of the 18 outstation pilots complaining of bad stomach.
Not one of the nine was found dehydrated.
The doctors’ comments for all read: “Vitals stable, hydration fair”. Similarly, two pilots complained of toothache but the doctors found “no swelling”.
Backache suddenly appeared to have become fashionable. Four pilots complained of lower backache. While one pilot’s report read, “forward bending painful”, the remaining three were found to have a “normal gait”.
Of the 53 homes visited by doctors, 12 were found locked. When doors were opened, the medical teams were given unclear information.
One pilot’s mother said her son was at the doctor’s with a bad stomach, but she didn’t know where. Another’s brother said the pilot had gone to the doctor but wasn’t sure for what, and the pilot’s phone too was unreachable.
Only five of the 53 Delhi-based pilots, who had called in sick, were found to have genuine grounds for staying off work.
Aviation minister Ajit Singh, who had told this paper that it would be difficult to take back pilots sacked for striking work, is said to have been angered even more with this report of “sham illnesses”, ministry officials said.
Categories: Info & News Tags: Doctors, Find, From, Hindustan, Home, India, Missing, pilots, Times, ‘sick’
E.R. Doctors Face Quandary on Painkillers – New York Times
Dr. Bruce Lobitz, an attending physician in the emergency department at Upstate Carolina Medical Center in Gaffney, S.C., sees about 10 patients a week complaining of toothaches. “The bane of our existence,” he calls them.
It’s not just that doctors like him lack the training and tools to solve their dental problems. Many of these patients, he fears, complain of tooth pain simply as a ruse to get prescriptions for narcotics.
“Almost all dental patients request a prescription for narcotic pain pills,” Dr. Lobitz said. “ ‘I just need something to tide me over until I can see a dentist’ — that’s the classic line.” Sometimes, drug-seekers will show their cards: “They’ll say they’re allergic to everything except Vicodin.”
Dental patients — mostly uninsured or indigent — are not unusual in emergency rooms. Poor patients may forgo preventive care and delay treatment until they face a medical crisis. In many states, adult dental benefits under Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor, have been scaled back or eliminated. And dentists often don’t accept Medicaid patients.
But emergency physicians like Dr. Lobitz cannot know whether someone who claims to be in agony from dental issues is telling the truth — or simply plans, he said, to “go to the next emergency room, next town over, and get another 30 Vicodin.”
Dr. Gail D’Onofrio, chairwoman of the emergency medicine department at Yale School of Medicine, has studied alcohol and drug abuse in emergency rooms. “The overuse of narcotics is a huge problem, and when a patient presents, especially for dental pain, it’s difficult to make an objective assessment,” she said. “It puts the physician in a difficult situation to assess whether or not someone truly needs pain medications. We err on the side of treating pain, and it is a huge potential for abuse.”
The frequent prescription of narcotics in emergency departments for dental pain has been quantified for the first time by research financed by the National Institutes of Health, bringing to light another way opioids get into circulation and contribute to the rampant abuse of painkillers in the United States.
From 1997 to 2007, painkillers were prescribed in three of four visits to the emergency department for dental complaints; roughly half of visits resulted in a prescription for antibiotics, according to a new analysis of the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey by Dr. Christopher Okunseri, a practicing dentist and an associate professor of public health at the Marquette University School of Dentistry in Milwaukee.
Over that period, the number of painkiller prescriptions for dental patients in emergency departments rose 26 percent, and antibiotic prescriptions jumped 41 percent, according to the report, published online in January in the journal Medical Care.
“E.D. doctors don’t have the training or expertise to provide definitive care, so the easy way out for them is medication,” Dr. Okunseri said. “If you’re not careful, you’ll create more addicts.”
In interviews, many emergency department doctors acknowledged that they write plenty of prescriptions for opioids for patients complaining of dental pain, but they feel they face a conundrum. “I admit that some people get drugs out of me who shouldn’t get them,” said Dr. Tom Benzoni, an emergency physician who has worked for 18 years at Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, Iowa.
Yet some patients are genuinely in pain. “Do I deny them drugs so that one person doesn’t get a little more Vicodin?” he said. “It’s emptying the ocean with a teacup to try to address our societal drug problem.”
Time pressures and heavy patient loads leave doctors with few choices. “If your goal is to get people out of the emergency room, it’s about stabilizing and shipping out,” said Dr. Nathaniel Katz, the director of the nonprofit Program on Opioid Risk Management at the Tufts Health Care Institute. “What’s the easiest way to get patients shipped out? Write them a prescription for Vicodin. How long does that take?”
Dr. Katz, a neurologist and pain specialist, added that emergency department doctors lack the tools, like dental X-ray machines, to determine whether, for example, a tooth’s nerve is infected, an excruciating problem that often requires root canal or extraction.
Relatively few emergency department workers are trained to give dental blocks, local anesthetic injections that offer immediate relief for 6 to 16 hours. In theory, the injections reduce the number of dental patients who leave the emergency room with potentially habit-forming narcotics.
Dr. Rita K. Cydulka, the vice chairwoman of the emergency medicine department at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, offers dental blocks, but she said that others in her specialty don’t want to take the time. “They find it easier to write a script for antibiotics and painkillers, and send people on their way,” she said.
Before writing a prescription, few emergency doctors use drug-monitoring programs to see whether patients have recently been given painkillers. Forty states have these programs and eight have enacted legislation to create them, said John Eadie, director of the Prescription Monitoring Program Center of Excellence at Brandeis University.
“Unfortunately many emergency physicians don’t realize the importance of a quick check of the database to see how many painkiller prescriptions a patient has filled lately,” he said.
During the first half of 2010, just one of 12 monitoring programs that reported to the Center for Excellence had 100 percent of prescribers registered to use their data. In the other states, the percentage of prescribers registered was only 9 percent to 39 percent, Mr. Eadie said.
Some doctors say the many pressures they face create other incentives to quickly prescribe remedies for patients complaining of severe pain. For example, doctors are often rated by their hospitals with patient-satisfaction surveys for how they treat pain.
“You can be faulted for not treating a patient’s pain — it’s considered the ‘fifth vital sign,’ ” said Dr. Abhi Mehrotra, the assistant director of the emergency medicine department at the University of North Carolina Hospitals. “We have to ask a patient’s pain, on a scale of 0 to 10, as well as document a reassessment of their pain after treatment.”
Dr. Benzoni, who is routinely rated on patient satisfaction and sometimes asked by management to explain a bad review, said that he feels at times as if he faces a no-win choice. “If you’re going to criticize me for not giving out narcotics, and you never praise me for correctly identifying a drug-seeker,” he said, “then I’m going to give out narcotics.”
Categories: Info & News Tags: Doctors, E.R., face, Painkillers, Quandary, Times, York
Improving the State of America’s Teeth – New York Times
Re “Dental Insurance, but No Dentists” (Op-Ed, April 9):
Dr. Louis W. Sullivan’s observation that dental pain sends too many people to emergency rooms echoes what dentists have said for decades: the needless suffering caused by untreated oral disease that could have been prevented or easily treated in its early stages is unacceptable.
But we disagree with Dr. Sullivan’s proposed solution: allowing nondentists with as little as 18 months post-high school training to perform surgical procedures like extractions and pulpotomies (drilling through the hard tooth surface and removing soft tissue). This is especially true for the populations in greatest need, in which many people suffer from co-morbidities like diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, or for children with rampant decay and the accompanying chronic infections.
We also question Dr. Sullivan’s suggestion that a shortage of dentists has caused the epidemic and his call for government to finance more dental schools. In fact, new schools have opened recently, and more are slated in the near future.
The country will never drill, fill and extract its way to victory over untreated dental disease. A public health system based primarily on surgical intervention in disease that could have easily been prevented is ill conceived and doomed to fail.
Until we focus on oral health education and disease prevention, the country will fail to meet the needs of those who face barriers to good oral health.
WILLIAM R. CALNON
Rochester, April 10, 2012
The writer is president of the American Dental Association.
To the Editor:
The notion that more providers will improve oral health care is naïve. The cause of oral disease in a majority of cases is a poor diet, poor home care and neglect. Efforts to improve oral health should be directed to limiting the sugar intake of children, better oral health education in the schools, and better parental supervision. No number of health providers can overcome deficiencies in these areas.
Visits to emergency rooms would decrease if definitive care were offered. People do not like dental care and will do anything to avoid it. They know that in the emergency room there will be no painful needle sticks or extractions, only oral medications.
To blame providers for poor oral health is to avoid placing blame where it belongs, on the makers of decay-causing foods and the parents who neglect their children’s preventive oral health.
LAWRENCE J. TEPE
Cincinnati, April 9, 2012
The writer is a dentist.
To the Editor:
I practiced dentistry for 50 years, and I know that most dental disease is preventable. Most dental care is repairing the damage after it is done. That is what dental insurance pays for.
One does not need a dental degree to teach prevention. In my practice, when parents learned to keep their mouths healthy, they taught their children. People in remote areas can learn to be self-sufficient.
Low tech works in preventing dental disease.
PHILIP HORDINER
Mill Valley, Calif., April 9, 2012
To the Editor:
Louis W. Sullivan was on target when he addressed the state of dental care in America.
Dental and medical care are hardly separate entities. Dentistry is an integral component of health care. It would be a philosophical coup to regard dental and medical care as one.
Parts of the body are not separate. They interact, brain to toe, nothing excluded.
ROCHELLE A. LIPKIND
Port Jefferson, N.Y., April 9, 2012
Dental Insurance, but No Dentists – New York Times
WE know that too many Americans can’t afford primary care and end up in the emergency room with asthma or heart failure. But in the debate over health care coverage, less attention has been paid to the fact that too many Americans also end up in the emergency room with severe tooth abscesses that keep them from eating or infections that can travel from decayed teeth to the brain and, if untreated, kill.
More than 830,000 visits to emergency rooms nationwide in 2009 were for preventable dental problems. In my state of Georgia, visits to the E.R. for oral health problems cost more than $ 23 million in 2007. According to more recent data from Florida, the bill exceeded $ 88 million. And dental disease is the No. 1 chronic childhood disease, sending more children in search of medical treatment than asthma. In a nation obsessed with high-tech medicine, people are not getting preventive care for something as simple as tooth decay.
It’s easy to understand why. Close to 50 million Americans live in rural or poor areas where dentists do not practice. Most dentists do not accept Medicaid patients. And the shortage of dentists is going to get only worse: by 2014, under the Affordable Care Act, 5.3 million more children will be entitled to dental benefits from Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Little is being done — by the dental profession or by the federal or state governments — to prepare for it.
During the physician shortage of the middle of the last century, the federal government began creating about 50 new medical schools, doubling the number of graduating doctors. Today our government can and should train more dentists to address the long-term problem. But there is no guarantee that the new recruits would practice in underserved areas, and we need practitioners now.
A more immediate solution is to train dental therapists who can provide preventive care and routine procedures like sealants, fillings and simple extractions outside the confines of a traditional dentist’s office. Dental therapists are common worldwide, and yet in the United States they practice only in Alaska and Minnesota, where state law allows it. Legislation is pending in five more states.
The dental profession has resisted efforts to allow midlevel providers to deliver this kind of care, and the government has so far failed to push for the change. It must do so now. The federal government could encourage states to pass laws allowing these providers to practice by calling for demonstration projects proving their worth.
The best model for how this system can work is found in remote Alaska Native villages, many accessible only by plane, snowmobile or dogsled, where high school seniors once graduated with full sets of dentures. Unable to recruit dentists to these areas, Alaska has been training its own dental therapists.
When Alaska began the project in 2003, there were no training programs in the country, so the state first sent students to New Zealand, which had a rigorous training program for dental therapists. These therapists now travel to small clinics and schools, often carrying their equipment with them. They consult with a supervising dentist from the region but do most procedures themselves. Many were raised in the communities in which they now work, so they understand the culture, children trust them and they have quickly become local health care leaders. Thanks to the program, around 35,000 people now live in communities where there is regular access to dental care.
We have two years to prepare before millions of children will be entitled to access to dental care, and Alaska shows us the way forward. Access means more than having an insurance card; it means having professionals available to provide care. Public officials should foster the creation of these midlevel providers — and dentists should embrace the opportunity to broaden the profession so they can expand services to those in need.
Ask Dr. Jill Veterinary Advice: Anesthesia-free dental cleaning harmful to pet – Contra Costa Times
Often when I discuss teeth cleaning with a pet owner, they respond by telling me that there is a person who comes into their groomer or pet store and cleans teeth without the use of anesthesia.
This practice, known as anesthesia-free dentistry or dental cleaning, is touted as being safer, less expensive and more humane for your pet.
The truth is that it is both harmful to the pet as well as illegal in many states, including California.
I thought I would clear up some misconceptions about this practice and hopefully educate pet owners about the correct way to manage their pet’s oral health.
Plaque is the film of bacteria coating the tooth surface. Calculus is plaque material that is calcified and cannot be removed with a toothbrush.
Anesthesia-free dentistry involves scraping the calculus off the tooth surface with sharp dental instruments while the pet sits in the handler’s lap. These dental instruments cannot be used under the gum line so the calculus which has formed under the gum line cannot be removed.
In addition, the inside surface of the teeth cannot be cleaned. The tooth enamel is etched during the scaling process and cannot be polished in an awake animal. This rough tooth surface accumulates calculus even faster as there is more surface for plaque to adhere to.
Calculus and its associated bacteria are what lead to periodontal disease and subsequent bone and tooth loss. When an animal is anesthetized,
the area under the gum line can be properly cleaned using ultrasonic or sonic instruments and any pockets can be assessed and treated properly.
The teeth are then polished. Dental X-rays and oral surgery can also be performed when needed.
Many pet owners are frightened by anesthesia and think that having the teeth cleaned without it will be safer for their pet.
Anesthetic deaths do occur, and almost every veterinarian can tell of a death that occurred under their care. These deaths are rare, however, and the anesthetic agents currently used in veterinary medicine are considered very safe.
Animals who have had their teeth scaled without anesthesia can suffer from cuts to the gums, bruising of the skin due to excessive restraint, neck injuries, and even jaw fractures.
I have known a few dogs who have had expensive and even life-threatening illnesses as a result of having their teeth cleaned in this manner.
The law in California states that performing dentistry on an animal constitutes the practice of veterinary medicine and needs to be done under the supervision of a veterinarian. The people performing anesthesia-free dental cleanings are not state-licensed or regulated and rarely work under a veterinarian’s supervision.
So, while the teeth may look cleaner and whiter after they are cleaned without anesthesia, they are no healthier and existing disease is most likely not addressed. It may be putting your pet at risk for an even more serious problem.
If you are concerned about your pet’s oral health, consult your veterinarian and have it treated properly.
Ask Dr. Jill Veterinary Advice is a column written by Jill Christofferson, DVM, of the Encina Veterinary Hospital in Walnut Creek. Contact her at askthevet@encinavet.com.
Copyright 2012 Contra Costa Times. All rights reserved.
Categories: Info & News Tags: Advice, Anesthesiafree, Cleaning, Contra, Costa, Dental, harmful, Jill, Times, Veterinary
Find which strategy is the Best for Teeth Whitening – Owen Sound Sun Times
We have all seemed over people with perfect pearly whites as well as considered that they got to end up being that way. Typically, your office offered you with a new gel in order to propagate on a mouth growth and you used this a period of time to provide Tooth Whitening treatments is one of the most common dental procedures. Most oral techniques today offer state-of-the-art medical and also oral products so you can feel absolutely protected with their qualified and authorized dental practitioners as well as oral practitioners. Laser whitening systems implement a stream regarding intense pink halogen lighting which is strained by way of over hard success, 000 eye fibers. This kind of lighting can be strained by means of two to avoid contacts which may have over 30 levels including protected to avoid wine glass. Destructive sun gentle is absolutely taken from the selection body parts making a awesome lighting which in turn enters into the pearly whites, empowering corrosion to happen without of the risky adverse reactions.
Now that you have your amazing pearly whites, you have to keep them this way. Some tips upon keeping the ‘pear lies’ bright. Nearly all dental practitioners will certainly suggest that an individual follow up your own laser light lightening therapy using a take home kit. This is an individual one-hour therapy each month for servicing of the lightening results. Completely frequent classes to your oral exercise and oral hygienist and common flossing and brushing of your the pearly whites and you should sustain the pearly whites feeling and looking great. In-office Teeth Whitening or tooth whitening carried out by dentists are most efficient
Unfortunately using tobacco in particular, but additionally consuming coffee will have an impact on your enameled in a very damaging way, making them badly marked and probably no amount of lightening procedures will be able to repair the harm. Just a little attention and care towards your the pearly whites can provide you with a contented bright look. You need to check after your the pearly whites at an early age, determine every day oral as well as cleanliness workout routines and you will be paid with healthy the pearly whites along with a amazing glowing look.
Preschoolers in Surgery for a Mouthful of Cavities – New York Times
SEATTLE — In the surgical wing of the Center for Pediatric Dentistry at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Devon Koester, 2 ½ years old, was resting last month in his mother’s arms as an anesthesiologist held a bubble-gum-scented mask over his face to put him under. The doctors then took X-rays, which showed that 11 of his 20 baby teeth had cavities. Then his pediatric dentist extracted two incisors, performed a root canal on a molar, and gave the rest fillings and crowns.
Devon’s mother, Melody Koester, a homemaker from Stanwood, Wash., and her husband, Matthew, an information technology manager, said they began worrying about brushing Devon’s teeth only after Mrs. Koester noticed they were discolored when he was 18 months old. “I had a lot on my mind, and brushing his teeth was an extra thing I didn’t think about at night,” she said.
The number of preschoolers requiring extensive dental work suggests that many other parents make the same mistake. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted an increase, the first in 40 years, in the number of preschoolers with cavities in a study five years ago. But dentists nationwide say they are seeing more preschoolers at all income levels with 6 to 10 cavities or more. The level of decay, they added, is so severe that they often recommend using general anesthesia because young children are unlikely to sit through such extensive procedures while they are awake.
There is no central clearinghouse for data on the number of young children undergoing general anesthesia to treat multiple cavities, but interviews with 20 dentists and others in the field of dental surgery suggest that the problem is widespread.
“We have had a huge increase in kids going to the operating room,” said Dr. Jonathan Shenkin, a pediatric dentist in Augusta, Me., and a spokesman for the American Dental Association. “We’re treating more kids more aggressively earlier.”
But such operations are largely preventable, he said. “I have parents tell me all the time, ‘No one told us when to go to the dentist, when we should start using fluoride toothpaste’ — all this basic information to combat the No. 1 chronic disease in children.”
Dentists offer a number of reasons so many preschoolers suffer from such extensive dental decay. Though they are not necessarily new, they have combined to create a growing problem: endless snacking and juice or other sweet drinks at bedtime, parents who choose bottled water rather than fluoridated tap water for their children, and a lack of awareness that infants should, according to pediatric experts, visit a dentist by age 1 to be assessed for future cavity risk, even though they may have only a few teeth.
And because some toddlers dislike tooth-brushing, some parents do not enforce it. “Let’s say a child is 1 ½, and the child screams when they get their teeth cleaned,” said Dr. Jed Best, a pediatric dentist in Manhattan. “Some parents say, ‘I don’t want my little darling to be traumatized.’ The metaphor I give them is, ‘I’d much rather have a kid cry with a soft toothbrush than when I have to drill a cavity.’ ”
Dental decay often starts with a dull ache that may be mistaken for teething. That is why parents do not realize their child’s teeth are infected until they break or the pain becomes so acute that the child cannot sleep, said Dr. Joel Berg, director of the Center for Pediatric Dentistry, a joint venture since 2010 between the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital, which built a surgical wing because of the demand for oral surgery for preschoolers.
With a cooperative child, a cavity — or even many — can be treated in a dentist’s office with an injection of local anesthesia and an episode of “The Backyardigans” to distract patients.
But dentists routinely recommend general anesthesia for preschoolers with extensive problems, particularly if they will not even let X-rays be taken. The cost to parents for dental restoration under general anesthesia for a child ranges from $ 2,000 to $ 5,000 or more, depending on insurance coverage and the amount of work, several dentists said.
Dr. Megann Smiley, a dentist-anesthesiologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, is used to hearing parents question the need for general anesthesia to fix their children’s infected teeth. “It seems like putting a match out with a fire hydrant,” Dr. Smiley said. “But if any of us tried to get 12 teeth treated, we wouldn’t think that’s small.”
The dental surgery center at Nationwide has three operating rooms, which staff members and local dentists used to treat roughly 2,525 children in 2011, 6 percent more than in 2010. The average age of patients is 4, and most have decay in six to eight teeth, she said.
“The most severe cases have 12 or 16, which is seen several times a week,” Dr. Smiley added.
Using general anesthesia on healthy children has risks, including vomiting and nausea, and, in very rare cases, brain damage or death. Using anti-anxiety drugs to relax a child coupled with local anesthesia for pain has risks, too, including an overdose that could suppress breathing.
Hannah Schwartz of Brooklyn refused general anesthesia for her 3 ½-year-old daughter, Alice. By then, one of Alice’s eight cavities had already been treated in a dentist’s office using a papoose board to immobilize her from head to ankle with straps. Her daughter screamed, “Take it off me!” for the 20-minute procedure, said Ms. Schwartz, a nursing student.
Afterward, “I left the room and burst into tears without Alice seeing,” she said, adding that she would try a third option, laughing gas.
Of course, the lack of money or insurance can be an issue, but several dentists in interviews nationwide attributed extensive cavities in part to lax parenting, at all income levels.
“It’s not just about kids in poverty, though kids of lower socioeconomic status tend to get more cavities,” said Dr. Rochelle Lindemeyer, director of the pediatric dentistry residency program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania dental school. Affluent families may have nannies who “pacify kids by giving them a sippy cup all day,” Dr. Lindemeyer said.
Brushing teeth twice a day used to be nonnegotiable, she said, but not anymore. “Some parents say: ‘He doesn’t want his teeth brushed. We’ll wait until he’s more emotionally mature.’ It’s baffling,” she added.
Dr. Man Wai Ng , the dentist in chief at Children’s Hospital Boston, said she heard parents, rich and poor, make similar rationalizations about their preschoolers’ snacking, like, “I can’t ever imagine Johnny being hungry, so I’m laying out a whole-wheat spread that’s always available.”
With a grant from the DentaQuest Institute, Dr. Ng started a disease-management program to alter the habits of parents of children with cavities so some could avoid the operating room. Her advice includes less frequent snacks, and only four ounces of juice a day. She does not forbid sweets, but suggests brushing afterward, and bacteria-killing Xylitol lollipops.
Multiple studies have shown that even children who undergo general anesthesia to treat dental decay end up with cavities again. Janine Costantini, the ambulatory practice director at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said the staff treated a 3-year-old who was making his second visit to the operating room for dental work. The boy arrived with a bottle of Coca-Cola.
Categories: Info & News Tags: cavities, Mouthful, Preschoolers, Surgery, Times, York
Ask Dr. Jill Veterinary Advice: Anesthesia-free dental cleaning harmful to pet – Contra Costa Times
Often when I discuss teeth cleaning with a pet owner, they respond by telling me that there is a person who comes into their groomer or pet store and cleans teeth without the use of anesthesia.
This practice, known as anesthesia-free dentistry or dental cleaning, is touted as being safer, less expensive and more humane for your pet.
The truth is that it is both harmful to the pet as well as illegal in many states, including California.
I thought I would clear up some misconceptions about this practice and hopefully educate pet owners about the correct way to manage their pet’s oral health.
Plaque is the film of bacteria coating the tooth surface. Calculus is plaque material that is calcified and cannot be removed with a toothbrush.
Anesthesia-free dentistry involves scraping the calculus off the tooth surface with sharp dental instruments while the pet sits in the handler’s lap. These dental instruments cannot be used under the gum line so the calculus which has formed under the gum line cannot be removed.
In addition, the inside surface of the teeth cannot be cleaned. The tooth enamel is etched during the scaling process and cannot be polished in an awake animal. This rough tooth surface accumulates calculus even faster as there is more surface for plaque to adhere to.
Calculus and its associated bacteria are what lead to periodontal disease and subsequent bone and tooth loss. When an animal is anesthetized,
the area under the gum line can be properly cleaned using ultrasonic or sonic instruments and any pockets can be assessed and treated properly.
The teeth are then polished. Dental X-rays and oral surgery can also be performed when needed.
Many pet owners are frightened by anesthesia and think that having the teeth cleaned without it will be safer for their pet.
Anesthetic deaths do occur, and almost every veterinarian can tell of a death that occurred under their care. These deaths are rare, however, and the anesthetic agents currently used in veterinary medicine are considered very safe.
Animals who have had their teeth scaled without anesthesia can suffer from cuts to the gums, bruising of the skin due to excessive restraint, neck injuries, and even jaw fractures.
I have known a few dogs who have had expensive and even life-threatening illnesses as a result of having their teeth cleaned in this manner.
The law in California states that performing dentistry on an animal constitutes the practice of veterinary medicine and needs to be done under the supervision of a veterinarian. The people performing anesthesia-free dental cleanings are not state-licensed or regulated and rarely work under a veterinarian’s supervision.
So, while the teeth may look cleaner and whiter after they are cleaned without anesthesia, they are no healthier and existing disease is most likely not addressed. It may be putting your pet at risk for an even more serious problem.
If you are concerned about your pet’s oral health, consult your veterinarian and have it treated properly.
Ask Dr. Jill Veterinary Advice is a column written by Jill Christofferson, DVM, of the Encina Veterinary Hospital in Walnut Creek. Contact her at askthevet@encinavet.com.
Copyright 2012 Contra Costa Times. All rights reserved.
Categories: Info & News Tags: Advice, Anesthesiafree, Cleaning, Contra, Costa, Dental, harmful, Jill, Times, Veterinary
Dealing with bad times – Nation – Thailand
Pets
Laurie Rosenthal
The Nation on Sunday February 5, 2012 1:00 am
It’s certainly been a bad time for my household, with the death of the little kitten Tara and my dog’s surgery on her knee.
In addition, all the cats are sneezing a lot and have fevers. My vet tells me that it’s lucky that I’ve kept up with all their vaccinations. These flu symptoms would be much worse if the cats weren’t protected.
With antibiotics to treat infection and lots of their favourite foods, they all recover in about a week.
Two of the cats, though, have a particularly bad time. My old lady Susu has stopped eating, and one of her eyes has turned red and inflamed. At first, I think she’s just suffering from the flu, but then the vet discovers two bad scratches on her cornea, the outer covering of her eye.
At 18 years old, Susu has very little control over her back legs. She can still walk, but sometimes, when she tries to scratch an ear, she misses and hits her nose, scraping it badly with her claws.
Now, it seems, she’s missed not only her ear but her nose as well and hit her eye.
With eye medicines and antibiotics, she gradually improves, but she’s still not eating. Finally at a pet product distribution centre, I buy every sort of expensive catfood I can find, and give Susu a kitty buffet.
She, of course, selects the most expensive catfood in Thailand. Well, she’s now eating well, and her eye looks much better.
My boy Pan-Pan is not so fortunate. He’s stopped eating too, and we discover a very bad tooth that’s causing an abscess on his gum. My vet recommends antibiotics to deal with the infection. Meanwhile, we should wait for the tooth to fall out by itself.
The tooth “obeys” the vet and falls out. Unfortunately, the one last tooth in the boy’s mouth is causing an abscess too. The Chula vets say that it should be pulled out as soon as possible, before the boy’s mouth infections affect his entire body.
Poor Pan. In a week or so, he’s going to have surgery. It will be fast, and (we all hope) provide Pan with a much better quality of life.
I’m puzzled. A few years ago, all the cats came down with these bad flu symptoms, and after a week or so, they all recovered with treatment. Why are they having so much trouble now?
My vet smiles at me sadly. “Laurie, don’t forget,” she says. “The cats who are the sickest are now very old and very weak. They’re not as strong as they once were.”
I guess she’s telling me to prepare myself, but how do you do that?
Latest stories in this category
Categories: Info & News Tags: Dealing, Nation, Thailand, Times
TIPS: Oral care post tooth extraction – Hindustan Times
Avoid eating acidic food like soft drinks, soda and citrus fruits in excess to prevent your teeth from decay.
Taking special care of your gums and teeth is essential to reduce pain and further damage. Tips to ensure the best oral health. 1 Take it easy: It is normal for the gum area and mouth to be tender for the first few days. Don’t exercise for at least 12 to 24 hours. If you
want to lie down, for the first night following surgery, keep your head up with pillows. Do not bend over or do heavy lifting for at least a week.
2 Bleeding control: Your dentist would let you know how to control any bleeding. Usually, a gauze pad will be placed on the area, and try and keep firm pressure on it. Change the dressing about every 30 to 45 minutes, depending on the amount of bleeding.
3 Rinse carefully: After 24 hours, gently rinse four times a day, using warm salt water. Do not spit out forcefully. Be careful not to dislodge the blood clot when brushing near the extraction area, for at least three to four days.
4 Ease your mouth: After 24 hours, gently stretch your mouth open to get it moving again. Talk as less as you can, and eat in moderation.
5 Soft food: Stick to a liquid or soft food diet for the first two days. Avoid hot food or drinks until the numbing wears off. You cannot feel pain while the gum is numb and this may burn your mouth.
6 Avoid smoking and alcohol: Do not smoke for at least the rest of the day. Avoid alcohol for 24 hours, as it could delay the healing process.
inputs from Dr Sameer Sachdev
Categories: Info & News Tags: Care, extraction, Hindustan, Oral, post, Times, TIPS, Tooth