dentist

Is it time to ditch the Doctor of Dental Surgery degree?

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An interesting article titled “Why 2 dental degrees?: Time for unification of degrees and oral health care providers” written by Donald B. Giddon and William V. Giannobile appears in the March 21, 2023 Journal of the American Dental Association. The article calls into question why dentistry is the only major health care profession that has two equivalent degrees: the Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry (DMD) degree and the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree. In the article discussion is made of how there is no useful purpose to have two different degrees in dentistry. The authors state that this causes confusion among patients, dentists, and other health care professionals. The authors believe that dentistry should have a single degree, the doctor of dental medicine, which is more accurate to what occurs in dentistry today. The authors say that there are no … Read more

Sedative-induced sexual fantasies a risk in dentistry

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An intersting article titled “The Impact of Sedative Hypnotic Drugs on Hallucinated Sexual Assault or Sexual Fantasies Involving Health Professionals: A Systematic Review” appears in the 2023 edition of the Journal of clinical pharmacology written by M. White and M. White. The article seeks to conduct a review on the issue of hallucinated sexual assaults caused by drugs used in denstry like midazolam while dental procedures are peformed on patients. This topic has been covered before on this site see for example the post Hallucinations While Taking Anesthesia: Implications for Sexual Assault. In the article discussion is made of how real sexault assaults have occured in the medical setting. An example is made of a 21 year old college woman who was given 10mg of diazepam intravenously while having a procedure performed and her doctor innappropriate touched her. Examples of … Read more

High Amount of Suicide Ideation Among Australian Dental Professionals

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An interesting article titled “Factors associated with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts by Australian dental practitioners,” appears in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology published on February 22, 2023, and written by Matthew S. Hopcraft and et. al. The article seeks to investigate factors in Australian dental practitioners and their association with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Previously on this site it has been discussed how medical and dental students, dentists, and medical doctors have an increased risk of suicide, see for example the posts Medical School Student Costs in the U.S. are Affecting Mental Health, Designing a Predoctoral Dental Curriculum To Help With Therapy Issues such as Stress Management and Suicide Prevention, and Medical Students Are At Risk For Suicide. In the article the authors mention how health practitioners have higher rates of suicidal ideation and death by suicide and … Read more

The Mental Health Issues Experienced by Health Professional

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An interesting article titled “The pathway from mental health, leaves of absence, and return to work of health professionals: Gender and leadership matter,” appears in Healthcare Management Forum written by Ivy L. Bourgeault and et. al. (June 9, 2022, pp. 1-8). The article discusses the results of four health professional case studies involving nurses, physicians, midwives, and dentists as it pertains to their mental health experiences. In the article the authors sent an online survey was sent to dentists, nurses, doctors, and midwives in Canada between November 2020 and May 2021. The survey asked respondents about mental health, leave of absences, and return to work issues which included items on psychological or mental stress or distress, anxiety, burnout, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, mood disorders, thoughts of suicide, and substance use or dependence. The authors analyzed a total of 1860 survey … Read more

Deep Breaths by Children can Help Reduce Dental Fear

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An interesting article titled “Breathing out dental fear: A feasibility crossover study on the effectiveness of diaphragmatic breathing in children sitting on the dentist’s chair” written by Martina Levi and et al. appears in the International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry (Feb. 13, 2022). The article sought to explore if diaphragmatic breathing by children can help to reduce fear and anxiety in dental setting. In the study the authors evaulated 20 children who had two dental procedures done on different days who were between the ages of 7 and 13. The children were assigned two groups in one group the children were taught diaphragmatic breathing to be used prior to dental treatment and in the other group they were instructed to start their dental treatment normally. The children in the diaphramatic breathing group only had their dental treatment begin when they … Read more