dentist

Providing Dental Care for Adults with Mental Health Disorders: Can Increased Interaction with Therapists Help?

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An interesting article titled “Providing oral care for adults with mental health disorders: Dental professionals’ perceptions and experiences in Perth, Western Australia” written by Clair Scrine, Angela Durey, and Linda Slack-Smith, appears in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology (pp. 1–7, 2018). The article sought out to explore dental professionals’ perceptions and experiences of providing oral health care for adults with mild to moderate mental health disorders in Perth, Western Australia. The article suggests that people with mental health disorders have poorer oral health outcomes and are even less likely to receive dental care. In Australia those with several mental health disorders are more likely to have decayed, missing or filled teeth than the general population. It is believed that access to care and affordability in Australia limit those with mental health disorders from receiving dental care. Most of the dental care (~85%) in Australia is through the private sector. The authors … Read more

Delivering Dentistry and Counseling to Patients using Telemedicine

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Nowadays it is possible to receive dental care, healthcare, and even counseling from the comfort of your own home. Teledentistry is defined as using electronic information including interactive audio, video, and data communications to provide and support dental care including consultation, diagnosis, and treatment where the care occurs virtually from where the oral health professional is licensed. Such care is essentially delivered online like many other aspects of life is increasingly becoming such as buying clothes and paying bills. Teledentistry includes the use of a live, two-way interaction between a patient and a dentist using interactive audiovisual telecommunications technology. Teledentistry includes the transmission of recorded health information such as radiographs through a secure electronic communications system to a dentist, who uses the information to evaluate or diagnose the patient’s condition or provide a service. Teledentistry includes personal health and medical data collection from an … Read more

Delivering Sedation in Dentistry

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It has become increasing popular to deliver sedation to patients receiving dental work. Sedation is defined as the deliberate drug-induced depression of consciousness used to reduce anxiety and awareness associated with unpleasant medical procedures. Sedation is used to reduce anxiety.  In some cases dentists or oral surgeons deliver both the dental work and the sedation, while in others there is a separate anesthesiologist to do so. One should always verify proper training and license prior to undertaking any sedation from a healthcare professional. Sedation is generally considered very safe as long as it is performed by an appropriately trained practitioner in a monitored environment. Sedation dentistry uses different approaches depending on personal choice and comfort. In the order of increasing anesthesia these are local anesthesia, minimal sedation, nitrous oxide/oxygen, moderate (conscious) sedation, deep sedation, and general anesthesia. A more thorough discussion … Read more

Dentists Should be Prepared to Refer to a Counselor, Psychologist or Psychiatrist

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In recent years more and more dentists have had to deal with patients with substance use disorders. Wisdom teeth extractions are sometimes said to be a potential cause of a later substance use disorder, see for example https://blog.teethremoval.com/painkiller-overdose-in-michigan-are-wisdom-teeth-extractions-contributing/. Even though dentists and oral surgeons have taken steps in recent years to reduce the amount of drugs they prescribe to their patients that would possibly be used for non-medical purposes this may not entirely solve the problem. If through the course of a patient evaluation, a dentist becomes aware of a possible drug or alcohol problem, they should be prepared to refer their patient to a counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist. As such they should have several possibilities available for the referral. The American Dental Association (ADA) had a webinar series several years ago titled “Interviewing and Counseling of patients with substance use … Read more

Will Dental School Debt Lead to Future Counseling?

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Future dentists these days are being subjected to large amount of loans that are necessary as a part of dental school. This topic has been covered a bit before on this site, see for example https://blog.teethremoval.com/medical-school-student-costs-in-the-u-s-are-affecting-mental-health/ and https://blog.teethremoval.com/medical-students-are-at-risk-for-suicide/. This topic has also been recently discussed on the American Dental Association (ADA) Viewpoint and Letters to the Editor. In an April 18, 2016, letter titled “Dental student loan debt” Dr. Sparkman from Texas said If most dental students today are borrowing over $200,000 to get out of dental school then I have part of the solution in three words. Get a job. Dr. LeMert a 2009 dental school graduate from the state of Washington took issue with this position and found Dr. Sparkman’s position laughable.  He said in a May 16, 2016 letter titled “Dental school reality” Dental school itself was a 60 hour/week … Read more