wisdom teeth removal

Let’s Give our Kids a Chance to Succeed

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Let’s open with a quote from http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/07/physicians-courage-implement-comparative-effectiveness.html “American physicians are not stupid. They know where the money is. Established referral patterns, collegial medical relationships, flashy glitz for the patient to experience and describe versus ordinary pills, no pesky lawyers, country club shoulder rubbing, the payroll, and marketing of the local hospital. All these factors, and more.” What I can’t seem to figure out is why there such a lack of promoting values and skills for our youth today that will allow them to succeed in the future so they can see through false statements and care promoted without or on shaky scientific ground. Is money really the end all be all? Of course not. In today’s digital era some argue that reputation is the new cash. Hence following values, morals, and ethics will go a long ways towards gaining reputation … Read more

Ellen Degeneres and Wisdom Teeth Videos

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Ellen Degeneres has a show and she has a tendency to have a lot of young people on who have posted videos on Youtube. She has done this for some upcoming Youtube musicians and also for some young adults who have had their wisdom teeth St George Utah removed as a preventative elective surgery. In September, 2010,  she had a young guy and girl on the show who are brothers and sisters and posted a Youtube video after having their wisdom teeth removed. The video from their appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT7WLBAeaUw The original video is located at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig-pZ4OyidY In April 2010, Ellen had a young girl on the show who posted a video on Youtube after she had her wisdom teeth extracted. The video from her appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show is located … Read more

16 Year Old Female Dies After Wisdom Teeth Removal

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I was very saddened to recently hear about the death on May 5, 2011, of a young 16 year old girl who was a sophomore in high school in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was in the ROTC program and had aspirations to join the Army. Miciah Bonzani went into cardiac arrest while under anesthesia to have her wisdom teeth removed. She was taken to a hospital, placed on life support, and then died 2 days later. She was born with a heart defect which had required two surgeries before her first birthday. What is also troubling to me about this unfortunate death is that one of the media organizations that covered the story WPXI/Pittsburgh.com, did not even mention that it occurred while having wisdom teeth extracted.  They simply called it “dental work” and an “outpatient medical procedure”, although … Read more

Patient Consultations for Wisdom Teeth Removal

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In my last post on the Well Informed Patient I discuss how Dr. Thomas B. Dodson talks about “…a new brand of well-informed patient.” In that post I attempted to make that case that many patients are not being well informed at all when it comes to wisdom teeth extractions and is partially due to the current model of informed consent in the U.S but also failure to provide their patients with current scientific evidence and information. In this post I will look specifically at 2 examples of patients who have in the past few years visited oral surgeons to discuss the possibility of having wisdom teeth removed and/or had wisdom teeth removed. From their writing one can make the case that they may have benefited from being better informed and aware of the fact that no current evidence supports … Read more

17 Year Old Female Dies After Wisdom Teeth Removal

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I was very saddened to recently hear about the death of a young 17 year old girl who was a junior in high school. The woman went into cardiac arrest while having her wisdom teeth removed. She was left in a coma and died 10 days later on April 6, 2011. She was involved in multiple choral programs and was hoping to be a professional singer. What really is upsetting to me about this is at the recent memorial service for her on April 17, 2011, her mother described the doctors calling this very unfortunate and premature death “freak.” One high school senior at the same school discussed how she was still planning to have her wisdom teeth extracted later in the week. The appropriate response should call into question the validity of extracting healthy wisdom teeth from young teenagers … Read more