I am reposting one of my blog posts in the light of the news of the 10-year-old Briony who died from herpex simplex virus which the doctors failed to diagnose.
In this blog post I wrote about a dental nurse who contracted the herpes simplex virus whilst the dentist was treating a patient with a cold sore. I wrote that the GP diagnosed a primary herpes (meaning she had never had herpes infection which most people do have as a child). What I did not share with you was the fact that the dental nurse attended the GP’s practice on Friday and the GP sent her home thinking she had gingivitis. The nurse tried to tell the GP that she had seen a periodontist in her practice due to the ulceration in her mouth and it definitely wasn’t gingivitis. Nevertheless the GP advised the use of chlorhexidine mouthwash and sent her home.
Over the weekend she developed high fever (40 degrees) and could not eat anything due to sore mouth. At this point the ulceration was covering every corner of her mouth including the lips. She returned the GP’s practice on Monday morning and was barely able to stand up. Still the GP insisted it was gingivitis. But at that point the nurse realised the GP needed to see more than what he could with her just opening the mouth and him poking with this wooden spatula. So she grinned as wide as she could. The GP jumped back and said “Well that is definitely a herpes infection!” and prescribed the antiviral medication.
In case you haven’t read the news about Briony, click here.
My heart goes out to Briony’s family who must be devastated. RIP little Briony.
A patient came in for a long appointment to have a bridge done. This appointment was to include filing down the teeth to abutments which meant that the high-speed drill was to be used. A lot. High …
Zovirax can be used to make the cold sore heal quicker.
A patient came in for a long appointment to have a bridge done. This appointment was to include filing down the teeth to abutments which meant that the high speed drill was to be used. A lot.
High speed drills have water cooling system and this means there are aerosols in the air when the drill is used. And the aerosols carry pathogens from the patients mouth as far as two metres (about 6,6 feet) from it’s origin.
The nurse noticed that the patient had a large cold sore on a lip. Dentist appeared as if he had not noticed it and asked the patient to sit down in the patient chair. Chair was tilted back and when the dentist put his fingers inside the patient’s mouth the nurse discreetly pointed out the cold sore. The dentist carried on with the treatment and ignored the cold sore.
The nurse was worried. Very worried. And she had all the right to be. She knew the cold sore virus – herpes simplex – can easily spread to her eyes and hands, dentist’s eyes and hands, patient’s eyes and mouth via the aerosols produced by the high speed drill.
Herpes simplex virus in the eye can result in blindness.
Herpes infection on hands (herpetic whitlow) of a dentist/hygienist/nurse might force a career change as one cannot do any treatment on patients when the herpetic whitlow is active.
But the nurse didn’t have any other option but to continue with the treatment as the dentist is considered to be the one who is more educated in the matters of health and carries the responsibility of the treatment. This means the dentist makes the decisions behalf of the nurse and the patient whether to continue with the treatment or not.
Now it might be a good idea to read one of my previous post about integrity of dentists so you understand the motives behind the dentist’s decision in this story.
So on they went with the high speed drill. For an hour and a half.
Less than a week later the nurse developed a bad head ache and the next day she had sores in her mouth. Two days later she had temperature of 40 degrees and the mouth, gums and lips were full of painful sores. The GP diagnosed a primary herpes and prescribed anti-viral medicine. She was off work for a week.
When the patient with the cold sore was seen the next time in the surgery he had small blisters near the operated site.
Before the anti-viral medication was developed the primary herpes used to be an infection that was often lethal. The doctors treating the patients with primary herpes could only cross their fingers and hope the patient will make through it. Many didn’t.
It can still be lethal but we have medication to treat it.
Most of the people get the primary herpes as a child and it often is asymptomatic. If contracted as an adult the primary herpes can have more difficult symptoms.
The primary herpes can be followed by secondary herpes (recurrent infection) – most commonly as a cold sore on a lip. The most frightening one of the recurrent infection of herpes simplex virus is encephalitis.
Guidelines for Treating Patient’s with Cold Sore
I asked my friend Google and she quickly found me several sites that were unanimous about what us dental professionals should do if we see a patient with a cold sore.
Do not do any treatment that can be postponed!
To convince you I copy-pasted guidelines from couple of sites.
Elective dental treatment should be deferred for patients with active lesions as aerosolization of the virus may occur during dental procedures, placing both the patient and oral health care provider at risk for possible infection or re-infection.
Elective treatment should be postponed until the lesion has healed completely. Though the patient may be comfortable after you have applied a topical medication, there is still the risk of spreading the disease to the health-care provider.
Because herpes is transmittable to patients from dental health-care professionals who have active lesions, there is a risk of spreading this disease. The guidelines from the CDC are clear. Each of us has to keep patient safety and staff safety a priority.
Conclusion
The guidelines are clear. The medical facts are clear. Why do dentists still treat patients with cold sores and risk the health of the nurse and the patient, let alone their own health? They if anyone should know how serious risk it is.
So why?
I’m afraid you might know what’s coming (especially if you read my post Morals in Dentistry). Yes, the only reason for this kind of selfish and negligent behaviour from a dentist is GREED. And perhaps small amount of twisted enjoyment of having power – being almighty in this little world that has two people the dentist can make decisions for.
When the patient walks in the surgery with a cold sore it is simply just not acceptable from the dentist’s perspective to reschedule the appointment even though everyone’s health is at risk. No, no. Profit overrides reason. Shame you who just recognised yourself.
I know there are also hygienists who see the patients with a cold sore. But this is because they don’t either know better or because they are not practice owners. Refusing to see a patient with a cold sore is not considered to be in the best interest of the practice. Plus what can you do if the patient with a cold sore just saw a dentist for a filling and is scheduled to see you for a scaling. How can you say no when the dentist said yes?
It requires lot of self confidence and experience to be able to stand up for you right to decide for your own health. Something the nurses do not have a chance to do. It proves once again how the dentist-nurse relationship is nowhere near about equality as co-workers. Not even in the matters of personal health.
I reschedule the appointment if the patient has a cold sore. And the next appointment won’t be sooner than a fortnight. I also use the opportunity to inform patient about the herpes simplex and ask patient to cancel the appointment next time when he gets a cold sore before the dental appointment.
And seriously (for all the dental professionals):
Applying Zovirax and placing a plaster on top of the cold sore before doing the treatment is just simply bonkers.
Here’s some further reading about the guidelines of seeing a patient with a cold sore.
Remember to share this post if you think there was important information that everyone should know.
It’s time to get serious again. In this post I will get to the bottom problem of the dental industry. The lack of morals and the urge to maximise profit at the cost of the individuals is like a plaque that sticks around before the cure is found. For about half of the dentists I have met fall into that category and that’s a lot considering that we – the health care workers – should be the ones having the highest integrity of all.
What I will do next is give examples of the lack of morals amongst dental professionals. It will be just a (thin) slice of a (big) cake but you will get the idea no doubt. For clarification, all the examples are from real life and witnessed by yours truly.
NHS Dentists
For those who are not familiar with the NHS, it is the UK’s National Health Service. The NHS dentists work under a contract and receive payments for the treatments done.
Before the year 2006 (when the contract was replaced with a new one) the misuse of the system was widespread. The dentists were laughing at the system that was like a gold mine to them. They could easily make an outstanding pay by doing certain treatments that would not raise questions. It did anything but raise questions. The treatments made them look like they were concentrating on preventive care and looking out the patient’s best interest.
A revelation:
The truth is that they did not care about patients. Patient was merely a tool for money making. An example: The dentists made fissure sealants for every patient who did not have them and they made them from first premolar to the last molar. There was no evaluation if the fissure sealant was needed and it was an easy treatment to justify to the patient as it was preventive treatment.
“It prevents you getting a decay…”
Who would say no to that?
Fissure sealant was very quick treatment to do as it could be done in batches (all the premolars and molars from the left side in one go and next the right side) guaranteeing a very productive day moneywise for the dentist. There are probably millions of people in the UK whose teeth are coated with fissure sealants.
Eventough the NHS contract was renewed in 2006, the dentists found new ways of misusing the system.
Root Canal Treatment on Wisdom Tooth… What The?
The most immoral dentists have found a way to make the most out of every tooth – moneywise. Normally the decision to remove a fully erupted wisdom tooth is made lightly if there are any problems like decaying, periodontal problem, malocclusion with the tooth. But more than once I have seen wisdom teeth that have been heavily filled, root canal treated and even have had crowns on them (on top of the root canal treatment).
There is no other explanation to this than a dentist who is practicing dentistry only to gain wealth.
Performing Treatments Without Having the Skills
Some dentists suggest treatments they have no skills to perform and charge the patient as if they were specialists. An example: A dentist recommends periodontal treatment to the patient. The course of treatment consists four 30 minute visits to remove calculus one quadrant per visit and the cost is the same as if a periodontist would perform the treatment. Once the course of treatment is done by this wannabe specialist, the patient goes to see a hygienist for oral hygiene instructions. The hygienist soon realises that there is still lots of subgingival calculus left and therefore the gum disease is still active.
The hygienist does her best to remove the calculus (which she has skills for) and the patient is left under an illusion that nothing is wrong.
It is called collegiality what just happened. Dental professionals covering for each other’s mistakes and malpractice.
Root Canal File in the Root Canal
In our business the equipment can malfunction and instruments can break in use. In these cases it is good practice to tell the patient what happened. For example a curette’s tip can break inside the pocket of the tooth. It can be found from there but the patient needs to know what happened. Some dentist cover these kinds of incidents or mistakes they have made by simply not informing the patient. Now THAT if anything is malpractice.
An example. A root canal file broke inside the patient’s tooth whilst the dentist was performing a root canal treatment. The nurse did not notice the incident until a control x-ray was taken and the file was clearly visible. The dentist did not inform the patient about the broken file or attempt to remove the file.
Treating Patients With Cold Sore
This matter is so serious that I am going to write separate post about it. When a patient comes in with a cold sore, the guidelines are quite clear about what us dental professionals should do. We should not treat the patient unless it is urgent treatment that cannot be postponed. Why? Because there is serious risk with the virus causing the cold sore – the herpes simplex virus.
Herpes virus can easily spread in the aerosols our high speed instruments produce. Dentist, nurse, hygienist and the patient are in risk of contracting it through their eyes. This can result in blindness.
This is just one worry over the herpes virus. Follow my blog to find out more in detail why we shouldn’t treat the patients with cold sore.
Even though we have guidelines, even though the dentists have the highest education (so they should know better), too often they decide to treat the patients who have cold sore. And the reason for this is greed. The ugly side of our profession.
Conclusion
The dental industry draws in immoral individuals because it has been allowed to happen. It wasn’t until the 21st century when the dental schools started to interview the applicants for the undergraduate programmes of dentistry. Before this the suitability of the applicant’s personality was not measured by any tests. This means there are dentists in the field that should not be dentists.
In my opinion all the dentists who have not gone through the MMI should be asked to have one. If they fail, they should be struck off their profession.
But no test is a fool proof way of finding the bad seeds. The most rotten souls can often talk their way through any obstacles. And the reason why these individuals are drawn to the dentist’s profession is the well known fact that they make rather nice pay (here’s one article about it).
Dental Revelations 