What is important on medical history questionnaires?

[icosagon]

What conditions on the medical history quesionnaires do dentists care about? Most of what I deal with is in write-in territory. Everyone seems interested in the written-in sleep apnea, but do they really need to know about autism, diverticulosis, et al.

 

[Dr. Daniel]

Hi,
I tend to agree with you that some dental practices tend to ask too elaborative questions about the general health. On the other hand, it is better to fully inform the dentist about the patient's health, and let the dentist to filter what is relevant and what not.
Even autism can be relevant for the dentist, on the level of communicating with the patient and getting the patient's cooperation.

 

[comfortdentist]

The dentist ask some of the following and why?
Ever hospitalized?- Why general health state
Blood pressure- anesthesia ,Positional lightheadedness
Stroke- anti-coagulate therapy
Deep venous thrombosis-anti-coagulate therapy
Birth Control- antibiotics
Crohn"s disease- immunosuppressive therapy
Diabetes - Altered immune system, increased risk of periodontal disease and infection, acting drunk, passing out
Mental health- You are posting here? Every signal one without exception will affect how I manage a patient
All drugs- interaction and impact on dental health
arthritis- Jaw joint
Stress- TMJ, fractured teeth
any autoimmune disease- drug interaction, complications
Depression- significant dental interactions in disease, treatment, and patient management
Gerd- erosion
Acne- staining of teeth with some antibiotics, drug interaction with treatment, depression issues
Allergies- Of course not only the drugs we use but also products
Asthma- drugs that you use, and if you have an attack it is easier to diagnose you based on past
Cancer- Look up BONJ-Bisphosphonate related osteonecrosis of the jaw and immunosuppression
COPD- drugs and stress and position- increased yeast infection,dry mouth yielding rapid caries, etc.
Diverticulitis- drug- Are you on metronitazole?, vomiting, NSAID induced?
Endometriosis- NSAID , hormone treatment??
Fibromyalgia- pain management, positional issues
There are a lot more Let me say that the dentist should know why he is asking all that he is and as a patient it is best not to assume that your doctor doesn't need to know that bit of information.
I will say that I do have a stronger medical knowledge than most dentists.

 

[icosagon]

Getting the patient's cooperation? Well, it would help if the hygienist wouldn't react like I grew a third eyeball in front of her when I state my dislike for the taste of what she selected, and that I don't use mouthwash. Who knows what she'd do if she learned that I do what I can to avoid tasting toothpaste at home.

Why does all the paste and fluoride have to taste like it's burning my tongue, through either freezing (mint) or chemical burns (fruit), anyway? The fruit-flavoured stuff doesn't even taste like fruit. What's wrong with unflavoured?

 

[comfortdentist]

available or they can make it

 

[coolin]

My son - who has Asperger's Syndrome - has the same reaction to toothpaste as you do. It burns his mouth and he says exactly the same thing about fruit flavoured things - they taste like chemicals to him.
I would say that dentists definitely need to know about things like autism. The other medical stuff Comfortdentist has covered very well
Coolin

 

[icosagon]

My opinions on toothpaste flavour led me to a twenty year span of time with me brushing maybe once a year, finding the taste of yet another, different, tube horrible, and not doing it. Instead, I would scrape off my teeth when they started feeling too fuzzy. The one exception to this was the time I came across a green-tea-flavoured tube. But I haven't found it again since that one. By way of pure taste, not feel, the worst toothpaste I tried was cinnamon-flavoured.

 

[coolin]

I found a few green tea flavour toothpastes.

My son's attitude to toothbrushing is the same as you - he would rather scrape off the plaque, in fact he rather enjoys scraping it off.

 

[Dr. Daniel]

I find this thread fascinating. It started about medical questionnaire and ended up to tooth pastes and their flavor.
This thread enlights two insights:
1) in order to achieve dental health, there are many elements and aspects that are needed to be fulfilled. Not only the medical condition of the patient, not only the quality of the diagnose and the dental treatment but also helping the patient brush his/her teeth, and not allow the flavor of the toothpaste to be a reason for preventing from brushing. There are so many of these small things which are crucial for achieving dental health.
2) Eventhough the dentist and the patient share the same goal (dental health), each side tends to focus on different aspects. The dentist looks on the medical condition. The patient looks on the flavor of the toothpaste. That is why the communication between the two sides is so important; to allow the other party to see the unseen aspects.

 

[icosagon]

But with how important communication is, I'm not around my dentist long enough for him to learn how to tell that I have something to say or ask. I'm still trying to figure out how to get all the cement left over from my space maintainer and the wire an orthodontist attached removed. I go there, and the request simply doesn't happen. I've set alarms on my phone, with a note relating to what I want, and it still doesn't get out.

 

[Dr. Daniel]

But with how important communication is, I'm not around my dentist long enough for him to learn how to tell that I have something to say or ask. I'm still trying to figure out how to get all the cement left over from my space maintainer and the wire an orthodontist attached removed. I go there, and the request simply doesn't happen. I've set alarms on my phone, with a note relating to what I want, and it still doesn't get out.

Why is that?
Maybe a practical solution would be writing a email before your next appointment stating what you want them to do.

If the cement's left-overs are near the gums, it is essential that someone (dentist/oral hygienist/orthodontist) removes it. It is not healthy for the gums.

 

[icosagon]

Why? It's because that even though I only started brushing my teeth a couple weeks before starting to see dentists again, my biome is placid enough that I didn't need any special visits or treatment to clean up after it. I don't have any appointments with my regular dentist until June. And I don't have their email address.

The left-overs are nowhere near my gums, but a few months back, the gob stuck in the top of my premolar to help stabilize my space maintainer chipped. That chipped cement is what led me to visit the dentist in the first place a few months ago, and the cement is still there, still chipped, still with a rough edge, and I don't know where part of my space maintainer is. There was a spike on my one's loop that was cemented to the top of that premolar, and the space maintainer they handed me after removal had no spike, just tarnish where I remember it being.