Fans of "Game of Thrones" on HBO know the phrase, "Winter is coming". For those who have not read the books, or have watched the show, it is motto of the Stark family; a family of nobles that oversee the northern-most lands of the kingdom. Today, the weather feels like summer has ended, fall is here, and that means winter is on its way; which brings me today's post.
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| Banana Spray doesn't taste good. |
In dental school, I was encouraged by some professors to
make sure that I tried every dental product that I was going to use when seeing
a patient. The reasoning was
simple. I should know what the material
tastes and feels like so that I can understand and empathize with what my
patient was experiencing. Most things
tasted, and felt, ok. For example, the impression
material, or “gook”, that we use to take molds of your teeth was fine; it didn’t
taste bad, but it wasn’t great tasting either.
One of the worst things to taste was “banana spray”. What’s banana spray you ask? It is an anesthetic spray that is used for a
patient that has a severe gag reflex. It
tastes awful, and personally, I really don’t think it works. There are much better ways to get someone
with a severe gag reflex to stay calm while doing dental work. I used it once or twice in dental school on
the insistence from a professor. I wasn’t
happy about it, and you can bet neither was the patient.
So, what does my experience of trying different dental
products in dental school have to do with winter and sinus infections? Well, over the years I have
had a number of patients come in swearing that they had a terrible tooth ache in
the back teeth of their top jaw. Even though this can happen any time of year, it tends to be more prevalent during the fall and winter months for our patients. When this situation occurs in my office, we talk
about their symptoms, do an exam, and take an x-ray or two. If everything appears to be ok on the x-ray
and in the mouth, one of the questions I always ask is, “Do you have any sinus
issues right now?” If the answer is “yes”, I have the patient put their head
between their legs to see if this causes any kind of change in pressure or
relief on the teeth that are bothering them.
If they do have a sinus infection, we give them an antibiotic prescription,
and we call them back in a few days to make sure they are feeling better.
However, until last year, I had never personally experienced a sinus
infection. Yes, I could diagnose the
problem, but I was never able to empathize and fully understand what my patients were
feeling. Then, I had one. IT HURT LIKE CRAZY! If I wasn’t a dentist, I would have sworn
that I would have needed at least 3 root canals. It felt like I was getting lightning bolts
put straight into the roots of my teeth.
In a weird way I was actually happy to have had it, because now I know
exactly what my patients were telling me about.
I was able to finally say, “I know exactly what you are feeling right
now.”
Why am I telling you this? Simple, I have a sinus infection
right now that is causing my teeth to hurt, so I figured I would warn you that winter is coming; and so are sinus infections!
