With Chicago Dental Society’s Midwinter Meeting approaching, new research reveals the worrying ways in which the city’s residents are bypassing professional help and attempting to solve their dental woes
Chicago Dental Society’s once-a-year midwinter meeting attracts up to 30,000 dental professionals who take off their white coats to don smart evening wear and talk shop about their profession.
And it appears like they have a few horror tales to pass on about patients who have opted to perform operations themselves rather than turn to an emergency dentist. London dental clinics like Ethicare have, so far, reported few incidents of patients trying to save money during the credit crunch by performing ‘DIY’ dental procedures.
But in Chicago it is a different ball game. A survey carried out by the dental society revealed that 70 per cent of the city’s doctors have encountered patients who tried to treat their own dental problem before going to a surgery.
Super Glue, Emery Boards and Power Tools
Apparently, these ’have-a-go’ untrained dentists favoured super glue to mend dentures and broken crowns.
Even more worryingly, there are accounts of Chicago citizens trying to give themselves a root canal with power tools designed for putting up shelves and boring through walls.
Dangerously, emery boards have been called into action to file chipped teeth – a process which must be exceedingly painful.
Painkillers
Some of these thoughtless souls have been overusing topical painkillers like teething gels to reduce the pain of ‘operations’ which surely should have been left behind in medieval times.
Sporting injuries seem to behind a lot of the dental problems which lead to patients taking matters into their own hands. The survey found that basketball was responsible for 30 per cent of dental injuries – with ice hockey and baseball also associated with big dental risks.
Financial hardship
Economic woes could be the trigger for people turning their kitchens, living rooms and work sheds into makeshift dental surgeries; 70 % of Chicago dentists reported that hard-up patients cancelled dental care in 2010.
Patients were also quizzed by the Chicago Dental Association which revealed that over 50% have tried teeth-whitening treatments; applying teeth-whitening toothpaste is the most-favoured way of making teeth bright and clean.
Smile perfection
Two out of every five people reckon that a person’s smile is the first thing you notice about them – a fine reason to whiten your teeth.
Straight teeth seem to be more important than white teeth when it comes to getting the perfect smile.
Social networking
The modern world seems to be having little impact on the way that people look for a new dentist. Only two % had discovered a dentist through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter – while 34 per cent prefer word of mouth.
Shared toothrushes
Fifteen % of the people in the survey admitted to sharing joint ownership of a toothbrush with another person – a practice that many see as a little unhygienic (though not half as strange as using super glue and power tools to try to solve your dental dilemmas!).
{ 0 коментара… прибавете свой сега }