Dentaltown February 2015 - (Page 58)

public health feature In 13 years of private practice, most of my time has been spent treating patients. I've also spent a considerable amount of time trying to educate them. I talk to my patients about the importance of proper hygiene and maintenance, why their cracked tooth needs a crown, why an implant is better than a ﬁ xed partial denture, etc. Into these dental conversations I try to weave in a little something that may seem unusual for a dentist-history. History gives us a new perspective and can be more intriguing than another lecture about ﬂossing. For example, when patients comment on the noise or feel of the drill I tell them how ancient people used drills to make a space for jewels in their teeth. When a patient asks me if I practice "painless dentistry" I tell them the story of Painless Parker, who coined that phrase and turned dentistry into a sideshow act. I give patients who protest "the shot" a lesson in the history of anesthetic. They learn that it's a relatively modern practice and quite luxurious since even today most people get dental treatment without anesthesia. I talk a lot about procedures in the past as opposed to current ones. I also discuss how certain things we do now will soon become obsolete. Since February is National Children's Dental Health Month, I thought I'd share some of the history 58 FEBRUARY 2015 // dentaltown.com I attempt to impart to parents when we discuss their child's health, particularly about vaccines and ﬂuoride. In 1952, the height of the polio epidemic in the United States, there were approximately 60,000 cases in that year alone. When my grandparents loaded their four young children in the car for a family trip that summer, they had no idea that their youngest-my aunt Peggy, 13 months old-would, three days later, become one of the 3,000 polio deaths that year. She and the other three children had contracted polio and fell ill in the car. Thankfully, the three other children lived but the disease left its mark both physically and emotionally on all of them. Although Dr. Jonas Salk had discovered the polio vaccine that same summer, it was not released for wide public use until 1955, three years too late for my family. Since then, that vaccine has nearly eradicated polio from the planet. In 2012, there were 223 cases of polio worldwide-a very small number but worth noting that it has not disappeared completely. I tell the story of my father's family few a times a week in my ofﬁce, because I, like you, have a segment of my patient pool that doesn't want to vaccinate their children. I tell my patients that we have lost our sense of history. http://www.dentaltown.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown February 2015

On Dentaltown.com
Howard Speaks: Podcasts: Basically, They’ll Rock Your World
Professional Courtesy: Tidbits For National Children’s Health Month
Continuing Education Update
Kerr Sonicfi ll Thoughts and Deals
Mini Implant Partial Failure and Treatment with PRF in the Anterior
Industry News
Fundamentals and New Concepts in Impression Taking
Lock in Your Profi t: The Reliable Use of Mini Implants
Office Visit: Hometown Doc is Moving on Up
Giving Patients a Historical Perspective on Fluoride and Vaccines
Posterior Composites and Universal Bonding Agent Applications in the Modern Dental Practice
Denture Troubleshooting: Solving Common Post-Insertion Problems
Pediatric Dentistry: Pulp Therapy and the Stainless-Steel Crown
Poll
New Products
On the Road Again: Learning More About Your Dental Supply Reps
Ad Index
How Do We Get More Patients?
CBCT? Which One? Beating a Dead Horse One More Time.
You Should Know: Cinema ProMED
Dentally Incorrect

Dentaltown February 2015