Most Malaysian adults do not go for their regular dental check-up and visit the dentist only when they have dental problems. When patients who are in severe pain come to me, I will usually detect dental conditions that are serious, for example a tooth with deep cavity and extensive decay, and this leads to expensive dental treatment, possibly a root canal treatment in this case, that if the tooth is still restorable. Otherwise, it need to be removed or extracted.
When a patient with toothache walks into my office, I will pose a series of questions to the patient and spend the next fifteen minutes at least talking about his or her pain before examining the oral cavity. Ever wonder why your dentist have to ask you so many questions and waste your time? Let me explain, these answers will help me arrive to a diagnosis or conclusion to the dental problem.
Take an example, if a patient complains of toothache, it is important that I know:
Characteristics of pain
Duration and intensity of pain
Methods that relieve pain
Associated swelling or discharge
Nerve fibers, which produce pain sensation, are within the pulp of tooth. This history taking will assist in assessing pulpal or nerve condition of the diseased tooth. Based on what the patient is telling me, I will have an idea of what the pulp status is. Some pulpal conditions are reversible, others are when nerve tissues are permanent damaged.
Pulpal pain has a wide range of experiences. It may range from a slightly increased in sensitiveness or hypersensitivity, pain triggered by cold or hot food to severe and intense pain that disturbs your sleep. At a later stage, pain elicited by chewing and touching the associated jaw area means that inflammation has extended to the roots and supporting tissues of the tooth with pulpal disease.
Of course, after all the talking, I will do a complete oral examination before telling the patient what his dental problem is. In conclusion, a good dentist is a good listener.
