Dental care of the chronically ill child
| Autor: | Paul K. Losch |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1958 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
Chronic condition business.industry media_common.quotation_subject Infant Dentistry Disease Dental care Pediatric Dentistry Parental anxiety Chronic Disease medicine Life expectancy Recent trauma Humans Medical history Girl Child Dental Care Intensive care medicine business General Dentistry media_common |
| Zdroj: | The Journal of the American Dental Association. 57:778-783 |
| ISSN: | 0002-8177 |
| DOI: | 10.14219/jada.archive.1958.0209 |
| Popis: | The appellation “chronically ill” indi cates a prolonged morbidity interfering with the function or form, or both, of a part or the whole of the human organ ism—prolonged because the disease can not be cured or the organism restored to “normal condition” by known methods of treatment. To take each known chronic condition in children and describe the precautions, consideration, and technics necessary for adequate dental care would require a writing of textbook proportions. For practical purposes then, this discussion must be confined to general consideration of dentistry’s responsibilities and limita tions in offering dental care to a few of those patients whose chronic illness com plicates routine dental care. “Routine dental care” has a special significance since by the very nature of the profession’s training and objectives, dentists are constantly striving to pre serve and restore one small part of the human body in a state nearing what has come to be recognized as perfection for the human organism. Therefore, at the chairside the dentist “routinely” examines the mouth and teeth, diagnoses digres sions from normal, and prescribes and executes treatment in this small region with a concentration on the local de mands for perfection in health and func tion. It is often easy to overlook the role this region plays in its relation to the whole organism. For example, if a lively, pretty, socially well-adjusted 11 year old girl exhibits, because of trauma, the necessity of endotherapy on a superior central incisor, one would hardly think twice about executing the treatment. If, because of parental anxiety over the marred beauty of her child, the mother fails to volunteer the information that the patient is a diabetic, and if, under the stress of urgency because of recent trauma, the dentist fails to inquire about the general health of the patient, this perfectly satisfactory local treatment be comes a grave liability to the whole organism even though the disease is well controlled. It is grave because any treat ment involving the pulp cavity of a tooth may eventually be involved with infec tion which is a liability to the health of a diabetic patient. The lessons here are that not all chronically ill children are hope less cripples, and that treatment to the mouth or teeth is seldom local in its total effect. A reminder of the importance of proper history taking is indicated at this point. Often in chairside routine care, the history reveals a chronic illness such as cardiovascular or hematological dis ease which is known to be of serious con cern to the health or life expectancy of the patient. Such patients are rare in a |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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