How Dentists Save Lives
When most of us hear about healthcare professionals who save lives
, what tends to come to mind are the likes of cardiologists and neurologists. Dentists certainly don't emerge here. It is not that most of us don't appreciate the role played by dentists in the healthcare system. It is just that we may feel that viewing them as 'life saving professionals' seems like being a bit too 'ambitious' in the arguments. We may appreciate the role of dentists in improving the quality of life for their patients, by way of increasing their aesthetic appeal or reducing pain they may have, but we can't quite figure how dentists could save lives.
Yet the truth of the matter, as a closer examination of the things dentists do shows, is that they are professionals whose services often save lives.
One way via which dentists save lives is by eliminating tooth pain- the very role for which most of us know them. Unknown to many of us is the fact that before the development of dentistry, it was very common to hear of people dying from nothing else, but extreme tooth pain. Indeed, this is something that still happens in some parts of the world where dentistry is still not very developed. The procedures via which dentists combat tooth pain therefore not just about improving the quality of life: they are also life saving procedures. For most people in the developed world, the idea of someone (an adult male, to boot) writhing on the ground because of tooth pain is unbelievable, but yes, it is something that can happen. And when someone is writhing on the ground because of tooth pain, and there is no form of help that is forthcoming, it is not hard to see where the whole matter goes next. That is especially the case, seeing that this is not the sort of problem that simply goes away on itself: it is one that only gets worse with time. So when the dentist is performing a root canal on you or simply extracting a tooth that has gotten too diseased, you should know that the procedure he or she is performing on you is actually a life saving procedure!
The other sorts of problems treated by dentists (besides the pain problems) can also have life threatening consequences. In the developed world, there are things that hardly happen (as there is no way of a problem getting that bad with all the dentists around), but the truth of the matter is that if a problem like tooth decay is not attended to, it can actually lead to a problem like brain infection - with fatal consequences. The tooth may be a small part of the body, but it is connected to the rest of the body and what happens to it happens to the rest of the body. And while correlation does not always imply causation, it has been observed that high levels of tooth decay (which dentists treat) tend to correlate with other scarier conditions like heart attacks in the longer run. It could be coincidental, but then again, it could be co-relational or even causational.
Cosmetic dentists, by helping their patients (some of whom happen to be truly aesthetically disadvantaged) to look better, help to raise their self esteem: which can go a long towards keeping them from depression. This is a life saving measure because we know that depression, especially that which is caused by things we feel we can absolutely do nothing about, is known to cause suicidal ideation; sometimes with fatal consequences.
Think along these lines, and you see how and why the work of dentists is not just about improving the quality of their patients' lives, but sometimes also about saving those very lives.
by: James Maloney
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