Dental Monthly
A life-threatening event
The man was crying on the telephone….. I froze. OMG she didn’t make it…..
The day before I had examined the man’s wife in my Dental Clinic. I remember her son in-law had insisted vigorously that I should see her, because they had told him I would know how to take out a wisdom tooth, and what to do. My assistant had created the appointment pushing her time slot in between other patients.
When I saw her I immediately said: “what are you doing here?!? I cannot help you anymore.”
The lady had a swelling as big as a watermelon on the left part of her face. It was red, dark red and boiling hot. Down from her eye resting on her shoulder. Her chin and neck had become one big pulsating mass.
I listened to her story. Her husband talked, because she was not capable anymore. She just looked at me with begging eyes.
“Help me.”
I took an OPT x-ray and saw that in her further healthy dentition she had one cavity in a wisdom tooth.
Their dentist had not wanted to first fix the cavity and then later, when the pain had become unbearable, do the rootcanal treatment, because as he said he did not feel like giving her an anesthetic.
As she had swollen up so much the day before coming to me, their family doctor had prescribed antibiotics saying: don’t you worry about the swelling, it will slowly lower along your neck and disappear….
I cried: “We don’t want that to happen!”
I took her husband and said to him: “Take your wife to the emergency room right now. Right now you hear! And if you do not do that I will call an ambulance, because your wife needs immediate hospitalization.”
And now he was on the phone crying.
He cried so hard I could not understand a word, so I asked him to please slow down. And then he said: “You saved my wife’s life”
“If it wasn’t for you, she would be dead. They told me in the hospital that she would not have made it through the night because the pus and oedema would have invaded her lungs. The moment we arrived there she was intubated and operated on for 2 hours and now she is still in intensive care, but she will recover thanks to you….”
I felt an overwhelming emotion I can hardly describe. This was the most emotional telephone call I had ever received from a patient who kept on repeating thank you, thank you, thank you….
Tears came to my eyes, and his emotions made me realised why I had become a dentist.
But I also felt an cold violent anger and total indignation for the treatment these people had received from, first their dentist who refused to do an easy-peasy-rootcanal procedure, and second the ignorance of a house doctor who did not recognize a life-threatening situation.
My assistant argued that they had waited too long to seek professional help, not everybody is medicine savvy. That’s why doctors exist.
So, the moral of this story I am sharing with you, with a Happy Ending, is that you should do your Dental check-up every six months. Never post-pone, because something small can become something very big and a simple cavity can end up threatening your life.
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BIO
For any questions, you can contact Studio Moll
Whatsapp: 331-6368628, or tel: 055-755347
For more information, look up Studio Moll’s YouTube channel and here too.
By Dr. Elena Speranza Moll
Studio Moll
Via Amilcare Ponchielli 21B, 50018 Scandicci –Firenze
Tel: 055-755347
WhatsApp: 331-6362682
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