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Got a lecture on special needs dentistry the other day. It’s quite a new specialisation in Australia and jus only started in 2002. It deals with the oral heath of disabled people- intellectually, physically, mentally, medically and psychologically. So, it’s not only the disabled people but also the old people and even young children that falls in this group. However, it’s sad to know that general dental practitioners are not capable of handling that group of people.
He showed photos of old people in old folks home who all had very poor oral health because they can’t brush their own teeth and the nurses are often too busy to do it as they ‘apparently’ have more important things to do. So their teeth start to rot and decay until unimaginable state, pass the 'point of no repair'. Everyone in class was really shocked to all the pictures- some had pus covering the whole tooth, some might have even decayed so much that you can jus pull out using your finger (normally you need pliers and muscle).
only roots left
Sadly though, even the latest biggest old folks’ home in WA (somewhere near UWA) does not have a dental surgery room.
It made us really wonder why this is happening. Apparently, some dentists are not really into the 'helping people' thing. They are just more concerned with their money. It’s a fact though, like one of my friends said, that dentistry is now regarded as a cosmetic industry. But it’s not. Did you know that oral examination is paid the lowest ($20-30) but a normal tooth extraction can cost three times as much? So I suppose some dentists prefer to just ignore that and do whatever they need to do (extract, crowning, braces) regardless whether the mouth is healthy enough. I mean, since you are working on a patient, you might as well and should (by law) to check their general oral health. This is how small thing gets worse.
The lecturer told us (not in class though, after the lecture when some of us went to talk with him about the issue after class) about a dentist who saw this patient whose teeth are already beyond treatment and he just gave up. He (my lecturer) actually went to complain this to the Australian Dental Association but they sided the dentist. He then went to court to sue this dentist and only then they apologised (how true this is I don’t know). But the issue of special needs dentistry in Australia is still very controversial as some of them are not wiling to accept it. In the whole of Australia, only Melbourne and one other uni which I forgot offer this specialisation course, and in UWA the amount of lectures on this specialisation (we learn all the basics of all the specialisations) is jus five hours in five years. It’s quite sad.
Thanks to medicine, people now are able to live much longer but the medicine people never actually look into how they are going to sustain these people (thanks again!). In the old days, they would just die and the problem will be solved, but now we have to take care of these old sick people. I am not saying that they should die, but there’s not enough manpower and knowledge to actually take care of them. Even though there are courses offered to teach the nurses to take care of the old people’s oral health, most of them still can’t. And now with old people having their own teeth instead of fake teeth like how it would be twenty years ago, oral health is just so much harder to take care.
plaque (yellow stuff on your teeth) on dentures (fake teeth)
So now the latest news is the labour party is trying to allow (as in legally allow) dental technicians to make prosthetics because dentists don’t seemed to care. But the problem is they can’t diagnose!
So how did my lecture got into this activistic thing? He, being bored of what he see in the clinic (mild dental problems), actually went to Tibet to look for more interesting (read: serious), and when he showed us the pictures, mind you, they are ‘interesting’. But when he got back to Australia, and was asked to visit an old folks' home one day, he was shocked that the same thing (if not worse) is happening in Australia and it’s just 300 metres away from his office. So now, he takes one day off to visit these homes, with his portable dental clinic in a (travel) bag (he brought it but didn’t show us what’s inside- apparently there’s everything-mirror, lights, cutting instruments, anaesthetics and the only thing that he cant bring is amalgam packer-but he uses GIC). That’s how he got started. Anyway, apparently there’s only one other person that does the same thing as him in WA.
tooth decay on the roots of teeth
My lecturer tried to make this (special needs dentistry) a unit on it’s own but sadly got rejected. He and another of my lecturer tried to do something (I think it was something like having fifth years or forth years to visit the old folk’s home weekly and give them examination and cleaning along with nurses and therapists).It seemed like he’s sort of in a losing battle.
It was a sad but inspiring lecture. We (represented by one of the students) even thanked him for making us realise how important and serious it is.
When we asked him what we can do, he just asked us to pass and graduate. Then when we are in practice make sure we do proper and thorough examination and not be blinded by money.
And my message to you all, clean you teeth PROPERLY.
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