Short Commentary: Extreme Caries Case


Extreme Caries Case


Townie “slds” from Cobble Hill, British Columbia, Canada, is a dental hygienist with 30 years of clinical private practice experience, and another 10 rewarding years in community based dental health work with early childhood caries. She asked readers in a message board “Does CAMBRA [caries management by risk assessment] include risk factors outside the mouth?

“What do we really know about our patients personal environments? It takes time, appreciative inquiry, motivational interviewing techniques and good listening skills to learn about our patients. If we could really see (i.e., be allowed to treat) those patients that would benefit most by our gifts and skills, our careers would be so much more rewarding and we would come home at the end of a long day, feeling we had made a difference in the long term outcomes of someone’s oral health.”

Here is her story of one patient she and other hygienists in British Colombia helped.


“Norma came in with her 18-month-old daughter for a Well Baby Day dental visit. The baby was my patient, not the mother, but I could not take my eyes of Norma's painful smile. I began the “Smile for Norma” project, which took more than three years to accomplish, with many challenges and roadblocks along the way. Funds donated by British Colombia dental hygienists made treatment possible. Here are her photos.

Consider her employment possibilities with her new smile and the effect on her self esteem. By the time a dentist was located to help out; all her anterior crowns had decayed and were no longer visible. Caries is an ongoing process, infectious, contagious and preventable.”



Do you have a comment to share? There is more to read online. Click here to visit the message board titled “Adding Caries Management to Daily Protocols.
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