S.T.U.C.K

coz i am
..too weak to run away
..too tired to hide
..too scared to stand up n fight

Bleak!

gimme green light

ready?..goooooo!!!!

woohooooo

We are only humans

Many times in lectures we heard it's very important to build rapport with patient to gain patient's trust, to eliminate fear of dentistry, to ensure effective dental care delivery, to increase patient's compliance, to avoid malpractice suits bla bla bla..

But there is one thing the lecturer forgot to mention -- good rapport with patient can be irritating.

At least, my personal experience tells me that it's better having less rapport sometimes and just getting down to what is supposed to be done rather than being too friendly or chatty and spending 3 hrs on a simple treatment which can be finished in 1 hr or less.

Worse still, patient specially requests you to treat him/her when you are not even supposed to treat or patient calls you up 6 in the morning just to cancel the appointment.

Perhaps, it's satisfying if the patients confide in you n your skills.

Still, it'd be nice if they cud excuse our indolence at times.

After all, we r only humans.

We have emotions, problems, moods etc. We stumble. We make mistakes.

So please,

forgive us if we dun perform at the top of our form
forgive us if we look like we can't be bothered to talk
forgive us if we are jaded
forgive us if we traumatise you
forgive us if we act like we dun care.

A practice for paper Aii

Low Back Pain

Definition

A pain or ache somewhere between the bottom of the ribs, at the back, and the top of the legs and is not due to any underlying disease that can be found.

Epidemiology

About 3 in 4 people have one or more bouts of low back pain. In the UK, it is the largest cause of work-related absence. Back pain can affect anyone, regardless of age, but it is more common in people who are between 35-55 years of age.

Symptoms

The pain often begins suddenly, and may follow an obvious strain or injury, but may seem to come on "out of the blue", or come on slowly. Sometimes a pain may develop immediately after you lift something heavy, or after an awkward twisting movement. Sometimes you can just wake up with low back pain. The pain may be worse on bending and is often worse sitting, especially in an easy chair. Sometimes turning over in bed and sitting up are agonising. Coughing or sneezing can often make the pain much worse. The muscles of the back may go into painful spasm.

Causes

• pregnancy,
• gynaecological problems in women, such as pelvic inflammatory disease,
• different types of arthritis, such as osteoarthritis,
• stress related tension,
• viral infections,
• bone disorders,
• osteoporosis (weak and brittle bones),
• a trip, or fall,
• a trauma, or injury, such as a fracture,
• lack of exercise,
• sleep disorders
• bladder and kidney infections
• obesity
  

Investigation

radiograph (unhelpful most of the time) , blood test to rule out the rarer cause of low back pain, CT / MRI if the pain is continuing for more than 6 weeks

Management

Most bouts of simple low back pain improve quickly, usually within a week or so. However, once the pain has gone it is common to have further bouts of pain (recurrences) from time to time in the future. Also, it is common to have minor pains 'on and off' for quite some time after an initial bad bout of pain.

Exercise and keep going

Continue with normal activities as far as possible. This may not be possible at first if the pain is very bad. However, move around as soon as possible, and get back into normal activities as soon as you are able. As a rule, don't do anything that causes a lot of pain. However, you will have to accept some discomfort when you are trying to keep active. Setting a new goal each day may be a good idea. For example, walking around the house on one day, a walk to the shops the next, etc.

Medication

painkillers like paracetamol, ibuprofen
muscle relaxant like diazepam is sometimes prescribed if the pain gets worse

Dental aspect

May be agonising getting on and off the chair
Patient may fail to turn up due to severe back pain and limited mobility


Don't panic, this is totally out of HHD syllabus , just in case you were wondering. The reason i post this entry is just to let you know more about low back pain, which is happening to me right now..sighhhhhhh
So, plz dun ask me what i did or how it happened next time i complain about low back pain. I really have no idea. As the symptoms say, the pain can come about out of the blue and sometimes you can just wake up with low back pain. Damn!!

Confessions of a coffee addict

I guess i must have freaked my gal friends out tonite.

''a nice dinner ended by a mad hunt around central for coffee" that's how a friend summed the nite up.

i'm sorry that i let coffee take a toll on me.

i'm sorry that i made the gals scoot like hell just for a cup of coffee.

i'm sorry that i put an awful stop to a supposedly fun night.

promise this wont happen again

*bow*


P/S Happy birthday to the Sept babies, Ash and Yilun