I want to say something about the "dental visit"... [View all]

[PCIntern]

First of all, I’m NOT SAYING that in fact he had a dental visit. Since I don’t believe a single word they say about anything at all whatsoever, my assumption was and is that something else was going on.

No, I’d like to address the faulty statements in the press which have been made about dentists offices, dental treatment, and dentists.

1. …that dentists don’t have offices open on Saturday afternoons, so he couldn’t be seen. Ridiculous- I have opened my office at all hours of the day and night for certain situations and/or certain patients. My neighbor dentist came in on a Sunday morning to see Mick Jagger, I opened on Christmas Day for a trauma victim whose front six teeth on his upper and eight on his lower were decimated by a freak accident, so if the President of the United States needs an appointment at a given time, the office will be opened. Period.

2. There’s a dental operatory in the White House. That’s nice… he wasn’t in DC and I’m gonna go one step further: none of us, but particularly the lay people have any idea what his intraoral configuration might be, and quite frankly, when an individual performs a dental reconstruction, he or she essentially “marries” the patient because there is a familiarity with all the elements of the case which are very detailed, highly variable, and complex at times. To give you an idea: I have done multiple reconstructions involving a full arch which must be removed and reseated in a certain way which we call heel-toe so that it fully seats over undercuts and different planes of insertion. It can be very tricky. Also, if half the bridge is loose, one is aided immensely by a familiarity of how to tap it out without fracturing the porcelain, so my long-winded point is that you can’t just wander into any dentist’s office necessarily and have an ideal outcome.

3. If implants are involved, the dentist must have on hand the instruments required to adjust, repair, and replace parts FOR THAT PARTICULAR BRAND OF IMPLANT. There are multiple screwdrivers, torque wrenches, fixation screws, hex abutments, and other parts specific to the brand.

4. Finally, there is the trust/competence issue in being able to handle complex cases. I have as an instructor in dentistry been amazed at some of my well-regarded colleagues’ inability to manage materials, instruments, fractured restorations, or even instruments. It is to some extent an acquired skill as well as an art form and many are not up to the task.

I have some theories as to his dental condition, based upon that which we have visualized but they are pure conjecture so I won’t proffer them here. Anything with him physically or dentally is conceivable but the point of my post is not to make a case for him but to state that those who are commenting upon cause and effect in dental medicine and dental reconstruction have virtually no idea of what they are talking about and no concept of what needs to occur clinically.

As an aside, he may have been having a problem with a subclavian port for his infusions or his heart pump battery….who TF knows? Not I. But I do know about dentistry and its practice.

I thank you for your attention in this matter.