[abhishek_bmw]

Thanks for the warm welcome
I donot know how much I can contribute due to my hectic shedule.But I will try my best.

Here,I am discussing about some commonly done mistakes by the patients,regarding taking medications-I am writing this topic,in the background of Indian condition,where nearly all the drugs are sold over the counter(OTC).
1.It is Always better to avoid self medication.

2.Do not take any preparation,even if they are precribed,if they contain:
Rofecoxib,Valdecoxib(Banned in India,Aug 2007 ;they are "pain killers"), Fenfluramine,Dexfenfluramine (Banned in India,Aug 2007 ;"sliming drugs")

3.Do not take "pain killers" with out doctor's advice,if you are in a real urgent need,take one tablet of Ibuprofen 400 mg.(Brufen,Ibugesic),consult doctor immediately thereafter(Not suggested for pregnants,Children under 16years).

4.Do not treat yourself for hyper acidity with antacids(Gelusil MPS,Digene,mucaine gel),H2 blockers (Rantac,Famtac,Zintac),PPI (hundreds of brandnames like Rekool,Ignis,Pan 40,Pan D,Esoz),Sodi bi carb,water of lime.

5.Dont take antiallergic medications OTC for induction of your sleep(Avil,Phenergan).Strict "no" to OTC Hypnotics and sedatives (Alprazolam-Trika,Alzolam,Zolam,more bad and rampant is Calmpose),Cough preparations (Mits linctus codeine,Avil expectorant etc).You need to consult with a doctor for your sleeplessness.

6.Do not take any antibiotics OTC for "similar" sickness your spouse,friend had and doctor prescribed.

7.Make a time table for the medicines you need to take,keep it in pocket-if it is difficult to remember for you.You can make shedule on your Mobile phone also.

8.Do not offer any drug without doctors prescription to any pregnant women.Do not let the medicine shop to alter liquid iron preparation against capsules,which your doc prescribed.Many liquid iron preparation contain alcohol,which can cause harm to the fetus.

9.Do not take any multivitamin capsule without prescription,chronic intoxications are difficult to diagnose,more difficult to treat(Vit A,Vit E are notorious).

10.Keep all your medical records in a file.Bring it to your doctor along with you (I dont know why many people can not keep prescriptions in place)-our prescription is not a shops bill,so,it does not have any carbon copy.

11.Go to right doctors at right time.It is better to go to a general physician for your problem first,he will refer, if at all needed, to the right specialists or super specialists like us.It will save your time money and health.It is the basic problem people have today,to understand this hierrarchy system.What happens,your diagnosis with chest pain is always something heart related or lungs related,so you rushed to a cardio,got a date atleast 2 weeks later,he checked you,cant find any thing,called for routine cardiologic tests,all were normal,so he refered to me.I gave you my date at least some weeks later,when I examined you,I found you have,some deadly disease,which has been made worse for the 6 weeks delay.

Thank you.
Next day I will discuss about some common cancers in our country and how can you keep yourself away from those.

[rock18]

Hello doctors... got to this forum while searching for some remedies in google.Never expected such a thread in Team Bhp..Great initiative guys.

I went though all the 16 pages at one go and wow!!!! i managed to gather so much information..

My problem is i had done a RCT 6 months back(3rd upper teeth from my left).3 months back, i was getting a very painful reddish/whitish bump in the gums on top of the neighboring teeth (i.e 2 upper teeth from left)

Using imol and novomox (suggested by dentist) for 3 days gave me relief for some one week and again it started paining and then again 2 days of imol and novomox gave me relief.

I had to use this dosage as my appointment with dentist got delayed.

Dentist took an xray and told there is still an infection in the root and he has to perform RCT again.so this time he done RCT in just one sitting.

Now after one week i am getting the same problem...have appointment with him next week.Again i am taking novomox and imol combination but slowly, i get a feeling that imol is loosing its painkilling abilities in my body.
i can feel the pain more than ever.

what do you think is the problem with my RCT and why i am getting this gum infection even after doing RCT twice?

btw: when the dentist gave me injection to numb the pain before 2nd RCT.It was so painful that tears came out (I am 27 yrs old).Do you think that was the cause for the gum infection? or poorly done RCT?

Please do help me out..i am so scared of visiting dentists.

Thanks all once again for the excellent thread.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Rock18,
there "seems" to be a problem with the rc treatment.
I would suggest get a second opinion from an Endodontist (root canal specialist)
I am assuming there is nothing wrong with the adjacent teeth, meaning they are not infected and need an rc themselves.
If you can, scan the last xray (if you don't have a digital one) and attach it or email it to me and I will tell you exactly what's wrong.

Edit: don't overdo the painkillers and antibiotics.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Rock18, I am in Chennai... I have issues with my dentist's scale of fees, and wonder how long I can afford them, but I do believe that he is very, very careful with root canal therapy especially where there is infection. I have one tooth which had heaps of treatment in UK, including root filing, which has been fine since he opened up and re-cleaned out all the roots, back in 2004.

After getting a bit more grinding done, my aforementioned crown seems fine and, guess what... it is the next tooth I seem to have damaged and loosened. So I may have to whine about another set of bills, but I can't blame the dentist!

Anyway, willing the share the name and number with you if you want to send me a PM. If you don't, that's fine too!

[rock18]

Thanks Doc..My Xray(OPG) is with my Dentist :-) will try to get it back and send it across to you asap.

Today, met my dentist on an urgent appointment and he took a xray with help of GP (not sure what is a GP) and told me that my last teeth (last from left) has to be removed asap.
Fixed appointment at 9:30am tomorrow for tooth extraction..Looks like some other specialist is going to come and do the job for him.

Regarding precautions, All he told me is just to eat a lot of food and come to his hospital for extraction. Can you advise us on some best practices to follow after tooth extraction so as not to develop dry socket or any other complications?

What is the difference between a normal teeth extraction and wisdom tooth extraction and why the latter requires gums to be scrapped off for the teeth to be removed and the intervention of specialist to attend this?

Sorry for asking lot of questions and thanks a lot for your time..

@Thad: Sorry i could not understand your post clearly. if you are aksing about the amount i have spent for RCT

i guess close to 6k(2.5k for metal crown alone) for RCT and he told me 1500rs for teeth extraction.

btw: i have sent a PM with my name and number.thanks.

[Thad E Ginathom]

High rock18, I thought you might be interested in my dentist --- so I sent his number to you. No harm done if you are not.

That was before I read your post.

It'll be interesting to see our Docs' answers to your questions...

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by rock18

Thanks Doc..My Xray(OPG) is with my Dentist :-) will try to get it back and send it across to you asap.

Today, met my dentist on an urgent appointment and he took a xray with help of GP (not sure what is a GP) and told me that my last teeth (last from left) has to be removed asap.
Fixed appointment at 9:30am tomorrow for tooth extraction..Looks like some other specialist is going to come and do the job for him.

Regarding precautions, All he told me is just to eat a lot of food and come to his hospital for extraction. Can you advise us on some best practices to follow after tooth extraction so as not to develop dry socket or any other complications?

What is the difference between a normal teeth extraction and wisdom tooth extraction and why the latter requires gums to be scrapped off for the teeth to be removed and the intervention of specialist to attend this?

Sorry for asking lot of questions and thanks a lot for your time..

@Thad: Sorry i could not understand your post clearly. if you are aksing about the amount i have spent for RCT

i guess close to 6k(2.5k for metal crown alone) for RCT and he told me 1500rs for teeth extraction.

btw: i have sent a PM with my name and number.thanks.

Gp means a gutta percha point it is inserted into a sinus and on the xray shows the tooth with which the infection is associated. The last molar removal that u are talking about maybe an impaction operation.

I'm out and am typing from my iPhone and can't reply in detail. Will do so later. Your doc should give you all do's and don'ts post extraction.
If you still have doubts, drop me a pm with your number and I'll call u and advice.
Do not take any aspirin as a painkiller.
Follow your doctor's instructions to the dot!

[amitoj]

Guys, my dad needs to get cataract operation done, here in Bangalore. We are considering Shekhar Nethralaya. Any opinions/reviews/experiences? Another place in consideration is Netradhama. But Shekhar seems to be a better choice, plus it is closer to where we stay as well.

Any suggestions?

TIA
Amitoj

[safari_lover]

Hi Doctors,

My lower 2 incisors are slightly loose. I can feel that they are loose.
My dentist has suggested to use a mouthwash (at least twice everyday), rinsing mouth with saline water (three - four times a day), using a powered toothbrush for brushing teeth. Is this enough or do you suggest something more?

PS - I got scaling done, yesterday.

--TIA

[rock18]

Thank you so much doctor. Yesterday night went through some articles on Wisdom tooth extraction and seeing all those pictures got scared to death..Did not sleep at all in the night.

Morning when i reached dentist, i can feel my heartbeat raising to alarming levels..but after three injections and five minutes of painless work..my teeth is out.WOW!!!!..surprisingly fast and painless (No sutures).He told that its a rare fusion teeth and showed it to his assistants as a special case.

I ate only oats,ice cream and apple juice so far today.after extraction i have some hollowness like pain till now and fever.taking a day off tomorrow.

(Thought this might be helpful for some scary chickens like me going for extraction)

Waiting eagerly for your answers to my previous post.

[abhishek_bmw]

@amitoj get that operation done closest to your home possible.It is not only applicable for Cataract,but for all operations.
Anyway,does he have some complicated cataract? Because,the diagnosis is important for finding the right centre intrument setup wise.

[CaliAtenza]

Im currently a MBBS student in Bangalore (i'll keep the name of the school anynonomus) but ive noticed that many doctors here, while possessing excellent clinical acumen, have a strange attitude towards their patients. I see them yelling at them, insulting them, putting them down, etc, etc. I know many people here are tough to deal with, but that isnt a excuse to put them down or insult them :(. I dunno how it is in private practice, as i havent been privy to see any of them, but this is what i see daily at our teaching hospital. I know lecture classes are different, with the teacher-student relationship in India being different than other places (but should it really be??). Abhishek_BMW or any other doctors on here, can you shed some light on this? Is this just a cultural thing?, or is something else going on?

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by CaliAtenza

Im currently a MBBS student in Bangalore (i'll keep the name of the school anynonomus) but ive noticed that many doctors here, while possessing excellent clinical acumen, have a strange attitude towards their patients. I see them yelling at them, insulting them, putting them down, etc, etc. I know many people here are tough to deal with, but that isnt a excuse to put them down or insult them :(. I dunno how it is in private practice, as i havent been privy to see any of them, but this is what i see daily at our teaching hospital. I know lecture classes are different, with the teacher-student relationship in India being different than other places (but should it really be??). Abhishek_BMW or any other doctors on here, can you shed some light on this? Is this just a cultural thing?, or is something else going on?

from what I know, you are born and brought up in US, so yes, for you it's a part of culture shock. I am surprised you have not mentioned serious things like doctors not taking initiative to save lives, rather they wait for nurse/assistant to start working on patient even if s/he is having a heart attack. How many CPRs have you seen so far in india? You may have already noticed we don't respect human lives, on road or otherwise. hospitals are not any different.

traditionally people have never questioned doctors, they always went to doctors when they were crying in pain. doctors have always had the supreme authority in all cases.

why just doctors, walk into a govt bank and see how the cashier talks to a rural customer, or a ticket window in train station and see how they talk to you.

it's just a part of culture. plus we don't have time nor the energy/enthu to exchange pleasantries, we operate on volume, not quality.

Cheap medical care in asia, as it's referred in the west, comes at these costs

PS: I have lived 28 yrs of my life in India and I still love that system than the extravagant system in US, am trying to find a middle ground though.

PPS: my blog

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by CaliAtenza

Is this just a cultural thing?, or is something else going on?

I'll answer to your questions in detail when i get a little time

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

I am surprised you have not mentioned serious things like doctors not taking initiative to save lives, rather they wait for nurse/assistant to start working on patient even if s/he is having a heart attack.

What's wrong with you??? Are you a doctor and have seen such things?
I know so many cases of CPRs being given in ambulances, in the lobby of hospitals, etc.

PLEASE BACK UP THIS BLANKET STATEMENT YOU HAVE MADE WITH FACTS

How many CPRs have you seen so far in india? You may have already noticed we don't respect human lives, on road or otherwise. hospitals are not any different.

I have noticed atleast 20 and given twice in a garden i used to go for a walk. Just because you don't notice something, doesn't mean it's not being done. How many heart attacks have you noticed and in those cases no one gave CPR? And if you have noticed that then why didn't you do so yourself?

Going by your logic, how many deliveries you have seen happening yourself? None or a few... That means India should be a severely underpopulated country!

traditionally people have never questioned doctors, they always went to doctors when they were crying in pain. doctors have always had the supreme authority in all cases.

So what's your solution to this??? Start questioning doctors? You do that, and your family doctor will start prescribing you every test known so that he is safe from a lawsuit and you can pay the lab hefty bills.

why just doctors, walk into a govt bank and see how the cashier talks to a rural customer, or a ticket window in train station and see how they talk to you.

Two sides to every coin my friend. Just see how ratan tata talks to his gardener.

it's just a part of culture. plus we don't have time nor the energy/enthu to exchange pleasantries, we operate on volume, not quality.

Definitely not my culture and quite a few other nice people i know. Do not generalize.

Cheap medical care in asia, as it's referred in the west, comes at these costs

You forgot to add quality in your cut paste. It may be cheaper, but it's far superior in terms of quality.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by abhishek_bmw

@amitoj get that operation done closest to your home possible.It is not only applicable for Cataract,but for all operations.
Anyway,does he have some complicated cataract? Because,the diagnosis is important for finding the right centre intrument setup wise.

Thanks for the reply, Abhishek.
His cataract doesnt have any complications, as far as i know!!

Any advice on what are the lenses available for cataract treatment?