Dentistry is NOT only about the teeth (See Specialties)

Understanding the different specialties of Dentistry and Dental Surgery.

Seeing this tweet and some other ones just reminded me of a patient that was admitted once because of “ordinary teeth”. Patient had a decaying tooth and they ignored it till it got to the life threatening emergency stage “Ludwig’s angina”

Dentistry is not only about teeth!!!!!!

— Joy to the world 🦋 #PhysicalDistancing (@ChinwenwaThe) May 11, 2020

The spouse kept saying after that phase ends. They must bring all their family members for a checkup at the dental clinic.

They had no idea how important dental health was

I’ll stop there.

Quick reminder Life threatening means “ if not taken care of early and well enough can lead to death”

I mentioned in some of my other threads I mentioned how dental infections can become life threatening if not taken care of early enough.

Talking about all what dental surgery is about would be a lot.

I’d just mention that Dentistry has subspecialties not everyone is aware of sadly since certain people believe it’s just about the teeth only:

1. Oral and maxillofacial surgery,
2. Conservative dentistry; combined with cosmetic dentistry in some countries
3. prosthetic dentistry
4. Oral medicine
5. periodontology
6. Community
7. Family dentistry
8. Pediatric dentistry
9. Orthodontics

Are all subspecialties.

Let’s leave English Language, in summary, asides the teeth, Dentistry is also concerned with the head and neck.

Management of fractures in the head and neck region

Management of tumours,

cleft surgeries,

cosmetics.

Management of the oral manifestations of systemic diseases like Diabetes, HIV/AIDS, leukemia etc

Management of skin conditions affecting the head and neck like shingles, herpes, sphyitic ulcers etc

Nerve conditions like Trigeminal neuralgia Syndrome.

These management sometimes involves other arms of the medical team. Neurosurgery,orthopaedics, anaethesiologists, oncologists etc

No arm of the medical world is in isolation.

Below is a diagram showing the different specialties in Dental surgery and this is still not exhaustive. 👇

No thread would be long enough to state all what dentistry is about.

I personally make threads when I see tweets about dental health and i see a need for enlightenment.

There’s a lot about Dental Surgery to be known by the public. This is why I and some other colleagues try to educate people on the timeline the way we can.

Thanks for coming around Smiling face with halo.

Dr Dami (Dentist)