……Continued from Part 1
This X ray picture showed the entire ramus of the mandible having a large radiolucent lesion.The picture was consistent with a huge dentigerous cyst! “I have been saying it for years”, is all that he said.
Considering his mental condition I wrote a note to his hospital doctor about the cyst and the emergency that it had become by now.
Time had passed. It was two years and he hadn’t showed up with his tattered self deprecatory essay. And then one day he turned up with his wife. He had got his Dentigerous cyst operated. It had been a major surgery with reconstruction and scars on his cheek. He had put on weight and his facial tics were gone. He wasn’t the psycho that I was accustomed to seeing. But rather a self respecting man with a compartment and demeanor to match.
His wife was thanking me for all the help I had extended to him. Help? Well I had just written a note to his doctor, that wasn’t much work. And about the diagnosis, it was just a cake walk. It was all over the X ray. What was there to thank me all about.
“Thanks for believing him”. And then she spoke continuously for ten minutes. He was normal before his wisdom molar problems. When his dentist asked him to get it, out obediently he got it removed but the pus would not stop oozing. Every day he went to the dentist and every day he was told he was imagining things. His dentist’s deprecation of him increased with every visit. The whole hospital ended up labeling him a “psycho case’. Being too cultured he turned the contempt he received inwards and ended up becoming a psycho. But now everyone believes him after his surgery. He had indeed been speaking the truth all the time but no one believed him. That broke him.
And what was his reaction? I asked him, did he hold a grouse about his previous dentist? ‘No’, he said. ‘In Tamil we have a saying ‘a tree laden with fruit bends with the weight of the fruit’. I have received so many benedictions in the last two years I would rather be thankful for all the good things I received and choose to forgive and forget all the bad past.
That was like a slap to the entire profession for labeling the patient’s undiagnosed complaints as “psychological”.
Take some time to diagnose your patient’s complaints not everyone will take you to court for misdiagnosing, and not everyone goes bitching about falling standards in medicine, worse still some might mutely tolerate our professional incompetency. And That’s tragic, isn’t it?
Author: Dr. Sanjay Jamdade Dr. Sanjay Jamdade is a senior practitioner practicing implantology, oral rehabilitation, conservative dentistry, and endodontics, with over 35 years of exemplary service in advancing dental care. He has been a speaker on dental implantology and a respected visiting implantologist across various clinics in Maharashtra, his expertise is widely recognized. Currently serving as the CEO of Dr. S.D. Jamdade Dental Clinic, he leads an establishment renowned for its excellence in aesthetic dentistry, microscope-assisted endodontics, dental implants, and comprehensive oral rehabilitation. Strategically situated near the prestigious Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Tarapur Atomic Power Station (TAPS) in Boisar, Taluka Palghar, District Palghar, the clinic stands as a trusted bastion of high-quality dental care. For professional inquiries or consultations, Dr. S. D. Jamdade may be contacted via email at sanjayjamdade@gmail.com. sanjayjamdade@gmail.com.