Treating Some Common Problems
You must make a good diagnosis to treat a problem so it finishes and does not return. Why treat a sore on the face by cleaning it when the sore is from pus draining from a tooth with an abscess? You need to know the cause of the sore to give the best kind of treatment.
After you make the diagnosis, you must decide whether you or a more experienced dental worker should provide the treatment.
Know your limits. Do only what you know how to do.
In the following pages, we describe the kinds of problems you as a health worker may see, and we also give the treatment for each problem. Use the table below to help you find the right page.
Before you touch the inside of anyone's mouth, learn how to keep clean.
PROBLEMS YOU WILL SEE MOST OFTEN
- Cavities
- lost filling
- broken filling
- Abscess
- Infected sinus
Tooth injury
- 1. broken tooth
- 2. tooth knocked out
- Loose tooth
- New tooth growing in
- babies' teething
- Broken bone
- Dislocated jaw
- Pain in the joint
- Swollen gums and epilepsy
- Bleeding from the mouth
After you take out a tooth
- swelling of the face
- pain from the socket
- bleeding from the socket
Sore gums
- gum disease starting
- something caught under the gums (epulis)
- Vincent's Infection
- fever blusters (from Herpes virus)
- Thrush
- Other sores in the mouth
- canker sores
- from a denture
- at the corners of the mouth
- Tetanus
- Infection in the spit gland
Sore on the face
- from a tooth abscess
- Noma (cancrum oris), a complication of Vincent's infection
- Tumor
- Cancer
SOME SPECIAL PROBLEMS
You will find some problems that are too serious for you to treat. If you can, send the sick person to a more experienced dental worker as soon as possible.
Sometimes, however, it is better to start some of the treatment yourself. Early treatment can prevent some problems from becoming more serious. Also, if you know what to do when someone returns from the hospital, you can help that person to get well faster.
Sometimes, you will find it impossible to get help. Therefore, we will discuss each of these more serious problems in detail, so you can give as much help as necessary.
