Every gesture helps: Discussing mental health with patients

Eaten up with guilt, shame and fear, I’ll never forget the young teenaged patient who nervously answered “yes” when, while filling out her medical history, I asked if she had any eating disorders. I had been nervously anticipating the day I’d encounter a patient who would respond affirmatively to this question because I’d been in her situation before. 

I paused for a second, debating whether I should disclose to her that I struggled with several bouts of anorexia, bulimia and laxative abuse before asking her for more details. I had gone through that ordeal on my own, not having any support from family or friends. I knew that if one person had reached out to me in my time of need, I could have saved myself from the grief of relapses, damage to my teeth and the countless hours of crying alone in my room, feeling a loneliness that physically overwhelmed me. 

When it comes to talking about mental health, there’s always an amount of uncertainty about how to broach the subject, whether it be with patients, colleagues or even family. When going through health history, few mental health issues make themselves known until there’s a tangible physical side effect from that mental illness. Alcohol abuse, tobacco smoking, drug abuse, eating disorders — these are just a few of the physically visible mental illnesses we are required to document in Axium, and there’s always a pause before anyone discusses these health conditions. What about anxiety? What do you say to the patient who presents with exaggerated linea alba or morsicatio buccarum and a sore TMJ every morning? Is that a subject to be broached with them, or are you being too presumptive and overstepping as the dentist? 

There is too much hesitancy when it comes to discussing mental wellness within the medical field. As the saying goes, you cannot pour from an empty glass. It’s so important for us as providers to look after ourselves before taking care of others. For me, I am always nervous to bring it up because it feels like I’m being too needy and selfish, but I think it would be game changing if professors were just more open in the small moments to offer some sympathy or encouragement. One of my patients walked out on me after I explained to him I could only extract two of the three teeth he wanted out because the other was out of my expertise. I was frazzled, and my anxiety was through the roof as I presented to the faculty, but hearing the amazing Dr. A. Patel say, “I’m sorry that happened to you,” did a lot to calm me down and reassure me that I did nothing wrong. 

“Hey girl, I’m so sorry you’re going through this,” I whispered to my patient as she deliberated how much to tell me about her eating disorder. “I’m here if you want to talk about it.” I watched her eyes well up with tears as she explained her history of bulimia to me. All it took was for me to be open to her, and when I later confided my own history of purging to her, I swear she looked less lonely. 

It’s these little moments that truly have the biggest impact on our mental health. Whether it’s offering a few words of encouragement, some empathy or just being willing to hear out someone’s grievances, a small action could be the catalyst to someone’s mental state improving. 

~Unnati Soni, Temple ‘23, ASDA District 3 Advocacy Committee Co-Chair

World Patient Safety Day and increasing awareness about dental quacking

While visiting the dentist can be uncomfortable, it is important that our patients are well-informed when choosing a provider. Ahead of World Patient Safety Day on Sept.17, we want to raise awareness about an issue that many may not have heard of: dental quacking.

Medical quackery is defined as the act of practicing medicine based on false facts. Quackery in multiple medical fields has been practiced starting from the Middle Ages, peaking in the Renaissance. Charlatans — individuals taking an interest in science and spewing medical terminology to gain popularity — were booming. During this time period, individuals who participated in quackery were not arrested, despite the poor treatment of their patients due to a 1645 physician law, according to an article in the Journal of the California Dental Association. 

Today, quackery is usually present in rural areas of countries or places where there is lack of access to effective treatments, as well as a lack of awareness and financial means among patients. According to a January 2015 study, many patients who visit the dentist cannot afford it because they do not have insurance or the income to support it. In many parts of rural India, for example, a large part of the population falls below the poverty line, so citizens tend to look for cheaper options when seeking medical and dental treatment, a 2017 study reports. 

Lack of awareness and illiteracy also play a significant role in why quackery in dentistry is still happening today. The 2017 study says that quacks prey on individuals who lack the knowledge and caution of what quackery is and how dangerous it potentially can be to the public. These “providers” draw people to their practices with the help of the inaccurate knowledge they spew to their unsuspecting patients, promising to solve their needs.

However, there is a solution to prevent such things from happening to our patients, and that is education. We need to raise awareness of what dental quacking is, how big a danger it can be to our patients and how to look for signs to identify one. The News Minute reports that the first thing all patients should do is check the qualifications of their dental providers and look for red flags, such as the “provider” insisting on pushing medications instead of running tests. 

We need to teach the public to not be afraid to ask medical professionals about their treatment plan because, at the end of the day, if they know what to do, they shouldn’t have a problem explaining it to you. Knowing when and where dental quacks can pop up and how to avoid them is crucial to the safety of our patients. 

~Keerthana Vella, University of South Florida ‘23

Starting a writing club during the pandemic

Ever since my undergraduate years at NYU, writing has always been a passion of mine. I wrote for news site Odyssey Online and had the opportunity to interview NYU students, singer Luke Wade and even ask a question to Sarah Jessica Parker. I loved the concept of journalism and writing because of how often I got to meet new people and write about their stories. 

In a recent leadership seminar, I heard a phrase that stuck with me: Writing can be scary because there is no place to hide, but that is what makes it so powerful. I felt that phrase completely and knew I wanted to take away that fear and turn writing into something hopeful and safe. I never thought about creating a student club that graciously combined writing with dentistry until the pandemic gave us all more time. Personally, the pandemic gave me more time to self-reflect and hold on to what is most important: family, health, friends, aspirations, intentions, and our well-being.

As a third-year dental student in the middle of quarantine, I wanted to start a club that could unite dental students, faculty and alumni. In a time where we could not meet up with each other for months, I wanted to encourage students to stay connected. In a school as large as NYU College of Dentistry, it felt crucial to create a common place and a sense of belonging, especially during a time such as this. 

Since my first year at NYU College of Dentistry, every individual I have gotten to know on a more personal level has been warm and welcoming, and I wanted to embody those feelings in our online publications. I remember contacting numerous professors and students for weeks, and after a few months, I finally got the approval from student government to start this club. I wrote a constitution, created a Wix website and founded my executive team. Together, we edited and published monthly articles written by our peers. Unexpectedly, from our executive team to our editors to our webmaster, our first year as a student club was built on the foundation of strong and inspiring women.

Each piece published begins with an idea and a poll. Every month, our executive team asks for topics from our club members. Thus far, we have published content on wellness, growing from failure, precision medicine and more. We have also interviewed NYU College of Dentistry faculty who were once in our shoes. 

The process for a student writer involves a lot of teamwork. First, the executive team will edit the writer’s piece, and then send it over to our faculty mentors. If the article is approved, from there, the writer will implement the changes and send the revised edition back to me for publication. Our webmaster then uploads all approved articles. With our monthly publications, our goal is to publish only respectful and authentic pieces, and we want to always hold true to that value.

This student club has given us all a place to freely express our thoughts and get to know our student writers beyond dentistry. As we start our second year as a club this year, I hope it continuously serves as a platform for student writers to express their own voice. If given the opportunity, we’d love to help other programs adapt this same format, as it’s been such a gratifying experience for us all. I’m forever thankful for the mentors who believed in us from the beginning. Dentistry is a profession that is so versatile, and there is so much that can be combined with it. Writing happens to be one of my many passions that seems to flow well with my passion for dentistry: to have the ability to help people in the clinic and to also help others by publishing relatable, helpful pieces, demonstrating how grateful I am to be in this profession. 

~Yunah Caroline Chun, New York ‘22

Achieve better overall wellness

With grant funding from Crest + Oral-B, the ADA has spent the last year developing a suite of wellness programs for dentists and their teams. Explore these programs and more that support your financial wellness, your day-to-day clinic work and your overall self-care.

Financial wellness

• A special issue of Dental Practice Success offers Financial Foundations for the New Dentist to support navigating the financial journey from dental school to career.
• Plan Your Financial Journey includes experts from across the ADA’s financial partners offering tips for navigating debt and early career financial concerns. It’s free, and you can earn one CE credit.
• ADA.org/Money is the new home to resources and materials to support dental students and early career dentists in finding answers to financial questions and concerns.
• Read the New Dentist Now blog for peer-to-peer advice for managing student debt.

Physical wellness

• Get moving with Class Pass, a new program that provides free on-demand fitness classes and workouts as well as discounted passes to gyms and in-person classes. Visit ADA.org/ClassPass and enter code ADA2021.
• Read tips and tricks for managing PPE, and view this webinar to learn some workarounds for managing discomfort.

Mental wellness

• Watch “Resilience in the Face of Uncertainty,” by best-selling author, MTV star and mental health advocate Ben Nemtin. This free, on-demand webinar will advise how you can increase your wellbeing in times of stress, anxiety and burnout.
• Watch and share this short video that reminds us to take care of ourselves so we can take care of others. Top it off with a supported breathing exercise to help you take a breather from life’s chatter.
• Learn how to recognize when a colleague is struggling and identify ways to be supportive through the webinar Mental Health, Dentistry & You, from the ADA and NAMI Chicago, available for free to ASDA/ADA student members.

Check out ADA.org/wellness for additional resources, and be well!

This blog post was sponsored by the American Dental Association.

The art of multitasking

Whether you are on the road to embarking on your dental school journey or already immersed in the rollercoaster ride called “dental school,” one of the most valuable assets you can acquire to enjoy the process of this journey is multitasking. However, it’s important to make sure you are multitasking efficiently.

Saying no to distractions is the hardest but most important first step to mastering this skill. Try to say no to two hours of scrolling through Instagram. Maybe you can skip that social gathering on a Tuesday night and leave it for the weekend. If you keep mindlessly watching YouTube videos when you need to focus on your reading, say no to Wi-Fi until you finish that seemingly endless chapter. Doing simple swaps is sure to help you stay focused and avoid wasting time on tasks that need to be done, especially if doing two at the same time.

Prioritize what projects you choose to work on and when, while trying to combine working on the right tasks together. Write down which tasks need to be done as soon as possible, as well as which ones require your full attention. It already can be a little more challenging to jump from task to task since your short-term memory can only handle so much. Make sure the tasks you do pair up have something in common so you can complete each one effectively and in a timely manner. Try listening to your operative lecture while simultaneously applying the knowledge you are hearing by practicing on your simulation mannequin tooth. You can also pair up easy, mindless tasks with ones that need a little more focus. Maybe you can listen to your lecture while making your lunch or exercising, or you can listen to that audiobook you’ve been wanting to read while practicing on your simulation mannequin.

Make sure you give your brain a break. Keeping your mental functioning at the highest level is what will give you the energy to multitask efficiently. Whether it’s by taking time out of your day to meditate, pray, do some yoga, close your eyes for 10 minutes in between lectures or anything that helps your brain not work for a little bit, you will be giving yourself and your brain that extra boost to keep going. Here are a few links that have helped me:

• 10-minute meditations
• Yoga with Adriene
• Nature relaxing music

Learning how to multitask in a way that does not overwhelm you enough to cause even more stress is a skill that needs practice. The good news is anyone who sets their mind to practicing this skill enough — knowing the power of what having it in our world nowadays is — can do it!

~Loulia Al Bitar, Virginia ‘23

Bridging the gap between health care disparities

This summer after my first year of dental school, I had the opportunity to intern at Bridging the Gaps, a community-based summer internship where health care students work with underserved communities in Philadelphia and gain insight into factors that affect health. For anyone interested in gaining experience with social determinants of health or working in public health, I recommend this program or participating in an interdisciplinary health care program like this one.

Here are three lessons I learned participating in this program.

1. Context matters.

This was an important theme discussed throughout the program. When assessing the well-being and attitude of the people we’re serving, it is important to take into account the context of their backgrounds. I worked with the organization Educators for Education to create a six-week online, court-mandated program for Black adolescent boys in the Philadelphia justice system who were at risk or previously involved in crime. The program focused on career development, health knowledge and life skills.

Initially, I anticipated more excitement among the students for learning and more open dialogue during the workshops. However, as I learned more about the challenges the boys were coping with in and out of this program such as technological issues, lack of educational resources and family deaths, I began to understand how challenging it was for them to focus on learning. Context allowed my team and I to empathize and tailor the workshops to their needs. When we evaluated the effectiveness of our program, we considered these external factors that contributed to the attitudes and learning of our students.

2. Interdisciplinary approach to health care is valuable.

One of the most transformative aspects of my internship was the opportunity to work with students from different schools in Philadelphia, representing different health care programs such as nursing, social work and policy, occupational therapy, medicine and veterinary medicine. We discussed patient case studies and the perspective that each profession would bring to patient care.

Although I came into these discussions supporting an interdisciplinary approach to patient care, participating in these discussions brought to life the significance of the perspectives I overlooked as a dental student, simply because I had never learned about it formally. The profession of dentistry can often feel distant from other health care professions, but it doesn’t have to be. I challenge you to meet students from other programs and learn from one another. Working together, we can advocate for our patients effectively.

3. Practice radical empathy, not just empathy.

This internship was the first time I have ever heard the term “radical empathy.” Isabel Wilkerson, author of “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” puts it best: “Radical empathy is not about you and what you think you would do in a situation you have never been in … It is the kindred connection from a place of deep knowing that opens your spirit to the pain of another as they perceive it.”

The part of the quote that was most profound to me was the distinction between putting yourself in someone else’s shoes to understand a situation through your lens versus putting yourself in someone else’s shoes to understand a situation through their lens. In tackling health care disparities, it is important to be an ally for those who cannot speak up for themselves. To be a better ally, we need to take initiative to educate ourselves, instead of placing the burden upon vulnerable populations to inform us.

~Hilary Wong, Pennsylvania ’24

Why Packers and Movers in Ghaziabad are necessary?

Have you ever think that how the team of Packers and Movers in Ghaziabad makes the shifting easy. Well, they indeed make the procedure of relocation quick without any worries of theft. Hence, you can explore the genuine one and ask them the way they accomplish tasks. 

Generally, the team of mover and packer work in the manner of packaging each and everything. Rather, it’s related to industrial or household-they make the entire relocation easier. They know how to manage entire packages and stuff. 

How it is important to hire 100% movers and packers?

Yes, it is important to hire them that make the entire procedure easier.

• It saves the time of multiple up-down because they shift all the packages at once. 
• After that, it will be beneficial to relocate all the stuff easily without any worries.
• They suggest transit insurance that covers further damages and theft. 
• Even you don’t need to worry about any kind of packaging and delivering them all at the right location. 

These are the things to know before you’re going to hire any genuine services during relocation from one place to another. 

What are the things to ask before you’re going to hire them?

• How much do you have experience in the logistics business?
• What is the quality of the packaging products?
• Do you think the delivery is on time?
• What about the GST billing system?
• Do you provide an accurate GPS tracker?
• What will be the budget according to the distance and the weight?

Conclusion

According to the above article, it will be better to follow the above guidelines. Even you can also research them at LogisticMart. You’ll find 100% genuine Packers and Movers in Rajnagar Extension. So, be wise and invest with an authentic one.