Last Updated on 13th February 2017
You will have no doubt noticed that you are asked at every dental appointment to check your medical history form. Cue groans!
The forms can vary from dental practice to dental practice but what they have in common is that they often cause irritation to patients. The dentists at Evesham Dental Health Team in Worcestershire want to reassure patients that these forms are important, so please take your time and consider your responses when filling them in.
Treating you safely
To allow our Evesham dentists to treat you safely we request that you tell us about your medical history, any medication you are taking and whether anything has changed medically since the last time you visited.
And by anything, we mean anything. This includes any medical issue that has affected your whole body – not just your mouth. Just this week, a patient forgot to mention that he’d had a pacemaker fitted. He didn’t think it was important because it had nothing to do with his mouth.
But pacemakers can be affected by the ultrasonic machines used by dental hygienists. Fortunately he wasn’t seeing the hygienist that day and his lapse of communication was picked up, so everything was fine.
Medication
When we say medication this includes the contraceptive pill, inhalers, antibiotics, bisphosphonates, over-the-counter medication and recreational drugs. Certain medications can affect your dental health and the treatments available to you, as well as affecting the way other medications work.
Some medical conditions and the medication prescribed for them can affect your mouth even if the illness has nothing to do with it. Many medications can cause a dry mouth because it affects the amount of saliva produced. Saliva plays an important role in preventing dental decay, so please let us know if you feel your medication is causing a dry mouth, and we can keep an even closer eye on your dental health. We stock a variety of products to help to alleviate dry mouth symptoms.
What happens to my medical history form?
Patients at our Evesham dental practice in Broadway Road will be asked to check and update their medical history form at every dental health review. We also verbally check at every treatment appointment to see if your medication has changed or you have suffered any illnesses since your last visit.
Your medical history form is not just filed away; it is recorded and referred to if there is a problem. If you have any concerns or doubts, please just ask or contact us and we will be happy to explain.
The door to our dental practice in Evesham is always open to new patients. Please give our friendly team a ring for more information. We look forward to hearing from you.
