Question

In your own words, explain why taking a complete and accurate patient history is necessary prior to providing dental hygiene care.

Answer 1

History collection is one of the important aspect of assessment. Through a thorough and detailed history collection the physician can collect both subjective data and objective data from the patient. It plays amajor role in the provission of comprahensive health care and also it helps to avoid some of the activities that may danger the patients life. The properly collected health histories,helps the health care provider to prevent any kind of medical emergencies during the dental hygiene care and helps to provide adequate treatment modalities.

For example, some of the patient might be taking aspirin tablets ( prevent platelet aggregation and improve blood cuirculation without clot formation), warfarin tablets( A oral anticoagulant) etc to improve the symptoms of stroke. In such cases, the dentist fails to collect the proper history regarding medications and underlying disease condition, then he attempt for a tooth extraction this may end up in severe bleeding and because of the effect of medications, cannot stop the bleeding and leading the patient in to a dngerous situation.

Some of the patients may have restrictions with X-ray exposure like pregnant mothers,pregnant mothers are not allowed to take any other mediactions during their pregnancy period, which can cause serious damage to the foetus. Some elderly may have restrictions with certain drugs used for anastesia which can cause serious drug interactions etc. So there are various clinical scenarios. In such situations, if without collecting the proper health history the dentist perform the dental care, tooth extraction, prescribing an X-ray or administering some medications all these can cause serious health problem for the patient.

The proper collection of medical history will helps to identify some new disease conditions or health problems the patient developed within a short duration like cancer of oral cavity, cancer of tongue etc. Sometimes, the adequate collection of history will help to refer the patient to a another physician and aid in the diagnosis of a new disease condition.It also helps to avoid unnecessary treatment paln and cost of the health care.

Collecting the Health history regarding medical conditions like epilepsy, MI, seizure activity etc are very important before the dental check up. Because these disease need only a less stimuli to get aggravate. These patients can not withhold pain and a small pain stimuli can develop the symptoms of seizure or MI among them. If the patient is diabetic, there will be delay in the wound healing after a tooth extraction. Uncontrolled hypertension can cause serious bleeding following a tooth extraction. Some of the patients with any sysytemic infections may need a prophylactic antibiotic tretement before beginning the dental care. Knowing about ny kind of medication allergies also very important. Hence in all way, its important to know the patients detailed health history before providing dental care.