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Showing results for tags 'Surgery - Oral and maxillofacial'.
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Community PostWe want to hear from patients with experience of NHS and/or private orthodontists and dentists in any healthcare setting, including community practices and hospitals. Did the orthodontist/dentist give you the treatment and support you needed? If you had ongoing problems, how did the orthodontist/dentist and other healthcare professionals respond? Have you tried to make a complaint? You can read one patient's experience in this opinion piece: “I’ve been mocked, scolded and gaslighted”: a harmed patient’s experience of orthodontic treatment
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Content Article
“I’ve been mocked, scolded and gaslighted”: a harmed patient’s experience of orthodontic treatment
Anonymous posted an article in Other conditions and diseases
In this opinion piece, a patient shares their experience of trying to access support from the healthcare system for debilitating jaw pain. They describe being dismissed and laughed at by doctors and orthodontists, highlight a knowledge gap around jaw issues and outline the need for more accountability in the orthodontics industry. It is devastating to receive a diagnosis as vague as ‘body part dysfunction’ as it basically means your doctors don’t have a clue. I was unfortunate enough to receive two such diagnoses: temporal mandibular dysfunction (TMD), meaning ‘jaw problems’ and eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD), meaning ‘ear pressure problems’. The last twelve years of my life have been constant physical torture and I have suffered years of misdiagnosis and mistreatment by professionals and systems that I do not believe are set up in the patient’s best interest. My story Twelve years ago I started to get pain and clicking in my jaw joint, alongside strange popping and pressure changes in my ear. My GP dismissed this as ‘stress’ and naively I believed them. My problems were getting worse and worse to the point that it was preventing me from sleeping, socialising or even thinking straight. In constant agony and severely sleep deprived, I began having suicidal thoughts. I had been going around in circles through the health service. Three dentists had told me my ‘bite’ was fine and three jaw doctors had told me my joint was fine. I was given a diagnosis of ‘muscular TMD’ and several of these professionals implied that I was causing my own health problems through some kind of personality flaw, throwing phrases like “stress grinder”, “neurotic personality” and “psychogenic component” at me. On the ear, nose and throat side of things, numerous scans and endoscopes up my nose found nothing wrong with the pressure tube to my ear. After years of being passed around and having just been handed another nine month NHS wait, I called the same ENT surgeon’s private clinic and they could fit me in the same day. With my life wasting away I began paying for private treatment. I had several courses of antibiotics and even had my tonsils out under the premise that a chronic infection might be affecting the nearby muscles. It made no difference and I was inconsolable. At that point, I revisited an issue previously ruled out by several professionals—my teeth. I found a dentist from one of several study groups who claim to treat jaw problems. This dentist had a pressure sensor that you bite on and when he tested my teeth there was twice the pressure on one side of my bite compared with the other, indicating that my teeth and jaw didn’t align. Finally, after several years of going around in circles, I had some evidence of what was wrong. A cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) with my teeth together showed clearly that my bite and jaw were not aligned. This dentist began making me a splint and the moment there was some change to my bite it became clear that my teeth were the cause of my jaw and ear symptoms. However, little did I know that my problems were just beginning. I am certain that the dentist was simply guessing when making adjustments to my splint. After many adjustments, he was just changing my symptoms and not figuring anything out and he handed me over to an orthodontist with a half-effective splint. When I saw this orthodontist, he scolded me for suggesting that orthodontics might have something to do with jaw function. At the same time, he claimed great success treating patients like me. I was concerned by this contradiction so I sought another opinion. The next orthodontist laughed in my face at the idea that the teeth could affect the jaw. The next tried to sell me a ‘tongue training device’. After several more wildly different opinions from professionals I returned to the first orthodontist, doubting his trustworthiness but hoping he was competent. He wasn’t, and left me in a far worse situation than before. It has been over a decade and my bite and my symptoms are worse than ever. A culture of victim blaming My experience of the health service has been consistently negative. I have been mocked, scolded, condescended and gaslighted by the people who are supposed to help me. I joined an online victims group with thousands of members and most of the people in the group went for cosmetic orthodontics and left with jaw problems. Some have biting problems caused by badly done crowns and fillings. Many victims have had multiple teeth pulled out or orthodontic headgear that left them with pain and disfigurement. Small jaws due to tooth extractions are even advertised as a beauty standard in some countries. Orthodontics seems like the wild west. Inadequate and misleading research Biting is mechanically complex and I believe the methods used by dentists to diagnose biting problems are insufficient. In my experience, hand drills and articulating paper are inadequate ways of making splints. A visual inspection is only a superficial way of aligning teeth. What the victims need are high quality scans and splints made by computer simulation of bite and jaw. In my opinion this is PhD level mechanical engineering and far beyond dental professors’ abilities. Instead of researching and improving treatment options, they use all kinds of statistics to deny that the teeth affect the jaw and instead blame the patients. Many people don’t feel able to speak up about their experiences or share their concerns, as they are worried about how this will affect their ability to receive treatment in the future or even fear legal action from the professional who harmed them. I believe that members of the orthodontic industry have built this incredible wall of ignorance around themselves and unfortunately it is getting worse. The current trend in dental research is to claim that splints don’t work as a reason to ignore the whole concept, instead of acknowledging the inaccuracies in making them by hand. All the while, orthodontists are carrying out more and more cosmetic procedures, seemingly washing their hands of the people they harm and abandoning them to a life of suffering. The orthodontics industry, which advertises ‘excellence’, ‘perfection’ and ‘wonderful patient experiences’ is hiding the suffering of many patients. No one knows how many people have been harmed by cosmetic procedures as no evidence is collected. No one knows how many people are going around in circles through the health service with debilitating jaw, ear and throat problems caused by the alignment of their teeth and jaw. They are not being diagnosed. A call to action I believe that these are longstanding issues as I have met victims who were harmed decades ago who have had no investigation or recourse to justice. An independent Government review is necessary. Patients should have the right to a complete diagnostic process and I am still shocked that alignment of bite and jaw isn’t considered by NHS jaw doctors. I would like to see bite pressure sensors and scans of the jaw with the teeth together become a regular part of the diagnostic process. As for treatments, I strongly believe that the current methods of manufacturing splints are inadequate and progress requires the assistance of mechanical engineers. Dental research should not be isolated from outside scrutiny and dental records should not be separated from medical records. Share your experience If you've recently had orthodontist or dentist treatment, we'd love to hear about your experience, whether positive or negative. You can: post anonymously in our community conversation about orthodontists and dentistry comment on this post -
Content ArticleThis article in the journal Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery for the Clinician looks at the importance of recognising and addressing human factors in surgery. It explores human factors in the context of optimising individual performance, enhancing team working to improve patient safety, and creating better working lives for healthcare professionals across surgery and medicine.
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Event
Future surgery 2022
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
Future Surgery, brings together surgeons, anaesthetists and the whole perioperative team. Designed specifically to meet the training needs, promote networking and develop a stronger voice for all surgical professionals and their multidisciplinary teams in perioperative care. Our CPD accredited speaker programme explores disruptive technology, connectivity, human factors, training and research to support the transformation of the profession and the improved care and safety of patients. Future Surgery is the biggest gathering of surgical and operating theatre teams with over 110 expert speakers – in keynote sessions, panel discussions and workshop sessions, covering all that is new in the field of surgery. Register -
Content ArticleSince 2015 Quomodus has developed the digital course 'Diathermy – a practical guide to electrosurgery' for surgeons and other professional users of electrosurgery. The 30-minute course covers the history of electrosurgery, indication and proper use, adverse effects and complications associated with the use of diathermy. The course has been tested and quality assured by health professionals in Scandinavia. The course is flexible, user friendly and applies to all models of diathermy equipment currently on the market.
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Content ArticleGetting It Right First Time (GIRFT) is designed to improve the quality of care within the NHS by reducing unwarranted variations. By tackling variations in the way services are delivered across the NHS, and by sharing best practice between trusts, GIRFT identifies changes that will help improve care and patient outcomes, as well as delivering efficiencies such as the reduction of unnecessary procedures and cost savings. This report outlines the need to centralise services and build on existing hub and spoke networks for oral and maxillofacial surgery, especially in the treatment of patients with head and neck cancer and those needing corrective jaw surgery. This will enable central hubs to focus on in-patient work, while outlying spoke hospitals take care of day cases and outpatients, which form a high proportion of oral and maxillofacial work. The report makes 15 recommendations on the following themes: Improving methods and techniques for data collection to ensure better analysis Examining why more simple surgery, such as wisdom tooth removal, isn’t being done outside of hospital, helping to free up resources Developing local networks across the country, giving patients access to the most appropriate care for their needs Optimising the secondary care pathway by reducing the number of follow-up appointments required GIRFT and the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (BAOMS) have issued an advice pack on the organisation of oral and maxillofacial services into networks to support the implementation of recommendations in the report. Watch a short video summary of the report
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Content Article
Patient safety in oral surgery
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Dentist
This article from the British Association of Oral Surgeons (BAOS) highlights that these clinicians perform a high volume of multi-site complex procedures, on anxious patients who are frequently conscious, that have the potential for error to occur. Wrong tooth extraction has been clearly designated as a 'never event' since April 2015. However, in 2016/17, wrong tooth extraction topped the charts as being the most frequently occurring never event based on NHS England’s data. What can we do to mitigate these incidents? Based on both practical experience and research evidence, BAOS advises that the main methods for mitigation of errors are: learning from mistakes – including investigation and root cause analysis engaging the clinical team when developing 'correct site surgery' policies utilising the LocSSIPs template and guidelines from NHS England/RCS England developing a correct site surgery checklist that is appropriate for your clinical environment providing training for staff on the use of the checklist ensuring that the checklist is being used correctly through active audits of the processes involved supporting the clinical team throughout the process and not taking punitive action when incidents do occur. -
Content ArticleThe objective of this review from Alani et al. is to draw attention to the risk factors, causes and prevention of surgical fires in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery performed under local anaesthesia and sedation using a review of the literature.
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News ArticleA Swedish appeals court on Wednesday increased a prison sentence for an Italian surgeon over experimental stem cell windpipe transplants on three patients who died. Dr Paolo Macchiarini made headlines in 2011 for carrying out the world’s first stem cell windpipe transplants at Sweden’s leading hospital and had been sentenced to no prison time by a lower court. But the Svea Court of Appeal concluded that there were no emergency situations among two of the three patients who later died, while the procedure on the third could not be justified. The appeals court sentenced the Italian scientist to 2 1/2 years in jail for causing the death of three people between 2011 and 2014. “The patients have been caused bodily harm and suffering,” the appeals court said of the two men and one woman. The patients, it concluded, “could have lived for a not insignificant amount of time without the interventions.” Macchiarini denied any criminal wrongdoing. Once considered a leading figure in regenerative medicine, Macchiarini has been credited with creating the world’s first windpipe partially made from a patient’s own stem cells. Read full story Source: ABC News, 21 June 2023
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Content Article
Latest issue of the Operating Theatre Journal
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Surgery
A monthly journal for all operating theatre staff covering surgical and anaesthesia news. 2024 February issue The post-anaesthetic care of a patient following impacted wisdom tooth extraction New Inquiry: NHS Leadership, Performance and Patient Safety Pensioner goes home within hours of having heart valve replacement surgery A student’s Reflection on an experience within the obstetrics theatre Multidisciplinary clinical hub at Cardiff Met offers new vision for healthcare delivery January issue The change in practice of aortic procedures following the introduction of hybrid theatre in a tertiary centre. Evolving heart surgery education is crucial to equip surgeons with the skills to match the technology. A case study detailing the postoperative recovery of an elective patient. Why managing NHS waiting lists is about safety, not just numbers. Keeping an eye on bad behaviour in the operating theatre. Reducing oxygen levels for children in intensive care will save lives, new study shows. Navigating burnout in healthcare: A critical examination of operating theatre staff in the UK. 2023 December issue Royal Papworth patient is first recruit to new ‘blood powder’ heart surgery research trial. A simple guide to the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF). The post-anaesthesia care of an elective inguinal hernia repair patient. Surgical teams at Southmead Hospital carry out 24 robotic-assisted gynaecology procedures in two days. New deep learning challenge to estimate breast density from mammograms. Retained swabs following invasive procedures: Themes identified from a review of NHS serious incident reports. November 2023 Workplace ostracism is clearly associated with healthcare workers’ job satisfaction, stress and perceived health. London operating department practitioner advocacy pilot project. How to share decision-making about major surgery for people at high risk of complications. Proportion of people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities registering to donate on the NHS Organ Donor Register is on the rise Trends in cancer. The world’s first collection of brain metastasis living samples will help treat each patient with the most effective therapy for them. Children’s Surgery Magic October 2023 A reflection on my learning as an individual and as part of a team during my second-year anaesthetic placement. Region-wide AI deal to help tackle waiting lists across nine NHS trusts. North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust uses RealWear headsets for training. Patients treated sooner thanks to Joint Working to Improve Orthopaedic Care. “Embracing Sustainability in the Operating Theatre: The Shift to Reusable Scrub Caps”. September issue Serious hazards of transfusion (SHOT) report warns of alarming increase in transfusion errors and harm to patients. Doctors cut waiting list for breast cancer surgery patients. Study reveals surgeons need to improve how they communicate with patients about new procedures. Professor Sir Terence Stephenson, "all NHS trusts must use barcodes to locate high-risk devices". Nurses’ intentions to quit increased during the pandemic despite their high resilience. August issue Most common medical claims: How to avoid malpractice allegations. Report recommends packaging and labelling change to prevent implant ‘never event’. New guidance on safe injection practice in hospitals emphasises the importance of prefilled and labelled syringes in avoiding medication errors. Progress with the new hospital programme. Advancements in minimally invasive surgery: Techniques, instruments, and patient outcomes. July issue NHS must accept accountability and learn from mistakes. Simulation based education in healthcare higher education: In what ways does it impact perceived clinical confidence, knowledge, and skills acquisition in student Operating Department Practitioners? Risk reduction in endo-tracheal tube fixation. Historic plan launched to move Wales towards zero deaths from bowel cancer. Taking higher-than-recommended doses of Vitamin D for five years reduced the risk of atrial fibrillation. As complications from cosmetic tourism rise, UK and Turkish plastic surgeons unite to issue consumer guidelines. New research highlights opportunities to improve care of patients having major surgery. June issue How to THRIVE in the Operating Theatre Preoperative optimisation: The effect of prehabilitation interventions on the postoperative recovery of cancer patients undergoing colorectal surgery – Literature review and discussion based paper. Surgeons must tackle three global health challenges to save lives. “PERUSE before you Infuse”. Artificial Intelligence could speed up heart attack diagnosis, SurgiBox: Ukraine’s SurgiBox Project has been successfully demonstrating safe surgery to patients around the world May issue Reducing mortality in emergency surgery: Focussing minds through a national clinical audit in the NHS. Majority of NHS trusts do not offer training to prevent sexual harassment, study finds. Handwashing during ‘normal times’ can reduce burden of respiratory disease. The Surgical Education Checklist as a tool to improve teaching within the operating theatre. April issue NatSSIPs 2 Sequential Steps: The NatSSIPs Eight – Flowchart. Mobile operating theatre helping drive down waiting times in Yorkshire. Why hospitals and ICBs are seeking new intel to find hidden high-risk patients on waiting lists. March issues NHS Scotland first in world to ‘clean up’ anaesthetic gases. New standards to Improve the safety of invasive procedures in the NHS. Researchers suggest novel cutpoints for diagnosing cardiac hypertrophy in adolescents and young adults. NHS patients targeted to reduce risks as they wait for hospital treatment. February New standards to improve the safety of invasive procedures in the NHS. Delphi Study Round Three – A study across NHS England hospital trust operating theatres. Crash and burn(out) – Aviation-style safety checklist and confidential helpline for surgical community to prevent mental health crisis. A Wound Care Study: has the pandemic led to new and improved ways of working? HSIB investigation: Access to critical patient information at the bedside. Artificial intelligence, Patient safety and achieving the quintuple aim in anaesthesiology. January Delphi Study Round Two – A study across NHS England hospital trust operating theatres. Intercollegiate green theatre checklist Local Interventions to support the recovery of elective surgery at the University College London Hospitals department of theatres & anaesthesia. 2022 December issue Delphi Study Round One – A study across NHS England Hospital Trust operating theatres. Managing NHS backlogs and waiting times in England. Steroid injections worsen knee arthritis, according to two new studies. First robotic hysterectomy completed in Wales. World’s first algae-based local anaesthetic another step closer to reality. How new bacterial species siscovered in Asian soil could help battle against antibiotic resistance November issue New research calls for all health and care staff to be trained in AI Reducing noise in operating theatre improves children’s behaviour after surgery, study finds Brain tumour patient operated on awake while playing saxophone No difference between spinal versus general anaesthesia in patients having hip fracture surgery finds study October issue Why are intra-operative surgical Never Events still occurring in NHS operating theatres? Radical rethink needed to improve safety in health and social care. World Anaesthesia Day 2022: History, significance, celebrations and theme. £4 million “space-age” operating theatre will help bring down eye surgery backlog. Two thirds of nurses choosing between food and fuel as cost of living bites and one in five turn to food banks. ‘An inspirational story’: Hartlepool cleaner changes career to become hospital nurse. September issue Service evaluation of the current World Health Organisation’s Surgical Safety Checklist in spine surgery at the University Hospitals of Derby & Burton. Could this lead to a change in NHS Improvement? The Anaesthetic Gas Scavenging System Project. Cancelled operations could be prevented by an earlier anaemia test and time to prepare. The top 10 things experts need you to know about screening during Gynaecological Cancer Awareness Month September 2022 £35.5m for New Friarage Hospital Operating Theatres. New robotic surgical system revolutionises patient care at UHCW. Insourcing: Giving NHS operating theatre teams a helping hand. Arterial stiffness raises blood pressure in adolescents via insulin resistance. Birmingham’s Public Health Chief is among sector leaders to receive university honours, -
News Article
Orthodontist advised treatment with risk of harm to children, tribunal told
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An orthodontist whose methods around shaping the jawline have gone viral advised treatment to young children that “carried a risk of harm”, a tribunal has heard. Dr Mike Mew, whose “mewing” techniques have racked up nearly 2 biillion views on TikTok, faces a misconduct hearing at the General Dental Council (GDC). Opening the hearing in central London on Monday, Lydia Barnfather, representing the GDC, said comments made by Mew, who claims to help “alter the cranial facial structure” on his YouTube channel, were “pejorative” about orthodontists. Barnfather told the professional conduct committee that Mew seeks to treat children with “head and neck gear” and “lower and upper arch expansion appliances” to help align teeth and shape the jawline. “The GDC alleges this is not only very protracted, expensive, uncomfortable and highly demanding of the child, but it carries the risk of harm", Barnfather said. It was heard that between September 2013 and May 2019, advice and treatment were provided to two children, referred to as Patient A and Patient B. Mew was accused of failing to “carry out appropriate monitoring” of their treatment and “ought to have known” this was liable to cause harm. Barnfather said: “The GDC allege you are not to have treated patients the way you did.” She argued that both children had “perfectly normal cranial facial development for their age” before treatment took place. She added that the treatment was “not clinically indicated” and that Mew “had no adequate objective evidence” it would achieve its aims. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 14 November 2022 -
Content Article
Surgeons' News (Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Surgery
Surgeons' News is a magazine for surgical, dental and allied healthcare professionals. Published quarterly by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, it features comment and opinion from leading professionals, plus reviews and reports on subjects relevant to all career levels.
