Metal Mouth Message Board

This issue was touched on in another topic and after I replied I started to wonder how other patients view their role in their treatment. Not just orthodontic treatment, but all medical care. Do you consider yourself part of a team along with your practitioners? Or do you leave everything to them? Do you ask for details of upcoming procedures or would you rather not know? Do you question their recommendations or trust that they know best?

I ALWAYS ask questions of my medical/dental providers and ask them to tell me in detail what is going to occur. The reason many of them don't offer up the details without being asked is because some patients are squeamish and don't want to know. I'm just the opposite; I want to know everything. Once they realize that, they are happy to share information. My approach to my medical/dental care is that as a patient I am an equal partner with the practitioners and have a right to know the details of my treatment and to voice my opinion or feelings on what is going to happen.

I definitely feel that I get better care by being more involved in my treatment than if I simply rolled over and let them do whatever. There have been times when my questions have led my practitioners to think further about some issue and come to a better conclusion or solution than they had before I questioned it. My advice is don't just be a body in a chair; involve yourself in your treatment.

I pretty much let my dentist and ortho do whatever they need to do...I do ask for a little bit of information but I never ask for more than just general info.

Both of them are more than happy to answer all my questions...at the end they always ask me if I'm sure that I don't have any questions...but I just rather not know the details. I also do a lot of research on my own so if my dentist says I need my wisdom teeth removed, I might not ask him all the stuff he needs to do but I will do a lot of research on my own and than just ask him a few questions...

Regarding medical treatment - I MANAGE my own health and stay very involved with Doctors and decisions and treatments. Regarding Ortho, I don't take a less active role since it doesn't affect my health in general. I do ask questions though.

If I have to get a procedure done, then I research it as much as possible myself before going in. I get lightheaded at the thought of blood, but the more I know when I go in for a procedure, the less I have to keep my eyes open to figure out what's going on.
That being said, I always let the doctor explain themselves before asking questions. Sometimes what I've researched has had conflicting information from different sources, or it's not something that actually pertains to me. I just hate being surprised at the dentist/doctor. I'm usually a bundle of unhappy nerves anyway, so anything even mildly alarming will usually make me start bawling. I'd rather at least have a slight clue about what's coming up.
With that being said, I'm about to leave for my consult with the oral surgeon for my upcoming wisdom tooth/premolar extraction. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The first time I had braces in high school I asked zero question and just let the process happen. Probably becuase I didnt know any better.

This time around I was very active in my treatment. And because I always knew the goal of each visit I could provide feedback. In many cases my feedback alterted the course of treatment and I think sped up the process.

KK wrote:I ask questions, but I must admit I often seem to be asking in reverse ... if this makes any sense. My questions regularly refer back to what was done at the previous appointment ... as I've had time to think about it and wonder

lol I do the exact same thing

I'm usually very involved with whatever's going on with me medically, so I'm pretty mad at myself for having dropped the ball on my ortho treatment. What I should have done was find this forum and done all my research back when I started the consultation process last fall. But I think I was in a state of shocked denial, coupled with the fact that I was really busy with work. Anyway, although I did get three opinions, only one of them was in depth (the ortho I ended up choosing). Had I been better prepared, however, I would have known more about the different treatment options and pushed the other two docs for more info. Since I didn't, this is the route I'm taking, for better or worse, and am therefore finding myself asking lots of questions during my weekly appointments. Luckly, the ortho seems to have run into this before and is being very patient with me.