"Recent dental check Up"

I went to see two students Ysobel Dunstan and Conagh O’Sullivan on Friday 12 June 2015 for a dental check up. They were both working under the very watchful eye of a very busy Dr Melanie Nasseripour. Dr Nasseripour was managing a number of clinics at the same time.

I had had previous treatment at Guy's because I had more than about sixteen missing adult teeth, part inherited and part, I believe, because I was let go by my carer when crossing a road when I was a child and hit by a car. I received an open right traumatic injury to my skull of about 9cm diameter. this happened at age 6 and I strongly suspect that calcium was taken by osteocalsts to ancholise the plastic plate inserted in my skull. If I had been given calcium supplements at the time I believe this might not have been so severe.

Previous treatment at Guy’s has included implants. bridges for missing teeth and veneers to make the milk teeth look larger all supervised by Mr Leslie Howe and Professor Palmer. And still all intact after 20 years. Since, I have received wonderful help with my dental hygiene from Christine, Heather and Pat, which reflected the fact I had always done my best in any event, completely avoiding things like sweets between meals or at all. Now my regime is to brush with two different brush heads twice a day, and floss and use a fluoride rinse after lunch. What you might not know is that it is important to wait an hour before brushing, as the teeth will dissolve very slightly in saliva and brushing too quick will damage the enamel.

The work that Mr Howe and Professor Palmer did helped immensely with my social phobia, self esteem and confidence which had all been 'hit’ by the TBI. Other problems included that for most of my childhood I was severely unipolar, with PTSD and anxiety problems. After further ABI from infections and psychological trauma during and after a ruptured appendix, I developed bipolar 1 with psychosis only for my brain to be damaged further by 9 ECT’s and the side effects overdoses of wrongly prescribed psychotropics. So it was great to receive some dental treatment which gave me such a huge psychological boost.

Ysobel and Conagh were superb. They checked my mouth for cancer and other deformities. Then Ysobel ‘read’ out descriptions of all my teeth for Conagh to take notes.

When Dr Nasseripour came to check there was not much to correct only what Ysobel had not yet studied. Although she correctly ‘guessed’ most of what she did not already know! Well done Ysobel! Then what was very remarkable was that I had two occlusal guards one of which was a hard guard made by Croydon Dental Hospital to stop me grinding at night, many years ago. I had never used this as it caused a great deal of pain. When I had told Croydon this they had said take two aspirin and force it on. Dr Nasseripour told me this would have broken my veneers. so instead of it being wasted she took a drill and saved the nhs about £50 to £100 in 3 minutes by adjusting it so it would fit.

Thank you all so very much for your superb care, compassion and technical ability.