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EIOH
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Lucky Pays Off for this Patient
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fter appointments with six different specialists hoping for relief from the increasing pain in her mouth, it was the seventh specialist who finally gave Kathy the help she longed for. “It was an ongoing, stabbing pain, and was worse when I ate foods with seasonings or spices,” explained Kathy (who prefers not to use her last name). “Certain textures, like the crust on a slice of bread, were too painful to eat.” Throughout her many visits to different specialists, she would either leave their office with a special rinse to provide temporary relief, or with an “I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to help you.” One specialist diagnosed her as having burning mouth sensation, and told her it affects about 1 in 500 people. Kathy, 65, used a rinse for about a year with some
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success. “The rinse helped, but it never went away and started getting much worse a year later.” Along with the worsening burning sensation, other symptoms started to appear. “It looked like a big chunk on the left side of my tongue was gone, and there was white stuff on the inside of my cheeks,” Kathy described. “And the inside of my upper and bottom lips had the white stuff, plus red blisters.” It was at an appointment with a periodontist, Jack Caton, DDS, where Kathy found new hope. “Dr. Caton looked in my mouth and said, ‘I want you to go see this doctor who we hired for her knowledge about mouth diseases,’” she said. “He told me, ‘If anyone can help you, it’s going to be her.’ “At that point, I was struggling to eat scrambled eggs, cottage cheese and milk,” Kathy recalled. “Even drinking water hurt.”
eioh | university of rochester medical center
Sharon Elad, DMD – the seventh specialist Kathy saw – recently joined Eastman to chair its new Oral Medicine Division. Oral Medicine, which began gaining U.S. recognition in the 1940’s, focuses on the oral health care of medically complex patients and with the diagnosis and non– surgical management of medically-related disorders or conditions affecting the oral and maxillofacial region. For example, oral medicine specialists diagnose and treat conditions like oral ulcers, dry mouth, color changes of the oral lining, recurrent blisters, lumps or swelling, oral pain, burning mouth, taste disorders, oral infections, and benign growths, among others. “I was so impressed with her,” Kathy said. “She wouldn’t even look in my mouth until we went over my medicines.” At that time, Kathy, who became paralyzed from the waist down during a medical procedure
