Welcome to Amyrdh.com!

Analogies

This was a great thread that was started on the RDH email group and will be featured as a question in Contemporary Oral Hygiene.  Here is what started it all:
One thing about working in different offices is you get to hear
different analogies different people use to help their patients
visualize. With that in mind, I was just curious what particular
analogies many of you use to describe situations to patients...i.e.
gingiva reacting to calculus like skin does if a splinter were
un-removed from your hand.

I also heard one at a CE the other day. The speaker said he explains
to his patients that the reason a deep filling often takes longer
to "heal" (settle down) than a shallow one is much like touching your
arm. If I pat your arm...you feel that but if your arm is burned and
I pat it, it's much more intense. The nerves have been compromised
and are more sensitive but as it heals, then I can pat it again
without it hurting.

Brynne Poore, RDH BS
Scottsbluff, Nebraska

Date:

06 Jan 2003

Time:

22:52:08

Remote User:

Comments

I tell patients that they may be sore after scaling and root planing. I try to compare it to soreness after not exercising in a long time. I tell them that their gums are not used to the instrumentation needed to remove that bacteria and like muscle soreness after a long abscense of exercising, that they may experience gingival soreness afterwards.

Date:

11 Jan 2003

Time:

23:44:07

Remote User:

Comments

When speaking to a denture/partial wearer that does not want to leave them out at all, I tell them it's like never taking your shoes off! The tissue needs rest and air circulation to be healthy. I like the mowing the grass analogy that was posted. I will definitely use that one. I just tell the patients who have not been in for a long time that I can't undo in 1 hr. what has taken ? years to grow! As for flossing, I tell them brushing and flossing/interdental cleaning clean two different areas of their teeth/mouth. Brushing without cleaning inbetween is like taking a shower and only washing the front side of your body! On the post about Big Red gum causing mouth irritation, artificial cinnamon flavoring is one of the most commonly allergic flavorings in gums and candy.

Date:

11 Jan 2003

Time:

23:44:58

Remote User:

Comments

I tell patients that floss is to your teeth like a wash cloth is to your skin. You can stand in the shower for an hour, but you need to use your cloth to really get clean.

Date:

11 Jan 2003

Time:

23:45:22

Remote User:

Comments

When talking about how gums get infected I explain that the gum attaches to the tooth in a slightly similar way to the way the finger attaches to the fingernail leaving a similar space where food debris lodges. When using your hands for a dirty job the space under the fingernail fills up and when you wash your hands most of the "stuff" comes out but you are left with a dirty black line that you clean out with something sharp and pointy because if you don't you know your fingers will get sore and infected. When you eat, the pocket of gum around the tooth fills up with food debris and when you brush your teeth most of this is cleaned away but there is the equivalent to the black line under your fingernails left and this is what bacteria feed on producing toxins that leach into the gums causing infection and ultimately bone loss. This is why regular professional cleanings are so important. Patients seem to relate well to the concept because they can actually see what you mean. Localized perio problems can be demonstrated by using the splinter (or sliver depending on where you live!) pushed under the nail idea and trying to heal the area.

Date:

11 Jan 2003

Time:

23:46:04

Remote User:

Comments

For gingivitis I tell pt's that leaving plaque on their gums is like leaving dirt in a cut, your body sees it as an infection and sends extra blood there to fight the bacteria so that's why your gums swell, turn red, and bleed. Then after years of fighting the infection that won't heal your body say's "well I can't get rid of this infection so I'll just get rid of these teeth" and it starts to resorb it own bone around the roots of the teeth to make them fall out. It can take years but once you loose bone you don't get it back and that's called periodntitis. Gingivitis being reversable but periodontis is not, they're both painless so the way to tell is through radiographs, pocket depths, and bleeding gums.

Date:

11 Jan 2003

Time:

23:46:46

Remote User:

Comments

This one is good for engineers or very analytical people. There are five sides to your teeth, tongue side, cheek side, top and two sides. If you do a perfect job of brushing then you are only cleaning 3 of the five sides or 60% of the tooth surface, leaving 40% of the plaque untouched. Since most of us don't brush the recommended two minutes and aren't perfect we are probably leaving 50% or more of the plaque in our mouths. This is why it is so necessary to clean in between the teeth where the brush won't reach. It is interesting to read all these analogies. We use the barnacle on a ship one even in land locked Oklahoma. Still good.

Date:

11 Jan 2003

Time:

23:47:12

Remote User:

Comments

Here is an analogie I always use when explaining why it will take several appointments to "get your teeth clean and in health". I tell them it is like them trying to clean their house in an hour if they had not cleaned it in 5 years (whatever time period). I tell them with all their teeth it is like cleaning a 28-32 room home...including the refrigerator. They usally get a laugh out of that one, but we can all identify with that one. It usually convinces them, and I rarely have a problem with them coming back. Patients also ask me with all the new tecnology out their are you ever afraid of loosing your job due to new products? I tell them "that the day they come out with a product that truely removes the hard water deposites and mole etc. in our showers without scrubbing, will be the day I will start worring. Ha! Ha! As we know we still have to srub those walls. It is not like what we see on TV. Yes Amy, let us have a Hint's from Amy colunm. You could have the column, but give credit to who wrote in the suggestion each month. I have been wanting to do this for a long time with my local component. We could have topics like sterilzation, colorcoding charts etc

Date:

11 Jan 2003

Time:

23:48:33

Remote User:

Comments

When explaining to a patient that they have pockets, I frequently hear "What is a pocket?" I use my hands a lot when I talk anyway and this adds a verbal as well as visual. I tell them to imagine their teeth and gums like a turtleneck sweater. Chin up is what you see of the tooth. Chin down is gum. The gum attaches to the tooth around the area of the collar bone. This is what I've measured. Normal healthy gums should measure between 1-3mm, no bleeding, and no pain. You have some that are 4's, 5's....The plaque accumulates in the "collar" part, that's what you clean when you floss. When you have inflammation/infection the gums swell and what you see is gum up to the lower lip and I get a higher reading. If it's not corrected and tartar forms eventually where it attaches at the collarbone starts to recede (further down your chest). That means you're losing bone and I get an even higher reading. If enough bone is lost, you will lose the tooth. We need to clean all that out and what we want is for the attachment (further down your chest)to come back up (to the collarbone) and the swelling (up to the lower lip) comes down(back to the chin)to get these readings in the normal/healthy range. It seems to reach most patients as to what we're doing and why.

Date:

11 Jan 2003

Time:

23:49:03

Remote User:

Comments

This isn't an answer to your current question, but wanted to tell you what analogies I use to teach patients. In my area people constantly question the use of Fluoride. I tell them if you looked at the tooth before I cleaned them under a microscope, it would look something like a sponge. Full of holes due to bacteria acid leaching into the enamel. After I place the fluoride, if you looked at the tooth under a microscope it would look almost like a wall, with the hole filled in. Don't eat or drink for 30 minutes to give it a chance to solidify in the holes. Then the importance of brushing and flossing before you go to bed.......works with the perio patients as well as kids. Bacteria is smart, it's gonna go where you are less likely to get it, between the teeth. During the day, your tongue moves around and you drink and constantly move the bacteria around. They like to colonize, in otherwords, they like to build houses. During the day, they can only build houses for you to tear down, but at night, when you are asleep, they are building Condos and small cities. Harder to tear down a condo or a small city than it is to tear down a house. That's why perio patients never have the luxury of ever saying that they are too tired to brush and floss before they go to bed ever again.

Date:

11 Jan 2003

Time:

23:49:28

Remote User:

Comments

As far as analogies, this one is old and you probably already have heard it or use it. When I'm explaining perio disease I tell my patients that plaque and calculus is like a sliver/splinter under a finger. If you don't get it out your finger will get swollen/infected. If you get it out right away then the swelling goes down etc. But if you leave it for a long time you will get an infection etc. So this is why gingivitis is reversible, blah, blah, blah-you get the point. I work at boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Training Center and lots of recruits have rampant decay. They are young, but they know about cars and old batteries. I ask them how they cleaned the corrosion off of a car battery and they all know that you just have to pour a Can of Coke on it. So then I make the point that it's acid and if it can clean the corrosion off is it a good thing to pour on your teeth etc. And for patients who say "My tooth wasn't bothering me and then you people drilled on it"- I tell them that they get a cavity a little at a time, slowly so the nerve is kind of used to it but then one day we drill on the tooth and we "bruise the nerve" so to speak and it's like any other bruise-it takes a little bit to heal up.

Date:

11 Jan 2003

Time:

23:49:43

Remote User:

Comments

When parents can't get their child to give up their pasifier then there is the pasi-fairy. The child puts their pasifier under their pillow and then gets a prize or money just like losing a tooth.

Date:

11 Jan 2003

Time:

23:50:17

Remote User:

Comments

I went to a continuing education seminar, with the second hygienist from my office, and one from another office. We were all chatting about those patients that you seem to continually remind that they really need to floss....daily! One of the hygienists had an awesome analogy, that I have used several times. Think of your teeth like the tines of of fork. If you only brush the outsides and insides of your teeth, it's like only cleaning the front and back of the tines of the fork. If you don't clean in between your teeth by flossing, then you leave food debris there. The bacteria in your mouth attack that food and it ferments, as it breaks down. This is why there is odor, bleeding, redness, etc.... This fermentation process is what breaks down the structures that hold your teeth in. So, if you choose not to floss, you are leaving decaying food debris in between your teeth that continues to build up. The thought of all that mess building up is pretty disgusting, huh?

Date:

25 Jan 2003

Time:

16:10:01

Remote User:

Comments

Love this topic!!!! I would love to hear more analagies. Marcia McKibben R.D.H

Date:

17 Oct 2003

Time:

19:29:19

Remote User:

Comments

Love the topic. I need an analagie for oral piercing to use in a presentation for teens. Does anybody can help me? Thanks

Here is one I received on 6/25/05 in an email: