I read Dr. Jeffcoat’s February JADA editorial ("A Matter of Life and Death") and was very moved.
I share her concern and have felt that this subject needed attention. I first experienced the problem with communication with physicians years ago when my patients’ blood pressure medications began causing gingival hyperplasia. When I was able to get through to the physicians, several blew me off and did not seem to care. I suspected then that they did not understand much about the oral cavity.
My most recent encounter with the lack of communication between the dental and medical professions occurred when a medical resident came to me to diagnose a tongue lesion in the resident’s own mouth. When I told the resident that clinically it appeared to be hairy leukoplakia, the resident did not know anything about the significance of that diagnosis.
I then was surprised to learn that a couple of my physician friends also were unfamiliar with that diagnosis.
Dr. Jeffcoat’s article is timely and well written.
