Thursday 19 June 2014

Memoir: Wisdom Tooth Extraction

Its funny what awakened the memories of this two month pending post: it was watching “toothless” of How to train your dragon, which reminded me that I am wisdom toothless. I might have ignored to write this old a post, but sometimes such information on blogs can be useful when doctors are not; like was in my case. Two eventful months have transpired since the “surgery”, I still retain the essence of the agonizingly long experience. I will hence narrate the gist and chuck the finer details.

Having realized my mouth can provide little room for the wisdom tooth to grow, I went to the University Health Centre (UHC) dentist to get a not-so-rare or complicated procedure done: Wisdom tooth extraction. I should confess I was very apprehensive, and took Priyanka along to stay through the procedure. So, the doctor and his assistant were all ready to operate in my mouth, without caring to inform me what they did at every stage. I believe keeping the patient educated makes a huge difference in their confidence and particularly their anxiety levels. The procedure started with a couple of painful local anesthetic injections in the inside of cheeks, after which followed numbness throughout the left side of my face. Keeping my eyes closed, all that I could feel and hear was a few screeching instruments digging into my teeth, and occasional vacuum sucking out the fluid. Priyanka said my body tremors were akin to that of a seizure patient, although clutching her hands gave a sense of security.

Few observations noted around: the assistant wearing gloves attended a phone call, checked the patients’ record book, opened a cupboard, and same gloved hands went inside my mouth. Used dirty gloves lay around in the room adjacent to the surgery room.  The gel that was applied to my empty socket was kept in the same tray as where my infected extracted tooth was. Hard to imagine this in Singapore right? Incidentally, my friend Aicha went to the same clinic and observing the hygiene around, confirmed my statements and she vowed she’d never go there again.

I was sent back home with not many instructions or counseling done. I’d like to mention some of them, which might have made my recovery faster and less painful. One needs to take the first dose of painkillers before the anesthetic effect wanes off, even if its painful, stuff some food inside and have the medicines. Apply cold ice packs which might avert severe inflammation, and eat cold things. The days were insanely painful, I had painkillers almost every four hours which meant: 6 antibiotics 7 painkillers a day. My liver would have turned into a pharmacy garbage. Meanwhile, my flatmates Mrinal, Satty and Priyanka were very helpful in making my lunches/dinner and taking care. I had ridiculously inflamed pregnant cheeks, its an embarrassing picture, but I’d still like to share it to emphasize the magnitude of it.


I had a splitting headache throughout, apparently common with tooth extractions with the nerves being connected to the head. The headache would aggravate after I get up in the morning, due to the blood pooling in that region while lying. A week later, I got the sutures removed and the doctor said the inflammation would go down soon. Aicha thought there was something wrong, it shouldn’t take so long and said I should go see the doc again. 2 days later at UHC, another doc: he said I’d an infection in the gum and he’d do a procedure to clean it. Yeah right, wonder if the infection came from their unhygienic glove practices. Again the painful injections, and yet achingly bad gum procedure. Kabhie tooth, kabhie gum..

With my qualifying exam round the corner, I went bonkers with these uncalled aches. I was hardly able to focus on studying and making slides. At this point, I couldn’t help thinking about Ogden Nash’s lines: "Some problems are physical, some are mental; but the one that is both, is Dental." Everyday I dreaded the prospect of confronting the dentist again; I now realized why the dentist visits is labeled as “vicious circle”. I didn’t recover before my exam, I somehow managed to survive swallowing the hepatotoxic analgesic pills. The very next day after exam, I went to the NUH who insisted I go back to the same doctor who extracted my tooth. It was hard but I succeeded in convincing them how the UHC doctors weren’t helping my case, it had been 3 weeks and the swelling and pain didn’t seem to leave me.

Mrinal accompanied me, and we entered the walk-in queue, and had to wait for 2-3 hrs before I could see the doctor. The doctor seemed very convincing to me, he carefully examined the inside and outside of the mouth and got an X ray done. He said I have most likely developed a post operative hematoma (blood clot) in the area, which might take a few months to heal. No medications prescribed, the only thing that could help was applying heat enhancing the blood circulation. I followed it religiously three times a day, and the swelling went down considerably, although if you observe closely, you would notice my left side is still a bit bulgy. But it took 5 whole weeks for me to get rid of the headaches, I would crave for a single day without a headache. It was annoying to find such an irresponsible and unaccountable dentist facility on campus. In all, I wasted 5 crucial weeks and S$900 in one month of this dental ordeal, probably it deserved just half the amount with the right doctors and instructions/counseling.

Dentists terrify me, as post traumatic stress disorder, I suffer from dental hygiene paranoia. I strongly recommend to spread a word around and to be aware of the lousy unacceptable UHC dentist practices: you might just regret it..!


Saturday 7 June 2014

Seatbelt can be your saviour!

A road accident led to death of the recently sworn-in Union rural development minister of India, Gopinath Munde, wherein the doctors highlighted how wearing the seatbelt could’ve saved his life. This article discusses the particular incident, and many similar cases where people have lost lives because of their ignorance to its importance. Today I had a conversation with a friend while in the car, who insisted and argued on not wearing seatbelts since she was at the backseat (Shri Munde too was!). 

Going ten years backwards, I experienced something that I would like to share: I was with my entire family sightseeing in Delhi, in a maruti van waiting for the signal to turn green in front of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Within a blink of an eye, a car came at a high speed and rammed onto our car and quickly ran away as happens in most cases. None of us were belted, and I was seated at the supposedly safest place: behind the driver. Ironically, nothing happened to anyone else in the car except me; with the impact I jumped to hit the roof of the van on top of driver's seat (relatively far in a maruti van). I went blank for two minutes, and my head was swollen like double the size of a cricket ball. This was followed by doctor visits for nearly 3-4 months, with scans, medications etc until my swelling went off completely. Having personally experienced this, and come across so many people who don't like wearing seatbelts, I was prompted to share my views and make a case about the importance of seatbelts. So here it goes.  

What many people aren’t aware is that in Singapore, being caught by traffic police while not belted will cost you S$120 (rules), regardless of where you are sitting (driver, front or back): precisely the reason why taxi uncles insist on buckling up as soon as u hop into the cab. Rules, laws and fines apart, human lives are far more precious, are they not?

I’m sure most of us during flights, follow cabin crew instructions for fastening seatbelts while taking off/landing/turbulent weather. Why? If there were an accident, chances are that you wouldn’t survive it (depending on its magnitude), inspite of your secured seatbelts. No, ofcourse I believe one should wear seatbelts even on flights. What is funny is that, people don’t realize to what extent seatbelts can change your fate in a road accident than a flight accident. It can probably save you from dying, or flying outside the car breaking your head and bones; it can immensely reduce the extent of your injuries. Please ask yourself why you don’t like to wear seatbelt in a car: wearing a simple belt harms you in anyway? It might restrict your movements a bit, but does anyone really need to dance inside a car?

The no. of car trips you take is way higher than flight trips. The no. of car/road accidents happening every year would be multifold more than no. of flight accidents/year. So in all probabilities, if you are bound to have an accident, car/road accident it would be. In fact, in many countries if you have an accident and were unbelted, your health insurance is not going to take care of your medical expenses. Seatbelts are designed with a purpose, respect their importance, and use them for your safety. Same holds good with headgears while riding a two wheeler, "chalta hai" attitude can be equally dangerous here.

Research in this area also shows how the hospital costs in road accidents are higher in unbelted patients than belted pateints, and compares the injury patterns in both cases, reducing the extent of it and mortality rates when patients were belted.


If you don't find these reasons convincing enough, you might as well remind yourself of the fine that you might need to pay for flouting the rules. Better safe than sorry!

Thursday 5 September 2013

Are you a Bloody Noble person?

Regardless of the rapidity of advances in medical sciences, it is hard to imagine blood being manufactured anytime in future; doesn’t that mean its always our responsibility when someone is in dire need of blood?

This reality has always hit me hard as a paramedical student, and piqued my conscience enough to drive me to the blood donation camps conducted in my university. Being perennially anaemic and my blood cells thriving on iron supplements, I never had an opportunity to make a contribution to this noble cause. The doctors checking my Haemoglobin (Hb) and declaring me unfit for donating blood, would look like visa officers slamming passport on my face and rejecting my visa application, squashing down my plans- it has happened thrice! I would walk back with my head hanging down in disappointment, after abortive attempts convincing the doctors that I am fit and fine.

A couple of days ago, my friend Priyanka donated blood at a blood donation drive located in the university campus and recommended I give it a shot too. Inspired by her act, but wary of being refused again owing to my dubious blood iron levels, my muddled thoughts continued contemplating if I should try again. On the penultimate day, after being driven by excitement of forseeing my earnest desire coming true, I hit the clinic with my friend Joi... We were met by a throng of students rushing through some forms, being checked up by the doctors and on success eventually led to the procedure. After registering and filling in a long questionnaire, I met a doctor who checked my vital signs, and with some basic interrogation, he pricked my finger to check my Hb. My heart was racing to know the outcome and it was eternity before the dawdling haemoglobinomter (I named it!) showed the reading- I think I was as anxious to see my GRE score on screen after the exam. Nevertheless, I was eligible qualifying the minimum requirement of 12.5 units- the doctor too was amused to see the delight on my face. Thanks Priyanka!

I was made to lie on the bed, with a tourniquet tied around my biceps to generate the pressure/force of the blood flow. With a stress ball to wring and release held in my fist, they injected a local anesthetic to evade the pain of big sized needle insertion. After cleaning up the area around the vein with an iodine solution and the needle into my vein, the blood gushed through several entangled pipes reaching the blood bag filled with required amounts of anti-coagulant. I was initially daunted by seeing the huge amounts of my beet root coloured blood in a transparent bag, but regained my composure within no time reminding myself it might save someone’s life. Its very important to stay still throughout, lest you feel the needle pierce beneath the skin. The procedure took no longer than 12-15 mins, and out there was 450 ml of my blood, waiting to undergo numerous tests over weeks and be approved for transfusion. They wrapped a long gauze over cotton tightly around the needle inserted area to freeze the bleeding, and gave me some iron supplements to be taken for two weeks to restore back my Hb levels.

I took as much refreshments- biscuits, dry fruits, juices, fruits etc with myself to replenish my electrolyte and nutrient levels. The process didn’t drain me off a bit as I expected, on the contrary helping the needy in my own small way has given me ultimate satisfaction.


I humbly request everyone in the best of their health to donate blood, do you know you can save three lives with one unit of your blood?



Wednesday 1 May 2013


                     Peace of mind, or pieces of mind?

Once again, its Sudarshan Kriya that has triggered me to blog- after an almost one year hiatus, to share my beautiful experience with Art of Living.

But, it was not with the “Soham” tape recording with G, it was Live Mahakriya with him in front of us.. Can it be any better? Most of my AOL experiences are “once in a lifetime”, because its best then and only keeps getting better every time..

G came to Singapore, after the advanced course at Bali (supposed to be the best advanced course experience, meditation beside C and G! :) The event organized in a five star hotel was attended by a multiethnic crowd counting over three thousand.. The program started with Adam’s simple Yoga asanas to warm us up..

G knew how to grab the attention with his entry :) His overwhelming presence moved people to tears. He punned when someone put a garland on him, he in turn made her wear the garland said – “You get back what you give”. :D We started with pranayama, he taught us a new one, then we did sudarshan kriya with him- it was a state of trance- conscious but thoughtlessness! Amazing Experience! Totally recommended to all of you..

Art of Living R & D has developed "Shakti Drops" which g introduced to us today. G called random people including a doctor onto the stage to demonstrate the magic! G asked them to keep their hand straight, and G would try to push it down, and they have to resist. Some of them were old, they couldn't resist much.. G applied the drops on their hands, and after that they resisted his push well enough! 

The drops are made of three herbs and its supposed to boost your immune system.. Research studies done on cancer patients in Tata Memorial Institue of Cancer, Mumbai shows its as effective as chemotherapy in killing the cancer cells and also selective! They will be publishing it soon.. The drops are however not recommended for people suffering from auto immune disorders.

Q and A's from the audience followed and G was his witty self as always! Soon enough, it was time for G to leave and take the charm of the morning back with him.. Then we did some special meditation with Swami Gnantej which was awesome too. The program ended with “Radha Raman Hari Bol” in Swami Gnantej’s magnetic voice. People were singing, dancing and swaying in the tunes of joy…

I have been a lot stressed in the past few weeks, and this event gave me the much needed rejuvenation and relaxation.. Jaigurudev!





Thursday 17 May 2012

                                    Stray Dog Menace


“Barking dogs seldom bite”- albeit a popular proverb, the Chennai dogs hardly seem to be aware of it!!

My father usually takes walks very early in the morning to avoid the scorching heat of the Chennai summer. Today morning while he was walking in one of the streets, a few dogs ganged up and ambushed. Startled and baffled, my father fell down, providing an easy access to the dogs to come closer. The dog’s teeth pierced through his pants and then his leg. Even while the people around were trying to shoo the dog away, the provoked dogs didn’t easily budge. Eventually as more people gathered, the relentless dogs were driven away. 

The treatment for dog bites is not as much an ordeal today as it was earlier- summing up to a five injections including the tetanus toxoid, though it goes on for about a month. To our irony, most of pharmacies had a stockpile of the rabies vaccine, but there was a paucity of the TT injections. Are dog bites more common than the cases requiring TT, seriously? One of the popular comic scenes in a tamil movie, shows how gullible people (like comedian Vadivelu) are made to have dog bites and duped by people in collusion with the doctors. One wonders if multinational pharma companies are breeding and rearing stray dogs. In reality, these companies are exploiting the rampant dog menace to loot money by their ever soaring prices of the rabies vaccines. 

Of late, the population of stray dogs has exploded in the neighbouring areas. Two decades ago, the dogs were caught by the municipality vans and then killed to control the dog births. This aroused serious ructions by the members of Prevention of Cruelty on Animals owing to ethical concerns. The shooting ritual was discontinued, which then followed a treatment to render them sterile and non-reproducible through the Animal Birth Control (ABC) program. Deaths and injuries caused by dog bites are commonplace today, including the infants being brutally eaten up by the stray dogs. The cases are just shut up by providing a meager compensation to the families for the deaths. 

Today my father was a victim, tomorrow it could be any one of us! Finding a solution requires concerted and persistent efforts by all the residents in an area.  First of all, civic body has to implement serious measures to sterilize and immunize all the stray dogs. Secondly, the ABC program should also provide shelter to the stray dogs and not release them in the residential localities after the treatment, as they pose a grave threat to people to even walk on the streets freely. 

A clarion call for the people residing in such areas to stay dog(ged) and not dodge from their responsibilities and cooperation in tackling the life threatening dog menace!



Friday 20 April 2012


              Kya aapke tooth paste mein Nicotine hai?

The glistening smile on your face may fade off when I tell you the tooth paste you use to shine your teeth can potentially discolour and decay your teeth or could even prove fatal on a long run!

Recent studies by scientists at Delhi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research (DIPSAR) have revealed the use of significant content of nicotine in some of the leading brands of tooth pastes in India. I was appalled reading the reports of the same in The Journal of Toxicology detailing the statistics of tobacco related oral cancers in India, the use being based on ludicrous myths about tobacco. Though nicotine has some established therapeutic values in low doses, I don’t need to elaborate on the harmful effects of nicotine (ranging from addiction to respiratory & cardio problems), which clearly outweighs its benefits.

Out of the twenty four brands subjected to testing, some brands- Colgate Herbal, Himalaya, Neem paste, Neem Tulsi, Dabur Red, Sensoform and Vicco , were found to contain nicotine, in a quantity equivalent to  five-eight cigarettes. Of late, the awareness of high fluoride content in some famous brands of toothpastes (> permissible 1000ppm) which is as good as consuming poison, has fortunately welcomed the non-flouridated toothpastes like Meswak in the markets.

I can only sympathise with the sorry state of affairs in India where healthcare companies are minting money by fostering such brands adulterated with nicotine. Although the companies are gainsaying the same, the published results authenticate the claims. Its a wakeup call for the regulatory authorities in India and its about time they implement rigid prototcols for quality control of products meant for mass consumption.

The question is - what can we, as individuals do? Its as simple as this- Create awareness among people about it, so that people shun such products and go for other genuine brands. So, Keep smiling- with strong teeth and fresh breath! :-) 

You can find the details of the article published by DIPSAR at Journal of Toxicology, Volume 2012, Article ID 237506, 11 pages, doi:10.1155/2012/237506 (available without subscription).



Monday 2 April 2012

India: The Dustbin for Deadly Banned Drugs

“Medicines giveth, medicines taketh away”. The second half of the saying might seem a bit exaggerated, but there is a certain amount of truth in it. As much as medicines have proven to be a boon to us, they are just a small misstep away from becoming a curse, even if consumed with a valid prescription. 

March 29th night, an hour before I was supposed to travel overnight with my family to Mysore, my brother Anjan started nose bleeding profusely.  Though a common occurrence, it turned us all frantic as the blood was just oozing non-stop.

We made him sit upright and tilt his head back, and kept the ice cubes on the bridge of the nose to clot the bleeding. I then found that it is advised to lean forward, pinch the nose and breathe through the mouth, which in our case unfortunately only aggravated the bleeding. We immediately called our family doctor who prescribed a coagulant as a precautionary medication for the journey. In spite of the medication, the bleeding continued intermittently accompanying his sneezes.

The next morning at Mysore, he was taken to the ENT, who fixed some sticks and cotton into his nostril for a day to stop the bleeding so that he could clear and examine his nostrils to identify the cause, if any. Apparently on interrogation, the doctor found Anjan had consumed Vicks Action 500 which he hypothesized could have worsened the bleeding (caused due to heat).

I then googled to know more about it, and found Vicks action 500 is a banned drug, but still sold in India! There are other drugs like D’Cold which are banned yet advertised in our country. The list of other such drugs can be found here.http://www.caclubindia.com/forum/b-a-n-n-e-d-medicines-in-i-n-d-i-a-beware--115602.asp

Having done my masters in pharmacy, I knew that drugs go through various phases of clinical trials to be assessed for the efficacy and toxicity and also followed up for the same after marketing. But it is now that I found that both Vicks action 500 and D’Cold were banned globally after post marketing surveillance. This is because they both contain Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) which causes elevation in blood pressure, which commonly leads to nose bleeds, and it also enhances the risk of haemorrhagic strokes. Now they have introduced Vicks action 500 extra (devoid of PPA), which has passed through the stringent regulatory guidelines. Surprisingly, most of us, irrespective of our fields are oblivious of it. Experience teaches us better lessons than the books do- that’s my personal experience!

So what has this experience taught me? I’ve only read during my bachelor’s that even for physicians themselves, it is never advisable to self prescribe medicines! People consume different brands of paracetamol whenever they have even a slight headache, not knowing it chronically leads to severe liver damage. Never self-prescribe drugs. Also, whenever a doctor prescribes a drug, we should not blindly trust the doctor and take the efforts to know what drugs we are consuming, and the potential side effects it could have.

Better Safe than Sorry!