Send your letters to the Editor, British Dental Journal, 64 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 8YS. bdj@bda.org. Priority will be given to letters less than 500 words long. Authors must sign the letter, which may be edited for reasons of space. Readers may now comment on letters via the BDJ website (www.bdj.co.uk). A 'Readers' Comments' section appears at the end of the full text of each letter online.
Sir, it's that time of year again when we seem to attract an eclectic bunch of patients. Last year we had a high-needs patient whose underlying problem turned out to be burning mouth syndrome (Fig. 1). We had a further patient for whom, despite extensive investigation, we were unable to resolve his atypical facial pain (Fig. 2).
Do other colleagues have this problem at the end of October?
Editor's note: After further enquiry, Dr Mallon revealed that the pumpkins illustrating this letter were actually carved as part of an annual dental practice 'carve off' competition: 'The burning mouth syndrome patient was carved using a peeler to break the surface then a wax knife to create form, then finished with a Mitchell's trimmer and Molt #9 periosteal elevator. It was actually designed with 15 different dental issues for a DF1 training day on Pain Management – including roots, over eruption, pericoronitis, cracked teeth, lost fillings and OAF. This became a bit of a nightmare as the family dog got to it the morning it was due to be used! The atypical facial pain patient was carved in a similar fashion with the addition of a courgette.'
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Mallon, N. Eclectic patients. Br Dent J 223, 621 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2017.940
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2017.940