Has anyone come across a doctor (GP or specialist) and a dentist who are actively involved with scuba diving?
You have really piqued my curiosity there. I can’t be the only person wondering why so specific?
One of the woman in the scuba course I just completed had a lot of trouble with tooth pain as well as pain in her cheeks. The problem occurred when ascending and lasted for quite a while on the surface. She was not able to complete the course. So, of course she needs to see a doctor and probably also a dentist.
She is not on forumosa, so I am simply using the site to help her and find out if anyone (maybe active divers in Taiwan) have happened to come across a diving doctor or dentist.
It would most probably be beneficial if she could see someone who has actual diving experience, as they probably have a better understanding of diving related problems.
I am being careful not to ask for ‘medical’ advice here, thus trying to avoid a long thread with irrelevant posts. At the same time I hope this also does not turn into a enormous thread where everyone offers their opinion on if it is actually necessary to see a doctor or dentist who does scuba.
Since posting this I found some stuff on google:
divedealer.com/crew.html
This is a website for a dive school in Taichung, one of their instructors is a doctor. .
scuba-doc.com/divtai.htm
This is a list of facilities and physicians that provide Hyperbaric Facilities. There is a list of physicians at the bottom. They may not be divers, but if they deal with decompression sickness then they MAY also have experience with diving related health problems.
Differences in air pressure at depth can cause huge pain or even destroy a tooth under certain conditions…
Imagine breathing compressed air at say, 20meters…The filling loses it’s airtight integrity, and the compressed air leaks into the filling. Then, upon ascending, the filling reseals, trapping compressed air in an area that has no room to expand once the diver begins to resurface.
OUCH.
It happens, it’s deathly painful, and I make sure to tell any dentist I visit I am an active diver. If he doesn’t understand the ramifications of this, find another dentist.
Differences in air pressure at depth can cause huge pain or even destroy a tooth under certain conditions…
Imagine breathing compressed air at say, 20meters…The filling loses it’s airtight integrity, and the compressed air leaks into the filling. Then, upon ascending, the filling reseals, trapping compressed air in an area that has no room to expand once the diver begins to resurface.
OUCH.
It happens, it’s deathly painful, and I make sure to tell any dentist I visit I am an active diver. If he doesn’t understand the ramifications of this, find another dentist.[/quote]
Cheers for that MJB. I’m neither a doctor nor a diver so I really would have never known that.
Yeah, OP I wasn’t looking to pick a fight I was genuinely interested as to why that would be an issue. Sorry if I came across in a bad way there.
MJB is right. If a dentist does not understand a diver’s concerns when getting fillings, crowns or a root canal, then that dentist is probably incompetent to be working on any body’s mouth, diver or not. Whenever a dentist does a filling, crown or root canal, the filling or cement material is supposed to seal perfectly with no air pockets. Plenty of people get into diving after having had a lot of dental work, and never have problems. This indicates to me that a diver’s dentist doesn’t need to be a diver.
Good luck to your friend. The dental work in her mouth was either done poorly to begin with, or is old enough to have deteriorated.
Ditto: any competent dentist will be able to sort him/her out. But they should see the dentist soonest so they don’t lose track of where the pain is coming from. You don’t want the dentist to be opening 2-3 fillings looking for air pockets. A good dentist might ask them to go diving again, and come back when it hurts!
Uh, TS buddy. It’s not like you own the forum. If you want to avoid reading any and all discussion in a discussion forum, then perhaps you’d be better off calling all the dentists in the phone book.
At least you don’t have people like making comments about underwater dentistry.