Love it to Death

I talked to Bryan last night (Harvard School of Dental Medicine 2010) and he had an interesting case. He had recently restored a tooth for one of his patients, and the patient returned with much sensitivity. On evaluation, Bryan noticed that the new filling was showing signs of wear already. He asked the patient when it bothered her and she replied that it hurt when she flossed around it. "How do you floss?" he asked. She replied that she occasionally wrapped the floss all the way around the tooth like a lasso. Since she was having a little sensitivity in that new filling, she was not only wrapping the floss completely around the tooth, but she was also "crossing" the floss and then stripping it back and forth. This was remarkably like using one of those pocket chain saws that you can buy in Cabellas for removing small limbs from a tree in a minute! Bryan told her to stop abusing her tooth that way, before she had worn the tooth out completely.

I told Bryan "she was loving it to death". He chuckled, but that is how I have described this phenomenon over the years. I will frequently have a dental patient that presents to the office with a complaint of a severely receding gumline on one or two teeth. For some unexplained reason, the gum tissue continues to move further and further away from the tooth. I have learned over the years that when someone focuses on a percieved problem, they may concentrate all their efforts on it. When questioned, the patient usually relays that they are concerned about the recession and that they are "cleaning it really good several times a day so that it doesn't get worse." I tell them that they might be "loving it to death." In their attempt to keep the area healthier, they are in effect causing great damage and trauma to themselves. They think that more is better, but in these cases they need to stay away from the area to let it heal.

I cared for a man about 20 years ago who was losing weight at an alarming rate. His doctors were dumbfounded and couldn't explain why this man was dying a slow inevitable death. He told me that he was a religious man, and that he had visited Lourdes France a couple of years before to pray for good health. He had believed that the healing waters of the fount were alkaline like peroxide water, and thought that the healing waters were not of God so much as they were in the chemicals in the water.

He said, " I use that water every day, and I'm still losing weight. I can't figure it out?" I asked what he meant by using the water every day? He explained that he was mixing up some peroxide and water every day, and bathing in it like at Lourdes. He was also drinking a quart of that peroxide water every day. "I am consumed by this healing water, so I have to get better soon."

I told him that this was not healthy, and that if he kept drinking this water every day like this, he would do great damage to his body. I spoke with his wife, and she also had been trying to tell him this - to no avail.

God rest his fragile body. He loved himself to death.