Handy Tips From the Shanghai Government

On a whim, I decided to check out the official City of Shanghai's website. Keep in mind this is the most cosmopolitan city in China as well as the city with the most expats. Unfortunately, none were available to proofread the site. Under the category of "Epidemic Prevetion" are these suggestions:

How to do health care to mouth in summer?

I admit, the title made me curious.

1. Do not enjoy only nice and cool feeling. In summer we often see such patients: they are normal before sleep, but when they get up, they suddenly find they can not drink water and mouthwash; they present with distortion of commissure, leaking of water when drinking water, unable to blow cheek, leaking air when blowing, wrinkles of forehead disappearing, unable to frown, hypophasis and revealing of conjunctiva, etc. This disease is called Bell paralysis, and it is a simple type of paralysis of peripheral facial nerve. Bell paralysis usually occurs after local region of the body being blown or exposed to cold by cold wind, probably caused by spasm of blood vessels supplying facial nerve, thus the nerve suffers from ischemia and injury, followed by edema of tissues. Edema aggravates the oppression of nerve and hinders the flow of lymph and blood, so the vicious cycle results in facial paralysis. Therefore, in order to prevent Bell paralysis, avoid suffering from chilling of the face, especially the retroauricular region and not to sleep near windows or on roof at night; moreover, avoid retroauricular region being chilled by cold wind when riding.

This definitely explains some of the paranoia at the office. As soon as the weather turns, everyone heads to the hospital for treatment.

2. Keep good health habit and avoid foul breath.

Foul breath often worries many patients greatly. It may affect interpersonal communication severely and injure the patients badly. As a disease, foul breath is receiving increasing attention of more and more stomatologic doctors and extensive care of people. About 85%-90% of foul breath comes from mouth; bad oral health, thick lingual fur, decayed tooth, peridentitis, food impaction, impurity artificial tooth or smoking may all cause foul breath. In addition, rhinitis, nasosinusitis, gastritis, gastric ulcer, diabetes mellitus, liver dysfunction or uremia are associated with foul breath. In summer, it is hot and people may suffer from insufficient sleep, mental stress, overtiredness, and these may lead to temporary physiological foul breath. Good oral habit may cure most of foul breath; cleaning back of tongue, tooth brushing and rinsing the mouth are all effective methods. When patient suffers from chronic refractory foul breath, he should be examined to see whether he has other disease.

In most of the cases I have seen, this epidemic can easily be cured with a toothbrush. I haven't witnessed the level of concern this article suggests either. Unfortunately.

3. Prevent children from tooth trauma in summer.

Children belong to a special group in oral patients. With the arrival of summer, some oral diseases owned only by children show a trend of high incidence. In summer, decreasing of immunity caused by without temperance of eating and drinking, excessive amusement, irregular life may lead to many kinds of oral disease, for example, decayed tooth, endodontitis, periapical periodontitis and so on. Children are lively and active and they have no supervising and tending of teachers in summer holiday, so the morbidity of tooth trauma increases greatly. After tooth trauma, the child should see the stomatologic doctor in normal hospital. The doctor will give corresponding treatment according to the condition. If the damaged tooth is loosened obviously, it should be fixed with epithesis to accelerate its recovery. If the child suffers from complete luxation of tooth, the tooth should be put in a cup contained physiological saline, milk or tap water at once, or stored sublingually or in the oral vestibule of the child and see the doctor immediately. The tooth is avoided by all means to be stored dry. And the survival rate of reimplanting the tooth will increase greatly in this way. Generally, regular return to hospital is needed after tooth trauma so as to observe the survival and therapeutic effect of the dental nerve.

This really cuts in on the tooth fairy's territory. I stick to my original theory: try toothpaste. Fortunately, parents only need to be concerned in the summer. In the winter, they are busy with Bell paralysis.