Health & Fitness Tools

Many Of Us Don’t Really Get Involved In Medical Matters Until We Are Affected By Them, But Then It Is Interesting How Much Can Be Picked Up Very Quickly

27th April, 2011 - Posted by health news - No Comments

As I’ve never been particularly good at human biology, I have to say that the only medical terms I’m really familiar with are the few that I’ve found out about via personal experience. I consider myself fortunate that I don’t have very many health complaints of my own, but I certainly have relatives who suffer from various health problems.

Recently I was embarrassed at how non-existent my medical awareness was when I received a call from my job agency offering me some temporary work at a podiatrist’s office. ‘Something to do with feet’ was all of the description that the woman at the agency could offer, so once I had hung up on the call I decided that I ought to investigate. My initial thought was that it was generally a chiropodist who did things with feet, and apparently I am not in a minority for thinking that. But apparently these days the correct term for those who advisepeople about their feet and lower legs is a podiatrist. I’m not sure why this renaming of the title of the profession was necessary, but the NHS website tells me that there isn’t any difference between them.

So then I began to wonder about other medical titles. So what is the difference between a dentist and an orthodontist? I’ve only ever been to a dentist to have half a dozen fillings and a couple of crowns. This time there are differences between the two, as I discovered when an acquaintance got a new job as a dental receptionist. A dentist does work on the teeth and gums, usually things like repairing broken teeth, treating tooth decay and advising with hygiene issues which can cause problems with the gums.

An orthodontist starts off by training as a dentist, but then moves on additional studies to learn about jaw and tooth alignment, so they undertake work such as applying braces to correct the problem of crooked teeth. This may explain why I didn’t previously know what the difference was. When I was a child, very few kids ever had braces for their teeth, whereas in 2011 it appears that the majority of children end up with them at some point. I have to assume that the concept has become more widespread as each generation becomes more concerned about physical looks and sorting out defects as soon as possible.

Another topic where I had no idea until a few months ago is the treatment of eye defects. Optician and ophthalmologist, exactly the same – right? No, absolutely not, as I’ve learned since an elderly friend was referred for Laser eye surgery. Initially, she went to see an optician for a standard eye test and that is when her eye problems were diagnosed. The optician went through the alternative options for treatment, amongst which was Laser eye treatment, but explained that as an optician he was not able to administer the treatment himself. So he passed on a referral to her doctor’s surgery, who then had to forward on the referral to the Ophthalmology Department at the nearby hospital in order for her to have the operation.

By now, I’d researched the subject and confirmed what was actually quite obvious – that the ophthalmologist is the specialist who can carry out the conventional and Laser eye surgery operations, whereas the optician is simply employed to test the eyes and diagnose any conditions. Straightforward problems including wanting a prescription for reading glasses can be dealt with by the optician. More complicated problems which need Laser eye treatment, conventional surgery or other medical intervention do need to be dealt with by an ophthalmologist.

So I’ve managed to increase my medical knowledge a bit recently because of events connected to me or to people I know. It’s proof that it’s much easier to learn and take things in if they have had an impact on you, rather than sitting and reading a book or tracking down information online. Having said that, I’m more then happy to continue to be ignorant about some of the more unpleasant areas of medicine if it means that nobody that I know has to deal with serious health problems!