Obtain second opinion on abscessed teeth
Dear Dr. Gott: My teeth are abscessed, and my dentist refuses to pull them, claiming “there are still smiles left in them.” My medical doctor has me on Amoxicillin and Cipro, yet the infection continues.
What can I do about this problem?
Dear Reader: See another dentist. In instances where professionals disagree, a second opinion will often provide patients with additional information to help them decide what to do.
Although your dental abscesses should respond to antibiotic therapy, I suspect that you eventually will need root canal work or extractions. See what the second dentist says.
To give you related information, I am sending you a copy of my Health Report “Medical Specialists.” Other readers who would like a copy should send a long, self-addressed, stamped envelope and $2 to Newsletter, P.O. Box 167, Wickliffe, OH 44092. Be sure to mention the title.
Dear Dr. Gott: I’ve just been told I have liver cancer and a tumor on my kidney. My doctor says a liver biopsy will be very dangerous, but he didn’t rule it out completely. Is there any hope for me?
Dear Reader: To a large degree, a cancer prognosis depends on the type of malignancy and its location. Certain tumors, such as prostate cancer, grow relatively slowly and may take years to cause serious problems.
On the other hand, other malignancies, such as carcinoma of the lung, grow rapidly, spread quickly and cause death within a few months.
Therefore, before answering your question, I’d have to know the type of cancer. Did it arise in the liver and spread to the kidney, or vice versa?
Are there, in fact, two different tumors? Could the liver lesion and the kidney tumor represent spread from yet another growth elsewhere in your body?
Your doctor should be able to answer these questions and give you an analysis of your future. But first, I believe, he’ll have to biopsy the liver tumor (which is easier to get to than the kidney tumor) to identify the type of cancer and its cellular characteristics.
I might add that radiation treatments and/or chemotherapy should offer hope, regardless of the nature of the cancer. Don’t delay in obtaining the information I mentioned.
Each day that you wait means that the cancer may grow and spread.
To give you related information, I am sending you a copy of my Health Report “Viruses and Cancer.” Other readers who would like a copy should send a long, self-addressed, stamped envelope and $2 to Newsletter, P.O. Box 167, Wickliffe, OH 44092. Be sure to mention the title.