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 Table of Contents  
EDITORIAL
Year : 2016  |  Volume : 6  |  Issue : 1  |  Page : 1-2

Editorial message for volume 6 issue 1 (January-June 2016)


Editor In Chief, Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Sree Balaji Dental College and Hospital, Velachery Main Road, Pallikaranai, Chennai - 600 100, Tamil Nadu, India

Date of Web Publication11-Aug-2016

Correspondence Address:
KMK Masthan
Editor In Chief, Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, Sree Balaji Dental College and Hospital, Velachery Main Road, Pallikaranai, Chennai - 600 100, Tamil Nadu
India
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Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


DOI: 10.4103/2229-6360.188210

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How to cite this article:
Masthan K. Editorial message for volume 6 issue 1 (January-June 2016). Indian J Multidiscip Dent 2016;6:1-2

How to cite this URL:
Masthan K. Editorial message for volume 6 issue 1 (January-June 2016). Indian J Multidiscip Dent [serial online] 2016 [cited 2024 Mar 28];6:1-2. Available from: https://www.ijmdent.com/text.asp?2016/6/1/1/188210

From the Editor's desk

In this issue, I continue my discussion on the plight of oral cancer patients and how their attitude and the counseling they receive would make all the difference when they are confronted with this horrendous disease. A few minutes of spent on counselling the patient when the patient is first informed about the disease can make all the difference between despair and hope. John Milton in "Paradise Lost" described how our attitude decides how we perceive a catastrophe in just nineteen words. "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."

Now, about the role of a counselling, it is usually the doctor, who first reveals and confirms what the patient already suspects and is subconsciously convinced, still hoping that he/she, of all people, would not have developed cancer. An agonizing frame of mind, apprehension and deep trauma best describe his/her mind. Hence, the doctor who tells the diagnosis, must dedicate at least half an hour of his precious time, no matter how busy he is and should use layman's language gently explaining what the disease is, what can be done for him at that stage and how to go about it with the available financial and support resources the patient can muster. However, never should the counselling underplay the need for the immediate initiation of the treatment and must explain that procrastination for any reason whatsoever is likely to progress the disease and make things worse.

All patients invariably undergo denial (I am not likely to develop cancer), anger (why me?), acceptance, and resignation phases and may hunt for miracle cures, run behind herbal treatments, faith healing, and alternate medical disciplines.

The mental suffering and anxiety add to the severity of the disease, and this anxiety assumes the role of rust upon blade. In case of some patients, they succumb to the anxiety rather than cancer. The counsellor has to make the patient understand that anxiety never yet bridged any chasm. Dr. George W Jacoby, the renowned psychiatrist once told "the ultimate physical effect of anxiety is that of fatal bullet wound or sword-thrust. Worry kills, surely, though not so quickly and more people have died in the past century from sheer worry than have been killed in the battle field. Worry works its irreparable injury through certain cells of the brain tissue. The insidious inroads upon health can be best likened to the constant falling of drops of water in one spot." Having expounded the above, the role of adequate counseling cannot be more stressed.

Cures may not always be possible. However, remissions are certainly achievable. Hence the counsellor must educate, motivate, and make the patients more hopeful and optimistic. A quote from Tom Hood, "I resolved that, like the Sun, as long as my day lasted, I would look on the bright side of everything." more clearly conveys what the patient must feel after good counselling.

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to observe my Professor Dr. R. Viswanathan counsel an oral cancer patient who complained that his radiotherapy sessions were intolerable. He told him to live one day at a time. It seemed a too simple an advice to me at that time. Later on, two decades later, when I had to convince a patient to continue his radio and chemotherapies, I told him the same. Months after, the patient visited me and told that it was my advice that gave him the resolve to complete his treatment and that he was in remission. At that moment, there was nowhere else in the world I wanted to be.

Readers are welcome to share their views at [email protected].

Best wishes,




 

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