:mad: So,does anyone have any advice for a pt that absolutely reeks? Not bad breath, but total body odor? Help - I don't think I can see him again without vomiting

Face mask from the start of the appointment. Sometimes breath mints for you keep the air inside the mask fresh and minty clean. Then book appointments three weeks out so you dont have to deal so much. Good luck. You could also ask the patient to shower before their next appointment due the funky smell.

:mad: So,does anyone have any advice for a pt that absolutely reeks? Not bad breath, but total body odor? Help - I don't think I can see him again without vomiting


Rub a little Vicks under your nose and tell the patient you have a cold.

How about that smell that comes up when you are probing a patient with severe periodontitis?---I still wonder how I managed to keep from puking.

Also what if it isn't the patient with body odor...what if its a fellow classmate? like an international student from a different country where they might not use things like deodorant-how does one approach them without sounding like a total jerk?

Rub a little Vicks under your nose and tell the patient you have a cold.
Wait a minute, you used that line on me in the library last week... [sniff, sniff]

How about that smell that comes up when you are probing a patient with severe periodontitis?---I still wonder how I managed to keep from puking.

Also what if it isn't the patient with body odor...what if its a fellow classmate? like an international student from a different country where they might not use things like deodorant-how does one approach them without sounding like a total jerk?
You can't, really. Take a copy of the school dress code & highlight relevant sections on personal hygiene, then drop it anonymously in his/her mailbox. :p

I am an International student and am over generous with deorants. I would rather smell of "too-much" perfume than even little bit of "sweat".

Ruby,please PM me which country that student is from. Just curious.

How about that smell that comes up when you are probing a patient with severe periodontitis?---I still wonder how I managed to keep from puking.
This is when I'm glad I'm dealing with eyes, not mouths. ;)

Have them rinse with Listerine for 5 minutes before you start. That might just help. :thumbup:

:mad: So,does anyone have any advice for a pt that absolutely reeks? Not bad breath, but total body odor? Help - I don't think I can see him again without vomiting
A little wintergreen oil on the mask will work beautifully. We bust that every now and again in the OR. Otherwise, just tell the smelly bugger to take a shower before seeing you...surprised noone else has suggested that. I have no qualms about telling a patient that personal hygiene is related to their overall health.

Also what if it isn't the patient with body odor...what if its a fellow classmate? like an international student from a different country where they might not use things like deodorant-how does one approach them without sounding like a total jerk?yeah i get that alot

but it helps to think how the anglo-saxons lived in the forest with no soap until about a thousand years ago

i guess it's the reverse now

you'll never find an anglo-saxon smelling bad
that would be like an oxymoron

I am an International student and am over generous with deorants. I would rather smell of "too-much" perfume than even little bit of "sweat".
Yeah, I shared a room with this guy from the middle east in my freshman year of college. He'd take a shower, slap on some deodorant, and then douse his entire body and clothing with cologne like Polo Sport. It was really unbelievable, you could smell him a mile away. I think i developed an allergy to perfume cause of him. And I noticed this with a lot of his friends too. I guess different cultures have different perceptions of what smells good. And they don't catch on to their adopted society's norm for years and years.

yeah i get that alot

but it helps to think how the anglo-saxons lived in the forest with no soap until about a thousand years ago

i guess it's the reverse now

you'll never find an anglo-saxon smelling bad
that would be like an oxymoron

You saying white people don't stink?

Wait'll you get to clinic buddy. All your lovely notions of fine smelling white folks'll go out the window. One of em almost knocked me over this past week. Thank god I only hadda be in the operatory a few minutes.

yeah i get that alot

but it helps to think how the anglo-saxons lived in the forest with no soap until about a thousand years ago

i guess it's the reverse now

you'll never find an anglo-saxon smelling bad
that would be like an oxymoron

i'm not saying white people don't stink
i was being sarcastic in response to the generalization made by RubySlippers:

Also what if it isn't the patient with body odor...what if its a fellow classmate? like an international student from a different country where they might not use things like deodorant-how does one approach them without sounding like a total jerk?i feel that in the year of our lord 2005
in the greatest nation on earth
that such a generalization can be made after the fact that:
99% of the indigenous in this country were murdered
slavery was a booming enterprise, especially with american/british/french colonialism outside of our nation
meddling with middle easter politics to create the turmoil we have today
(not to mention the ousting of m mossadeq of iran for nationalizing iranian oil from the british (which i don't agree with since there was a contract that would have been ended by this time already-- he was too nearsighted) by the cia in the first revolutionary coup de tat in 1953 to install son of late great reza shah, mohammad reza shah, aka puppet to the west, who was overthrown in 1980 in replacement of now nuclear threat iran (islamic republic of))
what i'm getting at is that this diseased generaliztion of "student of other country" is grossly misleading and is a prime example of injustice to people misrepresented by corrupt powers in our society

it would have been alot better if s/he said:
"what should i say to my smelly classmate who happens to be a new immigrant"
instead s/he said international student, hence creating a divide of imaginary races
(for those that don't know: anthropologists divide people into three categories-- negroid, mongoloid, and caucasian. if you don't like it then take it up with them, i'm just stating the facts)
anyways,
this is an analogous statement reflecting uncalled ignorance-- i would bet my life this person has never attended school outside of a red state, aka boring state, aka state in the middle of this country
has this person ever thought to realize that the distance between a country in the middle east from the western coast of france is not even the size of our nation?
instead, this person implies that there are inferior people that smell and shouldn't attend their school, as i percieve their comment to be
furthermore, what catalyzed my rage was our glorious moderator who in the past has demonstrated lack of action in response to continued bush-ism/colonial/crusader bull* spewing out of the computers of sooooo many people wanting to go to dental school, in dental school, and those who have already finished dental school

aphistis Quote:
Originally Posted by RubySlippers
How about that smell that comes up when you are probing a patient with severe periodontitis?---I still wonder how I managed to keep from puking.

Also what if it isn't the patient with body odor...what if its a fellow classmate? like an international student from a different country where they might not use things like deodorant-how does one approach them without sounding like a total jerk?


You can't, really. Take a copy of the school dress code & highlight relevant sections on personal hygiene, then drop it anonymously in his/her mailbox. this is nonsense
if i get a warning letter saying i'm xenophobic for making a generalization, then do your f*ing job and apply the same *ing rules in this circumstance

(ps
i get a warning letter for calling out a guy who claims the war is for the spread of freedom and democracy and things are swell and bush is good blah blah blah. bull, the war is to globalize, which is good. what is bad is that alot of americans are dying because the administration doesn't listen to generals; so if you like it, shut up and go fight as the underdog who can't even secure a city in the once very powerful nation of iraq but that was an imminent threat to israel and now is on its knees and still putting up a fight after 8 years of western sponsored iran/iraq warfare (where reagan was friends with saddam and where rumsfeld shook saddam's nasty hand), persian gulf 1, and a 10 year embargo on almost everything)

btw-
don't tell a soldier in a war he's smelly, 'cause he's got better things to do

inegroid, mongoloid, and caucasian


I believe the correct term would be cacausoid, in this given context........

I believe the correct term would be cacausoid, in this given context........i stand corrected

This thread is going nowhere, fast. Closing.