clubbing fingers ... ?

[C2H5OH]

Heya, fellow tooth-doctors to be

I have a question for you ...

I was talking to one guy and he said that his dentist told him that his fingernails problem (as far as I understand it's clubbing fingers ...) is somehow related to his gums ...

Do you have any insights about that ?

thanks

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[organic]

could you be more specific on your friend's condition?

what kind of " gum problem" ?

 

[Yah-E]

Maybe it's a non-plague induced gingivitis condition. A non-plague induced gingivitis can occur from bacterial, viral and fungal infections.

Finger nails with fungus ---> bite your nails or suck on your fingers while eating once or twice ---> transinfect fungal species into oral cavity ---> gingival and oral manifestations

I may be WAY OFF, but we learned about Non-Plague Induced Gingivitis in Periodontology this semester so I thought I give it a shot!

 

[millmm]

I like Yah-E could be way off, but I remember something about club fingers and Fe defiency.

 

[organic]

oral candidiasis is usually a manifestation of disorder of systemic illness ( immune depression, DM....), otherwise, we all have candida in our mouth. I don't think it can infect " finger nails" just by biting on them, not to mention that candida albican isn't a skin surface fungus...( or very rare)

I tend to more think of ectodermal dysplasia, or tissue malformation from the same embryologic origin......or bad oral habit ( thumb- sucking causes some kind of trauma???)

I even remember that one of the signs of a cyanotic heart disease is clubbing fingers...but the picture showed that the fingers were like drum clubs, which I don't think is the case for C2H5OH's friend..


" gum problem" and " clubbing fingers" way way way too generalized to really tell...

 

[mightymolar]

Clubbed fingers? Hmm.. I would also find out whether or not if he/she has congenital heart condition. They would have pale blue lips and have history of heart murmur requiring antibiotic prophylaxis. Best example would be tetralogy of Fallot. ("Blue baby syndrome".) Another condition to watch out for is clubbed finger with barrell chest. If this condition was seen in a heavy smoker, you may have to start suspect cancer of lung.

 

[The Pill Counter]

Finger clubbing is excess soft tissue on the pads of the fingers, with loss of nail angle. There are respiratory, cardiac and liver causes, can't speak for the dental ones, though.

 

[organic]

I suppose C2H5OH's friend is an adult...

don't babies of tetralogy of Fallot die early without correction.......

 

[mightymolar]

Babies born with congenital disability such as tetralogy of Fallot can receive highest medical and surgical care and most of them grow into adults. I have seen patients with such conditions who were in their 20's as well as in the 40's. So modern medicine has definately improved the quality of life for some debilitating conditions that couldn't have been treated years ago. However, having said that I guess in some countries, it would be difficult if not impossible to acquire such medical and surgical intervention.

Such people who survive well into the adulthood would then be considered patients with "special needs" and hence may be treated with care. Most would end up going to hospital dental surgery as most GP dentists may not feel comfortable treating such patients.

 

[C2H5OH]

Heya, guys ...

Since it was not a friend of mine but just some guy that happened to sit next to me in 2 hours bus ride, I can't be more specific about his condition ... I just found the things he said pretty much intriguing ...

Thanks to all of you for your replies ...

 

[organic]

Originally posted by mightymolar
Babies born with congenital disability such as tetralogy of Fallot can receive highest medical and surgical care and most of them grow into adults. I have seen patients with such conditions who were in their 20's as well as in the 40's. So modern medicine has definately improved the quality of life for some debilitating conditions that couldn't have been treated years ago. However, having said that I guess in some countries, it would be difficult if not impossible to acquire such medical and surgical intervention.

Such people who survive well into the adulthood would then be considered patients with "special needs" and hence may be treated with care. Most would end up going to hospital dental surgery as most GP dentists may not feel comfortable treating such patients.

in this case, they are no longer patients of tetralogy of fallot, they had correction surgery!! what you said sounded to me like they survived up to adulthood with this disease without any correction.....