Interpersonal Communication in Consultations †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Interpersonal Communication in Consultations. Answer: Introduction: This paper explores the case study conducted by Roberts Charlton, 2009. The case study is relevant since it explores the Dental Amalgam and its effects to the individual health as well as to the environment. The risk assessment is important on the case study since the Dental Amalgam has effects to the environment and health and needs to be addressed since it is one way of looking after lives; for human beings and other living things around us. For the past two decades, there has been crisis in the environment as there has arisen numerous risks that are mostly fueled by the human factor. Dental amalgam is one of the environmental health risks that has been observed, evaluated, assessed and found to pose a risk on health and environment (Roberts Charlton, 2009 p. 605). Dental amalgam, as a form of liquid mercury and a mixture of alloys that are used to fill dental cavities caused by tooth decay (Gilligan et al., 2016, p.107). Dental amalgam has greatly contributed to toxicity of merc ury in the environment (Patterson, 2011). It imposes some environmental risks to the lives of people and other living things, meaning, it has an environmental side effect as it is made up by combining some metals. Mercury is one of the metals together with tin and copper. There are also some other elements of zinc and palladium. These metals, mostly mercury exists in various forms of which many of these forms are harmful, such as the liquid form. The organic and inorganic mercury have varying effects to the environment (Azimi Moghaddam, 2013, p.13). Recent concerns have arisen over the potential of poisoning due to mercury with dental amalgam in the process of dental filling. Patients respond differently to treatment using dental amalgam, and these responses can be either positive or hazardous. Some are hypersensitive to mercury and in such events, then the process of removing the dental amalgam commences. According to Roberts Charlton, (2009), this process is highly not recommended as it involves exposure to the mercury vapor emitted during the removal process. In some recent cases, the levels of mercury in the blood and urine have been seen to rise for a significantly short time following the removal of the dental amalgams (Zhu et al.,2016, p.693). The assessment will therefore seek to evaluate and describe the risk that dental amalgam poses to the environment and human health. The analysis will also be used to show how dentists can avoid polluting the environment with the metallic components from their clinics and how they may be able to discharge the wastes with care. On the patients side, the risk assessment should be conducted so that it can direct the patients in decision making when it comes to dental amalgam. Risk assessment method For the assessment, I the checklist method, which is a method that involves checking listed acknowledged threats and hazards to identify possible ones in this particular risk assessment. The level of significance of this type of analysis depends on the quality of the checklist as well as the level of experience of the assessor. This checklist assessment method is particularly useful in this risk assessment case study because since the assessment objectives and aspects are clearly specified in advance, the procedure is consistent and a substantial minimum of eminence can be guaranteed. Still, using checklist method of risk assessment is useful since its usage grants the capability to quantify the risk being assessed, i.e. to what magnitude is it rampant? Therefore, this benefit will help assess how bad or dangerous the dental amalgam is to the health of living things or to the environment at large (Rausand, 2013, p.128). The checklist method procedure To begin with, the scope of work was considered. This included formulating several questions to come up with possible answers to determine a number of factors. The questions are which factors that need to be established on the risk assessment? Which and what clinics were involved? The first factor was to establish whether this risk assessment had ever been done before. This involved intensive browsing online pages in search of a similar assessment. Subsequently, it involved visiting dental clinics such as the Charlton clinics and inquiring from the professionals whether they knew if the dental amalgam was harmful to their patients or to the environment. The Charlton dental professionals confirmed that they were aware about the dental amalgam and the harm it has to the environment and to the patients as seen later in this paper. Establishing this also involved consulting archives to find related researches or assessments. Another factor was to establish whether the risk in question ha d ever been identified in other assessments or researches as a prospective risk in any way to the health of people of the environment. Following this, another factor in the scope of work that was considered was establishing what setbacks would be expected while conducting this risk assessment. Secondly, an in-depth consideration of the required assessment resources was conducted. Mainly, this involved checking whether a sufficient amount of efficient resources, including human resources, was available for the assessment process. Aside from the sufficient amount, the resources were checked for possible experience and training was in order if need be. Assessing the resources, especially the human resources, also involved checking how well they work together. Finally, the resources were evaluated if they would be of any significant drawback to the risk assessment procedure and necessary actions taken. Following this, the risk assessment timeline above was then put into consideration. This involved identifying a number of items. Such were, finding possible conflicting schedules and determining whether they were flexible in that they could be moved to surpass the conflict. In addition, it was considered if the risk assessment would be completed in the stipulated timeframe and that all the projected tasks would be completed. Using the method of checklist procedure in the risk assessment of dental amalgam and its environmental and health effect, it helped in determining the total cost of the entire assessment. Robert and Charlton in the case study identified the risks that would have to do with the assessment costs as well as the assessment overrun costs. In this process, the possibility of the assessment overrunning its own projected budget was considered. Moreover, in this checklist procedure method, outside sources, to the risk assessment, were checked. This involved scouting for reliable outside sources that would be involved in the assessment process and checking whether these outside sources would pose any risk to the process. As a conclusion to the checklist procedure method used, the aspect of deliverability was considered. In regards to the set timeframe, would the risk assessment be completed in time? This not only included completing the assessment itself on time, but also all the anticipated goals of the entire assessment. Following the checklist risk assessment procedure above, a number of results were observed: To begin with, the scope of study section revealed that indeed there have been past concerns about the possibility of dental amalgam being a harmful substance with regards to its usage as a filling material to fill dental cavities caused by tooth decay. This information was got from numerous websites on the dangers of dental amalgam such as the American Dental Association (American Dental Association. Survey Center,2012). However, it was observed that several studies had been conducted towards attainment of similar goals as this particular risk assessment (Chin et al., 2000, p.246). Therefore, from this, it is evidently seen that the issue of dental amalgam as a health and environmental risk had been prior identified as a possible risk. Secondly, on the assessment resources, a number were found. These were, as earlier on mentioned, human resources that were helpful in the conduction of the assessment procedure as well as material resources and financial resources (Royal Dental Hospital, 2009, p.64). From previous experiences, the human resources were useful in the suggestion of other required resources and their unity and ability to work as a group assisted in the attainment of the set goals. However, some resources that were noted as possible risks to the assessment were terminated and their need foregone. Subsequently, the assessment timeline provided above was a six-week strict schedule in which its selection was determined by unavailability of other conflicting schedules that would affect the usage of the resources. In general, after all the procedures were followed, the assessment result on the use of dental amalgam revealed several issues. To begin with, dental amalgam exposes people at risk because of the mercury vapor released during filling or removal, which when inhaled, forms a layer on the insides of the lungs and can have fatal consequences, such as the commencement of lung cancer. This however, can be argued in a different approach. Mercury occurs naturally in the environment as a liquid and changes into a gas through heating. Mercury mainly enters the air as vapor from industries and factories that burn fuels that contain mercury. With time, this inhaled mercury builds up in body organs (Haimes, 2015, p. 55). As with many substances, the magnitude of damage caused by this mercury build up is directly related to the amount. Low levels do not have any significant effects. Higher levels however, may cause several symptoms such as amnesia, irritability, anxiety, headaches and fatigue. Mercury polluted air may combine with rainwater and get absorbed in the soil, exposing people to mercury through air, collected rain water to be used for drinking, soil and food, (Colgate-Palmolive Company). Consequently, recent studies have revealed that the quantity of mercury exposed to an individual from their fillings is way less that the quantity that the majority of people are exposed to in their environment or even in the food they consume on a daily basis (Mitchell, 2013). Dental amalgam has been proven to result to the environmental risks as well to the health risk. In the past 15 years, the dentistry practices were proven to produce the highest levels of mercury which is traced in the environment. Both the Human waste amalgam (18%) and dentists (37%) in their procedures in preparing dentist amalgam are the source contributors to influent mercury load. The figure below will illustrate the ten distributed sources that contribute greatly to mercury levels in the environment (Goldman, Shannon, Committee on Environmental Health. 2001. p.197). Dental amalgam consists of up to 50% mercury. Mercury is a dangerous substance to the environment and health at large. To human being, mercury can even cause death. To start with, the mercury in amalgam is a metallic substance. Metals have a tendency to expand and contract when exposed to various substances. The fact is that metals do not expand evenly. Some expands at given temperatures different from the rest. It means that mercury filling ones tooth will expand sometimes unevenly with the jaws or the tooth and therefore, high chances to cracks on the jaw or to the rest of the tooth. It is unhealthy for this reason (Ram, J Subudhi, 2015, p. 189). When it fills the tooth, previous research shows that mercury continues to be released from the dentist amalgam. It endangers the life of the unborn babies since it can penetrate through the placenta. It is therefore unhealthy to the child (In Schaefer, In Peters, In Miller, 2015, p.157). During pregnancy and child birth, problems arise ( Yates, 2010, p.29). When Amalgam is manufactured, mercury is released to the air. It causes pollution to the air which is a part of environmental degradation. Most of that mercury ends up in air. In the environment, mercury sometimes is swiped to the water bodies by rain water. When it is in the water, it turns into methylmercury which gets to the fish. For instance, human being like eating fish. The fish are contaminated by the same mercury and the cycle ends up in to the human body (Tchounwou et al., 2003, p.149). In addition, the variable characterization, the uncertainties, and the risk assessments were all conducted on the human beings. On the Dose-response, it is evident that an increase in urinary on the concentration of mercury was associated with the treatment of the Dental Amalgam. The participants who received nine surfaces of amalgam and above experienced high concentrations of mercury. Those who received 0-4 amalgam surfaces experienced low amalgam concentrations. On the risk assessment, an anti-amalgam sentiment movement has been undercurrent to investigate the uncertainties of dental amalgam. The previous literature on the toxicology, risk assessment and the exposure also needs to be investigated. Therefore, the risk assessment confirmed that amalgam is safe and it can be used in the dentistry of human beings. Conclusion In conclusion, this shows that dental amalgam has adverse effects to the environment as well as to the health of people. Types of Mercury Effects Inorganic, or Metallic an example mercury chloride It is toxic and when inhaled it causes negative effects to the digestive, nervous and the immune systems Organic example, methyl or dimethyl mercury They are more dangerous than the inorganic mercury since they can accumulate in the organism bodies as well as in the food web. Fig. 4 A table showing the adverse effects of various mercury (Tchounwou et al., 2003, p.149). The procedures to manufacturing and usage of amalgam have a lot of effects to environment and health (Bates, 2004, p.894). However, there is no measure that can be attributed 100% efficiency in its application. There are always elements of side effects and inefficiency to most measures in medics, dentistry, and human health and also to the environment. When all the benefits and disadvantages are checked in the risk assessment methods, it remains a threat on the two mentioned sectors. Therefore, the risks on dental amalgam can be overcome using the amalgam capsule. In addition, mercury is released to the environment through various ways. For instance, the natural sources which include the soils, oceans and the volcanoes. On the other hand, it can be released through manmade processes such as ore and the gold mining, the manufacturing of cement and burning of waste materials. Therefore, to overcome the release of mercury to the environment, individuals need to avoid using the products and materials that contain mercury. At some point, people can substitute by using the alternatives that lack mercury. Finally, individuals should manage the waste by burying and also end the pipe techniques such as mining which may cause pollution. References American Dental Association. Survey Center. (2012).Survey of dental education: academic programs, enrollment, and graduates(Vol. 1). 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