Q What are the symptoms of an abscessed tooth?

An abscessed tooth is a painful infection at the root of a tooth or between the gum and a tooth. Its most commonly caused by severe tooth decay. Other causes of tooth abscess are trauma to the tooth, such as when it is broken or chipped, and gingivitis or gum disease. Sharp or shooting pain are common symptoms of an abscessed tooth. Symptoms include fever, pain when chewing, sensitivity of the teeth to hot or cold, bitter taste in the mouth, foul smell to the breath, swollen neck glands, general discomfort, uneasiness, or ill feeling, redness and swelling of the gums and swollen area of the upper or lower jaw.

Q What is an ideal weight for a 3-year-old child?

Ideally, a 3-year-old kid should weigh about 12-14 kg. Do not worry if your kids weight does not increase too much and too quickly after this. After the kid is a year older than this age, the changes in weight can be seen only once a year as growth rate slows down with increasing age.

Q Body too thin...some diet tips

Weight gain depends upon your diet and exercise pattern. Include calorie and protein rich foods in your diet such as eggs, chicken, fish, milk and milk products, nuts, pulses etc. Every morning have a glass of milk with honey and 2 bananas. Consume handful of mixed nuts everyday. Weight gain should be healthy and hence you should limit your intake of junk food. Instead of 3 large meals have 5-7 small meals. Join a gym and practice weight training under supervision.

Q Do I need a tetanus jab (vaccine) after an accident or injury?

Yes. It is necessary to get an injection of TT after an accident or injury. Because the bacteria of tetanus are present in the soil which can infect you if not vaccinated.

Q What is histrionic disorder?

Histrionic personality disorder is characterized by a long-standing pattern of attention seeking behavior and extreme emotionality. Someone with histrionic personality disorder wants to be the center of attention in any group of people, and feel uncomfortable when they are not. While often lively, interesting and sometimes dramatic, they have difficulty when people arent focused exclusively on them. People with this disorder may be perceived as being shallow, and may engage in sexually seductive or provocative behavior to draw attention to themselves.

Q What about soy and thyroid health?

The available research suggests that soy may not affect thyroid function, especially in those who have a normal thyroid. Those who have an existing thyroid problem and take medications for their thyroid must avoid it or consume after an interval. The reason being, soy may affects the absorption rate of the medicine is the GI tract.

Q Do childhood earaches cause hearing loss later in life?

The ear ache in childhood has different causes either related to ear or some other parts like teeth, head, mouth etc. In most of the cases, it is related with the hearing loss in later life. But, the deafness has many other serious conditions in adult life which are not related with the childhood earache.

Q What can you tell me about Borderline Personality Disorder?

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a Mental Health disorder that generates significant emotional instability. This can lead to a variety of other stressful mental and behavioral problems. When you have borderline personality disorder, you often have an insecure sense of who you are. Your self-image, self-identity or sense of self often rapidly changes. You may view yourself as evil or bad, and sometimes you may feel as if you dont exist at all. An unstable self-image often leads to frequent changes in jobs, friendships, goals and values. This is because people with borderline personality disorder often have difficulty accepting gray areas; things seem to be either black or white. The common symptom of borderline personality disorder are overwhelming feelings of distress, anxiety, worthlessness or anger, difficulty managing such feelings without self-harming, for example by abusing drugs and alcohol or taking overdoses, difficulty maintaining stable and close relationships, sometimes, periods of loss of contact with reality, in some cases, threats of harm to others. Treatment may involve a range of individual and group psychological therapies (psychotherapy) carried out by trained professionals.

Q My Grandmother slipped in our bathroom last week. After the incident she is facing some problem while walking, when asked she said her thigh is giving some amount of pain. I tried to arrange a massager but she did not like and nor did she allowed to continue it further. Now its been 2 weeks she is suffering from this issue? Please assist me further as soon as possible.?

Please get x-rays as soon as possible if you havent. It will tell you the cause of the pain. In old age fractures are very common even with mild injuries. Do not massage until the x-rays are said to be normal by a doctor. Mean while you can give her pain medicines and cold fomentation at the affected site.

Q Does sperm die when it touches water?

Yes. The sperm will die in the water after sometime and not instantly as it touches it. This is due to change in the environment of the sperm in the body and outside the body like change in the temperature, pH etc.