‘Internal Mammary Artery Ligation’ could be still used today if it weren’t for an astute surgeon, Leonard Cobb.
Before the 1960’s, if you complained about chest pain caused by heart disease, a course of action to relieve the symptoms was ligation surgery. Essentially closing a main artery near the heart and shunting more blood flow, and thus increasing pressure to keep the other main arteries wide open.
Patients would report relief of symptoms, more energy and an increase in appetite for hamburgers, french fries and double chocolate shakes after their surgery.
Cobb, sick of seeing patients still dying of heart attacks after surgeries, experimented in 1959 on 40 patients complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. Half got the ligation surgery. Half got a sham surgery (putting them to sleep, chest opened and immediately stitched back up, doing nothing). No ethical research board would ever approve this today, but drastic theories need drastic proof.
And boy did he get it. 73% of those who got ligation reported feeling better, 80% of those in the ‘sham surgery’ group also reported feeling better. A placebo surgery working like a charm.
The power of the mind is something we all deal with. If it’s not our own, it’s our patients and staff. A 2014 review of fake surgeries found about half just as effective as real surgeries. From meniscus tears to herniated discs, people would recover.
Now I can’t just think about being the most desirable dentist in the world and *poof* it happens tomorrow…maybe still someday…one can dream.
Power of belief happens every day in our practices. On that new sensitive filling you placed, you may fake adjust the occlusion and throw on fluoride and a week later everything is ‘healed’. Or you’ve prescribed that antibiotic, and every symptom patient was complaining about has evaporated.
Our beliefs are very powerful. But understanding there are also limits to beliefs is just as important. Thrive and stay balanced my friend.
Lam