Talk:Tooth abscess

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[edit] Cashews

I have just reverted a big batch of changes by Alesnormales to this article. While I can't fix the problems with the article in its present state, the changes made by this editor all seem to revolve around making it conform with an online article that advocates alternative treatments for dental problems involving the consumption of cashew nuts. I find the following statement in the source reason enough to seriously question anything it says:

“Please keep in mind that this last is counter to the opinion of the American dental profession.”

Indeed! The same could be said about almost everything in that source. The source is also deeply troubling because it is based on one person's account of success in treating tooth abscesses in a particular manner, not on any sort of study. In short, even if the author is correct, the source does not even come close to credibly demonstrating it -Fenevad 17:34, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. I find it problematic when articles dealing with health topics mention "alternative" treatments that have no scientific backing. There may be a place to mention these "home remedies" but I am a bit skeptical since many of them have no reliable sources to refer to. - Dozenist talk 17:52, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

I respect your opinion. But I thought Wikipedia is a collective source and it reflect the world's people opinion. And there are another opinions about tooth abscess prevention and they are the right for living just because they was proved by many researches... I understand your point of view and jus want explain you mine. - Alesnormales 22:30, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

The issue here is at least partly verifiability, a cornerstone of Wikipedia. To be clear, Wikipedia is not here to "reflect the world's people opinion": enforcing a point of view is to be avoided, but the article used to promote cashews is based entirely on one person's anecdotal evidence and thus violates the original research and verifiability criteria. He says what he did and gives his results, but they cannot be confirmed. The bit about cashews could at best be included in a section on alternative treatments and billed as a treatment advocated by someone (but would probably be deleted by editors, to be quite frank). If, on the other hand, others had verified his conclusions and confirmed them, it would count as verifiable. Just because something is on the web, however, only means that you can verify that someone said it, not that the content of that saying is verifiable.

When I reverted your edits outside of the link, it was because they seemed clearly to be designed to support the cashew article, and the edits were done in a way that removed mainstream accepted views in favor of unsubstantiated ones, in fairly subtle ways, such as specifying that abscesses are caused by holes in enamel, thus removing the other important mechanisms described in the article. Be careful in editing if you think that you need to remove other content that represents well accepted views to support what you want to say, since it then appears that you are editing to reflect a point of view rather than to be neutral.

I hope this helps you understand what was done and why. -Fenevad 01:01, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Ok, thanks Fenevad, maybe I thought a little otherwise. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Alesnormales (talk • contribs) 01:21, 22 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Dental Abscess

Normally I'd call this a dental abscess. (Bouncingmolar 09:58, 22 February 2007 (UTC)) Actually, I think it should also be called periapical abscess, to differentiate from periodontal abscess, but perhaps it could include information about it and lateral abscesses.Bouncingmolar 07:05, 6 March 2007 (UTC)