Tools of Medical Professions Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dentistry

Oh I feel faint. A dental excavator is a type of spoon which is used to scoop out as much soft tooth decay as possible prior to drilling.

Answer: Dentistry

O Lord, I feel more queasy than ever. A sickle probe has a sharp hook on its end and is used by dentists to probe into spaces between teeth to scrape out any calculus and plaque which have accumulated on teeth.

Answer: Dentistry

Take out insurance on your tongue first. A saliva ejector is used by dental assistants to suck out any moisture around the tooth being worked on by the dentist prior to filling. Unfortunately, however, it usually attempts to suck your tongue out as well if you can't frantically keep it removed from anywhere near that site. Oh - and that's when the dentist will usually ask you a question as well. Your answer will sound something like "Adrbjijiiy - slurp!"

Answer: Dentistry

Save yourself and look after your teeth! Dentists use these drills directly on teeth to electrically remove any tooth decay that cannot be removed manually. Buzzz, buzzz, buzzz into your horrified mouth. I always have images of a dentist having a sudden twitch and impaling one of my tonsils instead.

Answer: Dentistry

Oh good heavens! A curette is another instrument of torture that dentists use to dig out plaque or decay from each tooth - but this one is poked deep down into your mouth below the gum line surrounding each poor quivering tooth to do the job. Is it possible that the profession of dentistry had its origins in the Spanish Inquisition?

Answer: Pathology

Vital in any pathology laboratory, centrifuges are machines that spin body fluid samples at high speed, separating their different components into different categories, in order for accurate diagnosis to take place on any one or more of those different components.

Answer: Pathology

An autoclave is a specialised device used by pathologists to provide very high sterilisation of all the various pieces of equipment used by those medical personnel. It combines heat, steam and pressure to terminate any nasty microbes that are clinging onto glassware, all medical equipment, gowns, gloves, dressings, everything.

This even includes medical waste, but not, you'll be pleased to know, at the same time.

Answer: Pathology

Pathologists use spirometers to measure the amount of air being inhaled into, and exhaled from, a patient's lungs. It can usually identify abnormal patterns occurring during a reading - such as those of obstruction and restriction, and can rule out, or identify, problems such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema, identify any shortness of breath issues, or possible drug contaminants, and help chart the effect of any treatments that have been applied to such issues.

Answer: Pathology

Flow cytometers are used by pathologists to separate, isolate and analyse thousands of samples in incredibly short periods of time. It is similar in a sense to a microscope, but while a microscope produces images of any component, a flow cytometer can quantify samples at the cellular level.

Answer: Pathology

Used by pathologists during the proces of microscopic examination of any test sample, these slides, which typically measure 75 x 26 mm, and are approximately 1 mm thick, are then placed under a microscope for detailed analysis and diagnosis. Early slides, before the advent of glass ones, were small pieces of ivory or bone that were held in place by transparent mica.

This was particularly the case in Victorian times. So simple, yet so clever.

Answer: Surgery

A delightful image, you'll agree, This instrument is used by a surgeon during an operation, to grab hold of, or retract, or move any of your defenceless organs around in order to carry out various procedures. Fortunately and hopefully, you are unconscious while this is taking place.

Answer: Surgery

This device is used by surgeons to burn, or close off, any part of the body on which surgery is been performed, or to remove any dubious growths or infected flesh. As far as the infection goes now though, there is some doubt that this is as effective as once thought, and could in fact be more damaging than curative.

Answer: Surgery

A trocar is a device used by surgeons to gain access into a body space - such as the stomach - without having to cut into the body first. It looks a little like a tiny transparent pen, and through this, the surgeon then sends a very small camera so as to enable viewing of that inner space to see what's going on in there - prior to surgery IF needed, but hopefully not.

Answer: Surgery

Vessel clips, also known as vascular clips, are used during a surgical procedure to clamp off the flow of blood through any area of the body where surgical work is being performed. Otherwise - well you can imagine how messy it would become, and the surgeon's clear line of sight would be obscured.

The clamps are removed - hopefully - once the surgical work is complete and the wound is ready to be closed off.

Answer: Surgery

A dermatome is a very finely tuned surgical device which is used to remove very thin slices of undamaged skin from one part of the body for the purposes of placing it over another damaged area - such as in the case of bad burns - in order to reconstitute healthy new skin growth over the damaged area.

Answer: Radiology

A mammography unit is a type of x-ray machine that is specifically designed to produce images within a patient's breasts. It helps ferret out any changes or problems developing in the tissue within so that early intervention can take place. The patient has to stand, stripped to the waist, in front of a steel contraption with her breasts, one at a time, placed onto a cold plate. Each breast is then squashed down as hard as possible, to make it as flat as possible for images to be recorded.

This uncomfortable and rather undignified procedure is a minor price to pay for having an early diagnosis which may save your life.

Answer: Radiology

Fluoroscopy is an imaging process used by radiologists in which a viewing tube and closed circuit TV is connected up over a patient's body. This creates a type of moving picture of anything that is taking place within the body at any given moment for the radiologist to see.

This is usually when a patient has been given a fluid to swallow, or a coloured fluid has been injected into other parts of the patient's body, and the device picks up and records what is happening as those fluids work their way around or down.

Answer: Radiology

One of the lesser painful procedures used by radiologists on the human body, this device utilises high-frequency sound waves to produce internal images of any part of a patient's body, such as inside veins, arteries and, most particularly, that of fetal development within a mother's body in the early stages of pregnancy.

The downside to this, however, is that radiologists advise future mothers to drink a LOT of water a couple of hours before the process takes place - and not to go to the toilet - but, as any woman in the early stages of pregnancy will indignantly tell you, that is an almost impossible request.

Answer: Radiology

A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) process uses strong magnetic pulses on a patient's body to align their atomic nuclei - before disturbing same - and recording the processes that take place as the nuclei readjust to base level again. It is particularly effective for investigating any issues within the brain or heart.

The process can be stressful for the patient, who is in a confined space, but music of the patient's choice is offered to help soothe their nerves. Patients are also advised to imagine themselves somewhere they'd like to be, on a beach or mountain perhaps, to distract themselves.

Answer: Radiology

The full name of a CT or CAT scan is a "computed axial tomography scan". This scanner basically takes a large number of x-ray images of, on, or in, a patient's body to produce a 3D image of same. It rotates 360 degrees around the patient while doing so.

This is a painless procedure so don't be frightened, and it doesn't take long at all - but what IS alarming for some, including this writer, is the fact that the table on which the patient is lying goes through a type of tunnel which allows the scanner to complete its 360 degree turns - and that can be quite claustrophobic.