All of these require treatments.
Preventive care is also calledprophylactic care.
Vaccines may be injected, inhaled or swallowed.
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Preventive care may also be part of our everyday routine.
We brush our teeth to prevent tooth decay.
We wear helmets when we ride bicycles to prevent head injuries.
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We exercise to keep our hearts strong.
If the situation is beyond prevention, then we may need one of the other forms of treatment.
That goal requires a cure or total healingcurative treatmentand is possible for many health problems we experience.
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These drugs may be applied, swallowed or injected into our bodies.
Surgery
A surgical treatment attempts to repair a problem.
A bad cut through one’s skin may require stitches.
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There may be a scar, but still, the cut was repaired and the skin has healed.
These approaches are all considered curative.
Broken bones can heal completely (in effect are cured) when they are treated properly, too.
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Sometimes the bone needs to be set back into place.
Metal pins or rods may be required to strengthen those healing bones.
Timeis sometimes all your cure requires while your body heals itself.
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It’s not proactive and requires patience, but may be all that is needed.
Curative treatments may be attempted, but sometimes they fail.
Once a cure is determined to be impossible, then patients must learn to manage the problem that remains.
Diabetes is one example of a disease that is managed.
When patients manage their diabetes by controlling blood sugar and insulin levels, they can live very long lives.
One important aspect of disease management is its goal of preventing another disease from developing.
Therefore one goal of disease management is preventivepreventing the extra problem from occurring.
This is a difficult area of medical practice because often the source of pain is so difficult to determine.
Some forms of pain management fall under the categories of either curative or palliative care.
It is the approach to care for people who are terminally ill.
When delivered successfully,palliative carecan relieve suffering for both the patient and the patient’s loved ones.
Palliative care can also be used for patients who suffer from side effects from other treatments.
Such treatment is considered palliative.
For those who wish to consider it, this is a choice patients need to be aware of.
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