Routine dental appointment ends in life-saving discovery for Georgia man

A new patient appointment at a local dentist's office turned into a life-changing discovery for a Cobb County man.

Mike Strawn went to his appointment at Kennestone Dental Designs, and his dentist, Dr. Nicole Massetti, found what turned out to be a nearly 80 percent blockage in his carotid artery.

"There's no question in my mind, she saved me from a stroke," Strawn said.

At the time, Strawn was a new patient at Kennestone. It was a routine visit until the panoramic X-ray.

"She looked at it, and she told me that 'It looks like you have some calcium on your carotid artery,'" Strawn said. "And she encouraged me to go see my doctor sooner rather than later. Dr. Nicole did have a serious look on her face, and so I actually took it pretty seriously because she was stern about it. She left nothing to imagine in terms of what will get looked at."

The carotid arteries are responsible for taking blood to your brain, face, and neck.

After additional testing and appointments with various doctors, Strawn discovered his carotidartery was between 75 and 80 percent blocked.

"Two years ago, I had a heart scan calcium score, and it came back zero, which is the best you could have," Strawn said. "This was not on my radar. I wouldn't have even thought twice about it."

He has since had surgery to clear out the blockage.

Massetti said Strawn sent her photos of the procedure.

"I teared up, actually, and I had seen surgeries, head and neck surgeries, but it was very emotional to see that he had made it through and everything's going okay," Massetti said.

Massetti said they can't officially diagnose off the pan, but they can still tell the patient what they see.

"We can be suspicious of the region that these radio-opaque, which means white lesions, were appearing in, and deliver that news and the proper message to refer to your primary care physician or cardiologist if you have one, for further exact diagnostics of the lesions," Massetti said.

Massetti has a specific approach when it comes to her panoramic X-rays, so nothing goes unnoticed.

"I do the same scan so that everything is very logical and analytical," she said. "And there are specific regions that I always check that could be danger zones, even if it is a small percentage of patients that are known to possibly have something like a carotid calcification. Anywhere from 2 to 5 percent of patients might have these types of calcifications."

As a healthcare provider, Massetti said Strawn's story is both overwhelming and gratifying.

"My entire purpose as a health care provider and dentist is to help my patients and to help others," she said. "So, I am so thankful that he did take it seriously."

Tom Wells, a general internist with Piedmont Healthcare at the Oconee Health Campus of Athens, said it's a team approach when it comes to providers caring for their patients.

"That's where communication is important and everyone talking and, you know, having that ability to have those conversations back and forth so that everyone feels comfortable working together," Wells said.

Wells also emphasized the importance of preventative screenings.

"Whether it's going to your primary care provider, it's going to the dentist, that those preventative screenings and the regular health checkups is what help keep you ahead of the ball game and not having to play catch-up later," he said.