Wow, so perhaps I missed writing on this blog for a few months. I’ll try my best to give a recap of the last several weeks…
I continue to enjoy working in clinic, interacting with patients, and being challenged by faculty. I’ve had the experience of making a couple dentures for patients. It’s an amazing feeling placing a denture in a person’s mouth and then handing them a mirror so that they can see their new smile. Each time the moment has included laughter and tears (of joy). These will be moments I will remember throughout my career as a dentist.
Some of my favorite moments have taken place while on my pedo rotations. Not only do we have a chance to work on kids at our school clinic, but we also have a chance to treat kids at a couple community health clinics in Phoenix. I love interacting with kids and hearing their stories. Was it Bill Cosby who said, “Kids say the darndest things”? That couldn’t be more true!! Their honesty and openness of emotions is amazing and refreshing.
Another favorite time for me in clinic is working with a particular patient up in the special needs care unit. She’s an older woman with complex medical needs. She may be 80 years old, but she is full of life! She hasn’t had the opportunity to receive routine dental care, so she’s in need of quite a bit of work. We’ve had nearly 10 appointments together now and have a truly good time whenever we’re together. She appreciates the dental care she receives, and I value the chance to be challenged and help meet her dental needs. We take breaks throughout her appointments (as they can get rather lengthy), and this gives us plenty of time for good conversation. Whenever I work with her, I’m reminded of the value of relationships. Dentistry is more than just treating teeth. As our dean likes to say, “there’s a person attached to that tooth.”
October 4 2009 |
Clinic
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So another internal rotation week in the clinic has ended. I spent last week in the oral diagnosis/emergency part of the clinic at school. Some people don’t care for that rotation much. Personally, I like it. You interact with more patients every day. Plus you have the opportunity to see some new stuff. There was a patient this week with a large mucocele inside her lower lip (first time seeing that!). A couple patients came in because they just fractured their teeth. The best part about the rotation, though, was hearing how much patients appreciated everyone at our clinic. I heard over and over again how friendly and caring everyone was. It made me pause and realize how lucky I am to be at ASDOH. I know, that sounds cheesy, but it’s the truth. Yes, we have a modern clinic full of the latest technology, but I think the people are the best part of ASDOH!
September 22 2009 |
Clinic
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Another day in clinic has come to a close. It was a good day. I saw an elderly woman for a post-op visit after extracting her second molar last week. She brought in a picture of her cat to share with me. (Her cat and my dog have the same name: Toby). She seems to be healing well, so we scheduled a time for her to come in again in a couple weeks to have another tooth extracted. She assured me that the next visit would go well. She reminded me that I “learned a thing or two last time … so things should go smoothly for the next one.” It’s nice when patients understand that we’re students!!
I completed my first crown prep and temporary crown this afternoon. We learn so much about crown preps in sim lab, but nothing compares to actually doing it in a patient’s mouth. I was happy that things went well and I was able to fabricate her temporary crown and get it cemented. She’ll be back again on Friday for a similar procedure. The more I do, the better my skills will get and the faster I will become. I received the ultimate compliment today, though … my patient completely fell asleep in the chair while I was working on her! Doesn’t get much better than that!
So now I’m at home, done with dinner, and ready for bed. I need to work on my Masters in Public Health classes for a bit first, though. I’m pretty drained from the day, so I’m sure I’ll be asleep by 10pm. Tomorrow will be another day of firsts: final impression for an upper denture. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
