Dentures, Anyone?

Technically, I've already had 3 patients. I cleaned Erik's teeth, another gentleman's teeth, and did a full mouth series for a young man. Unlike these patients, the patient I saw on Monday is in it for the long haul. Ok, maybe Erik is, too. But anyway, making dentures (the BCD way) is quite a process. I found a 3rd year gunner to do extractions for me. I'll get to do the local anesthesia, so that will fulfill a requirement for me : ) He'll get 27 extractions. After quite a bit of healing (approx. 4 weeks), I'll do preliminary impressions, final impressions, and get to work on a wax try-in. This will all start this summer. I would love to get him his dentures before the summer is over, but we'll see.

I was assigned to a very nice Dr. in removable. The only problem, is that if you don't ask him questions, he assumes you know what you're doing, unlike most Drs. who assume you know nothing (because we don't) and talk your ear off while you desperately try to remember what they are saying. So, since we rushed through our consult on Monday, I had to go back and pick his brain a little bit today after discussing my case with some 3rd years. He's a really nice guy and really has a lot to teach me, I'm just going to have to be on my toes on this one.

So, tomorrow, I hope to schedule a chair in the Oral Surgery clinic for my patient : )

Busy

We're just doing all kinds of stuff, right now. These pictures are from fixed lab where we took impressions of each other and face-bowed each other...again. Alex (sits to my right) and I are pro-partners, now. We've also done extra-oral and intra-oral exams on each other, cleaned each others' teeth, and spent countless hours helping each other in lab. He's a good friend, and a good lab buddy.

He was kinda shocked when he discovered that we weren't acutally going to be automatic partners for our local anesthesia injections. Sorry, Alex! Didn't mean to throw you for a loop! Jennifer (sits to my left) had coralled me last semester and asked me to pair up with her because she had a horrible experience when she got injections at NYU Dental School. She figured since I had at least done them before in Mexico, surely she had a better chance at getting by without a huge bruise on her face!

No pictures of the injections, but it went very well. Four blocks and a maxillary infiltration. I was crazy numb and sore that night and the next day. After we get one more lower block checked off, we will be authorized to perform injections at BCD. Crazy. A few days earlier we did nitrous (laughing gas) administrations, which was fun. A little like going to the bar with your friends, only you're all laying down in dental chairs with funny masks on your noses.

I got my 1st patient-that-counts' name today. We'll call him Wayne. John Wayne. : ) Extractions and full over full denture. I can't wait to look at his chart and study up for the big day on Monday. But first, yet another test to study for. Blah.