Winding Down Summer Clinic

This past week and a half was quite eventful! I delivered and closed out my denture case (whoop!) (and he really likes them - they fit great!) and I waxed, casted, and cemented my first crown yesterday (what a relief and answer to prayer!). I feel like I haven't done half as much as most people have in summer clinic, but the two things I started and finished were actually pretty big deals. The minutia of fillings and pulling teeth will come - my patients need plenty of that. But to actually finish out and send my patients on their way with new prostheses is a really good feeling and I'm glad I got to go through the process from start to finish during these weeks. My denture patient doesn't really need any more treatment unless he needs adjustments, so we had a "good-bye" moment which was strange after working with him since April? May? My crown patient is a really cool guy who recently met the Lord and I'm so excited that he's excited about growing in the Lord (and coming back to get the rest of his teeth fixed!) What great patients! I have 3 ladies waiting in the wings and we will get all of their treatment started when I get back...I really like them all and so far they seem happy with the way things are going. I see my cousin tomorrow to get her started in diagnosis, so now I get the experience of treating friends and family which can be an entirely different experience, although it's one you have to get used to.

So 2 more patients this week and I'm done! I really had to get used to the idea of "real world" dentistry and not the world of perfection they beat into our skulls during 2 years of lab work. Apparently there is something called "good enough" otherwise known as "clinically acceptable" - a line which I never understood because most of us were trying to be really good at what we were doing in lab. You know, to get good grades. So now, even though I think a margin on a gold crown kinda sucks and would never want to turn something like that into Dr. Miller, in the real world, it's clinically acceptable and we're cementing it on! Allrighty then. Of course my skills will improve over the years and I can move beyond clinically acceptable, but for now it kinda freaks me out. And that's a good thing.

I Did It.

I cut on a tooth. The assistant handed me the high speed handpiece with a 169L bur and I cut into a maxillary 2nd molar (#2 to be exact). The total crown prep took around 1.5 hr with packing cord and trying to smooth the insanely deep distal margin that I'm still not sure is good enough. The rest of the 3 hr appt was vitals, injections, making the provisional and 2 impressions, and getting approval and advice from my professor.

Thank God for a great (patient) patient! I'll find out how well it really went Monday when I pull the casts from the 2 impressions we took. And I'm anxious to call my patient on Monday to see if his temporary stayed on over the weekend. I got a "well done" and a "pretty good job" from my prof. Not bad, I guess.

Everything else, I'd done before: injections, impressions, even making temporaries. I didn't think there would be any decay since he'd already had a root canal, post and build up, so it was a bit of a surprise when I broke mesial contact and found some soft, tan, diseased dentin. But I got it all out and got it covered well, so we should be good until I can wax up and cast his gold crown. My patient and I are hoping the next time I see him is to put the crown on, and that I won't have to bring him back to smooth out that margin. But I know I'm learning and certainly can't expect my first live crown prep on an insanely-hard-almost- deemed-non-restorable tooth to be perfect the first time around. I do kinda wish my prof would have "fixed" anything questionable for me so my pt wouldn't have to come back...they do that all the time. Que sera. I've jumped off the cliff and I'm no longer a restoration virgin. Well, at least I'm half way there. Gotta cast a crown.