Being that I’m fresh out of dental school with alot of textbook knowledge but lacking in experience, I encounter many new/exciting patients and procedures everyday. Although dental school is a loooooong 4 years and a ton of studying and drilling, there is no way anyone could possibly be 100% prepared for the “real world.” Well, today I had my first such experience where I really did not know what to do. Yeah – I can do fillings and such but when it comes to endodontics (root canals) I do not have much experience. The last patient of the day, scheduled for a simple filling – well, turns out the decay went all the way to the pulp – I see blood! I just pulped this patient’s tooth! Ok – calm down – just inform the patient, ask a couple other doctors what they would do, proceed with the 1st steps of root canal procedure. Everyone’s like – “this will be simple, you’ll have it done in a few minutes.” Well, as it turned out, it took alot longer than I thought. The canals weren’t “text book” canals – this kind of stuff you don’t learn in dental school. A couple hours later and a narcotic prescription (for the patient), we all parted. In the long run, I’m sure the patient and tooth will be just fine but it was definitely an experience for me and probably one of those days that I will look back on and laugh (not now, though).
January 14, 2008...9:07 pm
Just another day in the salt mines
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