Friday, February 02, 2007

Another mockboard unhopeful

Okay,

So I seriously need a mockboard pt! And worst of all, I thought I had it! I finished cleaning 2 Quads of a class 3 in the morning, but I didn't want to use her for a mockboard b/c she had more food on her teeth than calculus! Canasta! So needless to say, the biggest reason she classified as a 3 were her pocket depths.

But here (was supposed to be) is the good news: Tuesday I was CA and this girl just showed up to get her teeth cleaned, but at the time, everyone had a pt, so I took her name and made her my Thursday afternoon pt. I was pretty excited b/c she had an African accent and I was kinda hoping that she didn't have acces to care (how bad it that?) so that her teeth would be bad enough for me to use.

So she comes in on Thursday and says she hasn't been to a DDS for like 20 years and that was to have a cavity restored. *In my head I'm doing a little dance! Sweet, here's my board pt!* So I start by taking her back to x-ray-oh yeah, she's from Kenya and just came to the US this year to go to school. So we get her to x-ray and I take the first BWX on the digital....it comes up....not only is the lamina dura intact, it's like the best lamina dura I've ever seen. *In my head I'm thinking "How can this be"* So I take one more, The same, seriously, the most radiopaque lamina dura ever! After 4 BWX, I was qute discouraged! So I figure, she's never had a FMX, and she was really concerned about these gaps btwn her mand. canines and premolars, so lets do a full mouth. We START to do that, but she couldn't handle the pain of the uncomfortable XCP's for PA's. So I got all the anteriors and 1/2 the posteriors. So with that said, I was like, okay, hopefully she'll at least have a little calc under the gums, although none was radiographic. So I get started, all pockets were 1-3, with 2-3 4's, but that was uncomfortable for her too...I seriously wanted to inject her! I think a big set back is that she hasn't been to a DDS for so long, she doesn't know what to expect...not saying that is should hurt, but saying that yes, you are going to feel something.

So we get done probing and I go to explore where I find after 20 years, she has the CLEANEST teeth I've ever cleaned! Seriously, people who come every 6 months have dirtier teeth than she did! Craziness! So I finished her in like a half hour. So as we're getting her stuff to go, she asks if we would recommend any othodontists and my instructor proceeds to tell her a few and that she'll need a pano. So we decided to do the pano here b/c it's cheaper than it would be at an office. So I get the pano ready and we take one...but don't worry, I only put ONE film in the pocket, so it turned out a lot darker than it should've. So we take another one, but as I step out of the room to push the botton, the machine won't move, so I step in and press reset. The pano machine resets, and starts to take the pano (while I'm in the room) and then stops right in the middle. WHAT THE HECK! By this time it's 3:00pm, you have got to be kidding me! Seriously! So I go get Prof. Alexander to come and watch (after I've reloaded the pano sleeve for a thrid time!). We set everything and step out to take the x-ray when it doesn't move...we step in and press reset and the machine resets and then starts to go WHILE WE'RE IN THE ROOM! Seriously...my poor patient! At this time she says "can I just come back another time?" To this we both say "Yes". I apologize profusely and send her one her way...whew. And that was it...so much for my mockboard hopeful!

1 comment:

Andrea SJ said...

Hey Tatiana, I'm so glad you commented on my blog...because that lead me to your blog! It's been fun to read about your life and catch up a little. Are you still working in PT? If so, I'll come by for a visit.