first day on the job!

so i made it through my first day on the job in bolton office! this office was a well-oiled machine, let me tell you. i didn't have to get up, or ask for, or switch anything, as my assistant anticipated my every move and as a result we flew and flowed quite swimmingly. i did some extractions, some restorative, some exams, and i managed not to kill or piss anyone off! i only ran behind beacuse of this one girl i was treating who had massive decay on her front teeth, and i was trying to bond them but her OH was so poor she kept bleeding into my field. i successfully removed all the caries, but after about an hour of heroics i had to temporize her and put her on chlorhexidine rinse and then told her to come back when the swelling and puffy gums have improved. she was only 14, and i felt really bad doing that to her, but i know how especially important her front teeth are and i really wanted to do a good job. i thought she would be pissed after all that time and no results, hell i would be at least disappointed, but she wants to see only me from now on because she says she feels very comfortable with me. and that made me feel good.

then back at the office downtown today and what a world of difference. we just got another new assitant to replace V, who left suddenly (and not too pleasantly, i might add) and she really is a sweet girl and i love her as a person, but she just graduated assistant school and she doesn't know ANYTHING! i ask for a perio probe, i get a root canal explorer. i ask for crown and bridge material (tooth colored, right?) and i get pink denture reline material. nothing was set up for my root canal this morning, and i wasted over a half an hour looking for stuff that should have been set up before i started, which i asked her to 3 times before the patient arrived. when i finally finished, i couldn't do the post like i had planned because all of the reamers were missing/mixed up/MIA. and just as i threw in the hat and was like, screw it, let's just temporize, she shows up with the reamers i need. by this point it was too late because my patient already had an appointment scheduled with the hygienist next and i couldn't let her run behind. so an hour and a half of wasted time in which i should have done a root canal AND a post, time wasted on getting up and getting crap that should be set up for me and explaining things that even a person fresh out of school should know. and i'm not trying to be a hard ass or a prima donna, but in order for things to run efficiently you have to hustle and anticipate. and forget the hassle it causes me - what about the inconvenience to the patient? now this poor woman has to come back for another long appointment to do something that should have been done at today's long appointment and wasn't. i've been really trying to teach her tricks along the way, trying to be helpful and understanding even if it means i fall a bit behind because i know what it's like to be the new kid in town. but at this point i don't even know how she graduated assistant school! how could you not know what a perio probe looks like??? how can you not distinguish between crown and bridge acrylic and denture reline material??? and finally today my patience wore very thin when it compromised my treatment and i lost it. what happened was completely unacceptable - i have to draw the line somewhere.