grrrr....
dentistry is hard, hard, hard! especially when you are picky and want everything to be perfect. it seemed as if everything was working against me today. here's a breakdown of today's events, nothing unfixable, but annoying enough to throw a monkey wrench into the day.
-RCT on #26 is going swimmingly. i clean and shape three canals, but something tells me that there's another canal, an MB2 that has been overlooked. so right before i obturate i poke around a bit and i catch an orifice, a tiny one, with my endo explorer. i'm having a very difficult time finding it with a file, but i finally sink it right in with a size 8 and man is this thing calcified! good news: after a half hour of hard work i managed to get a NiTi rotary intsrument all the way down there and thoroughly clean and shape this thing so he doesn't have to see the specialist (sorry, ameloblast!) bad news: i run out of time so he has to come back for the obturation.
-two PFM crowns i prepped, temped, and final impressioned last week return from the lab, #35, 36. these were a beast to prep, as #35 was rotated 90 degrees and #36 was tilted mesially (it may have even been #37 after the 6 was removed, but patient has no recollection of that). take a bitewing, as i do for all crowns before i cement them to check the interproximal margins. #36 is flawless, perfectly sealed. #35 open margin at distal. it took 2 tries to get the impression right again to send to the lab. and have you ever tasted impregum? it's nasty shit!
-RCT #17 on five month pregnant lady, pulpectomy completed a MONTH AGO (she's a hairdresser and rescheduled numerous times). all is well with this RCT, no calcified canals, nothing unordinary. patient does not want me to take films during procedure, so i rely on my apex locator and i get consistant readings at each canal. fill 'em up, place a core, take a final film at my insistance and the MB and DB canals are filled beautifully and the palatal is 4 mm short! of course i let her know and she's cool, so i will bring her back after she delivers for the retreat of the palatal.
arrrrgh!!!
it's funny, though. i feel like such a fuckup, but at the each of these appointments every person was so nice, thanked me for doing "such a great job" and i was like, do you even know how i fucked up, or am i just being too hard on myself???
enough of this. i'm going to watch american idol.
-RCT on #26 is going swimmingly. i clean and shape three canals, but something tells me that there's another canal, an MB2 that has been overlooked. so right before i obturate i poke around a bit and i catch an orifice, a tiny one, with my endo explorer. i'm having a very difficult time finding it with a file, but i finally sink it right in with a size 8 and man is this thing calcified! good news: after a half hour of hard work i managed to get a NiTi rotary intsrument all the way down there and thoroughly clean and shape this thing so he doesn't have to see the specialist (sorry, ameloblast!) bad news: i run out of time so he has to come back for the obturation.
-two PFM crowns i prepped, temped, and final impressioned last week return from the lab, #35, 36. these were a beast to prep, as #35 was rotated 90 degrees and #36 was tilted mesially (it may have even been #37 after the 6 was removed, but patient has no recollection of that). take a bitewing, as i do for all crowns before i cement them to check the interproximal margins. #36 is flawless, perfectly sealed. #35 open margin at distal. it took 2 tries to get the impression right again to send to the lab. and have you ever tasted impregum? it's nasty shit!
-RCT #17 on five month pregnant lady, pulpectomy completed a MONTH AGO (she's a hairdresser and rescheduled numerous times). all is well with this RCT, no calcified canals, nothing unordinary. patient does not want me to take films during procedure, so i rely on my apex locator and i get consistant readings at each canal. fill 'em up, place a core, take a final film at my insistance and the MB and DB canals are filled beautifully and the palatal is 4 mm short! of course i let her know and she's cool, so i will bring her back after she delivers for the retreat of the palatal.
arrrrgh!!!
it's funny, though. i feel like such a fuckup, but at the each of these appointments every person was so nice, thanked me for doing "such a great job" and i was like, do you even know how i fucked up, or am i just being too hard on myself???
enough of this. i'm going to watch american idol.
posted by Dr. Mommy, D.D.S. at
10:16 PM
3 Comments:
I don't really see how those are screw ups. They are correctable issues, which you are doing, and you haven't done anything to make your planned treatment less predictable (ie. perforated the endos, permanently cemented the deficient crown). It's just taking a little longer to complete these cases than you planned. But that's ok.
By
Unknown, At
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
it's not so much the fact that i "fucked up" as it is the fact that all the glitches occured three times in one day. it's like the stars were all aligned against me yesterday. i'm always honest when my results are not ideal and i want to fix it and patients are usually appreciative of the effort and respect the fact that i won't rest (or collcect payment) until it's done properly. but at the same time, it is an inconvenience for the patient to have to come back while i fix whatever mistake i made and it's a drag - it cuts into a productive day and is frustrating to me, like, "why couldn't have i gotten this right to begin with???" i'm kind of hard on myself like that. when canuck has a bad day i always say, "hey, dentistry is hard, no one's perfect, and just try the best you can." but it's different when you're on the other end, like i feel like i have to be perfect all the time or *whatever* will happen, i don't know.
see, i just popped two more gray hairs!
By
Dr. Mommy, D.D.S., At
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Mistakes and realisations are like buses.
None come for ages, then several come at once.
By
Kissaki, At
Thursday, March 01, 2007
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