Thursday, November 3, 2011

Oraqix and Premolars, not necessarily related

Nov 2nd was VA day.  I was able to pass off my Oraqix PE on Bonnie S in the morning.  I love the idea of Oraqix because it causes less anxiety for the patient than LA...but the more I work with it, the less faith I have in it.  I deposit the periodontal gel below the gingival margin just as I am instructed, but my patients (in most cases) continue to have sensation of the tissues.  I will have to ask pointed questions relating to patient perception of its efficacy at future appointments.  I want to believe in this stuff, but right now I feel like I'm forced to be skeptical.  In other news, I was able to take another pano!  I find it so much easier to meet our requirements this year!  I love it.

Eric was my afternoon patient and most of his teeth were missing.  We proceeded through his cleaning very quickly and it broke my heart to have to let him know that his remaining teeth looked to have a lot of decay.  I cleaned his partial denture and gave him some very detailed OHI.  We provided his oxygen throughout the appointment and that was a new experience for me.  He was a very nice man.  I felt really bad at one point in the appointment because I accidentally pulled out one of his mustache hairs.  It would appear as though that hurts.  ;)

I need to reach the distals of premolars  better...that's always where I'm fouled, particularly from the left quadrants.  Dr Hanson advised that we use a "wrist pop" technique with the nevi on each tooth before asking for a scale check so that we are never left with deposits along the CEJ...and I tried to utilize her counsel but still got banged on my premolars on thursday.  In the words of Phil Dumphy, "Come on Tanya!"  BUT but but...I was able to use my perio files finally!  They are a lot easier to use than I thought!  I really didn't understand them when we first practiced using them on our typodonts but our professors assured us that given the right situation, we would find them really useful on our patients.  I found that to be true on Thursday.  My patient had burnished calculus deep within the pocket of the distal of a first molar (I can't remember what quad I was working on anymore).  We used the file for two seconds and the initially stubborn calculus came off with one quick working stroke of my 13/14.  Cool beans.  It really didnt take much pressure at all with the perio file to reach the desired effect.  I can see how these are useful.

I need to sleep now.  Tanya out. 


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