Dental TRAUMA

1more week of dental school, before we go on a study break :)

this week has been pretty eventful, with bits of unexpected things happening, patient wise..

tuesday in Ashton was traumatising, to say the least. I had a 6year old girl on my chair whom was inconsolable.

this was the little girl, who in her first visit refused to look at neither me or my nurse, when she came into my surgery. She hid her face in her dad's shirt, the whole time.. and when we tried showing her how to brush her teeth on the tooth model, she wouldn't even look at us.

Talked, coaxed, persuaded her just to look at us brush the 'tooth model' for an hour.

2nd visit, managed to get her on the chair. also managed to get her to show us how she brushes her teeth, and did a quick polish with our 'special electric toothbrush'. *big WHOOP*

3rd visit, she came in with a broken E, so I had to do a pulpotomy. My tutor doesnt have a clue how difficult this child can potentially be, so she said to me '' Give her LA, open the pulp up and dress it.''

But I KNEW IT WOULD BE AN UPHIILL CLIMB, to say the least. Gave my nurse a 'look', and decided in my head that I would try to very slowly excavate and remove caries with the hand excavator, then slow handpiece if she'll let me.

So off i went, this is probably the SLOWEST i ever went with removing decay from a tooth.

After awhile the child got very impatient, and we had to coax her to open her mouth, over and over again.

Finally did it without anaesthetic, and I was RELIEVED. I thought, OK the difficult part is done. 2minutes, stick the filling in, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. LITTLE DID I KNOW, HELL AWAITS.

little miss SPOILT KID decided she doesnt want a filling in her OPEN CAVITY, so my nurse, her dad and I started our HELL-LIKE journey to coax her to open her mouth for me to put the filling in. 30minutes passed, she was getting more and more upset by the moment, REFUSING EVERY SINGLE THING that we tried to reason her into opening her mouth. 45minutes, my tutor came in and tried, by force whilst dad and my nurse held her down, but she went ABSOLUTELY MAD. KICKED SCREAMED, did the WHOLE SPOILT KID DRAMA THING -_-

I WAS SO FLIPPING TRAUMATISED.

4pm, the child was still on the chair, still refusing to open her mouth. I decided OK u know wad i'm not going to go anywhere with this. the CHILD IS A WALKING NIGHTMARE. She manipulates her dad, crying and crying.. and her dad is SO FLIPPING USELESS. tried and tried to persuade her, trying to bribe her.. new pet la, new toy la etc etc.

OMG I WANTED TO TEAR MY HAIR OUT. SLAP THE FLIPPING KID, and you get sued for 'child abuse'. This is ENGLAND for u.

So yes we gave dad 'Cavit', a temporary filling material so mum can stick it in back home bcoz mum is the stricter one. Put it in a bag, gave her some instructions, and I left the room coz i was getting a serious headache from all that screaming and crying.

Then out of nowhere the conversation about macdonalds came up, and my nurse said ''what do you like from macdonalds''

''chicken mcnuggets''

''well if you let pei stick that filling in I'll get you a mcnugget meal from MCD on the way home''

''OK''

-_- O.M.G. AFTER ALL THAT TIME SPENT. A QUICK OK after a MCD BRIBE.

I. wanted. to. die. I. was. so. freaking. traumatised. by. all. that drama. that on the way back home on the bus, when I saw a little blonde girl holding a balloon, I CRINGED inwardly, and I just felt this shiver of FEAR.

-_- CHILDREN= NOT CUTE= NOT FUN. Sorry suffering from post traumatic disorder now. SUPER.

''ACCLIMATISATION'' is like a ''religion'' in ASHTON. so much so that EVERY extraction feels like a PROPER VICTORY, deserving a huge celebration -_- mannnn how many spoilt kids are there in this part of the world? -_-


Today whilst I was nursing for Ayesha, Steve came in and said ''there's this man who knocked his front teeth and is in pain now, can someone see him''

I decided I'll help, since Ayesha was delivering a denture.. brought the man in, and did a quick H&E. Poor man, he fell on his face when running after a bus outside the MRI yesterday. Knocked 3 of his teeth, his front tooth is excruciatingly painful, and he can't eat.

Took radiographs, saw a cervical fracture.. but wasn't really sure how to proceed bcoz I've never treated a trauma case before. Discussed with a tutor, we decided to splint all his front 4 teeth together with an acid etch composite splint, and extirpate the pulp of his central incisor.

I felt so sorry for him, he looked abit traumatised after the fall, and had bruises and scratches all over his face and limbs.

Did the treatment, and he was so grateful :) he even said ''my teeth feels so comfortable now i think i can have sth better to eat tonight!'' from a miserable looking patient that came into the chair, to a smiling patient who left the chair :) ahh the joys helping someone and making a difference :)

So much to take away, from 5years of dental school, and more and much more to learn.