Mentor Log #2

On Tuesday, February 5, I watched my mentor do a teeth cleaning on a patient. She told me that she was doing a regular cleaning which is basically cleaning the outside of the teeth. At first, I didn't really think it would be interesting because all you really do is check if the person has cavities or not and use that special paste to clean the teeth against the enamel. After the cleaning, she checked for cavities. From my point of view, it seemed as if she was digging into the patient's teeth very roughly. It made me cringe and not want to look. After the cleaning, I watched her work on a patient with braces. It wasn't really anything new. It was just like the last time I went. The patient needed to get his braces tightened. It was like a regular checkup. After that, there wasn't really much to do since there wasn't much patients assigned that day. After watching Dr. Yamat, she asked me if I could help clean around the office. I sweeped the floor, threw the used "bibs" away, and placed some of the dental instruments in the sink. She told me that I don't have to clean the instruments because they used this special procedure to clean it. It was pretty much a chill day. I hope next time, I will be able to learn more about the procedure of cleaning the instruments and a variety of patients who need special treatment such as the patient last week who had to fix his implants.

HOURS: 3

TOTAL HOURS: 6

Mentor Log #1

On January 29, I was really excited to finally start my hours at the dental office. When I first got there, I found out that Dr. Yamat, the dentist, just got back from her trip from the Philippines and so she was jet-lagged and really tired. I didn't really want to overwhelm her with a lot of questions so I told her that I would just follow her around the clinic and job-shadow. 

The first thing I saw her do was work with a patient with implants. The patient was also hooked up to a heart monitor sort of type machine because she injected him with this fluid (I forgot what it was called) because she said that the fluid can affect your heart rate if given too much so she said they need to monitor your heart in order to prevent anything that would lead you to the hospital. Anyways, when I was watching her, I couldn't help but look away because it was just so disgusting! She was using this needle trying to dig out something. I couldn't really tell what she was trying to do because it was just so disgusting. 

After watching her dig through a man's gums, she moved on to the next patient who was getting his braces fixed. In all honesty, I never knew how complicated it would be! The patient's brackets came off and so she had to get all these tools and her assistant to fix it. After that, she had to make sure that it was properly placed and she also had to change the little's boy's wires. I think just the fact that there were two people working on it made it look very complicated. 

After watching her do her job, I decided to ask her a few questions in regarding about my research. I asked her about what her thoughts on the idea of giving anything fluoride related items like toothpaste or supplements to little children. She told me that she does give fluoride treatments to her young patients but only in small amounts. She said that the use of fluoride is proven to be effective because it leaves people with a better shield from tooth decay. Moreover, she is also aware of the dangerous affects it can cause. 

So far, I realized that dentistry is scarier than I thought. I really do think what she did to the guy with implants scarred me for life. Oh goodness, I don't think I can watch anything like that anymore. 

But I really do find dentistry to be really interesting, so I'm hoping to be able to learn more things next time. 

TOTAL HOURS: 3