So last Tuesday, April 16, I took the opportunity of the whole star-testing schedule to go to my mentor much earlier than usual. I arrived there around two and the place was packed with patients. Every single chair had a person sitting in it waiting for Dr. Yamat and her assistants to do their procedure. The first patient I watched was getting a crown delivery. The assistant told me that she needed to receive a crown delivery because her real tooth was all messed up. Fillings, she said, are also not going to help so they make a fake looking tooth to mimick the temporary one she had in her mouth. The patient had to take her blood pressure first, as usual, for safety reasons. From what I observed, Dr. Yamat took out the temporary tooth (it looked like a half of a tooth) and put in the crown delivery. The patient also told Dr. Yamat that the temporary one was getting colored by the food she would eat. After putting the crown delivery in, they used a blue light which is called the curing light because it hardens the cement placed on the tooth.
The next patient I witnessed was a man receiving a deep cleaning. I thought it was really weird because the man uses dentures and before the procedure, they had to take the dentures out. Dr. Yamat was telling him that he has gum problems so she would really go in between his real teeth and underneath the gums. The dentist also told him he had a lot of tar. Moreover, she said that she needed to realign his dentures. The assistant took his dentures to this one machine that I guess took off some scum off the base and then took this pink powder called Jet Denture Repair Powder to make it into a sticky paste so it would stick on the roof of his mouth. The paste helps the dentures keep it tight. Before she put the dentures back, Dr. Yamat put it these things that look like screws and this yellow paste that would get hard after a few seconds. I'm not really sure what it was or what she was doing and I forgot to ask her afterwards because there was just too many patients waiting!
The next patient I watched was a patient getting his braces tightened. I kind of came during the middle of the procedure so all i really saw was Dr. Yamat trying to put in the last wire on his bottom teeth. The last patient I saw that day was a woman also getting a deep cleaning. Unlike the other patient, this woman's teeth was clean and very well taken care of. Just like any other deep cleaning I saw, Dr. Yamat would really dig into her teeth.
What I learned on this day is that dentistry is so tiring! After spending a little over three hours in the office, I was exhausted. Exhausted from walking back and forth from patient to patient and looking at people's mouths. What I also learned is how the dentist would try to build friendly relationships with the patients. I remember thinking how annoying it was to have the dentist talk to me while they were working on my teeth. But I realized how awkward it also is when they just sit there and work. All in all, I realized the hard work that people really do put into their jobs everyday for the benefit of others. No wonder they get paid a lot!
Total: 3.5 Hours
Running Total: 20.5 Hours.
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