What I Got From This Week

This morning (on 08/01/09), I was in this cold-refrigerator-room. Well - not really, but that is what Dewan Kuliah 4 (DK 4 in short) is always been referred as. DK 4 is a super-duper cold lecture hall in my campus, as if it gives you some kind of cold environment, similar as if like you are studying in England. Anyway, back to the business on what I learnt on this week.

One: I found out that one of my lecturer have read my blog before and I'm wondering on what occasion was that. She is an expert in endodontics. She was mentioning something about this website called Nicenet, a website dedicated to encourage more interaction and intellectual discussion between students and teachers, regardless of age, level and background. Suddenly she looked straight at me and said, "Yeah you as well, I have been to your website (meaning this blog) before. So how long have you been writing it?" I was startled but I was still able to give a simple answer, "Since two years". Then the other eyes inside the hall were either staring at me as well or giving me some surprise look. You see, since I started this blog, I have never introduce, advertise or promoting it within my fellow course-mates.

Two: I found out that been a dentist is not human enough. While pointing out the lecture slides that discussing on how to take a proper history on a patient, she also said,"You guys as a future dentist should be more 'human'." This is not the first time I heard of such statement. All these while, dentist is not been like a normal person when they try to communicate or examine their patient which indicated that we are not so 'human' at all! Taking history from a patient may seems troublesome but that is how we derive a proper diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. History taking requires a substantial amount of knowledge, good communication and examination.

"You should be like Sherlock Holmes or just nice to be like the CSI," she added later. It is true, the concept of investigation and examination are important in dentistry as an overall. Sometimes we do misdiagnosed a certain disease or condition because of lack of information, improper technique and so on. This does not only applied to myself but also to others. Been a human does not made you perfect. Sometimes we do made mistakes but all of these are part of our life. Therefore, I believe in that we should prepare ourselves even in what ever we do. But in a nutshell, does been a dentist seems 'inhuman' enough?

On the next day, I have a clinical session. 

Three: I came across a patient with tooth crack syndrome. She complaint of the tooth (47 - Lower right second molar) been in pain while biting but relief after release the biting. Therefore, she felt very uncomfortable when eating. There is a large tooth-coloured (composite) filling on that tooth that is large and extended from a side to another (Mesi0-occluso-distal) restoration. My partner and I conducted a few examination over her problematic tooth.

First, a radiographic features a widening of PDL area with no signs of caries and dislodged previous restoration seen. Following pulp sensibility testing reveals the tooth is still on vital with delayed exaggerated response to electrical pulp test, suggesting a dying pulpal tissue. Last but not least, we applied a blue-coloured dye called Canal Blue which detects the crack line on the tooth.

Treating a cracked tooth is not simple. The list of treatment options are as follows - crown, root canal treatment or removed the tooth. But we just leave her tooth untreated since she does not have much time and seldom came for an appointment. She also refused a molar band around the tooth to protect the tooth from further cracking. What I learned from this case? Simple, people will never visit a dentist if he or she feels nothing wrong about it, at least YET!!

In next post, I would like to discuss a matter that one of my reader did complaint about her difficulties she had when she done a dental treatment under my junior last time. Well, another classic example of tales from people undergoing dental treatment!!