| I recently had to take a quarter off from classes due to finances. I was pretty upset about it at first, but have gotten used to having the free time. I've used this new free time to do... absolutely nothing. The downside to all of this is my insurance was cancelled when I dropped my classes. I didn't happen to be in the two minute window to get insurance at my current job, so I joined the ranks of people with no insurance. My dentist called me the other day about having some dental work done for free. The catch was it was for another student's certification exam. I thought about it, and decided why not? I have student dentists looking at my teeth every other day when I'm attending class, so I couldn't use that excuse. I got up and threw on some clothes, grabbed some breakfast and drover over to OSU's dental clinic. There were quite a few people sitting around, mostly elderly people and a couple students. Every so often, a student dentist would come out and assure their patient it would only be another fifteen minutes. After about an hour of waiting, I was finally taken back. (Not surprisingly all of the fifteen minute patients were still waiting when I left.) I had met the student dentist earlier in the week for a quick exam to make sure the decay in my tooth was exactly what he needed. Lucky for him, the pounds of sugar I ate as a kid did the damage he needed. He seated me and looked at my X-rays as though he hadn't had an entire week to stare at them. Two instructors checked us in and gave him the go ahead. Anyone who has ever had dental work done knows all about the nasty stuff they put on a Q-tip to numb your gums that's supposed to taste like bubble gum. Then they jam you with the needle, which you feel anyways. Nope. Not today, they went straight for the needle today. And the needle went straight for my lip. If there's ever a time when you can't quite wake up- have a student dentist jam a needle of novocaine in the front of your lip accidently. You won't be able to sleep for a week from the sheer terror of it. Eventually he figured out how to get it in the back of my mouth where it was supposed to be. He gave me all of about 30 seconds for the anesthetic to work and starts drilling. At this point my eyes get huge and I start clenching the armrests with my feet crawling up the chair. He gives me more novacaine and about another 30 seconds. Eventually he gets the clue, gives me another shot of novacaine and lets me sit for a couple minutes until it starts numbing the area. He drilled it. And drilled it some more. Scraped at it. Drilled it. Looked at it. Took a picture of it and ate a ham sandwhich. ;) Anyways as he's drilling my tooth his stupid assistant is jamming this tube into my gums that is suppose to suck nonexistant saliva from my mouth or something. She doesn't seem to get the fact that a pointed object in the gums for 20 minutes at a time gets sore after a while. They're talking over me as though I'm not there. He's telling her the different techniques. Cool, fine, whatever. Then he tells her one technique and says that it's in such and such book. She said 'Oh, maybe I'll get around to reading that eventually.' He smiles and said 'Yeah I finally read it this week. It's funny when you go back and read it and actually understand the words. It makes you think gee I may be getting some of this stuff.' You may be getting some of this stuff? Jesus Christ dude, why not just tell me your father is Dr. Giggles or something while you're at it? Eventually he decides it looks pretty enough and slaps a rubber dam on my face. To any of those who've never had the pleasure- a rubber dam is about 3" by 3" square and is supposed to keep the area clean while restricting any chance of breathing you may have had and ensuring you drooling all over yourself. They walk me to the waiting area and I sit down with other people who look about as embarassed as I do. After a wait two dentists look at the gaping hole in my mouth and send me back to the student dentist to have it filled. He fills it and sends me back to the dentists who are checking the work. The dentist who is supposed to look at my filling looks at my chart commenting that he saw me earlier but didn't recognize me. He goes on telling me he can usually recognize people without the rubber dam. I'm assuming it was some attempt at humor that I just didn't get. After four hours, and four stabs of novacaine (one of which was in the lip) I am allowed to go home. In retrospect, the money I saved on tuition and insurance would have been worth staying in bed today, and having some one with a better idea of dentistry filling my tooth some other day. So be cool stay in school. (Yeah. I amuse myself anyways.) |
| Student Dentists? |
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