Learning to Extract Teeth Independently!
Hey everyone,
I hope you have all had a fantastic week! This has been a really busy week at university, with a lot of oral surgery clinics, some shadowing, and even an exam to finish the week!
🦷 Dental Diary
This has been a week of me doubling down on my weaknesses and trying to turn them into strengths; I extracted another tooth, completely independently this time, and gave lots of LA in my SSC session, where I assisted the DCT dentists. Keep reading to see the main story from oral surgery this week!
I also sat a professionalism exam this week; this was a multiple choice test, which I anticipate will be similar to the SJT next year, but for some comparison is very similar to the Situational Judgement section of the UCAT which you might remember.
🧠Insight of the Week
The big takeaway from this week for me will only make sense with some context. Let me set the table…
This week in my Oral Surgery clinic I was seeing a patient for a LL8 extraction. This tooth was slightly mobile because of some periapical pathology and it was causing the patient extreme pain. Our tutor for the day was the only one in the clinic, and she was very busy trying to help everyone with their patients.
Thus far, I had only extracted teeth under direct supervision, with a tutor always being there, helping me find application points for my instruments and guiding me through the process. But not today. Because my tutor wasn’t there to watch my every move, I was essentially on my own.
My clinical partner was there to help of course, and after having given the patient LA correctly with her first attempt, that meant I could get straight to it with my luxator. Naturally, I tend to rush these types of treatments, eager to move onto the forceps to quickly deliver the tooth. It was always my tutor who told me to stay using one instrument before moving on to the next.
Without my tutor there to help me this time, I realised very soon that I was once again rushing as I was on the forceps just minutes after starting, and wasn’t getting anywhere with them. Needing to overcome this, I paused, reassessed, and decided to start from the beginning, checking that every site had been luxated, then moved on to the elevators, working through the different sizes, before finally finishing with the forceps. I was even able to give some supplemental intra-ligamentary LA during the extraction when the patient experienced some pain. Engaging the forceps this time around felt effortless, and the tooth was delivered in no time, and the patient was out of pain.
The lesson I learned here is that sometimes, being left to your own devices to problem-solve for yourself can be very empowering. This only really applies once you know the basics and are just trying to put it into practice. If my tutor was standing with me they would have given me all the advice I needed, before I could have figured it out on my own.
Once again, if you can take a minute to fill out this survey for a project I am working on, that would be much appreciated! PLEASE CLICK HERE I am working on an educational product aimed at dental students and young dentists and I want to hear from you guys so I can give you as much value as I possibly could!
That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice! Talk to you guys next week!
Omar Tabaqchali :)