Crazy day at the VA

The day started out crazy because of the weather. It was really dark and on top of that it was raining like crazy and when we got to Salt Lake it was snowing a little bit! The snow didn't actually stick (dang it), but it looked like a blizzard. The bad news is that there were 2 patients for me to see and they were both no shows. One of the patients I am glad didn't show up because I have had him before at the VA and he is really nervous and he is really sensitive and he swore at Prof Bossenberger when she gave him anesthetic. So I kinda breathed a sigh of relief....
At 10:30 (30 minutes before walkout), Katie said that there was a patient that Dr. Erickson wanted to have cleaned. This was a pretty amazing experience because he was on a lot of medications and he had a lot of stuff going on with his mouth. First of all, he had not been able to taste anything for almost a year, second he had a fungal infection that had been going on for over a year, and he had the most dry mouth I have ever seen! He wasn't able to form any saliva to help him swallow. Dr. Erickson talked to him for almost an hour about his dry mouth. He reported that he sips on coke all day long to help him have some saliva. Dr. Erickson told him that he should be sipping on water instead because the sugar from the drink actually fuels the fungi in his mouth and is probably why he has had this chronic infection. I thought this was really interesting because we always come at that kind of situation with a caries approach. We encourage our patients to sip on water because the constant sugar and acid on the tooth will break it down. I guess it also feeds fungus!
After Dr. Erickson had talked to him she told me to clean him (time-11:00). Luckily he mostly had a lot of plaque and not a lot of deposit. My scale time was 20 minutes and he was a class V. The really gross part of this is that he had TONS of food and material alba throughout his mouth because his spit did not clean his mouth. Dr. Erickson wanted to put him on a saliva substitute, but he had a serious heart condition and she didn't feel comfortable using it. I hope that he will take this opportunity to change his habits so that he doesn't loose his teeth!
My afternoon patient was a really good experience because I was able to get xrays and do half of his mouth he he was a classIII/IV. And I was able to get him numb.  The following is something you shouldn't do when you are getting someone numb....DO NOT WEAR YOUR LOUPES! Nobody has ever told me this, but I was in such a hurry because my instructor was in a hurry that I forgot to take my loupes off and it was a weird experience. I will always remember to take my loupes off from now on. On his maxillary arch I was able to use Oraqix and I love that stuff. I like that I can just go get it out of the cabinet and use it without having a use ordeal made while normally doing anesthesia. But I do love to poke people!
Good news from the day: I met my mom at Nordstrom rack and I got some new boots that are super cute! Look for them Friday in class!