Daily Clinic Tasks

Hi all. My summer classes are starting to come to a close so I've been kind of slammed with studying for upcoming finals. That being said, I figured it would be good to take a break, sit down and just write a blog.

My uncle made the trek from the far north (Minnesota) down to the mile high city for business this week. I haven't seen him in a while, so I decided to cut my volunteering shift a little short and meet-up with him for lunch. We had a pretty good chat - had some laughs, shared some stories, you know, the usual uncle-nephew-meeting-up-for-lunch stuff. I got a lobster roll, an apparent East Coast delicacy (at least thats what one of my Bostonian friends told me) and Paul (the uncle) got a fruit salad. Never understood how a bunch of fruit in a bowl can suddenly be labeled as a salad. Are grapes and pineapples in a bowl considered a fruit salad too? What if the grapes are different colors? Its a total hodgepodge, the salad committee must be just as up-in-arms about it as I am. Anyway, here's a picture of the two of us.

Before lunch and the fruit salad calamity, I mentioned that I was actually able to sneak in a few hours at the clinic. I wasn't able to see any operatory stuff (bummer), but I was able to get all of what I like to call my "daily tasks" over and done. These tasks are kind of like chores that I have to finish before I can pop into the operatory. I don't mind it and it's actually kind of nice to be helping out at the front end of the clinic. It also serves as a way for me to see how the front-end of the clinic operates and how much of the clinic of the dependent on them (hint - its a lot!). Anyways, heres the list:

• Make Forums

This is probably the most time consuming of all my jobs. Basically, we have five different forms that the assistants and doctors fill out during a consult. Different colors correspond to different treatments. For example, we've got a hygiene form (the green one) that the hygienist uses when she's doing prophys. The yellow one is for oral surgery (wisdom teeth/implants), the red one is for the emergency clinic (single-tooth extractions) and the purple one is for pretty much anything else. I honestly don't know much about the pink one, but I barely ever make those so I can only guess that they are for pretty rare procedures. I guess I'll have to ask about it next week. Anyways, all of these forms need to be put together and yours truly gets the honor of doing just that.

• Check-in Lab Work   

This is probably the coolest task I get to do. Well, the checking in part is kind of a bore (I just look for the name on the box and try to match it with the name that's on the check-out sheet), but the lab work itself is pretty incredible. I get to see all sorts of dental work - crowns, bridges, partials, dentures - before its put in the patients mouth. Its pretty nuts. If I get really lucky, the dentist who called for the lab work won't be too busy and will take some time out to talk to me about it. One of theses days I really should shadow a lab technician to see how it's all done.

• Clean the Waiting Room

This one's pretty self-explanitory. I will say that it is one of the only times that I'm able to actually interact with the patients. In the operatory, I'm more behind the scenes and don't say too much besides some small-talk. After all, I'm not really the one the patient should be paying attention to. That being said, when I'm just cleaning its a lot easier to talk to people. A few weeks back I talked to an older gent who was trying to get his dentures adjusted. He was talking about how the lower one fits great (even had suction!) but he didn't like how worn down the teeth looked. Of course, I'm not a dentist and I wouldn't want to give any advice or guidance without being one, so I didn't say anything about how rare suction on the lower is. Instead, we just chatted about his grandkids who had just graduated high school. He was a nice guy.

That's pretty much it. After those three little itty-bitty tasks the clinic manager is nice enough to let me shadow the residents for the rest of the day. If there's a really cool case that I haven't seen before he's really enthusiastic about letting me go back and check it out. I'd like to say that I'm extremely grateful and truly appreciate the opportunities that this clinic has given me. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to continue on in dentistry and who knows? Maybe one day I'll be able to give back to the clinic as a resident myself.