I wake up at 5:30am, and arrive at school around 6:00am. My patient and second year dental student (D2) assistant said they'd be there around 6:30am, so I got busy setting up my cubicle and grabbing items from dispensing for the day. I expect to use the same patient for all three procedures for the day, and feel thankful that I could set up once, and I wouldn't have to worry about coordinating multiple patients and resetting the cubicle at all.
The three procedures: Class II (posterior tooth restoration), Class III (anterior tooth restoration) and periodontics (deep cleaning).
6:30am rolls around, but I don't start worrying yet. I continue setting up and making sure I am good to go at 8:00am for a shot gun start. My assistant arrives at 7:00am. Slightly late, but understandable due to traffic from the Monument 10K going on that morning-tons of streets blocked off. He goes to get accepted as an assistant for the day. I call my patient, who says he's still waiting for the bus, but that he's going to make it, do not start looking for another patient to take his place. I see my Class II backup patient in the waiting area, and am relieved that at least I can use him if my original patient is late or doesn't make it.
Five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes pass and no sign of my patient. Finally, at 7:50am I call my patient, gearing up to call my backup patient into the clinic for lesion acceptance.
"I'm in the bathroom." The four most stress releasing words I hear. I run to meet him outside the bathroom and usher him into my cubicle. I check his blood pressure: 150/94mmHg. Just barely meeting criteria for acceptance. I send him away to get his lesions checked and approved. Since he is my class II and class III patient, I am allowed to get both approved at the same time.
My patient is gone for twenty minutes and the whole time I am thinking, "Please do not get rejected." A few classmates were getting their lesions rejected, causing them to scramble to get another patient submitted and accepted. I was already getting a late start, and did not want any delays.
Finally, he comes back to the cubicle: both lesions accepted! I send my assistant with a thank you note for my backup patient, with the message that my backup patient is good to leave for the day, I do not need him. By this time, it's 8:20am and I am ready to get started. Check in was supposed to be from 7:00am-8:00am, and so most of my classmates have already been working for a good twenty minutes. I anesthetize, rubber dam, and start the prep.
The patient says that he hadn't slept all night, and proceeded to fall asleep, turning his head to the side and closing his mouth. Every five seconds I had to stop, readjust his head, and placed a bite block to prop his mouth open.
I continue until all caries are gone, go up to the measurements of an ideal prep, and submit with all paperwork. Again, sending the patient away creates a fear that they will tell me to temporize the tooth, aka you failed and have to put a temporary filling in until a proper filling can be done at a later date.
He comes back in, but not without grabbing a ton of snacks meant for dental students. I think this is where he started shoving granola bars into his mouth while I was trying to work. But, I get an official stamp: "OK for restoration" Yay!
I restore, again readjusting his head every few seconds. I submit, and again get another validating stamp.
I'm getting tired... part 2 tomorrow!
