So I heard from several people that if we didn’t do a conclusionary post we would not receive our diplomas tomorrow. So here’s what I have to say about my project just like I said in my post on my final day at work: “Overall, I have enjoyed the experiences that I was lucky enough to–well, experience–and hope to on breaks from college have the opportunity to intern/observe other careers in the medical field so that I may find the career that interests me the most. It’s been a lot of fun, and I totally see why this is a much better way to do a senior project than other school’s that simply require a paper and a research project out of the seniors. I just hope that next year’s seniors don’t play it too safe with their projects; they should go out on a limb and try something new and exciting.”

I just wanted to post this to ensure that if people were correct about the summary post, which I might add was never announced to the senior student body, then I would have avoided any potential delay in receiving my diploma, which would be terribly unfortunate as well as frustrating because it wouldn’t be warranted. Woooooohooooooo time to graduate!!! 2012!! Finally!

Today is the final day of my project. I’m leaving early because I was able to get all the required hours done and need to get back home to have enough time to get ready for the senior-faculty dinner. Today I observed the usual drillings and fillings, but I was actually able to assist Dr. Tzioros shortly while her assistant was handling some business, which was pretty cool. I really enjoyed being able to get this different career aspect of oral health, so who knows I might possibly end up pursuing dentistry or oral surgery as a career of my own in the future. Since today was going to be a short day at the office anyway, appointments were pretty relaxed though I did get the opportunity to surprise my cousin who had an appointment this morning and was unaware that I would be here this week. Overall, I have enjoyed the experiences that I was lucky enough to–well, experience–and hope to on breaks from college have the opportunity to intern/observe other careers in the medical field so that I may find the career that interests me the most. It’s been a lot of fun, and I totally see why this is a much better way to do a senior project than other school’s that simply require a paper and a research project out of the seniors. I just hope that next year’s seniors don’t play it too safe with their projects; they should go out on a limb and try something new and exciting.

Today I concluded my senior project with 3 hours of interning, which brings my grand total to 50 hours and 10 minutes.

So today was my first day at Heidi Tzioros’ general dentistry office. I shadowed Dr. Tzioros through her day of crownings, fillings, gum probe inspections, and much more. But what I also noticed a large portion of her time went to filing insurance claims and figuring out how to charge her patients to help them out when their insurance refuses to pay or has maxed out for the current coverage period. It is a bit less exciting at a general dentist’s office, but being able to not be on your feet all day long is easier on the feet and back.

Today I have completed 9 hours of shadowing bringing my total internship hours to 38 hours and 10 minutes.

Today felt so long because there was patient after patient who came in for dental work needed more than what was originally scheduled because they didn’t take care of their teeth. I felt as though today was just a ton of patients who come in after several years of no professional dental care and seemingly little personal dental care. It’s quite sad really but at that point I don’t understand why they even bothered to come in and have their teeth cleaned today. An elderly patient came in today who never brushes or flosses, despite Dr. Tzioros’ advice as a dental professional, the tartar buildup on the patient’s teeth was so bad that there was no way the hygienist could scrape it off especially since the buildup caused bone loss and gum recession, which meant that the teeth could have easily been accidentally knocked out of the jawbone while simply being cleaned.

Today I interned for 9 hours, which brings my total senior project hours to 47 hours and 10 minutes.

Today was my last day at Gaston Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery because Dr.Jamison is going out of town for vacation with his family. Because he was going out of town today the office was a bit hectic. Also today I dealt with a patient in his/her late thirties who was getting his/her wisdom teeth out. This particular patient was a sleep fighter, which forces Dr. Jamison to use more anesthesia and because this patient was heavier breathing became more difficult and on top of that this patient kept “inhaling” his/her own tongue. I thought we were going to have to use one of the respiratory pump bags because the oxygen levels in the patients blood dipped into 40ish percent (the best work conditions are when the oxygen level is 90% and above). Well this patient in a sedated stupor did not enjoy being held down and was swearing like a sailor–of course upon waking up from surgery patients have no recollection whatsoever of what occurred while they were asleep.

Also today there was a lesion biopsy on a different patient because a large bubble-like lump had appeared on the lower lip. It turned out to just be blocked mucosal glands that were swelling up with saliva. When a biopsy is taken the incision must be twice as long as the actual lesion being removed and must be cut in a “football” or elliptical shape to decrease the chances of the wound healing with a lot of scar tissue or puckering up when sutured together.

To commemorate my stay at Gaston Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery I thought I would get a few pictures of the staff, so here they are:

It was a great experience that has definitely made oral surgery a good consideration in my mind for a possible future career. But if nothing else, I know now all too well how important it is to take care of your teeth because of some of the things I witnessed in the past week. Starting Monday I shall continue my internship endeavor at the general dentistry office of Dr. Tzioros, who I will shadow for the remainder of my senior project. I think it will be nice to see a different aspect of oral care. I’m really excited.

So today I completed 5 hours and 30 minutes, which brings my total internship hours to 29 hours and 10 minutes.

Thus far today has been quite chill, but there were a few patients today who woke up from anesthesia with some pretty funny things to say. One insisted that we give him/her a different flavor of bubblegum–but it was really just the gauze. The other patient acted like a fire truck siren then began talking about how he/she was too young to get married but fell back asleep mid-sentence.

But on a more serious matter in my opinion based on one of my observations today, I don’t think I’d ever cap one of my teeth completely if put in that situation because one patient had a gold cap/crown on his/her tooth that was removed today and when the gold cap popped off what was left of the tooth was absolutely horrific. It was severely decayed and practically mush-like. If I learn nothing else from this experience it will be to take better care of my teeth because it’s quite sad to witness a 20-something year old have the only remaining seven teeth in his/her mouth removed. The aforementioned patient will probably be getting dentures because getting an implant for 32 teeth can be as expensive as $90,000 depending on what the surgeon has to do to prepare the jaw for the implants.

Well, the rest of the day was mostly consultations and unfortunately quite a few scheduled patients were no shows even though every appointment is confirmed a day or two prior to the appointment, which was immensely frustrating for everyone. So like any other time that there isn’t much going on in the office I followed around some of the dental assistants who would explain how things worked or summarize a procedure or prep a room for the next patient or scrub down a contaminated area etc.

Today, I completed 9 hours and 50 minutes bringing my internship time log to 23 hours and 40 minutes.

Today is supposed to be a short day because the office closes early on Wednesday’s but the difficult case of the day is supposed to be the very first patient this morning. This particular young person is coming in to have three wisdom teeth removed, but this individual happens to be severely autistic and has a record of self inflicted injuries.

The autistic patient’s procedure went as well as it could have possibly gone without needing to use extra anesthesia at that. And other than that the rest of the appointments today were mostly routine extractions.

Today I completed 4 hours and 50 minutes bringing my current internship time to 13 hours and 50 minutes.

So my first day began bright and early at 5:30am in order to have time to drive all the way to Gastonia and avoid traffic. The first thing they had me do was suit up in a sterilized gown along with a set of stylish glasses and a mask to further garnish my attire.

Thus far I have observed several oral surgeries, most requiring the extraction of multiple teeth. Some poor guy had 30 teeth pulled and due to his complicated medical history (parkinson’s disease) the use of traditional anesthesia had to be applied delicately. One of the first things they said to me was that if I started to feel light-headed I should just sit down and take a breather. I totally thought I would be perfectly fine, and I was after seeing this man get all of his remaining teeth pulled out.

Realizing that I would be okay with witnessing surgery with the whole real person and blood aspect makes me feel more comfortable with considering a medically oriented career path, which is basically the reason I wanted my senior project to include surgical procedures.
But during only my first day, I’ve seen quite a few aspects of this work that make things especially difficult. For example, the weight of the patient can make surgery tricky because the larger the patient is the more anesthesia needs to be used to put them to sleep but at their heavier weight and larger size the larger dosage of anesthesia makes it more likely for them to stop breathing. Also patients who have complicated medical situations makes anesthesia a complicated matter. Dr. Jamison made me aware of a certain situation where a certain patient had been returning frequently for the past two years complaining of pain from the removal of wisdom teeth, but this patient would always come in requesting but more like insisting that Dr. Jamison write her a prescription for percocet (aka oxycodone) so Dr. Jamison did an exploratory surgery on the location she claimed to have pain and found nothing. He explained to me that try’s to give patients the benefit of the doubt but there was no doubt in my mind that this patient was simply trying to get the drugs. But after his exploratory job, this patient will definitely need it. But the second this person woke up he/she began rambling about the drugs and how she wanted us to call it in for her because she had trouble getting it before, which with a prescription it isn’t hard to obtain unless the pharmacy has marked a person as a possible drug abuser and it made this person cry because a drug that is in that level of controlled substances must be physically written on a prescription pad and taken to the pharmacy. It was just so frustrating to watch Dr. Jamison and his assistants put up with this sort of patient as if they were genuine, which I myself would want a doctor to take any complaint I had but the blatant intentions of this couple was ridiculous (at least in the recovery room). But anyway on to a different issue, weight, some patients weight had me nerve racked even though Dr. Jamison and his assistants were completely unphased. Especially because the heavier the patient the more likely it is that the patient will need a heavier dose of anesthesia, which can make it more like that the patient will stop breathing.

Well, here is the website for the office I’m interning at. It has some videos of the basic ideas of how some of the procedures are performed. http://www.gastonoms.com/

9 hours completed so far (I have to record my hours just so I make sure I can make the requirement and not make a mistake–certainly wouldn’t want that to happen)

I will be doing my senior project at a Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery office with Dr. Jamison but once he goes on vacation I will finish the rest of my project at a general family dentistry office with Dr. Tzioros.