Dentistry!!

Hi! The first quarter is now over, after some brutal finals I might add. Most of last week I studied over 12 hours a day and then took our day 1 final on Thursday and the day 2 final on Friday. We got our grades back and I did better than average so overall I was pleased. Now the fun stuff begins!! We started clinical rotations on Monday and each week we will be on a different rotation. This week I was on dentistry (thus the title of this post lol). This is the least time consuming rotation (9am-noon) so I had a lot of time this week to rest up and get over the cold I've had since before finals. Even though we have only had to be there a few hours each day though, we have gotten to learn to a lot! Monday we just had lectures and learned about periodontal disease and other common dental problems that are encountered in veterinary medicine (by the way, periodontal disease is the most common disease affecting older dogs and cats!). Tuesday we got to do simple extractions, multi-rooted extractions and surgical extractions on canine cadavers. My cadaver dog actually had a few supernumerary teeth (extra teeth) so I got to extract more than the other students. It was a little more complicated but at least now i'll be better prepared if I encounter that in a future patient. I also now realize why it is so painful to get your wisdom teeth out!! Man on man did I have to use a lot of force. I'm glad he dog was just a cadaver because he would have been veryyy sore when he woke up. Wednesday we got to do dental radiographs. We had to learn all the different shots that they do and then put them in a model which had them lined up as if you're looking at the mouth as a whole. I will try to attach it so you can see. It definitely took a lot of practicing to get the right shots and understand how you have to position the patient and the radiograph tube. They use digital radiography which is nice because you can look at an image seconds after taking it so then it's easier to fix right away to get the proper shot. Then yesterday we just had a lecture about canine and feline dental pathology. And finally today we are practicing doing a simple dental exam on patients (Raji is the perfect patient for this by the way!). Overall, I really really enjoyed this rotation and learned a lot, especially how serious dentistry needs to be pushed in veterinary medicine. Next week I have Wildlife and Exotic Medicine & Surgery so I will tell you all about that next Friday! Have a good weekend everybody:)

Kiira