Root Canal Therapy Monday

Well Hello! It is Monday here, and probably Monday where you are too, and what better to do on a Monday then RCT!? Here is a little step by step of some molar endo to help make your Monday fab. I mean it is not being done on you, so that has to make you a little happy. Enjoy!

The setup… ready to access some canals ^

My cute little patient ^

Just starting the accessing ^

Exposed pulp horns ^

Two of the 3 canals were found, but the darn mesial canal was impossible to  find. Radiographically it is visible, but clinical I swear it didn't exist. Ugh. Even the endodontist couldn't find it. ^

See?! Mesial canal exists. Frustrating.

Happy Monday! (I used the word "Monday" 6 times in this post… win.)

Lame to Luxurious… Endo edition.

Apparently while we were on break our school decided to step up their game… new typodonts, new equipment, and new cars for everyone (JK but that would be nice.) If you recall, the last time we had an endo module we mounted our natural teeth in stone and some sort of wood-chip mixture… Ghetto Fab. I will link the pic here. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I came to school today and we had these bumpin' new endo typodonts. I took pictures of course, and added them below… all for you. Enjoy! Happy Thursday :)

Our new (and not ghetto) endo typodonts! We are getting super fancy over here. ^

The setup for mounting our teeth. ^

Putting in the apex putty… basically playdoh. ^

Teeth pushed into the putty and waiting to be secured ^

Adding the fixing gel ^

Let 'em dry for 24hrs and these babies are ready for some RCT. ^

Cause she's a smooth obturator..

I have had the "Smooth operator (obturator… when you are doing endo)" song stuck in my head for far too long… hence the title of this post. (Thanks to Brady for inventing that song and getting it stuck in my head after singing it for 4 hrs in sim clinic.) Anyway, here are some pictures showing the obturation of my plastic endo tooth. (Click here to see how I cleaned this tooth out a few weeks ago.) I know I said I was going to show pictures of endo on real teeth, but to be honest it would be so boring. I don't have an x-ray camera so all of the pictures would look like the same. So, I showed my plastic tooth instead. A little less cool, but it does a much better job of showing the process of obturation…smooth obturation that is. Alright! Enjoy!

Remember this cute little guy?! time to fill it back up ^

Finding my Master Apical Cone ^

File coated in sealer. Ready to place in the canal ^

Cone with sealer^

Cone in the canal and using the spreader to make room for accessory cones and to spread the sealer ^

Burning off the excess ^

With the excess removed. ^

Endo procedure complete. ^

All filled up with Cavit. I have no idea why my fingers look like I stirred red Kool-aid with them. Weird. 

Stay tuned.

Here is a sneak peak of what is coming later this week… endo on real teeth. Slightly nasty looking, but very fun. More to come!

Step by step Endo

The setup: Hand Files, irrigation syringe, GG burs, round burs, and endo instruments. ^

Start point: fake tooth embedded in pastic. Red in canal simulates infection. ^

Start point: fake tooth embedded in pastic. Red in canal simulates infection. ^

Beginning of access. Canal exposed, but need to open the coronal part more. ^

Insertion of 1st hand file. Begin shaping and cleaning. ^

Increasing size of files. Continue shaping and cleaning. ^

Again, continue increasing size of files. Continue shaping and cleaning. ^

Determining Master Apical File (last file to fit in to clean canal) ^

Clean canal. Beautiful! Now to fill it back up :)

Dentures and Endo… life doesn't get much better.

Doin' work! ^

I have been getting the question, "Are you going to specialize?" a lot lately… and, frankly, I am really not sure. I don't know if I am cut out for a speciality or if I want to commit to more school. It overwhelms me to think about it, even though I need to because it is my grades, volunteer work, and boards scores from now that will determine if I even can. I need to reflect on this more. I will. Starting…tomorrow. Maybe.

Last week we began a new chapter in the dental school curriculum…dentures and endo. Very exciting. In a twisted way I really enjoyed the smell of cutting through REAL teeth, rather then the plastic teeth we have been using. It was a nostalgic moment as I was brought back to the long hours I had spent assisting in an office during undergrad. I swore I would never miss being an assistant, but i do.

I miss :

• knowing I won't get sued if something doesn't go as planned
• the praise when you do something right (usually on accident)
• the the satisfaction of knowing I did everything I could when the dentist accidentally hit the pulp. (which loosely translates into… I suctioned well.)
• being done with a day of work at 5:00…sharp.
• the smell of the autoclave
• the excitement of calling patients and telling them their lab work was in and they didn't have to wear that useless temporary anymore.
• taking a lunch break and not thinking about anything other then..well…lunch.
• race of breaking down and setting up a room in under 3min.

Sure I miss all these things, but I wouldn't go back to it for nothing. I am excited about the path I am on, the trials I have been through, and the journey that lies ahead of me. Dentistry is the career for me…this I am sure of.