First clinical posting in the "Department of PERIODONTOLOGY"

       

For those who are completely unaware of the term periodontology , in lay man terms, it is the a speciality of dentistry concerned with cleaning of teeth. Students often consider Periodontology as the filthiest department of dentistry and as a matter of fact, IT IS...


I don’t know why, but this subject excited me the most from Day 1 but I must say that somewhere down the line I underestimated it too. I had a fair idea about the condition I was about to face.  There was supposed to be some dirty substance around the tooth that I was supposed to remove. Simple!!! Isn’t it?    
                                               NO IT AIN’T!!!!!         


Somewhat like this was the clinical picture of my patient’s mouth. Honestly, I wasn’t shocked. I was prepared for it. But as I mentioned already, I underestimated it.  I thought those yellow structures must be some sticky mass that I would get rid off by mere movements of my sharp API SCALERS. No need to say, I was wrong. After trying for 15 minutes, I understood, those bastards were there to stay.  I started vigorously, the gums bled, the chunks of calculus kept losing their hold on the teeth, and I felt confident. I moved closer to the patient to get a better picture of her mouth, I inserted my API Scaler, engaged a calculus, and pulled it with all my might. 


                                               The chunk of calculus lost its grip on the teeth,
                                               I felt as though I had achieved a feat.             
                                              Just when I thought I had won the battle,
                                               I noticed something on my spectacle. 
                                               The chunk had sprung towards my head, 
                                               It was slimy and hard and yellow and red. 
                                               Feeling disgusted, I wanted to burn alive,
                                                Perio was something I couldn’t survive.............

I wiped off the chunk from my glasses, got my specs spotless clean with spirit and returned back to the chair, but didn’t want to see in the patient’s mouth anymore. I somehow managed to get back with my job. Later the chunks kept attacking me, sometimes on my lap, sometimes on my forearms, sometimes on my apron. Seriously, that day I grew respect for the person who brought the whole idea of wearing an apron before performing any clinical step on a patient whether medical or dental. I finished it in exactly one and a half hour and was more than happy to bid adieu to my patient. The patient smiled at me while taking his leave and due to obvious reasons his smile was much better now as compared to when I first saw him. I felt proud and satisfied but there wasn’t much time for melodrama, my fingers were in pain because of holding the scalers so tightly. As days passed, I got used to it and now I feel delighted to see my patients smile while leaving. They might not be having a perfect smile but they are happy and this very fact makes me happy. As for Periodontology, It is sill my favourite subject in dentistry and I would love to pursue Masters in it after my graduation. It might be filthy, but it’s equally satisfying...........................
Written by Saurabh Rai
You can read the original article at his blog here