May I treat you?

Just recovered from a nasty throat infection. I will never again underestimate the power of antibiotic. (When it’s time to take them, then it’s time to take them.) Exams are around the corner. There will be altogether 10 different subjects that will be test this block. The exams will take place only over a span of 5 days. Can’t imagine myself then.

It’s been one week that I gone without treating patient. Instead, I became the patient. I needed 2 RCTs. Being the patient has its pros. I get to learn through the treatment I received.

Today, I was talking to one of the patient’s parent and something she said prompts me to write this.

 I’m sure most of the dental student out there can identify this with me. Many people think that coming to us, dental students for treatment is a form of self-sacrificing. Many term themselves as being our “experimental white mice”. For me it sounds a little discouraging to hear especially before I even place my mouth mirror and probe into the patient’s mouth. Well I don’t see a point to argue over this matter. The only way to win them over is to speak with confidence, assuring them you are well verse with your dental knowledge and handwork. Ability to speak fluent Malay, Chinese and English serve as a bonus to get the patient’s trust.

I can’t deny that the treatment done by the student will be somewhat more lengthy compare to private clinics out there. Probably you can get a filling done in 30 minutes or less without answering tones of questions in the private clinic which could have taken at least 1 ½  hours at the student clinic. Some are not willing to spend the time. What more, since it’s a dental school, the student clinic time is rigid and patients have to adhere to our strictly “weekday 10am-5pm only” schedule.  The only thing that makes the patients to continue the treatment with us is the charges. Most of the procedures are RM 5 whereas the procedures done in the first visit are all FOC. Full upper and lower denture cost RM 50. That is if you register under the student pool of course.

As students, our works are highly supervised. Everything we do, we need to get an approval to proceed. Our lecturers keep us in check on every step. Everything is planned in the best interest of the individual needs. Every advice & precaution is done to avoid any error. Remember, our standard is to aim for perfection not for your money.

At the end of the day, we still can’t control what patient thinks of us, we can only proof our worth through our work. (If you notice, that last line rhymes) 

Hospital Postings

*dressed in our white lab coats, pen torch clipped to our pocket, stethoscope placed neatly around our neck, holding our clipboards, walking towards the wards* Wait a minute! We are dental student no?

“What you dental students doing in hospital, in Surgical ward some more?” A common question we get from the patients. Yes, we have hospital posting like the MBBS student every Thursday morning. However, we will only be rotating between General surgery and General Medicine; it changes every block. This will only last throughout our 3^rd year of BDS course.

We are expected to clerk the cases, examine the patient, both general and local examination and then come out with a provisional diagnosis. Sounds easy? It’s not! Throughout our 1^st and 2^nd year of BDS, we only learn in detail about the head and neck region. It’s quite tough for us when the area with examine involve the parts from the abdomen and limbs. It’s hard to understand when the lecturer is explaining about certain anatomical site, it sounds all Greek and Latin to us. *Blank face*

Though we are struggling, most of us are slowly catching up. We are trying our best, getting help for some of our MBBS friends too. For asking history and examination part we still are able to tackle, but when it boils down to analyzing the facts and coming up with a diagnosis and treatment plan, everything just seems so dark and lost.

Our routine will start off with getting a patient which is relevant to the cases we are expected to see that day. We normally crowd around the census book to check which patient is having the disease we will discuss that day. After that, we will move towards the patient bed, ask for his/her consent and then proceed with history taking. After that, we will examine the patient. Some patient are reluctant to talk to us; some welcome us with open arm *well, not literally to hug you* Once the lecturer arrived, we have to get ready to present the case to them.

Honestly, many of us think that going to the hospital is like a waste of time. For me, I find it very interesting to meet and talk to the patients there. You can meet people from all walks of life. From a farmer to even ex-soldiers, from a young boy to an old man.

It’s always mix of emotion whenever I visit the hospital. It kind of builds up my feeling of empathy toward the patients. Just last posting, I remember seeing a terminally ill patient. His eyes were open wide, red and protruding out. They weren’t blinking. He must be in so much pain.

 Sometimes after seeing the patients, I just don’t know how to feel. I often think, all these patients sleeping in the bed, are they really relieved of their sufferings or they are just trying to hang in there. Wearing a poker face would be the best. I know it sounds depressing but I think we should be exposed to this part of life. Our patient won’t always be healthy, we must learn to react and direct them. It’s our job. We don’t just carry a “Dr.” title in from of our name for no reason.

Shall cherish my few hospitals posting days left. 

Melaka State Dental Day 2012

When I don’t feel like studying, nor even interested to sleep, it’s time to blog. (At least I get something done right?) Shall slowly clear of my To-Blog list.

This happened last October but I’m only writing about it now. I know, I been procrastinating a lot.

A few of us, say a quarter of the whole batch had the privilege to serve in the Hari Kesihatan Pergigian Peringkat Negeri Melaka 2012 held at Dataran MBMB. Sounds prestigious? I also thought so at first. It was organized by the Bahagian Kesihatan Pergigian Negeri Melaka (Melaka state dental department) & KESERI. We were divided into groups and each group was allocated a time slot to serve there. There will be one or two lecturers that will be present together with the group. The event was 3 days long, starting from 10am till 10pm.

Prof. Noorliza and Dr. Renjit were with my group. Our job was to give out dental tips on maintaining good oral hygiene among the public who attended the event. Sadly to say, I was quite discouraged by the amount of people who turn up during my group’s service time. I heard that there was a crowd from those who were there during the night; was very envious to hear that. Oh well.

Our dental nurse had prepared a plaque station. It was our gimmick to draw the kids to come hear what we have to offer. We sure had a fun time trying the plaque detector ourselves. 

I did manage to convince a family into the booth. The kids were quite interested especially when I asked them to demonstrate the brushing technique on the giant dental model. Hope what I taught them will benefit them in their dental home care.

There were also some dental nurses that dropped by. My group mates had a wonderful time chatting with them.

We were quite embarrassed because we have put up dental posters from USM. Our college hasn’t come up with our own set of posters yet; Malay language posters. Many dentists who visited our booth questioned us about it, but all we could helplessly reply was “We haven’t got our own yet, these were from our professor’s past university.” I felt the way they asked us was a little sarcastic “Apa pasal guna poster USM ni?! Kamu Melaka Manipal kan? Tak ada poster sendiri ke?!” It was a bit like trying to pick on us. Sorry, but they really sounded a bit high and mighty. Well, I see it that if the posters will benefit the public, then why not use them. We will definitely present our posters up the next round.

Overall, it was a good experience for us to expose ourselves to the public, the types of questions and concern they have toward their oral cavity.

Sugar free chewing gum anyone?