As me and the girls sat down for dinner Sunday evening, Addison said, "Somebody is missing. It's my dad. Are you sad, Mom? I can give you a hug." I think she is coming to expect my tears to flow at dinner time. The first few times I broke down at the table, both girls looked at me very concerned and confused. Now, little Miss Addison beats me to the punch, comforting me before I have a chance to shed my first tear.
I cannot begin to understand God's will or plan for me, or why Joel is not here on earth with us anymore. But, I trust it has something to do with raising these two little angels. Addison tells me she is going to be a doctor when she grows up, calling herself "Dr. Addison Wagner." (I am entertained by the last name change, as her allergy specialist's name is Dr. Wagner.) I thought maybe she'd be led to become a neuro-oncologist, and go on to someday tell Dr. Neuwelt a thing or two about brain cancer.
However, recently she explained to me she was going to become a dentist. "They're doctors too," she added. Such a little smarty. I told her if she did, then maybe someday I would work for her and then (and only then) could she finally get to be the boss of ME. (This stems from me asking her, "Who's in charge? Who's the boss here? and her quickly replying, "I'm the boss of my babies," with a little saunter of the hips.)
Anyhow, I am half way through my fourth week of the term, and it is going fine so far. Child care is working out perfectly, studying is good, and my patients have been showing up on time as scheduled. The bulk of my course load this term is actual patient treatment, and I have been easing my way back into it. I'm picking up speed, getting back into the flow of it, and gearing up to start seeing more periodontally involved patients.
I don't believe many people understand that when I am at school, I am actually in a dental clinic and providing dental hygiene services to patients with limited access to care. I do complete periodontal assessments, intra/extra oral examinations, take full mouth set of exams, perform prophys and non-surgical periodontal therapy (scaling and root planing) with hand and ultrasonic instruments, administer local anesthesia, educate patients on periodontal disease and proper oral hygiene skills, and provide nutritional and tobacco cessation counseling. There is a lot to it. When you attend dental hygiene school and pass all the state and national clinical and written examinations (and jump through a bunch of other hoops), you are prepared to enter the work force once licensure has been granted (and an employment opportunity presents itself!
At this point in our program, my fellow students and I are searching for 'perfect board patients' or 'sub-test patients'. These are patients who may have not been to the dentist in at least a few years for a cleaning. Yet, not all people develop the amount or type of calculus subgingivally we are looking for. (For example, I brought one of Joel's friends down to Albany expecting him to be perfect for me because he had said it had been maybe 15 years since a cleaning - and well, his teeth are in really good condition with barely any calculus deposits). Finding that perfect patient is probably the most stressful aspect of the program, and taking the clinical boards.
So, here's my advertisement:
For only $40, you can get a dental exam, four bite wing x-rays, complete perio-assessment, and the BEST cleaning of your life done by me -- no matter how involved it may be. In the real world, having only one quadrant of your dentition scaled and root planed can cost around $200 (this doesn't include the exam or radiographs). It's an incredible opportunity. A full mouth set of x-rays will be necessary and that will cost another $25. It will also cost you some time... A lot of time really: travel time to either Albany or Eugene with three and a half hour appointments. Sounds scary I know, but a good portion of that time is waiting for an instructor or the dentist to check what we have done before we are allowed to go on. This insures we are doing everything correctly and absolutely thoroughly.
Interested... send me a message at joel.angie.bauer@gmail.com.
The photo, by the way, was taken in the clinic at Lane Community College near the end of my first year while pregnant with dear Vivia.
No comments:
Post a Comment