Internship Journal #3

March 8, 2013
It is always a great experience at the hospital, but this week was something else! I got to watch as a doctor’s treatment plan was to place two implants. This was very exciting! I observed as she was cutting open the gingiva, layer by layer and was actually surprised how long it took to get down to the bone. I have never worked at a dental office, it is always interesting to see the amount of instruments they use. When the bone was exposed the attending Periodontist wasn’t sure if the patient actually had enough bone for the implants- they were going to be replacing #’s 7 and 10, the patient was missing 6-11. The resident began to drill, and it was apparent there just wasn’t enough bone. The resident had to do a bone graft on the patient and is having them come back in six months for an evaluation to see how the bone takes and discuss the option of the implants again. Very cool to watch!