Case Studies

Arestin Placement:

One of the requirements in third semester is to select an appropriate case and place arestin on eight sites. The patient would have to do four quadrant scaling after that arestin would be placed. The patient would then come back for reevaluation of the eight sites. My patient was eighteen years old. The patient stated that he never had a cleaning prior to coming to clinic.  The patients chief complaint was a lesion that developed a month ago. The lesion was located near #19 lingual and measured 11x9mm.  the lesion is attached but movable. It resembled the color of the gingiva and it was not symmetrical. Upon reviewing radiographs, it was determined by the faculty that the lesion was not affecting surrounding bone. A referral was given to the patient for the lesion.  All of the chosen sites where 5mm. When reevaluating the sites, it was noted that almost all of the sites were reduced by at least 1mm.

Complex Medical History

In clinic we come across many patients with complex medical history. One patient in particular was in her late 40’s and had type II diabetes. The patient states that she has never received a dental cleaning or radiographs. The patient needed several visits for the SRP. The radiographs demonstrates the beginning of bone loss. The patient came in after three months. The patients probe readings were decreased in almost all of the 5mm pockets. Upon reviewing the findings with the patient, the patient seemed motivated and stated that she would come back next semester once the clinic was over. This patient was a little skeptical about seeing another clinician.

Many of the patients who walk in to clinic take multiple medications.  Medications that treat medical conditions such as: diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy, anxiety, depression etc. The medications are looked up prior to treating a patient because there may be some effects or symptoms that may interfere with treatment. I have also treated patients who are allergic to penicillin and other food allergies.

In clinic we also use prophy jet to remove extrinsic stains. These stains accumulate over the course of many years and are difficult to remove because there’s also calculus that forms on top of that and  then even more stain develops. There was one patient in particular who had a tenacious brown stain covering the entire lingual surface of every single tooth. After air polishing was performed, a lot of the stain was not remove. The cavitron as well as hand instruments had to be use Although the amount of deposit was not severe; the stain present on this patient was heavy.

Local Anesthesia

Administration of local anesthesia was taught at the beginning of the last semester. Local anesthesia is performed on clinic patients with the supervision of faculty.

 

In the dental hygiene clinic we also come across cases that not under our scope of practice. Such patients are given a referral where they can seek the appropriate care that they need. One of my patients who came in the other day for a cleaning; could not get a thorough treatment because the patients was under our scope of care. The patient had mobility on almost all of his teeth and moderate bone loss with the exception of the upper left quadrant where the bone loss was severe. I could only scale a couple of teeth where the bone loss wasn’t so severe. The patient was given a referral for a full periodontal treatment.