I BELIEVE IN DYCAL.

I was working on my Comprehensive Restorative Case today. I had to re-do existing restorations because of recurrent caries that have taken place, and of course, discoloration here and there, you know, the whole enchilada. It was a really critical area, because the teeth in question are maxillary central incisors, and the patient has already been mentioning how displeased she has been being with the appearance. I restored one surface (21-MI) last friday, and today, I had to dive into the rest-- Okay, 11- MI, P/L, D and 22- P/L, D.

When I discussed the Comprehensive Case, I was already warned. I was warned that the caries would be deep. I was even asked to run endo diagnostics just to rule out pulp necrosis (ruled out, obvs!) and to make sure that the teeth are vital (oh yes, they are!). I was warned that I'd have a difficult time. I listened, but because I am stubborn, I stuck with the case. For this case, I found prepping a little bit challenging. In Restorative Dentistry, we can classify caries as simple, compound, and complex. I didn't realize it then, but what I had on my chair was a patient with two teeth with complex caries, and the fact that I had to deal with recurrent caries blows my mind.

Today, I did my first every restorative case of the scary type. During caries removal of my lingual-slash-palatal recurrent caries over at tooth #11, I found that I was getting really close to the pulp. It was the first time I've ever seen a pulp exposure waiting to happen. I thought the pink would be some spread-out pinkness, but as it turned out, it was only just a line-- which makes sense, because the pulp kind of looks like a line. I don't know. The fact that 1mm of recklessness could mean the difference between a restorative case, and an endodontic case. I knew I had to be extra careful.


Enter Calcium Hydroxide.

I'm not even sure if this is the correct chemical structure for Dycal, but let's just pretend that it is.
Oh, and.. Thanks Google.

It wasn't too long ago that I was whining on Twitter about how Dycal used to be significantly cheaper when I was in Clinic 1 (and considering that I'm a megasenior who incurred a partial-reset in her Dentistry life, it's really safe to assume that "When I was in Clinic 1" was a long time ago). When I was in Clinic 1, Dycal was Php760, in the purple box; and when I bought Dycal again last month, it was about Php960(?), but in a different colored box.

I actually like the new Dycal. I used to hear horror stories about how Dycal sets too fast, and that some people would mix it inside the cavity preparation. With the expensive Dycal, I didn't have too much of a difficult time mixing and dispensing. Whatever magic secret ingredient the expensive Dycal has, it's good.:) I don't want to sound like an endorser or what, but I would have lost my head if not of Dycal. DYCAL IS AWESOME.

..but let me tell you something that's slightly more awesome than Dycal-- Faith. You know what, sometimes, no wait-- most of the time, it's so easy to allow yourself to be eaten up by obscurity and self-doubt. I know that I'm in no position to be all preachy about self-confidence, as I myself have only just rediscovered it, but maybe, just maybe we can all gain a little something better and brighter from having faith in ourselves. Okay, I'm by no means an excellent student, but I scored four 100s today (one in Oral Surgery, three in Restorative), just let that be enough motivation for you to believe in yourself.

I believe in myself, I believe in Dycal.
Okay, I'm out.:)

By the way, if you're confused as to what I mean by Restorative Dentistry, I mean fillings. In other parts of the world, it's called Operative Dentistry.

Corine Magenta