AIR POLISHER JET THING.

Impulsive purchase? Maybe.
Correct purchase? Definitely.




I bought myself an air polisher. The whole contraption comes in a variety of terms (to the point that I don't even know which is correct)-- air polisher, prophy jet, air prophy jet from a different planet.. Honestly, I don't know. I never learned about this in Periodontology (don't blame Dr. Laguna, I took Perio somewhere else), so for the sake of simplicity, let's just refer to this neat little contraption as Air Prophy Whatchamacallit, or better yet, let's just call it The Thing.

I know a lot about impulsive purchases, and I know what impulsive shopping feels like. PLEASE. I have a red lipstick collection to prove it! --The thing about buying The Thing was that when I saw it, I knew I needed it. I only had the vaguest idea of how to use it, but I knew I wanted it. At this point, I think I have to reiterate that this needing and wanting I speak of isn't the same as how I need and want a Koko K Kylie Jenner Lip Kit, this is serious, and I knew that it had to be mine.

I don't know if this necessarily qualifies as an "impulsive purchase", because I had it reserved yesterday, and only claimed it today. I had about 26 hours to fully wrap my head around dropping a lot of money on something I was barely familiar with, but now that The Thing is at home with me, and we have Dr. Internet to bind us together with ~*KnOwLeDgE*~, I'm really glad I bought it. :)

Okay, Dr. Internet had a lot to teach me about using The Thing. I don't want to give you a written lecture on how jet polishing surpasses traditional prophy cup polishing, because I really am in no position to "teach" anyone about something I've yet to fully understand, soooo.. I won't. When I read that bit about how jet polishing removes plaque and biofilm along areas that rotary devices don't normally reach, I was half won-over, the other half followed when I came across the word "ergonomics". I understand that jet polishing isn't for all patients, and that a patient's medical history should be reviewed before even deciding jet polish (ex. Patients with sodium restrictions can't have this because the prophy powder contains a lot of sodium), but oh well, adding something new to my skill set entails great responsibility, and if it would make things better for some of my patients, then it would be worth it. It's for my patients that I'm updating my techniques, after all.

Ohh wait, speaking of updating techniques, I read a journal article about polishing first, before actual scaling-- the routine switch-up was compared to sweeping first, before mopping. I know it sounds really absurd, but I think I want to try it, with the supervision of a clinical instructor, of course. Damn it, I'm getting too serious about Periodontology that Oral Surgery's starting to get jealous.

Oh my goodness, this is such a useless blog post.

By the way, please don't ask me in public (or on media platforms visible a lot of people) how much this cost me. I normally don't like talking about money when so many eyes are watching.. It kind of makes me feel a bit.. Dirty. MY GOODNESS. There's a Contact Me form on the right hand side of the blog, we can talk there!:)

Love and sparkles,
Corine and The Thing

Love is PATIENT.

It's 1:00 AM of Wednesday, and I'm just about getting ready to get ready for bed! I have absolutely no idea where the day went-- but wait, maybe it is true that time flies when you're having fun. Well, maybe I just had an exceptionally awesome day because I started the day with my love love Periodontology.




I tell you-- the best clinic days are the days that I get to do Perio. :)

I'm on my 7th weekly recall on my Compre Perio case-- Okay, wait. I'm starting to feel that I'm lying to myself, still calling it weekly, when the last time my patient saw me was two weeks ago. Anyway, one more "weekly" recall, and we'll be off to the monthly recalls. On my old blog, I mentioned about wanting to jump back to the surgical phase because of failure of a few teeth to improve. I still want to jump back to the surgical phase, I just couldn't do it this term because the surgery cut-off has passed.

That's the thing with being a Dentistry student, especially when you reach the clinical years-- you want to think that you hold your own time, but in reality, you're nothing but a slave to your patients' schedules. Oh my goodness, slave seems kind of harsh and exaggerated, but of course, you get the idea. The truth is, life gets in the way, not only for you, but for your patients. While there are patients who give tons of excuses just to avoid their appointments (get rid of those patients the first chance you get!), there are patients who fall into unforeseen circumstances-- telling the two apart is a very crucial skill. While it's okay to be frustrated for a few minutes, it's always a good idea to keep calm and look for something else to do.

Sometimes, you also have to remember that for every non-compliant patient, faith and optimism will come at you with a really good patient who would make you love what you do (even more!). It's also fun appreciating patients as actual humans, and not just as requirements to be ticked off a list. You'll give them your skills, and they'll give you their trust.

..and when you love hard enough, you can sometimes get donuts too.:)



--but you know, donuts or no donuts, I love my patients just the same.<3