** Warning: This post contains pictures of decayed and bloody extracted teeth
Dental work has been steady
here! I have an average of 2-3 patients
a day, which is perfect for me because I have limited instruments and
sterilizing takes at least an hour. I
have pulled a total of 9 teeth so far, 4 of those being primary teeth. I’m getting the hang of this! I have cleaned the teeth of 4 people
too. I’ve been busy! Even though I have tried to explain to the
Chadians that I am a hygienist, they don’t have any idea what that is, so they
all just call me dentist. :)
Every time, as I prepare to do an
extraction, I send up a silent prayer for God to help me and guide my
hands. I have seen those prayers
answered! There have been times when I
thought a tooth would never come out and I thought I would have to give up, but
as long as I kept working on it, and praying out loud between my gasps for air,
eventually I would see it loosening up and finally come out of the socket. There have been some teeth that were so
difficult to remove! I had to literally
use my entire body force and spend over 10 minutes wiggling and pulling on it
before it would come out! I have even
had to stand on a stool to give me better leverage (since when have I needed
more height??)! I sweat more extracting
teeth than I do being outside in the hot African sun! It has been an interesting experience for me,
for sure! Some teeth just slip right out
as though they were waiting for an excuse to escape. Others are more stubborn and seem to laugh at
me when I start pulling on them.
But, I am proud to announce, that
every tooth has come out entire and whole, without broken roots or crowns! I’d say that’s an accomplishment! I know it’s a God thing.
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| My first maxillary tooth |
One of the hardest teeth I had to
extract was a wisdom tooth that was rotted away at the gum line and had 2 roots
(although, I didn’t know it at the time, because I don’t have X-rays here). I spent so long wiggling and pulling on that
tooth. The guy didn’t feel it because of
the anesthetic I gave him, but he sure wasn’t enjoying all the pressure. Bekki was in the room translating for me and
I asked her to start praying. She did
just that and continued to encourage me as I worked and sweated and turned
red-faced from the excursion. Finally I
felt that little sucker loosen slightly and then it popped right out! I was shocked to see 2 roots on it, because
most wisdom teeth have 1 twisted root.
That may have been why it was so hard to pull. The gentleman seemed relieved to leave my
little dental room.
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| Me with my hard earned tooth! |
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| A close up of the wisdom tooth with two roots |
I had a boy of the age of 9,
whose father wanted 4 primary teeth extracted because his permanent teeth were
growing in behind them and the baby teeth seemed in no hurry to move. The boy had 2 sets of incisive teeth on his lower
jaw. It kind of looked like something
you’d see in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, but it seemed easy to fix, since one
of the teeth was already pretty loose. I
prepared my anesthetic as discreetly as possible and when I turned around, the
poor guy had tears running down his cheeks.
I tried to comfort him as best I could through my language barrier, but
the dad wasn’t as consoling. When the
boy closed his mouth and wouldn’t let me give him an injection, the father took
the boy outside (I can only imagine what ensued), and brought him back, placed
him on the chair and the boy complied with my giving him the injection. As soon as I gave it to him, he seemed to
realize it wasn’t as bad as he expected, and the rest of the work was done
relatively tearless. The boy left my
room with a sticker, a tooth brush and his 4 little teeth. I hope it made up for the trauma he
experienced!
I really love the profession I’m
in. Being able to help people in every
culture is invaluable. That’s one reason
why I chose dental hygiene for a career.
I can’t wait to continue using it throughout my lifetime!
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