This externship has been very slow. We had 3 procedures on Tuesday, one of which was very sad and ended in euthanasia due to the unexpected finding of presumed cancer that was essentially invading the entire maxilla. I suppose people aren’t really scheduling dental procedures so close to the holidays because they’re spending money on holiday gifts and whatnot. Bleh.
I have, however, gotten a lot of practice taking dental x-rays. Taking them is generally the job of the vet tech who is also doing the dental exam and cleaning, but it’s a skill I want to have an understanding of. On Monday, I had a lot of practice with one of their dog skulls. Today, the dentists I’m working with hosted a dental x-ray continuing education program for both vets and techs. There were two sessions, so I got to hear the lecture the vets heard and participate in the x-ray how-to for the techs. In between the sessions, I practiced taking x-rays using both a dog and a cat cadaver head. It was really helpful! And definitely different than working with the skull with all the soft tissue present. It took me nearly an hour to get half the dog’s mouth done, but I was doing it on my own without assistance from the dentistry tech since I wanted to trouble shoot and think things through on my own. When she looked at them once I was done, she said they were mostly pretty good and diagnostic, which was nice. She helped me with the cat head since we were running out of time before the next CE session started, so it went quite a bit more quickly, but, then again, cats have smaller mouths and fewer teeth than dogs.
This morning, I picked up a cadaver head of my own from school along with a dental instruments pack. Tomorrow, one of the doctors I’m working with will guide me through doing surgical extractions. It will be really nice having one-on-one time. Third year we had an extraction lab in my Dentistry class, but there were like 40 of us and only 4 dentists split among us all and we had limited tools, so it wasn’t the most helpful experience. This way, I won’t feel rushed and I’ll be able to use the best suited tools of the correct size and I’ll have a dentist all to myself when I need guidance. I’ll be the 2nd person to learn off of this cadaver head. He’s already had his eyes enucleated bilaterally. Cadavers are sad, but a great gift, so I’m always happy when we can learn the most we can from them. I’m not sure what he actually is, but I’m calling the head a “he” because I don’t think it’s fair to call him an “it.”
He was likely a stray euthanized in a shelter, for whatever reason. Having worked in a shelter, I realize that some animals really are not safe to be pets or are too ill or anxious and for them, euthanasia is sadly the best option. When working at my animal shelter and assisting with euthanasias, I always thought it was such an incredible waste that the euthanized animals were cremated instead of donated to vet and vet tech schools. Apparently animal rights activists get up in arms about things like that and there’s a lot of controversy and politics surrounding the issue. If we were euthanizing these animals solely for the purpose of education, I could understand the upset, but these animals, at least at the shelter I worked for, were not fit for adoption and very careful consideration was given to euthanasia. I feel like their lives and deaths could be more meaningful if someone could use their bodies, especially since we can learn so much from them. I’m thankful for my cadaver head. He’s going to help me become a better doctor.
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