Radiograph Thursday and Injection Friday

On Thursday I took my first full mouth set of radiographs. We did it on a skull not a real person but it was still pretty fun. It was actually very difficult and it will only get more difficult since a skull doesn't have lips or a tongue and you can see through the back of the head to make sure everything is lined up. But I'll get a few more practice runs before I have to take any on a real person. However, we had one day to practice local anesthesia and now the next time we perform an injection will be a real patient. Which in my case is quite unfortunate...

So we had to partner up with a classmate, well since I'm pregnant I can't recieve local anesthesia (lucky me!) however I still had to practice the technique on someone. My inferior alveolar nerve block (numbing half of the lower jaw) went very well. My infiltrative injection (numbing one tooth at a time) also went very well. I then had the instructor come show me how to do a posterior superior alveolar nerve block (numbing half of the upper jaw). With all the other ones he just pointed to where to stick the needle and I went from there. For some reason with the PSA he actually gave the injection, distributing some anesthesia and then had me do it. Well I did it and it went fine, until we started cleaning up our cubicle. All of the sudden my partner said hmmm my face feels a little funny and our instructor was noticing some swelling. Well very quickly after that my partner got this huge bump on his cheek. My instructor said it was a hematoma (basically a bruise) and since the blood has no where to go it pushes the cheek out. Well supposedly these things last 2-3 weeks! Oops... It really wasn't my fault, and it happens to dentists all the time. What happens is that the place where you need to inject is a crazy network of arteries and veins and if you happen to tear through a couple or puncture one it might just bleed enough to cause a hematoma. So I did it (maybe, since my instructor gave the injection first its a 50/50 chance that it was me) but it wasn't my fault exactly, these things just happen.

So if you ever need work done on your upper teeth make sure that you don't have a wedding or other major event in the next couple of weeks, just in case.