Monday, July 9, 2012

MEMO Dental Team

After hours of training with the dental team and Dr. Bui the first day of clinic finally arrived. It was time to test our knowledge of names of tools and anesthetics that we’ve just learned, or at least that was how I looked at it in the beginning. It turned out to be more of a test of team work, improvising and learning as the clinic day progressed. Our team of ten people was divided into a team of five for each day. I was assigned to work at the dental station the first day of clinic along with Bryant, Christine, Theresa, and Thomas. We quickly set up the equipment according to how it was planned the night before. Dr. Bui walked around to make sure that all the tools and equipment was set up and that we all were wearing the correct protective gear. We quickly assigned the roles of dental assistant, rover, and infection control amongst the five of us. Then, just right after things were set up the first few patients arrived and were lying in on of the three dental chairs. Luckily, there were two other Vietnamese dentists and three dental students available to see and treat patients as more and more of them came. 

I was working with Christine at infection control for the first half. Though our job started off slow, things picked up pretty quickly and more and more trays of tools needed to be disinfected. It meant we had to work fast, but the good news was that a lot of patients were being seen and treated. I think I can speak for all of dental team in saying that it definitely got HOT under those protective cloth coats, face masks, and eye shields, which fogged up every time we breathed out. However, seeing everyone around me continue to diligently work while also drenched in sweat was enough motivation to keep me working. I don’t think anyone really had time to think about the heat. We just kept disinfecting tools one batch after another. 

For the second half Christine and I switched roles to do dental assistant. It was great to work alongside Dr. Bui as he treated patients. It was easy to tell that he was very knowledgeable and knew exactly what his patients needed. We could see clearly that many of the patients have never been to a dentist and had conditions which could easily be fixed, such as broken roots of a tooth embedded in their gum that caused them pain. I learned a lot in the time doing dental assisting because Dr. Bui would explain to us as he did the extractions. A few of us even got the privilege of extracting a tooth with our own hands towards the end of the day under Dr. Bui’s guidance. It was a unique and exciting experience for everyone. Though all of us at the dental station were exhausted by the end of the clinic, it was exhilarating and rewarding thinking about how many patients were able to be treated and how relatively smooth everything went, thanks to Dr. Bui’s careful planning and training. All of us were all smiles after. I thought it was a great first day for clinic and consider myself very lucky to have been a part of M.E.M.O G6’s dental team 

-Kathleen Ta

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