I had my oral surgery rotation this past week and I am not going to lie, I was nervous. I have assisted before, but every time I assist during an extraction I would always get that hot, about to faint feeling. And to make things more embarrassing, I also loss color and my color turns to a whitish-gray color. I did warn my partner about this, but I think she thought I was just joking. But after the first extraction procedure, I think she found out pretty quickly I was not. lol!
I would not say I let my queasiness hold me back from helping out, but I just wish let would let you sit while assisting in oral surgery. lol!
I had a theory that if I were to sit and assist during all the bloody/flapping gums I would be ok. So the other day I got to put that theory to the test. I was in clinic last Friday without a patient, so one of the faculty sent me to the Perio clinic to assist during a surgery. Once again I was a little nervous, but I found out in Perio you can sit and assist! We started the procedure the procedure, the doctor started by making an incision from the patient's second molar to their first permolar. Then she separated the gums from the bone. I could see the ramus of the mandible after she was done. There was a lot of bleed and grossness. lol! But amazingly throughout the whole procedure, I did not once get that faint feeling! So my theory was right. Sitting makes all the difference...at least for me. :)
I wonder why that is. I'm glad it worked though! I love all that gore. It is amazing to me what science can do. I find surgery so interesting for that reason. How amazing is science that we can fix a necrotic tooth, or replace one with an implant. Even transplant lungs or a heart! I fascinates me.
ReplyDeleteI had the same thing happen to me when I first started assisting. Another good trick is to make sure you have eaten something prior to surgery and drink something really cold. I think drinking the ice water just helps you not get so hot. I learned to also sit or if I thoough I was going to throw up or pass out I would say that I forgot something and just leave the room for a few minutes. But now I can't get enough of it.
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