Keep Moving Forward!

As my presentation date approaches, I find myself scrambling to get everything done. With the brochure and pictures of peoples' teeth to the tools and objects that will be put on display, it seems that everything is coming into place. Although the presentation is coming along pretty well, I still need a lot more to fill in the 45 minute gap that will be my presentation. With only about two weeks left, I need to start bringing more things together.

Getting Close to That Time...

I only have two visits left for my sponsor! It's crazy how time flies and I can't really think of another way to spend my Monday afternoons, but when you gotta go you gotta go! The visit was a little different from the others. I did see an extraction but it was a different kind of extraction; this time Dr. Okon extracted bone spicules, which are pieces of bone that grow and poke out of someones gum. There was such a big gap in the man's mouth from the extraction that Dr. Okon had to stitch his gum together. This man, who had to be in his late 40s to early 50s, was in so much pain that even the Novocaine, which they gave him 2 doses of, didn't help the pain brought on by the procedure. He wiggled in his seat, closed his eyes tight, gripped the armrest and moved his feet around; all evident signs of him trying to fight the pain. That was one visit to the dentist I didn't particularly like.

As I was working on my molds for my presentation, I began to come up with a wonderful idea: while talking about my experiences at the dental office, or about how important teeth are, I would make a slide show of the teeth of students and faculty, mostly to demonstrate how no two set of teeth are alike and also to show how memorable and distinguished some people's smiles are. What I found out, however, is that it was extremely difficult to actually get a picture of teeth, and most of the people I asked to take a picture of said no. Those "shy" people did help me though; the subject of teeth and how important their appearance is will be an interesting subject during my presentation.

'Bout to Tap That !

This blog, as may be interpreted by the title, is yet another one of my angry rants about dumb high school females and the problems they bring. This blog is namely about someone who seems to have a problem with talking about me and the things that I have allegedly done. One thing that I cannot stand is when people spread rumors about me. Personally, I don't think that I'm all that interesting to be talked about, especially on a rumor basis. Usually, I keep to myself and my close circle of friends in school, what pisses me off is that some people have the audacity to really spend time out of their daily routine to spoil my, for lack of a better word, reputation. I consider myself a peaceful person; I'm not rude to people I don't know, and am not seriously mean to the people that I do know, but this person has one, ONE more time to say something about me before I do something that I may regret.  

Weekly Journey

Yesterday I took yet another wonderful journey to my sponsor, Dr. Okon, but, unlike every other Monday that I go there, he was not there! He didn't show up until about 2:00, so I watched as Dr. Zucker, another dentist in the office, perform a filling on a boy of about 11 or 12. This was much different from the many, many fillings I've witnessed in the office because it was performed on a child. Normally, I am watching Dr. Okon, who usually performs strictly on adults, so to watch a child get a procedure done, even if it's the same thing, is a bit different because, unlike Dr. Okon, Dr. Zucker needs to put a little effort into not being too forceful in childrens' mouths. One thing I found particularly disgusting was the fact that this boy had so much saliva; every time Dr. Zucker would put an instrument in his mouth, he would pull out pints of saliva which I think is gross. One thing that I found really interesting was the drama of the office. It reminded me of ER or Grey's Anatomy, some type of medical drama. I didn't get a chance to see anything other than the filling, unfortunately, but did get to see something else that is quite valuable; the problems behind becoming a dentist. Sure, it's nice to see the jobs I would have to perform, but it's even better seeing what problems and types of people I would have to deal with.  

My girl likes to...make molds all the time, make molds all the time, make molds all the tiiime.

I recently made a green mold of a few people's teeth, including my own, and have now begun to make the clay molds. Although not particularly accurate, it is a very nice focal piece to show during my presentation. It's not exactly something that a person looks at everyday and incorporates two subjects I find interesting: art and dentistry. After completion of the clay molds, I will begin to make a large scale mold of a tooth, which I intend to perform a root canal on, with the help of Mr. D and his tools.

Frustration Station

As you can probably tell from the title of this blog, I am not a happy camper. What are the reasons for my frustrations? I have only one answer, one word for that: freshmen. As I've said before, sometimes I truly regret my decision to become a senior mentor and this is one of those times. It seems like every possible button that could be pushed by them is and I'm going crazy! I find myself looking forward to graduation because I will finally be rid of them and I know that may sound horrible but, if put in the position most of the senior mentors of my school are, you would probably feel the same way. Unlike my amazing, sometimes incredibly mean, mentor, Ms. Sykes, I don't have a degree that would help me to better deal with the stress caused by my freshman on a daily basis. Not only do some of them refuse to do work, some will actually catch an attitude when you ask them to do what they're supposed to do! It drives me absolutely bonkers! I suppose that once the last week of school rolls by that I'll actually start to miss them, but until that seemingly unlikely time comes, I'll be in the back of the classroom; sulking and moody.

Just Another Day

On Monday, I once again walked the six minute long journey to Dr. Okon's office and, unlike any other day, he was in the front of the office. Usually when I arrive, he is wrist deep in someones mouth, ready to perform whatever task they have asked, but today he was speaking with an older couple in what I suspect was Hebrew. After that 5 minute talk, he proceeded to go to the back to "work his magic". After witnessing yet another terrific filling, which I would have to say is my tenth so far, I watched as they were cleaning and looking at the X-Rays of a patient whose teeth had been bothering him for some time. I, unfortunately, had to leave earlier than usual to go to choir rehearsal, but I will enjoy what few visits I have left.

The Ball, she is rolling!

Last week, I unsuccessfully tried to start my senior project presentation. For my presentation, as agreed on by my mentor, I will explain the mouth, its diseases, what people can do to prevent them, etc, but I will also perform a root canal and an extraction; two pretty common procedures I've witnessed from my in Dr. Okon's office. I started, with the help of Mr. D, to mix two plastic mold materials to make a mold of both mine and Briana Woodruff's teeth, and Mr. D put clay into into the mold of my teeth and, to my dismay, it wasn't very flattering and really couldn't be used to serve my purpose. I then made a bigger mold of all my teeth, to really capture the detail of each tooth, and will make a clay mold of it soon.

Something old, Something New, but, thankfully, nothing BLUE!

I'm sure that you're curious as to what my blog title means. No, I'm not crazy and this isn't another "Randy" blog, but I am happy that some progress was made in this weeks dentist trip. As if it were another day, I took my 4-6 minute journey to Dr. Okon's office, made some small talk with Janet and Kathy, the receptionists, and worked my way to the back of the office. I walked into a room and in the middle of an extraction. For those of you who don't know what an extraction is, it's basically when the dentist pulls out teeth, usually with a tool that closely resembled pliers, and, as is normal for an extraction, blood came gushing out of the gum. It's pretty interesting to see it done and even more interesting is looking in the patients' mouth and seeing the holes in the gum. These holes look pretty disgusting the first couple of times you watch it, but, eventually, you get used to it. Anyway, after performing the extraction, Barbie placed in the temporary dentures which, having seen and heard about the difficulties involving dentures, aren't very glamourous.