Sick Day

Today was a day that I hope to never repeat. I woke up with a fever, headache, and an upset stomach. After a lot of Tylenol and Pepto Bismal I decided to try to observe Dr. Pio anyway. I was able to watch 2 fillings and half of a consultation before I had to sit down to rest. I sat on their couch for a little while until my fever went away. They were very kind and understanding. Dr. Pio kept asking me if I ate something bad, and right now I’m not sure what the culprit of my issues is. Once my fever subsided I felt  a lot better and continued to shadow for the rest of the morning. Dr. Pio extracted three teeth from one man. I found that interesting because I don’t usually see dentists extract that many teeth at once. After the extraction, I finally saw some preventative care! The other dentist in the office cleaned a woman’s teeth. This is not done like it is in the US, but at least they do practice prevention! Oh, also while I was there I found out why Dr. Pio didn't come in yetserday. Apparently he occasionally goes to a village to do some dental work for a day. I really like that because it shows that he cares about more than just his clinic. I wish I was going to have the opportunity to go with him, but it doens't look like it will work out.

After arriving back at the hostel I slept all day hoping it would make me feel better. I am still not able to eat, but I was able to go to Dr. Priya’s clinic this evening and observe her. Although her office is scorching hot, I somehow managed to observe the whole time I was there. She had a good number of consultations about root canals, performed two extractions, and worked on placing a crown. As she was fitting the crown, she wasn’t pleased so she made a new mold of his teeth to send to the lab.  She said it takes about 4 days to get things back from the lab so hopefully he can get his crown soon. Tonight at Dr. Priya’s office there was an orthodontist, which shamelessly I did not know they had here in India. Apparently she has specialists come in occasionally to perform procedures that she does not feel comfortable doing. She told me that she has a root canal specialist that comes in once a month as well. I might be able to watch the orthodontist put braces on a girl here in a few days which will be fun and a change of pace.

An observation I made today that I thought was interesting is that the dentists do not number the teeth the same way we do in the US. I couldn’t quite catch onto their method, but I think I will ask tomorrow.

Let’s hope I’m feeling better tomorrow!! I can’t handle this feeling everyday, I feel so useless.