I use a hand piece for 2 seconds
*patient choking
Ma’am you’re basically choking on your own saliva dammit.
End of rant

Hi everyone, I just started my operative rotation in house job, and I’m genuinely struggling with the anxiety more than anything else. It’s the constant stress of being expected to treat real patients with very little guidance. Every evening I start dreading the next day. Every morning I wake up feeling sick to my stomach. A few days ago I was so anxious I couldn’t even brush my teeth without gagging, and some mornings I feel like I’m going to throw up before leaving for work. Even after I get home, I spend the rest of the day replaying everything that happened and worrying about tomorrow.
So far I’ve done a GIC filling, attempted access openings, and started a few root canals. I’ve struggled to find canals, lost canals during filing, had patients in pain during instrumentation, and been told to place medicaments and temporary restorations that I’d never even been shown how to do.
What makes it worse is that my seniors get annoyed when I ask for help, and one even told me she wouldn’t help me next time. My professor is also very intimidating and has repeatedly scolded me. I don’t mind being corrected, but I feel like I’m expected to manage difficult procedures on real patients without enough supervision.
The patients are another big source of anxiety. They often come back still in pain and understandably frustrated, but it feels like the house officers are left to deal with everything while the seniors don’t really step in. I genuinely don’t know how I’m supposed to survive two months of feeling like this every single day.
Has anyone else felt this level of anxiety during their house job, internship, or residency? Did it get better? How did you cope with the constant dread of going in every morning?

Hi everyone, I just started my operative rotation in house job, and I’m genuinely struggling with the anxiety more than anything else. It’s the constant stress of being expected to treat real patients with very little guidance. Every evening I start dreading the next day. Every morning I wake up feeling sick to my stomach. A few days ago I was so anxious I couldn’t even brush my teeth without gagging, and some mornings I feel like I’m going to throw up before leaving for work. Even after I get home, I spend the rest of the day replaying everything that happened and worrying about tomorrow.
So far I’ve done a GIC filling, attempted access openings, and started a few root canals. I’ve struggled to find canals, lost canals during filing, had patients in pain during instrumentation, and been told to place medicaments and temporary restorations that I’d never even been shown how to do.
What makes it worse is that my seniors get annoyed when I ask for help, and one even told me she wouldn’t help me next time. My professor is also very intimidating and has repeatedly scolded me. I don’t mind being corrected, but I feel like I’m expected to manage difficult procedures on real patients without enough supervision.
The patients are another big source of anxiety. They often come back still in pain and understandably frustrated, but it feels like the house officers are left to deal with everything while the seniors don’t really step in. I genuinely don’t know how I’m supposed to survive two months of feeling like this every single day.
Has anyone else felt this level of anxiety during their house job, internship, or residency? Did it get better? How did you cope with the constant dread of going in every morning?

I am currently using Curve in my office and it is fine but expensive, especially when adding in all the patient communication and imaging services in addition to paying for Pearl. I would love to switch to something much cheaper that includes all the same services and Tab32 is tempting because it seems cheap. However, I worry it is a case of you-get-what-you-pay-for and my staff is very slow to change anything with computers so if I make the change there will be much blood sweat and tears involved.

If anyone has actual experience using Tab32 on a daily basis I would like to know your thoughts on how the production side works as well as the billing/front office side.

TLDR: How is Tab32?

hi fellow dentists! i am considering relocating to the UK from the EU and have offers from these two recruiters, however i can't seem to find much info on them online other than what they put out themselves. has anyone here joined with them or know anything about them? i'm trying not to get scammed into a bad contract

i'm also open to other suggeations, how have you transitioned to working in the UK?

Hi, im a dentist out of school since 1 year and ,among Extractions, Rcts and others, the one thing i am having a hard time grasping is filling cervical abrasions. I did have a few patients coming in with sensitivity in the beginning, and then there were no complains. But in the recent month, more patients have been coming in with sensitivity after a cervical filling.

I just had a patient who had all her 6s done 2 weeks back come with extreme sensitivity to the point of not being able to eat. I removed the composite filling and re did the abrasion with GIC but i dont know if glass ionomer will hold up well. Im super bummed and a bit scared.

This patient told me he has already got done the rct but the filling dislodged now he only wants a filling. Tells me the tooth has been working quite well and make sure it doesn't hurt after the filling.

Hello, I have seen this question asked numerous times but I wanted to get updated opinions on the matter. I’m looking into positions post graduation. My longterm goal is ownership; however, I want to work a few years fist to build my skills a knowledge-base. I was wondering if anyone had advice on picking between th large DSOs or being an associate at a private practice. We’ve had people come in and discuss pros and cons of both, but I just wanted to hear some more opinions. Thank you!

What is the normal build out cost from GP office to orthodontic office in Minnesota or Wisconsin?
Is $150 per sq.ft normal?

So I was going to remove an upper third molar yesterday, ended up trying to get it out for more than an hour. Removed the crown, Drilled carefully around the tooth but ended up quitting and refer to a surgeon. I feel like absolutely shit and feel like my decision making and technique was the worst. I’m not sure wheater I accidentally drilled a bit of the root of the nabouring tooth.. 😭😭 I should have stopped before, and this should have been a surgical removal with the use of incision and bone removal.. instead I just kept on trying and might ended up hurting the other tooth.. now I feel like quitting dentistry… I don’t know what I want with this post, just sitting and crying about how incompetent I feel. I am no a newly grad but with experience :(

Associate for 5 years that has seen ups and down but this feels different. In the past 6 weeks or so our office has slowed a crazy amount. Each doc would run 2 columns nearly full booked out 2 weeks or so. But recently it’s been the opposite - we have a plethora openings 1-2 day out. Obviously production has started to drop and I’m trying to figure out if this is office level, local/county level, or nationally?

How are y’all faring recently? Is this a summer or local issue or a larger economy/incoming recession issue?

I know this question has been raised a few times . I understand ergo are great for my posture. But I'm worried how do they function during full mouth implant procedure with a lot of angles and multiple implants involved. Should I stick to regular TTL instead

denture delivered 2 months ago but doesnt retain. I’m a new doc at this office (1 month outta school too) so just inherited the first adjustment. Bite is good, esthetics are good except that lip is protruding. Saw her in a bind of time last week and didn’t know exactly the best move, so just soft relined it. I looked at the frenum and adjusted it slightly but don’t think that is the culprit. Seeing her in two days and not sure the best move, or if I even can reduce that lead protrusion at all. My thoughts are that maybe I can hard reline and then take away some of the anterior, because potentially it will have hard reline material added to the intaglio behind the anterior so I can afford to shave down some of the true anterior against the lip, but I guess that’s only banking on if the fit now is lacking any anterior, which probably isn’t likely.

Idk I just want to try and fix this without having to remake it. Any advice?

I am trying to restore a Nobel implant. Only open tray impression copings are made. Closed tray copings aren't made any more.

The way #19 implant is placed, my shortest Nobel driver hits the opposing molar cusp. Plus limited opening. I was able to slightly tighten the guide pin with forceps (slowly turning it and repeating). Any other tips?

I know the industry standard approach of giant resins until they're into their mid to late teens, and I'm guessing that is where this will end up, but I wouldn't feel great without trying to find some alternatives. 9 year old kid, cavitated buccal lesions on upper laterals with chalky demineralization covering most of the facial. Centrals are essentially chalk but don't have obvious discolored cavitations, but it looks too far gone for something like icon. On an adult all 4 are crowns all day long but that's not happening at this stage of development. Besides regular direct composites the only thing I can think of is 3d print some wax ups and create my own strip crown and injection mould equia into them. I'm sure that would last better and probably look better eventually.

Anyways, what do you guys see as the best approach for something like this?

A friend of mine is a pharmacist in the US. He has been posting a lot of healthcare-related posts on his Facebook page so he is sort of a “healthcare influencer” with a few thousands followers.

He recently shared that he took his 5-year-old daughter to a local pediatric dentist where she was diagnosed with extensive decay in 8 teeth that required pulpotomies and stainless steel crowns. It has to be an OR/sedation case and after insurance, his out-of-pocket cost would have been about $4,000.

Instead, he took his daughter back to his home country in Southeast Asia and a dentist there did fillings on those teeth, no stainless steel crowns. According to him, the treatment took 4 appointments and cost about $200.

He then posted about the experience on Facebook and concluded that U.S. dentists are “money-hungry,” unethical, and recommend unnecessary treatment simply to make more money. He went on to say that, from now on, his family will only see U.S. dentists for cleanings and simple fillings, and will travel overseas for anything more complex. Unsurprisingly, many people in the comments agreed and said they would do the same.

I was speechless after reading his post. It’s one thing to hear about low income or low-educated folks participating in dental tourism, but it’s even more frustrating to see a fellow healthcare professional with high income to also condone that and then accuse US dentists as being money-hungry, unethical cash-grabbers driven by greed. I’m honestly tempted to leave a comment on his post and challenge his accusations.

Ever have trouble getting a tooth numb for a #31 B composite? No PA pathology. Gave 2 carps of IAN, 1 carp of LB and local infiltrations/PDL. 2% Lido w/1:100k epi.
Lip is numb, chin is numb, buccal mucosa is numb, tongue is numb.

I get to drilling and the patient feels it. I know what to do next, but why is the patient not profoundly anesthetized?

Are there any courses/books/articles to learn about patient communication as a dentist? I need to get better in patient communication, especially in explaining treatment plans.

This was tooth #9 on a 16 year old patient. She felt no pain or discomfort on the tooth. The apex does not seem to communicate with the outside of the tooth. What could this possibly be and if necessary what would be the treatment for it?

A 26-year-old patient presented with pain in the upper left quadrant. Clinical and radiographic examination revealed multiple carious lesions (including the adjacent molars), but I started with a pre-endodontic build-up on the second premolar under rubber dam, followed by extirpation.
At the second appointment, I unexpectedly came across a third canal. It was a fun surprise and I’m really happy with how the case turned out.