The new dental clinic is almost done. We had a chance to go and look at it a few weeks ago. At any given moment there are Army dental clinics being built or renovated. Our new clinic is being built to help accommodate the new growth of the base. Here is an aerial view. The new clinic is being built in 2 phases. Phase I is the part that is almost done. This involves 14 new chairs that the specialists will move to...read more

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If you didn't believe in miracles I have one for you that just happened to me. Last Thursday I looked in our conference room and saw a postal box full of mail. Being the nosey person I am I started going through it and to my surprise I saw a box at the bottom. As I started working my way towards the box I could see my name in the upper left corner. I pulled the box out and it took a minute for me to realize it was a box I had sent to myself from Iraq full of some of...read more

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Had a few more interesting things come up that I snapped some pictures of during the past week. I had an EOD Soldier (explosive ordinance) that had a tattoo of a cherry bomb on her lip. I had another Soldier that told me when he was a baby he had fallen and almost bit his tongue off. They never put any stitches in, so now you can see very clearly where he bit it - especially when he bends his tongue. I had another patient that you would have thought had some...read more

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My favorite time of the year has got to be from September through February. It's not because of the changes in the season - it's because of all the holidays!!! While I was growing up and going to school, we didn't seem to celebrate most of the holidays that we do in the military. Veteran's Day and Columbus Day were only days seen on a calendar to me. It wasn't until I graduated from dental school and came on active duty that I saw how good we had...read more

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We had an AIT Soldier came through recently that was in need of some major dental work. In addition to a lot of fillings and a root canal, several of his teeth were determined to be non-restorable. One of the advantages to working in a group practice setting like we have here is the ability to treatment plan as a team. Part of the treatment plan developed by our Prosthodontist was to remove the badly decayed front teeth and replace them with dentures. This...read more

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Promotions are something that everyone in the military looks forward to. Promotions mean different job opportunities, increased pay, and the ability to make positive changes to improve things within the Army. This past week I had the chance to attend 2 promotion ceremonies for two dental officers becoming Colonels. In the Dental Corps promotions can come every 6 years if both military and dental professional tracks are done in proper time/sequence. The person who is...read more

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As with many jobs in the Army, there is a natural progression towards leadership roles throughout your career. To help prepare for this, the Dental Corps offers a Dental Management Development Course for both Sergeants and Officers that will be in charge of dental clinics. This past week the course was offered in San Antonio at a hotel near the Alamo. This is a monument that sits just outside the walls of the Alamo The course was a great one, and I walked away...read more

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The day is finally starting to wind down and I'm getting caught up. This morning we had our diagnostic PT test, with about 15 individuals. Everyone did good - we had a few PT studs scoring between 290-295. Record PT test will be in about a month. Recently had a chance to do an esthetic case and I worked closely with our Prosthodontist MAJ Ross. Although I have done many esthetic cases in the past, I learned a lot more this time by working with him - hopefully...read more

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Recently a friend was going to have an implant placed through our clinic. He had a baby tooth that was still in his mouth even though he was in his 40's. The tooth had been crowned and served him about as long as it could. An implant was the next step. In the Army many locations have an implant board made up of several different specialties that consider patients and make selections on who implants will be done on. Here Major Wilson can be seen drilling...read more

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Every year around September 11th you will hear people begin to talk about the tragedy and change that occurred within our country. This year in particular being the 10th anniversary it has received even more attention. I have been happy to see that as the years have gone by, people haven't forgotten what happened - even turning it into a day of service for others. For me September 11th wasn't the stimulus that made me join the military - that had happened 6 years...read more

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