When I arrived in Iraq I was told it was the rainy season. We didn't get much for the first month I was here. It looks like recently it may be a little more wet. The first rain storm we had wan't too bad. It rained lightly, drizzled through the night. Made a lot of mud, but things dried up over the next several days. 2 weeks ago we had a big rain storm - 2 weeks after that things were still not dry and then we got another moderate rain storm....read more

• Post Comment

Here are some recent cases that have come through our clinic. This was one of those cases where I remembered too late to pull out the camera. I was doing a crown lengthening on one of his teeth, and we right by his mandibular tori. We talked about it, they bothered him when he would get dental x-rays and when he ate some food - so we took them out. This is after we had removed them and smoothed things down. This is what it looked like once we had it...read more

• 2 Comments

Since I've been working here for 2 months I figure it's probably time to show you what it's like. It has all the same features as a clinic back in the states....just more compact. We were out of metal containers that can be shipped on the back of a semi truck. These expand into a room 3 times the size of the container. Our facility is unusual in Iraq - many of the dental offices are in buildings - I guess we are special. This is our administrative office....read more

• Post Comment

Here are a few things that came in during the past week. The patient came in and said his bridge was lose. As I looked at the bridge I initially thought it had cracked which I thought was very unusual. I saw the sideways line on the back crown. As I wiggled the loose bridge off, I realized what I was seeing on the back tooth was an internal crown designed so that the bridge would fit over it. I had never seen this before. Because this bridge was so...read more

• Post Comment

Christmas here was pretty nice. I will post all the pictures here. Although it was not the same as being at home, we tried to make it as close to that as we could. For me the day started out with me sleeping in - something I don't usually get a chance to do :) Later in the morning our clinic got together to exchange gifts. We had each chosen a name to give a gift to. As you can see someone in our staff has a lot of talent wrapping gifts....read more

• 4 Comments

With Christmas less than a week away it's sometimes hard to believe it's that time of the year. There are a lot of things that people have done to make it feel more like Christmas here at our location. Care packages sent from back home is one of the main things. I have been able to find 3 real Christmas trees here on our base. They were sent from the US (I believe Ohio) and I was pretty suprised when I saw them. This is one located at the education center....read more

• 2 Comments

Here are some cases from this week A 3 rooted lower molar (usually only 2 roots) - see the small root coming off the side. This Soldier had worn away so much of their tooth that you can actually see the nerve through the thin layer of tooth that is left. This is a bridge called a Maryland Bridge. You don't see many of them, because they are not attached fully on both sides like a normal bridge. They are attached regularly by a crown on one tooth, and...read more

• 2 Comments

In all things there is always the bitter-sweet. Today I was able to celebrate 2 birthdays. My youngest daughter turned 6 today, and through skype I was able to take part in a little of her birthday party. I think the part I saw was enough to make me glad I hadn't been there with all the 6 year old girls running around :) While deployed I will miss all the birthdays of my wife and kids as well as our anniversary. Happy Birthday Jennifer! While that...read more

• Post Comment

We were recently lucky enough to have the Gin Blossoms come and perform for us courtesy of the USO. The base that I am at is not a large one, so we don't get the same stars that come through here as other locations. The concert was great, because of its small size, the lead singer Robin Wilson interacted a lot with the crowd. He was very energetic, and made it an awesome concert. Lead singer Robin Wilson with Jesse Valenzuela in the background Robin took a picture...read more

• 1 Comment

We had some cool things come in this week. This is a picture of a root canal gone bad. This was not done by a military dentist. This patient had had a root canal done before he came into the Army. The tooth had been bugging him quite a bit recently. After doing our testing we decided that the tooth did not have a good long term outlook, so we took it out. The orange things coming out of the tooth is the filling material we use for root...read more

• 3 Comments