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Recently SPC Bell and I decided to see how well our dentistry skills stacked up in other areas of the dental clinic...like carpentry. Although we have a new clinic being built - we have some things that have to get us by until we move. One of those items were our chairs in the waiting room. We had some not so flattering comments about the "esthetics" of our waiting room and decided to do something about it. Many of our chairs had springs, wires,...read more
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This picture clearly demonstrates why we wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) - masks, glasses, gowns, etc... Unfortunately I got the picture after his mask was off - but you can see all the splatter on his glasses and forehead.
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It was time once again for our semi-annual right of passage - the Army physical fitness test (APFT). In reality you end up doing 4 a year because they also like to do a diagnostic test the month before. I think I will be smarter next time and just use the diagnostic test as my APFT that counts - thus cutting out 2 a year :) Like most Army units we take our test early in the morning. We began at 0630 (which is actually later than many units I have been in) other...read more
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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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Now, for just the next 45 days, I'm back on active duty. In a way I do feel a little bit of relief. The Army has been my extended family and home for so long, even the couple of years that I have been away for the first 2 years of medical school have been a little disorienting to me. But now I'm back, if only for a short while. Over the next few weeks I will be working at Madigan Army Medical Center, taking care of the Army family in many ways, learning more as a student, further...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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