Tag: ARMY DENTIST

As an Army dentist you will see a lot of Soldiers who haven't had great access to dental care in the past. This may have been due to finances, education about oral hygiene, laziness - or a combination of any or all of the above. Regardless of where you are assigned, you will have the opportunity to treat these Soldiers. At basic training and AIT basis you will see them in much greater numbers, but even at the non training bases you will see Soldiers like this when they are mobilized from the Guard/Reserve, or when they graduate and come to your location after training.

During training we prioritize dental care, and take care of those issues which have the potential of causing pain within the next 12 months. Any other dental care that is not of an urgent nature will be postponed until they get to their first duty station. This is not due to laziness, but a combination of how much time new recruits can miss from their training, and the amount of demand that the dental clinic can handle.

I think one of the qualities that I have admired in other dentists that I have tried to emulate is the ability to educate patients. Taking the time to educate them about what is occurring, and what needs to be done to change it. I think it is easy to get complacent, especially when you see the same thing so frequently. One of the things I love to hear is, "You are the first dentist to ever tell me that." Now whether I was the first one to tell them, or the first one that paid attention to ...

X-ray from a new Soldier in training that I saw yesterday - cavities on nearly every back tooth (red arrows). She has had very little dental work done in the past. She did have her wisdom teeth out 10 months ago (green arrows) - notice the bone is still filling in.

This was an E-7 (Sergeant First Class) I also saw yesterday that fell into both the "lazy and uneducated" categories. He has been in the Army 15+ yrs, but his mouth is not well taken care of. We had a heart to heart about flossing, and I showed him the x-rays with all the calculus (hardened plaque - red arrows). I told him how he had gum disease and it was going to get worse unless he did something about it. Do I think he'll really change...some do some don't. Also because of his poor oral hygiene he had 3 large cavities that need immediate action (yellow arrows - 3rd is on a front tooth so you don't see it).
 

In the clinic yesterday we did: 7 fillings on 5 patients, 1 extraction, smoothed down 1 filling, and delivered some temporary partial dentures.

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Thursday was a little more of a slower-paced day, and I found myself not knowing what to do at times.

My last patient of the day was one that surprised me a bit.  I knew the possibilty existed, but didn't think the wisdom teeth would be too difficult to get out.  But due to the age, race, and time of day (last patient - Murphy's Law) - it ended up not being quite as straight-forward as I would have liked.  Every tooth had to be sectioned (cut into pieces) and removed to get it out - even though they were fully erupted.

In the end we had done:  4 exams, taken models for a temporary partial denture (flipper), removed 6 teeth on 3 individuals, delivered 1 crown, and did 2 fillings.  I also had another canceled appointment from the new Soldiers that are learning their jobs.  This is starting to bug me since it is becoming fairly regular.  The staff that is in charge of them recently changed over, and does not seem to be on top of their game like the last set of NCOs.  I spoke at length to one of the NCOs and hope that the situation will be remedied.

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Saturday was the birthday ball for the North Atlantic Regional Command at Ft. Belvoir.  The guest of honor for the ball was Major General Czerw.  You can see from COL Pannes' posting that he is a busy guy trying to support the Corps.

At the ball were several other current and retired general officer's as well as current American Dental Association president Dr. Ron Tankersley.  With it's location in the national capital region, there were many attendees from other services that came out to support.

We were also able to have many HPSP students (dental students on Army scholarships) that were able to attend.  The students came from as far away as VCU on the south and Tufts on the North with many others represented in between.  Hopefully they had a fun time and look forward to coming on active duty.

This was the receiving line prior to the ball beginning.  Starting on the right.  COL Priscilla Hamilton was the mistress of ceremonies (current regional commander - incoming DENCOM Commander). Next to her was MG Czerw, and COL Ted Wong (outgoing DENCOM Commander).

My wife had to attend a function for my son, so my daughter became my date.  Standing in front of the windows in the ballroom with the Potomac in the background.

Standing in front of the birthday cake.

Dr. Ron Tankersley current ADA president with retired Major General Bill Lefler.

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Another great reason for looking at the Army as a "long-term" career plan has been implemented within the last couple of years.  In 2007 Congress implemented a loan forgiveness program that individuals can use if they are employed in public service for 10 years.  The military qualifies for this loan forgiveness.

This program combined with the Post 9-11 GI Bill that allows you to transfer educational benefits to family are great enticements for a career in the Army.

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Thursday was great.  We have several dentists that are/will be gone for training.  Because of that things will shift a little at the clinic.

Thursday I was able to treat one of the tallest patients I have seen. He is completing training in AIT and will be graduating this summer and going on to play college ball.  He was 6"7".  Not sure why he wasn't smiling - he was happy both before and after the picture :)

In the morning I was on exams, and we did 16 exams.  In the afternoon we did: pulp testing and placed desensitizing material on two teeth, extracted 2 teeth, delivered 1 crown, 6 fillings on 3 patients. 

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I had a chance last week to go down to Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas, Tx to speak to students there.  SFC Edward Gall invited me down to speak.  We had a great turn out , and 1 lucky student even won a snowboard.

I even had a chance to visit with one of my oral surgery mentors who retired from the Army and is teaching at Baylor.

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In the clinic on Thursday I had something come across that I hadn't seen before.  A patient that I was doing a comprehensive periodontal exam and some cool radiographs.  He had had orthognathic surgery thorugh the Army in the past (jaw surgery).  That is what all the white things are that look like they are from an erector set.  In addition he had had transcortical implants placed.  An implant that goes from one part of the jaw almost through the other side.  You can see how long they are - not much chance that he will loose them.  Current implants are generally much shorter.  Suprisingly enough he said he did not have any type of numbness or nerve damage on that side.

By the end of the day (including 2 failed appointments) we had done: 4 exams, 4 fillings on 2 patients, 2 extractions on 1 patient, 2 temporary dentures on 1 patient.

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With my upcoming deployment, I was not going to be able to attend either the Academy of General Dentistry or American Dental Association Conventions this summer/fall.  Because of that, I elected to attend a state dental convention in Utah.  In a previous post I mentioned the benefit of the annual continuing education that is provided through the Army.

Here I am with the Utah Health Care recruiter SSG Kelly Duke, CPT Nathan parrish (Ft. Knox, KY), and CPT Eric Swenson (Ft. Irwin, Ca) at the Army booth at the Utah Dental Association Convention in  Salt Lake City.

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A lot of change is happening in the Army Dental Corps this year.  The Army Medical Department  (AMEDD) has decided to realign the regional commands, and the Dental Corps will be mirroring those changes.  This will result in consolidating our regional commands from 6 down to 5.

Just this past week the Dental Corps released the names of the new Dental Corps Commander as well as 4 new Regional Commanders.  In addition to this we will have a new Dental Corps Chief (Dental General) named within the next 1-2 months.

So out of the 7 most senior Commanders - 6 of them will be new.  It's always interesting to see how things change/stay the same when new leaders come on board.

Best of Luck with the new commands.

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That was a great post by SSG Veronie - not much more to add about the snow storm.  Her pictures and activities mirror my own.  I got several home improvement projects done as well.  In the end we ended up having 4 snow days, 1 half-day, and 1 two hour delayed entry day.  School was canceled for 6 days straight for the kids.

Think if you were a  dentist in private practice and the impact of not seeing patients for that long, having patients cancel when you are open, and having to reschedule everyone.  What would be the financial impact for you as a dentist, as well as your staff?  Although we still have to worry about rescheduling patients, there is no financial impact as an Army dentist.

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