In the past few weeks, we have been practicing this thing called ‘rubber dams’. It’s meant to be the ULTIMATE form of moisture control and prevention of accidental swallowing of objects by the patient. It was quite the sh*t show though. Despite practicing with the seniors, things could not go more wrong during the simulation clinic.
The worst session was the 2nd one, where I had even practiced with a mannequin the night before. I had prepared my clamps and floss beforehand to help me save all the time I could, but I really messed up all the hole-punching. The difficulty with that part is that when the rubber sheet is stretched, minute distances between holes become very significant. If the holes are too close together, you risk tearing the sheet when stretched. Too far and the rubber bunches together, and that is simply unbecoming of a dentist.
However, MY issue was that I didn’t even punch the correct number of holes. After I had fitted the sheet on the mouth, I realised it needed one more hole. To my horror, I glanced left and right, checking to see if the coast was clear and free of onlooking tutors, I shoved the entire hole puncher around the mannequin’s mouth and punched one more hole like my life depended on it.
However, that was of little help because I had placed the metal frame in the wrong orientation (curved up and away instead of following the curvature of the chin). Plus, I had taken more than 25 minutes just to isolate 5 teeth, when it supposed to be done within 5 minutes in actual procedures. So there was no cushioning to the blow in any way there.
Just wanted to record all of this because the year 2 seniors said that rubber dam becomes second nature by next year. As of now, I can’t see myself doing it within 10 minutes even, but I look forward to the day when I actually do it. Then I’ll look back at this post and remember how much of a scrub I was at this. 😀
Funnily enough, doing extremely terribly and seeing my tutor wreck me about my rubber dam didn’t destroy me as badly as I thought it would. Maybe because I thought it wasn’t graded when it actually was, or perhaps I just remembered the words that my friend Isaac said to me in secondary 4, that “hitting rock bottom means that you can only go up from here.”
Or could be my tutor.
Do you even dentist? 