Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Summer 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
This week in Glendale went by really fast. We screened 50 kids and only treated like 20 so we were able to see quite a few kids twice. We were in a small lumber mill town. They did have a little bit better store than riddle but not much more. In Glendale there is actually a community dentist that is paid to come down once a week and do work but nobody in the town has ever seen him. There he is being paid for something he doesn’t do! We had some adorable kids this week. Some of the sweetest kids and we didn’t have any freak out too bad on us! On Wednesday I got to do hygiene work for half the day! I really enjoy doing that! Just mixes things up. I’m certified to do child prophys (cleanings). It gives us an opportunity to treat kids we don’t normally get to. Normally kids that just need cleanings we don’t see but this week I got to treat a few! One girl I treated was so happy after wards she said “Thank you so much for cleaning my teeth. I’ve always wanted to go to the dentist and get my teeth cleaned but I’d never got to before!” So cute!!! Oh and at the end of the week as we were getting ready to leave we found out the local news paper did a front page article on us from the week before when we were in riddle. I’m going to scan it and post it. It’s a great article on the Tooth Taxi! The dental foundation of Oregon is also doing an article on me for the spring news letter so that should come out in April some time. Lots of press coverage in this job. It’s fun though I’m glad that we are giving a positive outlook to oral hygiene and care. It’s been a great past two weeks and I’m looking forward to another three day weekend!
Next week we head further south to Cave Junction.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Pictures and Videos!
The first two are videos done about the Tooth Taxi.
This one was done about a year ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dWiGNepzSQ
This one was done about two weeks ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dWiGNepzSQ
If you look below I uploaded slide shows of pictures from the tooth taxi, AK people visiting Oregon, and Hawaii. For those few of you who haven’t seen. The top one is work pics! Enjoy!
From the kid gallery(quotes):
“My tongue died”.
“My tongue is like feeling strange.”
“Last Christmas I went to Mexico, the old Mexico not the new one.”
Summary of Dental Services.
Tooth Taxi, September 4, 2008- Feb. 12, 2010
5705 students screened
1734 students received oral hygiene education in the classroom
2208 students treated in the van
$1,463,611 value of free dental services provided.
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Week of Extra Teeth!!
This week started being very well rested after a three day weekend! It was an amazing weekend spent with friends and family I love! Tuesday morning came and we were on our way to Cottage Grove! We screened approximately 150 kids ranging from K-11. It was a crazy busy screening but we were still able to treat a few kids in the afternoon. I decided this week is the week of extra teeth. We saw 4 kids with extra teeth! Some stayed and some we pulled. Tuesday was mostly extractions!!! YAY!! The more blood the happier I am! Hahaha! Wednesday was a crazy day we treated 10 patients and screened more patients. It was another day of pulling decaying teeth!! So fun! We pulled one anterior tooth that was a fused primary tooth so cool! Two front baby teeth that fused together! He also had extra permanent teeth that were coming in. Wish we could see how that turns out! The school we were at this week was amazing. Everyone there was so helpful and they made lunch for us every day which was so sweet of them. And it wasn’t the stereotypical scary cafeteria food! It was good! I never ate cafeteria food growing up cause well we didn’t have one in private school but the thought always kind of scared me J. Thursday we had two volunteer dentists. One in the morning and one in the afternoon both of which brought their own assistants. That always makes for a crazy day because they don’t know how anything works or where anything is or how we do anything. So it kind of slows everyone down because we have to stop to help them. It is great having them there though because it means that we can treat more patients. Which is our goal. We work as hard, fast, and long as we can in order to fit in as many kids as possible. We never have a second to breathe during the day and usually only take about a 10 minute lunch. It’s always a fun time though. I work with two amazing gentlemen that are as sarcastic as me! Constant abuse and teasing makes the days go by fast! Thursday though was another extraction day! We treated one kid that we had to pull two baby teeth and one permanent because he had an extra permanent lateral incisor. Now hopefully his other permanent incisor will move into the correct position. That same kid we saw earlier in the week. In his first appointment we extracted a tooth and did a filling and in his second appointment we did a filling, a crown, and three extractions! He was a trooper! We also had one kid on the complete other end of the spectrum that was completely out of control. We weren’t able to treat her at all. Oh we also saw a kid that had 13 primary teeth left and all 13 of them had visible decay. You know you have a problem when all of your teeth are black and full of decay! It’s one of those mouths that you look in and have a hard time deciding where to start! So many teeth need treatment and we only have one appointment to do as much as we can. Friday was a great day not only was it the end of the week and I got to go home we also saw some great patients. In 4 hours we treated 6 patients which is a crazy amount but we wanted to fit in as many as possible. It meant that we left a little late but it was worth it. The principal of bohemia elementary was so sweet and bought us an amazing and exotic lunch. I had a salmon sandwich, Greek salad, and a strawberry torte thing. Not really sure what the dessert was but it was amazing! All of the food was so good! We were pleasantly surprised by the warmth and generosity of the school.
The weather this week was gorgeous and I was able to go for walks every night and explore the town a little bit! The only covered railroad bridge this side of the Mississippi is located in cottage grove. It’s the beautiful wooden bridge with a stream below it in the middle of a residential area. It looks forgotten but that’s what makes it more beautiful. I wasn’t able to take pictures of it this week but I definitely want to go back and take pictures. This week was a great week because it reignited my passion for taking pictures. Oh and for all that are curious my hands are doing great. I am still working on gaining full mobility and strength but they are holding up to the daily use and aren’t asleep or sore at the end of the day! It’s great!!! My incisions are also healing nicely. I think my right hand will have a bigger scar than my left. But hopefully neither will be too big! The incisions are still very very sensitive to touch. Even when my jacket barely rubs the palm of my hand I want to die! This week I was loading a syringe and hit the palm of my hand on the top to aspirate it and I wanted to cry! Such sharp shooting pain! Didn’t make that mistake again! But I am really happy with the progress. Relaxation this weekend! It will always be busy spending time with friends but I think I’m going to take Sunday to myself!!
Riddle, OR next week! !
FYI: I think I'm going to post a mid week blog with quotes, pictures, and links...so keep a look out :)