#CLUB100 || PROSTHODONTICS: POST 4 || A PATIENT COMES WITH ANTERIOR TEETH MISSING DUE TO AN ACCIDENT || AESTHETIC DEMANDS || OFFICIALLY PAKISTAN'S FIRST 4x DOLPHIN
Working in a hospital gets heart wrenching sometimes. Yes it's interesting, you learn a lot of new things, you save lives and whatnot. But every now and then you get that one case that makes you sad. Extremely sad. I'm a dentist in the making, and not a doctor which sometimes saves me from facing traumatizing cases. For instance, recently I had visited the emergency ward where I saw a ptient with his leg cut off, literally screaming, lying down on s stretcher and no doctor at his service. Why? Because it's a Government hospital that we work in and there's already a shortage of doctors. Every doctor is already pre occupied with his/her patient. Or another scenario of when a doctor has to come out of a Operation Theater and has to inform the family about the demise of their loved ones. Being a dentist saves us from these critical situations. But that doesn't mean that we are any less important. One of the most important things in the mankind's history has been Aesthetics and beauty and the most, most imtegral part of Beauty is the face and the most constitutive feature of the face is your denture. The teeth that rest in your mouth, giving light to your face. If we talk about the set of teeth in our mouth, it's the anterior teeth which basically serve the role of beautifying a person as the posterior teeth are basically there for mastication and support and chewing. The anterior teeth which include the Lateral and Central Incisors and the canines of both upper and lower arches are what people are usually concerned the most about. Or should I rephrase it, these teeth people should be worried about more. Not that posterior arent important, but wuite honestly people keep their teeth at the bottom of their priority list.
Why am I mentioning all about aesthetics and anterior teeth and their importance? Because once in a while we recieve a patient who has had a traumatic experience due to which they have had lost their anterior tooth. These experiences are usually accidents. Such as falling off a motorbike, tripping off staircases. A fist fight and these sort of things. The worst thing about cases like these are that they are usually at the young half of their lives. I recieved a similar patient today, who had broken his Lateral and central Incisors, the two most prominent teeth, in a motorbike accident. He was very young, around 22-23 years old.
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When restoring anterior teeth, the choice of material is a very very important factor, as the patient's aesthetics are on the line. Unlike the posterior teeth, the anterior teeth are usually replaced by Porcelain, Acrylic and if the patient can afford then, Zirconia. Zirconia is usually not used in Government hospitals as they cost a lot. By a lot I mean, a huge ton of money, for instance, replacing two teeth of this patient would have costed 150,000 PKR that is equivalent to 2,500 Steem. So the material of choice in government OPDs is usually acrylic teeth, as Porcelain has it's disadvantages.
The first step was to take the impression of the patient. The impression process has already been explained by me in the previous parts of my Prosthodontics posts. After the impression of both maxillary and Mandibular teeth are taken, they are sent to the lab. The acrylic teeth are provided in a sheet form which are plucked out and placed inside the mould which is covered by the wax pattern. The mould is created according to the size and the requirements of the patient. Replacement of teeth is not a one day procedure, as it requires trials.
The acrylic teeth in a sheet
The mould is created by the Plaster of paris on which the wax pattern is laid. The wax pattern is then seperated by using a could mould seal. The mould doesn't have any use for the patient, rather it is created to give support to the wax pattern which will be according to the dimensions of the patient's mouth. On the wax pattern the acrylic teeth are set.
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mould with wax pattern laid on it
If I haven't mentioned it yet, the patient is discharged after the impression taking process as he is of no use in the OPD, and is only occupying an extra unit which could be utilized for another patient. Why's that so? Because setting up a mould, a wax pattern, the acrylic teeth consumes a lot of time. All the pictures that I am uploading basically took me hours in the lab.
Anyway, after the max pattern has been laid, the teeth are set on the wax and then the whole unit is placed on an articulator. An articulator is basically used to reproduce the range of the jaw movement of the patient. Its very important to realize and to implement, that the new teeth that we are setting inside the patient's mouth do not disturb their jaw movement. So for that, an Articulator is set
Articulator
The patient will be called again to check the fixation of the teeth. As I mentioned it is not a one day procedure. So I'll come back again InshaAllah very soon with the rest of the procedure. Stay tuned to my blogs. Tomorrow is a public holiday in the country as it is Kashmir Day.
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This is something that I like. Combining my two passions, ie, Dentistry and Steemit together. I have started with my Prosthodontics posts and very soon I will start with the Operative Dentistry. Its all about fixing people's smile, which I love doing. Spreading smiles through my profession. Lets stay tuned.
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PAKISTAN'S FIRST 4x DOLPHIN
I have shown my dedication and commitment to this platform again and again by building my account and my steem power in such a short period of time. I have the HIGHEST amount of SP for a Pakistani user as well as I am the first pakistani 4x dolphin on steemit and very soon a 5x Dolphin. The commitment can be seen as I have been powering up 100% of my rewards for a very long time now. I'm a #club100 member and intend on staying that way.
As we step into 2022, I have big plans on steemit. My rirst plan is already complete, ie, being a 4x Dolphin. The very next goal is to be a 5x Dolphin. I have already powered up 15,000 Steem since the inauguration of #club5050 campaign. Ofcourse none of this would have been possible without your support steemcurator01 and Steemcurator02. I'd continue posting quality content on this platform. I hope my commitment to powering up would help me in getting the much needed support.
Thank you.
To be sincere Dr, i have been following your post and i love them. Keep it up sir
I'm glad that you found my posts worthy of reading. Thank you for your kind words.
You are welcome sir