My Assistant

My assistant is working with me for the past five years. She arranges the instruments, Hands me appropriate instruments and materials while working, and clears up after the case. I have taught her the use of dozens of different materials that we handle in our day to day work and she has mastered the techniques. She keeps stock of everything from washing soap and tissue paper to X ray films and anaesthetic solution. She develops and washes the exposed X ray films and will start root canal treatment if I allow her. But I do not want her to get complacent.

So, I keep saying
“You should have put little more zinc oxide powder while mixing the cement”
“Mercury is more in silver amalgam”
“The Xray is very light. You should have put it in the developer, little longer”
“Look at this air bubble in the plaster model. It will make it week. You should be careful while preparing models.”
“See that you place all instruments used for filling in one tray, don’t put them here and there”
“You take hell lot of time to thread the suture needle. You should be fast.”
“Don’t wait till the last syringe is used. Keep an eye on the stock and call the supplier in time” etc etc.

She was not well for about three days and after that her grandmother died. I am forced to do all the work that I had taught her five years ago. It is one week of self help now.

I mixed dental cement for a filling and it was hard by the time I took it near the patient’s mouth. I have not mixed cements for years and have lost touch. I mixed again and managed to load it into the cavity but the cement did not harden even after ten minutes. The patient could not wait any longer and spat out everything. I got the consistency perfect, the fourth time. I don’t think that the patient will keep up the next filling appointment.
I had sent a pair of plaster models (upper and lower jaw) to the lab for making false teeth and got them back with a note saying that the models are full air bubbles and probably belong to two different individuals.
I really do not understand how the extraction forceps always ends up in the in the filling instruments tray.
Since I could not get the suturing thread into the needle at all, I had to call my wife down. Lucky, that my house is just above my clinic.
I am also lucky that the pharmacy is very close. I could run and get hypochlorite in ten minutes for the next root canal. I had not noticed that I had exhausted the stock.

I am waiting for my assistant to return and have decided to keep my mouth shut and work.