There have been several instances of late in which I have spontaneously broken into song. As my friend Jay put it today, I am living in "Glee: the Dental School Years". And he isn't too far from the truth. For example...
1) Mindi and I were downstairs in the specialty area doing our first root canal the other day. I rather like working down in the endo suite because it is nice and quiet, and also because they have a small radio playing music. (No other area of the clinic has music.) The endodontist, Dr. J, was supervising Mindi and I while his assistant stood nearby organizing instruments. We mentioned how much we liked working down there with them, especially because of the music. Dr. J. chuckled and said that his assistant picked the music today and wouldn't let him play what he wanted. Naturally, I was curious about which type of music she vetoed, so I asked what he would have liked to play. He smiled sheepishly and said that he likes showtunes and would probably be playing his Roger's and Hammerstein "Oklahoma" soundtrack. The assistant just rolled her eyes. Mindi and I looked at each other and started singing the title song to the muscial. In unison. Loudly. It went a little something like this.
(I also love that I found the song on YouTube featuring Hugh Jackman. He is so dreamy...even when singing about waving wheat.) The look on Dr. J's face was priceless. I think Mindi and I just earned major brownie points. Our patient just laughed (as much as he possibly could with a rubber dam over his mouth). Thank you elementary school music education for sponsoring that moment.
2) This afternoon, I was down in the screening area trying to pick up a patient that had called to make an appointment specifically with Mindi and I. The screening area was near where Jay and Christian (aka Team Slacker) have their operatory. While waiting for our patient, we wandered over to them and started asking about what they had planned for the afternoon. Apparently they had a patient schedule a follow-up appointment in hopes of getting a prescription for a pain medication. We sort of mused about the possible drug-seeking behavior and someone mentioned that the guy just wanted some "candy". Jay laughed and started singing this song:
I mentioned that he is no candyman and should not give any "candy" to his patient. Instead I told Jay that he should sing this song to the patient.
And then we laughed.
So apparently, life really can be like an episode of Glee in which we break out into random song during the school day. Next up, I will have to work on the choreographed dance routines.
And lastly, I just wanted to share a cool thing I saw while down in the screening area today. An emergency patient came in because he had an abscess on his tooth. Abscesses are not typically rare occurrences. In some circumstances, they can be pretty stunning and dangerous. This patient had tried to take care of the problem himself (without any success, obviously) and his jaw had swelled up to astounding proportions! It seriously looked like he was holding an entire apple in his cheek. This is truly a medical emergency because this type of abscess can kill you. The location of the abscess on the lower jaw and the way in which it had ballooned up can close off the airway and suffocate him. They immediately took him down to oral surgery, in which they most likely cut a hole in the side of his face (extra-oral incision and drainage!) to let most of the pus drain out and then put a piece of rubber tube in to let the rest of it drain out over a few days. And they will give him antibiotics. Lots of antibiotics. And then after a few days, they will probably take the offending tooth out. I overheard the faculty saying the guy would lose several teeth because he waited so long. (I found a video on YouTube of a very similar situation and the procedure they do to fix it. The stuff they have on the internet is incredible. I would post the video here for your viewing pleasure, but it is very gruesome and graphic. We watched this same video in my oral pathology class and it made me very squeamish. If you are interested, feel free to click this link. But don't say I didn't warn you.) With the amount of patient volume coming through the clinic, there are bound to be some very cool and very interesting cases. This was definitely one of them!
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