Unusual situation at work

So today I had a very interesting patient and I definitely have not seen a patient like this in a while. He was a new patient, young, Japanese male that had very healthy looking gums. They were soft pink, firm and tight to the teeth. So I got started probing and thought everything looked normal. I then checked the xrays for decay but totally ignored the bone level because everything I'd examined so far was normal. Then I proceeded with the cleaning but quickly began to feel overwhelmed by the tenacity of the calculus on the lower anteriors. I then noticed a large black spot of calculus under the gums on #4. As I took it out, I thought, "that has to be deeper than 3 mm now that its clean." But I was so stressed because I was already behind schedule that I just carried on. Finally, Dr. Smith came in and said, "So, what do you think, 4 quads of scaling and root planing?" I saw the bone level on the xrays and my face probably went red. I was so embarrased that I had totally missed that. He did have gen slight perio with loc mod bone loss in his molars. There was also radiographic calculus on his root surfaces... which explains why I thought he had 3 mm pockets... I was just hitting the calculus as I probed. Then as I cleaned, I didn't get down far enough because I thought the pockets were only 2-3 mm. The odd thing was, there were no spurs under the contact like you usually see and other than the lower anteriors, he had no other clinically-evident calculus. Clinically, he really did look healthy. It really was a very unusual patient! I have learned from this two things that I need to improve on: 1) When I get busy, don't allow myself to stress out and rush. Try to treat that patient as if they are the only patient for the day. 2) ALWAYS LOOK AT THE RADIOGRAPHS!!

The newest additions to our family

Eric and I are pleased to announce that we have adopted Roscoe & Frankie, two very cute Cairn Terriers. Actually, Frankie is a Westie because it is a seperate breed of all-white Cairn terriers. Roscoe is 2 and Frankie is 10 months old. Frankie's owner died (we think he killed her) and Roscoe's owner was moving to a condo where she says she couldn't have a dog. They are both males but play together very well and are pretty good at sharing except when it comes to squeaky toys. When we were playing with them at the adoption center, they only had one squeaky ball and they spent almost the entire time trying to get the ball from one another. It was so funny. Now they are both sleeping on the couch with Eric while he is watching Clue. He says, "their favorite movie!"