FINALLY!

Pete came in today. my denture patient in outreach clinic. i have a long long history with him.

he is a nice man. very polite and pleasant.

i tried to make him an upper denture. his gum wasnt the perfect one. i wasnt sure if the denture was goin to help him with his denture in any way when i was doin it.

then. many appointments passed. the day when i was supposed to get the denture back from the lab. it got lost.

i was really upset. partly because i was very sure i sent the work for the lab to process, i wondered where the denture had gone. besides, Pete is such a ncie patient. i really didnt want him to be let down n we had to tell him "your denture got lost somhow. we need to start all over again, and that means another 5 appointments at least".

so the nurses sent him bac the day when he was supposed to get his denture fitted. i said sorry to him but he was really nice n said he didnt mind at all.

then the next week. the nurses said denture was not found anywhere. we had to start from scratch again. oh god. i was really really not impressed.

so we did the whole thing again. n the second denture, after many appointments, was finished. i was so thrilled. but when it was fitted in, it wouldnt stay in. poor Pete. i was so sure he didnt wanna upset me. i was askin him question and he was tryin so hard to retain the denture. so i asked him"heyy what are u doin for easter?" Pete went"oh...noth..nothi...nothing... much..." oh god he was tryin so hard. then Dr Hopwood was tellin him hw to preservere with the denture in order to really get used to it. in my head i thought... the denture wasnt goin to ever stay in, let alone helpin him to eat.

then a review appointment was made to see if he got any progress the the denture function. well he did not attend twice. me n my partner thought, oh dear he must be still not usin the denture n the reason of him not turnin up is to not upset me about my work.

then today. somhow Pete was booked in with another dental student. i was nursin for my partner Kiran when Pete walked past and said Hi to me. OMG he looked 10 years younger. his teeth were stayin in. he could really talk to me this time. n he looked so great lol. i nicked a few minutes from my surgery to say Hi to him and just to see if he was doin ok. Pete just kept sayin thank you to me. i was soooooooooooooooooo happy.

this year i have made many, i mean MANY dentures to many patients. but i havnt felt so happy in a while. i thought i wouldnt be able to help him at all, i was probably just doin thing for the sake of doin it. but ta-daaaaaaaaa. people kept tellin me i should have taken pictures to show the before-after effect lol.

Pete said thank you on his way out again. i was so so so on top of the world.

i pulled Dr hopwood aside n told him how happy i was. i know he was happy too.

you may need to go through some shits before you come to this, the joy of dentistry. but at the end of the day, it all pays out.