One of the joys of transitioning to Kijabe Dental Clinic has been the facilities and added staff available. At Kijabe Dental Clinic we have 6 dental assistants, 4 community oral health officers, 3 laboratory technicians along with 6 functional dental chairs. The oral health officers are able to triage the majority of our urgent need patients and complete simple extractions. The assistants are excellent with taking x-rays, sterilizing instruments, providing cleanings, and scaling teeth. These were all duties that previously I was trying to preform all on my own often not successfully. This available room and auxiliary staff has been a tremendous help and opens many opportunities to provide the higher level care for which I was trained. Some of the opportunities include teaching and creating a restorative curriculum for our oral health officers, daily morning devotions with the dental staff, and myself catching up on literature reading.
We also have the time to go beyond treating emergent needs but also elective and aesthetic needs as well. As many of you know or may even experienced themselves as a child having crooked, bucked, or twisted teeth can affect self esteem and normal social development. Nancy is my first orthodontic patients. She will be a challenging case as she is bilaterally class III, severe open bite, blocked out canines, over crowded anteriors, prognathic mandible, and 22 years of age. We will learn as we go and let this heat activated nickel-titanium wire go to work.
5 comments:
I didn't know the Kijabe clinic was this much nicer for you. Glad you get to learn some new skills. And it makes me glad I'm done with braces.
Nice braces!
When I was in Kenya people would always wonder why I had such strange things on my teeth...guess it didn't look like I needed them as much as this patient!
Em
hi.....please may i know your complete treatment plan for nancy..
Nancy declined orthognathic surgery to either bring the mandible backwards or the maxilla forwards. Therefore we treat now with limited expectations and may not reach ideal, but expect to address chief complaints of "crooked front teeth and fang like canines."
1) Retain Class III Occlusion
2) Correct posterior x-bite in premolar region
3) Bring Canines into position
4) Straighten and align maxillary anteriors
5) Possibly wire lower arch (depending upon patient desires) to align 1's, 2';s, and 3's.
6) Expecting some anterior open bite at the end of the case (may use anterior bands to decrease)
Could you have found a simpler first orthodontia candidate who was more amenable to all of your recommendations? I appreciate boldness, but real success is what will keep you at it. Aesthetic surgery is important around the world and keeps Kijabe hospital vibrant to the surrounding community, Praise God. Dad
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