VA coolness

Today I saw some new and really neat stuff. My first pt. had to have nitroglycerin out which was fun. He was a cute little chatterbox. I got to place arestin in one area on him.
My second pt. came from Idaho and needed everything done so I had to clean pretty quickly. He had some crazy things. He was relatively young but had a serious brain injury in the war. He has pretty severe seizures that have taken a tole on teeth. He has bad back pain and problems and this gums were so red and inflamed from the last apt. from stress and his systemic problems. He was also trying to quit smoking. He had loc. aggressive perio which I had never seen before. And oh my files. I had never used the files that effectively. He had a 8 mm pocket on #27. the files are the only thing that would fit in that tiny loc. area. And when I put it down in the pocket the pus just popped right out. I had never had that much pus. So in case you haven't heard that systemic and oral health are related I am hear to tell you that it is! I got to place arestin in 7 spots.
With my last pt. I learned that I am too nice about plaque scoring. The endodontist also came in and I learned how you test to see if you need just a filling or a root canal. He had some endo-ice, which I had never seen before. It's cool. If a tooth is has caries and is sensitive to cold you test it by putting some endo-ice on it. If the tooth is painful for only a second before it goes back to not hurting than you may only need a filling. If the tooth has a lingering pain after exposed to cold, or spontaneously hurts during the day with for no reason then you may be in root canal territory. Also there was an instrument I have never seen before, 2 probes, and no barnhart, fun. (my 1st pt. had a few implant scalers and a million graceys, weird).
It was quite a learning experience. I also hit my requirements for class II's! Very productive day. Love the VA (except for the instruments ha)