iatrogenic pulp exposure

[dentaldenta]

Hi everyone,
I am a dental student and I am writing here because i accidentally exposed a pulp. It was iatrogenic, my fault. I informed the dentist i was working with and I told the patient (who is in her teens). We did a direct pulp cap. I know what I did wrong and I assure you I have learned from my mistake. However, I feel so terribly guilty. This patient will likely need root canal therapy (hopefully not) and the patient is so young. It has lowered my confidence tremendously. Does anyone have any helpful stories they can tell me? Do you guys know how often these kinds of mistakes happen? What do you guys think in general of this story?
Thank you!

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[davefan]

That's why you're in dental school right? Mistakes happen. The key is to learn from them. The patient is young, which, is good. Since the pulp is exposed and it wasn't a carious exposure, there is a better chance of the DPC working and the patient not needing endo. Especially if you used MTA (imho). There are some great studies out where MTA was used with great success. Even with large exposures. Don't let it shake your confidence. Good luck!

 

[Saddleshoes]

Hi everyone,
I am a dental student and I am writing here because i accidentally exposed a pulp. It was iatrogenic, my fault. I informed the dentist i was working with and I told the patient (who is in her teens). We did a direct pulp cap. I know what I did wrong and I assure you I have learned from my mistake. However, I feel so terribly guilty. This patient will likely need root canal therapy (hopefully not) and the patient is so young. It has lowered my confidence tremendously. Does anyone have any helpful stories they can tell me? Do you guys know how often these kinds of mistakes happen? What do you guys think in general of this story?
Thank you!

Let me tell you a story…
When I was a student I did the same thing. I was totally deflated. I put my tail between my legs and went to report what I had done to my instructor, Dr. Ryburg. He listened to my sad tail and then he smiled patted me on the back and said, “Welcome to dentistry!” Then he showed me how to make the best of it.

Bless his heart, Dr. Ryburg was telling me, you don’t get perfection every day in dentistry. Correct the problem the best you can and move on. But most important learn from it. A screw-up is only a TOTAL SCREW-UP if don’t learn from it.

 

[mike3kgt]

Hi everyone,
I am a dental student and I am writing here because i accidentally exposed a pulp. It was iatrogenic, my fault. I informed the dentist i was working with and I told the patient (who is in her teens). We did a direct pulp cap. I know what I did wrong and I assure you I have learned from my mistake. However, I feel so terribly guilty. This patient will likely need root canal therapy (hopefully not) and the patient is so young. It has lowered my confidence tremendously. Does anyone have any helpful stories they can tell me? Do you guys know how often these kinds of mistakes happen? What do you guys think in general of this story?
Thank you!

It's... just.... a tooth.

 

[jay47]

It's funny because we were doing operative the other day and one of my classmates was prepping a tooth and asked the professor, "how does this look?". His reply was, " you just bought your patient a Mercedes!" (did the wrong tooth) He didn't even look down because he knew what happened, it was quite funny, even though we all know that probably would not result in a lawsuit, it's always best to be as careful as possible.

 

[dentaldenta]

Thanks for all the responses

 

[aphistis]

it's... Just.... A tooth.

+1.

 

[dentstd]

Hi everyone,
I am a dental student and I am writing here because i accidentally exposed a pulp. It was iatrogenic, my fault. I informed the dentist i was working with and I told the patient (who is in her teens). We did a direct pulp cap. I know what I did wrong and I assure you I have learned from my mistake. However, I feel so terribly guilty. This patient will likely need root canal therapy (hopefully not) and the patient is so young. It has lowered my confidence tremendously. Does anyone have any helpful stories they can tell me? Do you guys know how often these kinds of mistakes happen? What do you guys think in general of this story?
Thank you!

Dental school's the best time to make these mistakes, because they'll sue the school and not you. If you havn't extracted the wrong tooth yet, now's the time to do it. Of course, I'm just being stupid.

Everybody's going to get a pulp exposure here and there. Along with not removing all the pulp during a root canal, so the tooth turns brown. Or have an MODL+ too bulky that the gums turn red. Just troubleshoot your protocol and brainstorm how to prevent human error in the future. In this case, know your radiograph well. Know how deep you can drill before you actually drill: where's the location of the pulp horns relative to the entire crown? Can you go 1/2 way? Or can you go 35%?