I'm an Endodontist....any Questions?

[endotom]

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Blankguy,

If you ever get into dental school and find out what it's really like to be a dentist, you will find that being mercinary will be your ultimate downfall. Your recent posts have been filled with comments about dental fees and how you think that dentists are out to get the public, especially you. You have no idea what the expenses and government controls can do to make fees like you are hearing necessary. Basically the consumers out there want to have the government control everything in the office to protect the patients. That's something we have been doing on our own since the beginning. The regulations have increased the cost of dentistry tremendously, without changing much at all. The public also wants to see high tech glitzy cameras and computer images that truthfully don't better the treatment much for the cost involved.
Blank, you also have to consider that someone who has dedicated thier life to this field and spends so much time in school and continuing education needs to have a return on thier investment. These people have done without any luxuries in thier life, training and going into tremendous debt, and deserve to start living a decent life. Don't bitch about the cost of something until you have some idea of what it takes to be able to deliver it. If you think that this game is driven purely by money, you are wrong. You don't have a very good idea of what is really in store for you.


endotom

 

[blankguy]

I wasn't complaining is that last comment which I agree was dumb that made it sound like I was bitching. My impression on shadowing so far indicate that there is nothing glamorous about working in a dental office, but a lot of hard work and being nice to people. If I offended you by suggesting that dentist are out to get people's money, I'm sorry.


Oh, the comments on the other thread was meant to be a joke.
About me being a money bag. I would never let money get to my head.

 

[blankguy]

endotom,
did you take continuing ed courses? If so how often?

 

[endotom]

blankguy,

You have to take 30 hours of continuing education courses and have a CPR certification prior to license renewal every two years.

These courses have to be approved by a state committee in order to obtain credit. Some courses are quite expensive. For example, I took one in Atlanta last year that cost over $2000 for 12 credits. The courses also have to be in clinical dental related fields and not in, say practice management. Most dental schools offer a variety of approved courses for dentists to comply, and it has become a big buisness with specialists giving advancedcourses in techniques. The dental supply companies also sponser approved courses which also promote thier products.

We also have to send our dental assistants and hygienists for classes and they must be certified to work on patients. The assistants also take courses and musy be cerified if they work with the xray equipment or materials. All the people who work in our offices must comply with an OSHA requirement which says they must take a course every year to review the "right to know" act where every material in the office must be labled per government regulations and the dangers and handling must be discussed. This even pertains to cleaning supplies. All the safety equipment and clothing has to explained and all of this has to be recorded and kept on file. The proceedure for "universal precautions" must be presented to each office employee in the orm of a class. This is to give education on disease transmition.We even have to have a writen fire escape plan. All the office personell must also have a current CPR certification where we send them to class and they can take thier test every two years. All employees must keep thier own record notebook and there is one one file for everyone in the office. Most of these things must be repeated every year and when there is a new employee. Lot of work behind the scene.


endotom

 

[blankguy]

Is the license you are talking about the endodontist license or general dentist license?

Also what are the continuing ed courses that you take?

Thanks for the info. You are a tremendous resource.

 

[mohammadali]

hello
i am mohammad ali aghaei from iran and i am the control engineer in the oil company
two days before i went to dentist to do root canal terapy, while doing this the file fractured and the doctor introduced me another doctor who is endodontist and yesterday i went to this doctor for romoving the fractured file but the endodontist said me this is not possible to remove and as much as possible i will pypass it and it is likely to be poor that the fractured file cause a problem in the future, but today i am worried about this extra fragment and infection in the future.i have no pain today.and if the doctor is culprit and blamefull i claim for damage??
please instruct and guide me i am so much worried.
if needed i will send you the medical images.before i need your email.
thank you
with the best regards and prayers

 

[nuartywayne]

I think endo w/o a GPR/experience is the most competitive specialty, followed by Ortho, followed by OMS, followed by endo with a GPR/experience, followed by Perio, followed by Pros...Pedo relies on personality more than other specialties so it could be anywhere...

Just my opinion from what I've seen at my school. We're all prisoners of our own experience...

not so much....but keep thinking that way.

 

[periopocket]

Maybe 10 years ago lol

 

[nuartywayne]

Rob,

Sure. I think, like most endodontists, the way to go is to use a combination. I think we all start with hand files, find canals, get a working length, get to maybe a 15 file. Then try to open the body of the canal first in your instrumentation. I use a 2 and 3 Peeso. You might use a 3 and 4 Gates. The NiTis come in handy to flair and taper the canal. I use the Tulsa NiTis, then it's easy to use hand files to finish the apical prep without changing the curve or breaking something.
When you get used to hand files, you can get a real good feel for what you are doing. I don't usually take working length xrays and I don't use apex locators. I can feel the apical constriction with a file, usually a 15. I've been doing this for about 15 years. Most times I just take a final. I started doing this when I did OR cases where there wasn't an xray machine. One of my Mentors showed me how to do it. Was a few years until I could figure out what he meant. It's one of those things I'd have to show you. Can't explain a feel like this one.
NiTis break for no reason. You have to use the correct handpiece and get real good at it. But still, they break when they please.

Thanks for this. We recently had a talk and are currently going to be using (the lucky few) ultrasonic instrument for irrigating canals. Have you had any experience with such instrument and while I buy the fact that it probably helps remove debris better, does it get better overall results?

 

[GoSpursGo]

hello
i am mohammad ali aghaei from iran and i am the control engineer in the oil company
two days before i went to dentist to do root canal terapy, while doing this the file fractured and the doctor introduced me another doctor who is endodontist and yesterday i went to this doctor for romoving the fractured file but the endodontist said me this is not possible to remove and as much as possible i will pypass it and it is likely to be poor that the fractured file cause a problem in the future, but today i am worried about this extra fragment and infection in the future.i have no pain today.and if the doctor is culprit and blamefull i claim for damage??
please instruct and guide me i am so much worried.
if needed i will send you the medical images.before i need your email.
thank you
with the best regards and prayers

SDN isn't for medical advice. Since this thread was done 10 years ago, this thread is now being locked.