tips and tricks

 I had a relatively difficult day at work today. It was one of those days where one thing went wrong and then another and then it seemed to snowball all throughout the day. I think a lot of how difficult the day was was due to my mindset. Each challenge I encountered along the way in isolation wouldn't have been an issue on any other day. But it was the way I reacted to the first challenge that was key.  It's days like this that make me realise that I may not be as mentally strong as I think I am or seem to be. Everyone has bad days, it's important to admit that. But luckily for me these are few and far in between. They're like a cloud sitting over your head that affects your judgement and amplifies the impact of errors. I wonder how people function who feel this way on a chronic basis. In any case, tomorrow is a new day and new opportunity so I will keep trying to look upwards and forwards.

 Today I had an interest observation in the student clinics. It so happened that all the students I was put with were doing Root canal treatments at the same time. I noticed that when they were assessing their working lengths, they were all using the measure function on the dental xray program. This is fine for a preoperative assessment of the tooth and perhaps to estimate how short of working length you are but is by no means an exact science. Firstly, the measurement too l needs to be properly calibrated as the objects in the image can be elongated, foreshortened or distorted so a reference point is needed that is measured in the mouth eg the width of a tooth. This can then be used by the program to work out the ratio of enlargement of the xray compared to the actual objects imaged in the film.  However, it turns out they were taught to measure the width of the film (41mm) and input that measurement into the software as a calibration. I may be wrong but this doesn’t make any...