Our adventurous Australians Haily Liu and David Hua climbed Acatenango and got some great pics of Volcan de Fuego in the background. Life isn't just about extracting teeth I guess!
Remember the cowhorns on the right will be more effective than the cowhorns on the left. When the tips of the beaks are really close together it will squeeze the tooth right out of the socket!
Not quite what the office looks like at home but works really well while we're in Guatemala! We have excellent tools and materials for extracting teeth- digital radiographs, surgical handpieces, sutures, benacel, autoclaves and all of your basic elevators and forceps. This way we're able to provide excellent care to our patients on our mission trip while also allowing our dentists to get experience extracting teeth with the same equipment they would use back home!
Some tips to help avoid tangling your suture as you're tying the knot:
1. Pull the suture through the tissue until the tail is short enough to avoid tangling but long enough to avoid accidentally pulling it out of the tissue (about 2 cm)
2. Use the itsy bitsy spider or bumbac technique (shown by Dr. Fletcher in the video) to control excess suture material before wrapping it around your needle holder
3. Then make sure you grasp the short end of the suture near the tip
4. Tighten your suture but use mainly the hand holding the needle (left hand for us right handed people) and not the one with the needle holder.
Check out the video for clarification!