A Typical Day in Pediatric Dentistry-Part 1

This is the first of a two part series on a Typical Day in Pediatric Dentistry. Part 2 here What is the framework of a typical day for a Pediatric Dentist? Well, usually quite busy. Most Pediatric Dentist's services are in great demand. So, here is a typical day:
Get to the office early, usually 7:10 or so. I look over the charts especially the morning conscious sedation patients. If needed, fill out forms and mix the drugs, as they usually need to be administered first thing. We have a morning meeting at 7:30 with all the staff to review new patients and announcements. The first patients begin their appointments at 7:40---we're off to the races!

Most of my morning consists of doing operative dentistry (fillings, crowns, etc.) and spending a large amount of time checking hygiene patients discussing treatment, etc. We see our sedation patients in the am, usually preschoolers. In fact most of the morning is younger patients. It is usually a long busy morning--it can be a noisy morning too. Sometimes we get behind if a young child demands more attention. Hey, kids are unpredictable. It may take 10 minutes to do a filling, or an hour. It often depends on the patient. In addition, nearly every day we have patients with emergencies.

We break for lunch at 1:00 (if we are finished with the morning patients). Back to work at 2:00. It's nice to have a mental break from the fast paced, sometimes stressful mornings we have. That long morning is worth it to have a short three hour afternoon. We are often spent from the morning and see the teens and older more cooperative patients in the afternoon. Usually this is a high demand time for orthodontic patients. We end the day at 5:00. I usually do not leave the office till 5:30 if everything is on track.

On Fridays we see our hospital patients, doing treatment under general anesthesia. Pretty intense work too but a change of pace from the normal workaday routine. Most Pediatric Dentists like doing OR cases. Now having said all this, we do take some Fridays off and the occasional vacation. I don't know too many of us that can go too long without a day off.
Is that it? Well mostly, but if you are an owner, you have after hours meetings in the evenings or on the weekends. Not to mention having to come in on the weekend for an emergency. No rest for the weary.