The friendly side of the scalpel

As one who's been through 5 knee surgeries during my teenage years and early 20's, I appreciated the opportunity I had last Monday to experience the view from the other side of the knife. For the first time in my life, I performed a surgery.

Wait, I thought you were in dental school, you say?

Yes, I'm in dental school. After making my first set of dentures, I was required to surgically reduce the bone level on the lateral borders of the patient's maxillary tuberosities to enable a better fit for the denture. The surgery involved 2 incisions, reflecting tissue, and reducing bone with a high-speed bur and some other instruments. Afterwards I sutured him up, extracted his two front teeth, and gave him his denture.

The funny part happened when I had finished one side and it was time to start on the other. During the suturing the patient kept falling asleep and I had to keep waking him so he would open his mouth. When it was time to give him the anesthetic injection so we could work on the other side, he wouldn't wake up no matter what I did, so I decided to proceed with the injection and see what happened. Sure enough, he woke up. I feel bad because it can't be pleasant to awake with a needle in your mouth, but seriously, that was what I had to do to wake him so I could work.