Patients, Minamint and bridges.
Nov 28th, 2007 by rgolbourn
Well, it has been quite an eventful day here already. Aside from the ordinary peculiarities, it has been a day of much hilarity.
A patient came in early and needed his Maryland bridge re-etched (so that it has more surface area for the glue to stick on and stay in). So I rang the man from the lab to ask him, as a favour, if he could come and collect it straight away and have it back for this afternoon. No problem, he said. We gave it to him as usual in a little poly bag etc and everything was ok.
10 minutes later, he rang back after having returned to the lab, only to discover that the bag hadn’t been sealed properly and that the bridge must have fallen out (potentially a VERY costly mistake). So obviously, I was searching frantically for this tiny bi of metal with a tooth attached adn eventually (thankfully) found it at the bottom of the stairs. Fortunately nobody had trodden on it so it wasn’t damaged and it was very funny after the event but, as you can imagine, my boss wouldn’t have found it quite so funny had we not have found it.
Only minutes earlier, I had also been talking to Katrina while she was preparing some Minament for the next patient (a kind of concentrated mouthwash that we dilute with water) and she had turned round to answer my question and sprayed my white t-shirt by accident so I had a bright green series of spots on me. Which was also quite amusing. Thankfully mum needed to go out anyway and brought me a clean one up.
 Look forward to hearing from you all soon.
P.S: Can anyone remember when in January out senior prize-giving/certificate collecting thing is?
P.P.S: Can any of the chemists remind me of what esters and amides are? Is the first fat-based and the second protein? I cannot remember their chemical structures.Â
Thanks
xx Â
I have a feeling our prize-giving is on the 7th, but that’s just off the top of my head so I might be wrong…I’m guessing they’ll send us a letter about it fairly soonish.
Sounds like quite a busy day was had! Shame about your top getting sprayed, but at least it should wash out ok since it’s just mouthwash. :happy:
senior prize giving is on the 11th I got my invitation today.
as for esters i belive they are the product of reacting an alcohol (C-O-H) with a carboxylic acid (the carbon chain with a double bonded oxygen and a OH group on the end) so instead of a hydrogen connected to the single-bonded oxygen on the acid there is a alkyl group (another carbon chain). You were right fat is essentially an ester just 3x more so.
right as for amides those are pretty much any organic chemical (chemical with carbon in) with nitrogen on. So while they can include protiens they also include ammonia( very stinky). they tend to be soluble and are usually alkali.
also sounds like a interesting day i’ll soon be posting about mine
btw hope i didn’t sound too confusing/condesending
Mm minty fresh top. I suppose it’s not every day you find teeth laying at the bottom of the stairs.
I don’t know anything about chemistry, but Wikipedia does :]
Esters and Amides. :3
bah i think my answer was better