Happy New Year – Highlights of 2023 – Part 1 – January to March

January

Last year I commented:

“We are quickly moving out of the Covid fog, but it lurks in the background, usually make us sick at the worst possible time. The surprise is some of us have never got it. Some of us have not even had the flu.

2023 will be the year of living happily. Getting out; being entertained by local and overseas events.

Hey, even catching up with the locals is Ok.

The world is always under stress with wars and political games.

Other games are better, like the World Cup of football (for the purists).

Seymour dental would like to thank all the patients who trusted us to come in and be treated. We are now playing catch up due to the Covid interruption.”

Well nothing changed, go figure!

The month ended with celebrating Australia Day.

The Sydney Opera House honours our First Nations by fostering a shared sense of belonging for all Australians, and we acknowledge the Gadigal, traditional custodians of Tubowgule, the land on which the Opera House stands.

Australia Day 2023 – Aboriginal recognition

Australia and Opera House on Tubowgule land

February

The month started with the last instalment of recap 2022.

Happy New Year – Highlights of 2022 – Part 4 – October – December

Direct link between cavities and heart attacks

As with every year we do our medical emergency course, with 2023 message –

There is one word that sums up medical emergency treatment:

PERFUSION

Perfusion is defined as the passage of fluid through the lymphatic system or blood vessels to an organ or a tissue.

In emergency medicine that fluid is BLOOD,

and preferably carrying OXYGEN.

The organ is the BRAIN,

via the pump of the body – the HEART.

The faster the better!

The ideal percentage of oxygen is best.

Medical Emergencies in the Dental Practice 2023 – Part 1 – Perfusion

Finger pulse oximeter - oxygen saturation number on left and pulse on right

Medical Emergencies in the Dental Practice 2023 – Part 2 – More Perfusion & LUCAS!

The month ended with a welcome change –

It has been nearly three years since my family got on a plane to get away for a break. The last time was on a flight to the Gold Coast at the beginning of Covid. The borders were not closed then, however fewer people were flying, so the airline decided to cancel our flight and put us on an earlier flight. One and a half days later, the restaurants were closed and the border into Queensland was soon closing. So in the hire car we drove back home to Sydney virtually non-stop!

Fast forward to now. We decided to go to Melbourne for a break and catch up with friends. Again, our evening flight was cancelled but this time it wasn’t an earlier flight but on an earlier plane! A twin propeller plane to Canberra then a smaller jet plane to Melbourne. We left later and doubled our travelling time. We nearly got to out hotel room the next day! Covid! Less staff and less reliable planes due to – you guessed it – less staff. Fun!

Dentist At Large – Melbourne – Part 1

Melbourne flight on a twin propeller plane via Canberra - go figure

March

We continue with our intrepid dentist being let loose in Victoria.

Dentist At Large – Melbourne – Part 2 – Mornington Peninsula & A Dental Twist

Our friends kindly showed us around the Mornington Peninsula when we stumbled across a Quarantine Station Museum near Portsea next to the bay. This is the dental twist. We have steriliser (or autoclaves) that sterilises our instruments. Remember Covid is one of a long list of pandemics that have afflicted our planet. The last pandemic was the Spanish Flu born of the First World War. All the precautions we used during Covid were figured out during the Spanish Flu, except they had no vaccine – 25 million people died. However, they had sterilisation! The quarantine station has a huge one.