Reprimanded and alone

Yesterday I was at my internship at the dental school. I was working with a great dental student. Our patient has a high fear of using a dental dam. (it's a  5 x 5 square piece of latex that slips over 1-5 teeth to isolate the tooth/teeth being worked on). To anchor the damn, a stainless steel clamp is used. It looks like a little horseshoe type. It's not very big and it shouldn't hurt the patient. My dental student got up to discuss something with an instructor regarding the patient's treatment.

During this time she turned to me and asked to see the clamp. The clamps were on the dental student's side so I told her when he returned we could ask him. He returned and I leaned into him and told him she wanted to view the clamp. His instructor followed behind him quickly and sat down ready. The instructor grabbed the clamp and was loading it onto the clamp holder, I leaned over to him and told him she wanted to see it first. he immediately stopped what he was doing and said "Can I speak to you?" He pulled me aside and told me I was being an advocate to the patient and being her voice. After he was done chewing me out I now had to return to my chair and assist him. he didn't show her the clamp, placed it in her mouth and she started to get upset telling him to pull it out and that she didn't like it. he then told the student to record "patient does not do well with rubber dam".

I sat there feeling humiliated and yet I felt I did nothing wrong. As a Dental Assistant we are often the person the patient will be more open to explaining fears and anxiety to. I felt I did the right thing by leaning over and telling the dental student and the dentist. I also felt if a patient asks to see something going in their mouth they have the right to see it. It wasn't like I suggested it. SHE ASKED!

I wanted to cry right then and there. Before going to lunch, I told my instructor what happened and she said I did the right thing and that I did nothing wrong. I was listening to her words and not really feeling too comforted. I kept reflecting over the day whether or not I was out of place.

For my afternoon. I purposely chose to work on the clinic side where that instructor wouldn't be for the remainder of the day. My afternoon was fine but the car ride home was unbearable. I sat there in the back seat while my classmates all called their boyfriends on their cells telling them about their day. I just started feeling overwhelmed and lonely. I am going home to an empty house. My son is with his dad this week. I'm not really close to my roommate. I have no one to come home to and listen to me. No one to hold me and comfort me.

So I called my sister, who generally is my support to fall on. She was having a girls night out with co-workers and was at a bar. I decided to call DE. Even though I had a feeling he would be drunk and interrupt me a million times. He did ok. I bitched and before I knew it I began to cry. It was the first time he had ever heard me cry. He just started to tell me not to cry followed by an "Ok cry!". A few minutes later I felt better and he said he felt so bad that someone mad me cry. I learned something new about DE. It breaks his heart to hear a woman crying.

How pathetic it is when you have to call someone whom you are friends with but have never met to listen to you bitch?!?!