How many dentists does it take to change a light bulb?


How many dentists does it take to change a light bulb?......Just one but it helps if he has his favorite repairman on speed dial!

Towards the middle of my day my Belmont Excalibur operatory light blinked out. Fortunately for me I mostly use my Orascoptic light, that is attached to my loupes, to help me see intraorally. Although I have a spare bulb for my dental unit and on a good day I’m pretty handy, I thought I should wait until the end of my day to try to change the bulb.

I read the instruction supplied with my Belmont unit and it seemed fairly straight forward. All went well at first... I got the cover off , I loosened the diabolical spring holding the light bulb and all I had left , according to the Belmont instructions,  was to slide the metal piece at the end of a wire attached  to the bulb out of its housing and slide a new one in.  
That sounded easy, but unfortunately the instructions left out that the metal piece was hermetically sealed by a blue plastic housing and it seemed to me that the only way I could complete my swap was to cut this blue plastic insulator to get access to the metal connector that needed to slide out. I wasn't about to take a knife to my light without confirmation from someone "in the know" .




Fortunately for me, Simon my Schein repair guy got my text with this photo and explained I should cut the plastic, make the switch and then use electrical tape to insulate the connection.





Once I had this green light, I used my Bard Parker (a sharp scalpel) to cut open this blue plastic and complete the repair. It took me Thirty five minutes in total to make the light operational again, Clearly Belmont's instructions had been incomplete and I owe my success to Simon- he really saved the day!





from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2017/11/how-many-dentists-does-it-take-to.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help! My Child is Terrified of the Dentist

Image
If you’re the parent of a young child, you know their brains are similar to sponges that soak up everything around them—especially in their first five years, which neuroscientists say is when they’ll do the most learning and developing in their entire life. At this formative time, your child may amaze you with what they notice: your facial expressions, the different tones of your voice, and your habits. If your habits include regular dental visits and an excellent oral hygiene routine, they’ll notice and want to emulate you. If you happen to feel anxious about your dental visits, or you groan when you’ve got to floss and brush, they may synchronize and feel your dread. This could lead to dental fears that stick with them for years—potentially a lifetime! Kids Can Be Courageous If you’re feeling guilty right now, go ahead and put that away as it won’t serve you or your little one. Everyone has some room for improvement, and Coastal Pediatric Dentistry® is here to help show you an...
Read more

Going for the Gold?

Image
On the left is the older allow, on the right the new one that my lab has chosen to use The cost of a penny weight of pure gold is currently $79.53. The cost of a penny weight of pure palladium is $130.6. It used to be that palladium was added instead of gold to the precious metals often used for pfms, but now laboratories are finding that palladium is no longer affordable. The lab that I am using has just changed the formulation of the metal it's using to one that has more gold than palladium. I really do not mind, but metals with more gold are softer and often easier for a dentist to accidentally polish off delicate margins. It is important when polishing "higher gold" formulations to exert less hand pressure when performing the final polishing of the crown's margins. Other wise there should be no problem with this change. Traditionally labs have chosen alloys with higher gold percentages for optimal esthetics, since alloys with higher concentrations of ...
Read more

Lemon Juice – The Good, the Bad, & the Sour

Image
In a great tale of opposites, lemon juice can be both acidic and basic, or alkaline. Read on to find out why people are talking about this, and what it means for your oral and overall health . What is pH and why does it matter? Drinking lemon juice (usually diluted in a glass of water or added to a cup of tea) is a beloved health tonic among fans of natural medicine. Potential benefits include lower cholesterol, lower inflammation in the body, and increased metabolism and energy. Lemon also contains high levels of antioxidants and vitamin C that boost your immune system. On a scale from 0-14, a pH of 7 is neutral (pure water) while numbers below 7 are acidic (unhealthy), and above 7 are basic or alkaline (healthy). Believers in holistic health blame many ailments on the body’s pH being too low or too acidic. Increasing your body’s pH is called “alkalizing.” Lemon juice in its natural state is acidic with a pH of about 2, but once metabolized it actually becomes alkaline with a pH ...
Read more