A spiral crochet beanie

 The yarn is from Red Heart. I saw it on sale while browsing Amazon website. 

The light colour will work well with textured stitches.  

I was making a regular beanie. 

Instead of doing increases and regular stitches, I made post stitches and clustered the increases. 

I love the result.

Wish to see the video pattern? 

The crown is started with a magic circle. You can easily change to a ch4 and slip stitch to create a ring to start crocheting. 

The video says where to stop for different sizes. It also gives the crown diameter measurements. 

If you are not familiar with measuring a hat crown, this is the perfect video for you. 

Are you going to make one? 

Are you going to look at the pattern to get some ideas? 

I am just curious what you are going to do with this crochet video tutorial. 

Fun with crochet!

ToothTalkings

Pivoting the blog direction

It is 2026. Actually, it is going to end soon

I am changing too. 

After a mastectomy in 2023, I am not interested in discussing dental assisting.

It may be a personal change issue.

Now, I spend more time crocheting.

It was fun before. It is still fun. 

Selling on Etsy was an option. Soon, I got bored. 

So decided to record videos of my patterns. I am more interested in doing small projects. Making blankets is not for me. 

Smaller projects finish up quickly. A small amount of yarn can finish a project.

So, I am pivoting to talk about crochet. 

Life in

Toronto is still good. 

Dental Loupes for Dental assistants

I was seeing dental assistants wearing loupes on Instagram. 

A quick search came up with this product called "Hero Loupes" 

They have something called "Sidekick"., which is the lowest price one. This can be clipped onto the safety glasses. Price is $293 Canadian. 

Looks very nice. But I am not sure about the weight. 

Will it be good for people who have prescription glasses? Not sure. I think, since it is clip-on, it can be clipped on to the prescription safety glasses without trouble. 

This can be a life changer for full time dental assistants. 

 

ToothTalkings

Dentist lost licence

I saw this news: The Barrie dentist, Dr. Chapnick lost his licence. The reason stated was that he sexually abused a patient.

He was asked to pay $10,000 to the Royal College of dental surgeons. a quick search showed me he owned two practices in Ontario. But, the offices are not taking any patients for Dr. Chapnick now. 

My heart goes to all those people who worked for him.  Here, even though the doctor is the culprit, the staff also bear the shame. 

Why do things like this happen in dental offices? How the dentist got the chance to abuse a patient? 

It is not easy to get licensed to be a dentist. How many foreign dentists are appearing for the licensing exam and failing each year? Think of the money they have to spend to appear for the exam! 

I just wish dentists think of all those things before writing a prescription and before giving a treatment. 

The shame of malpractice is not only on the dentists, but the family, friends and the staff has to suffer it too. 

It is a sad situation that a dentist or any healthcare provider becomes an abuser. 

Can they get help to stop abusing other people? 

Are there more victims?

So many unanswered questions...

 

ToothTalkings

Electric tooth brush

Electric toothbrushes are in style. 

How to use a Sonicare one?

It rotates. So, you just hold it gently against your teeth. No force at all. 

Let the brush do the work for you.

Move from tooth to tooth and allow the brush to work on all surfaces. 

Sonicare has a timer setting. So you will be sure you are not brushing faster. 

My Sonicare even let e know when to change the brush head.

isn't it nice?

 

ToothTalkings

Patient's demands

It is not always a great workday at the office.

Most patients don't like to be on a dental chair for restorative work. 

This week, I got an unpleasant patient. He was not interested in having a conversation with me. 

He was talking nicely to the dentist. After giving the anaesthetic, the doctor left the room asking me to place the rubber dam. 

He was making my job very difficult by closing the mouth. To make me miserable, the dam tore when I was stretching it over his teeth. 

When I try to place a new sheet, he snapped " you call the dentist". I went to the dentist and told her "I can't place it". then the doctor came and done that. 

He was very cooperative with the dentist.  

I wanted to blame this as the patient not being comfortable in a dental office setting. I wanted to blame dental phobia. I wanted to blame myself for tearing the dental dam.....

I wanted to overcome the bad feelings and let them go too.

 

ToothTalkings

Gingival retraction

ToothTalkings

The dentists try to retract the gingiva before taking final impressions for crowns or veneers.
All these years, I was taking gingival retraction chord for this purpose. Oh, no, I was not packing the chord. Level 2 dental assistants are not supposed to do that.
To stop gingival bleeding, the chord is socked in a hemostatic solution like Hemodent first. Then the dentist use a retraction chord packer to place it around the tooth.
I got a chance to see another material recently. The dentist use Expasyl system. It comes like an anesthetic cartridge, a gun and a tip.

It is easy to assemble. The application is faster than packing the chord. The dentist will wash the material from the gingiva and dry the area before taking the final impression.

There are other materials like magic Cord retraction paste. But, I haven't got a chance to use that.
The simple trick for cutting a retraction chord to fit around tooth is to wrap around your little finger and cut it. Usually it will be perfect size.  How that works??? No clue.  But it works all the time.