 Hello everybody, Andrew Myeski here with Dental L Tutoring. So as you guys know, my light had decided to burn out in my office this afternoon, so I apologize, but you will not be able to see me for a little while. You would not want to see me anyway because it's pretty dark in here, and you just wouldn't be able to see anything. So hence why I'm not showing you guys myself, so sorry about that. But hopefully I will be getting the light soon. But we will be talking about the rubber dam for the board exam. That actually seems to rhyme. I did not do that on purpose. And things that you have to know for the board exam, okay? So the biggest thing is that rubber dam is latex. They do have non-latex rubber dams. It's probably three times the price. It comes in like a pack of six opposed to like a pack of 30, but there are non-latex types out there. They did ask that on a board exam. It was a board exam question last September, and I believe it was in a case study form that somebody told me where the patient's allergic to latex, can they have a rubber dam, or something like that. Yes they can, but it does have to be non-latex. So what is the rubber dam? So this is used for pretty much anything where the tooth needs to be isolated as much as possible. Trust me, I love the rubber dam because it helps to keep the tongue out of the way, the lips, cheeks, everything. It's just a lot more, it's just easier to manage. But patients don't typically like the rubber dam because it's obviously something that's going over their mouth and they don't feel very comfortable with it. But I don't tell patients that. I don't tell patients, okay, I'm putting the rubber dam on now, here we go. No, I just put it on, but if they say something afterwards, like wow, I didn't like that at all, then I make a note to not use it again, but I still like to use it, okay. So what is the rubber dam? Yes, so that's pretty much what it is. It just helps to keep the tooth or teeth isolated. The rubber dam is needed if you are doing endo because you will be using sodium hypochlorite, hypochlorite. Oh my goodness, my mind is drawing a blank right now. But that is why you do need it for endo. In fact, I'm going to write that down on the next slide. Let me just write that down here, guys, sorry. So rubber dam is needed for endo because of the bleach solution, okay. It is needed for endo whether they want it or not. But just think, it is needed for if somebody has a cavity, if you're doing a crown prep, although some people usually take off the rubber dam halfway through the crown prep because you do need to see, like the bottom of the tooth, basically any procedure. I'm just trying to think of them all right now. So my mind is kind of drawing a blank, but just to keep the tooth isolated, okay. Because if you're doing anything where the tooth needs to stay as dry as possible, although the rubber dam is the way to do that. But they also do say that it helps to protect us from additional aerosols and just everything that could become airborne. So they love to use the rubber dam on the board exam. And with the rubber dam, use a high speed suction. They don't want you to use a low speed because you need to be sucking up as much as possible. Plus for the rubber dam, make sure to tie something on the end of the clamp, which actually sorry guys, I'm going to make a note of that too. I'm going to say this is going to be the info slide. So on the clamp, on the camp, on the clamp, tie a piece of the floss to prevent choking. In the real world, I'll admit, did I spell that right? It just looks weird. Sorry guys, that looks better. This isn't a word I typically use. Oh boy, did I spell choking right? Anyways, so you want to tie that on the end because hey, it could happen. That's what they want you guys to know for the board exam. In the real world, we don't do this to be honest because it just never happens where somebody would joke from it. But on the board exam, you need to do this. You would tie the piece of floss on either before you put it on the tooth or afterwards. But obviously it will be easier to do it before. There are different ways to put on the rubber dam. So you could put on the clamp first and then the rubber dam over, which is really hard to do. Or you could put the clamp in the rubber dam and then put it on that way. That's what I like to do. And that's just the easiest for me. Obviously the frame you would put on afterwards punch everything first and make sure you know the different types of the rubber dam clamps for the board exam because they want you to know the different types. I wonder if they can find a picture quickly. Let me just see here. Okay, everybody. So this isn't really the best picture to be honest. This was the only one that I could find quickly, but this actually does help. So make sure to know, for example, the 2A. That one's a common one. And that one would be used for your premolars. The 4 would be a molar. It really depends on which office you are in. Like for example, we would use one that was a 12A and a 13A. So those would be used for the molars, but I don't even see that here. So it really does depend on what office you are in. For the board exam, however, they seem to ask a lot about the 2A because they want you to know that's for the premolars. So to keep it simple, think anything with a 2 in it is probably a premolar. Although the 12A, as I said before, oh, I just actually saw that here. The 12A and the 13A are typical for the molars, but just to kind of help you guys memorize them a little bit. You don't have to memorize all of this, but just kind of know, I would say the 12A, 13A, the 2A, the zeros. The threes, the interiors are very important. The 212 is probably the most common one. And then, yeah, no, I'd say those are the most important. Maybe the eight. So again, I don't want you guys to memorize everything, but this will help you because they will ask you something like that for the board exam. You need to know for the board exam, let's say you're doing a filling on the 2-7. You should be putting a clamp on the 2-8 and then isolating the teeth in front of that. Now, if a patient does not have a 2-8, then you would obviously have to put the clamp on the 2-7. But always think of the tooth you're doing the work on and you want to clamp behind it. Otherwise, the tooth will get in the way, or sorry, the clamp will get in the way. I don't know why I said tooth, sorry guys. The clamp will get in the way, but if there's obviously not a tooth behind it, you don't have a choice, right? So then you will have to clamp that tooth. So that's very, very important to know for the board exam. When you are to isolate the teeth, you want to go all the way over to the anterior. So if you're, say you're working on the tooth 2-7, you want to clamp the 2-8 and isolate the teeth all the way to the 1-1. Now, this is Canadian in the U.S., the numbers are different, so you just have to think, you have to go all the way over to the opposite quadrant where it's the anterior, okay? So hopefully I didn't just confuse some of you, but make sure of that. The only time you would only have to clamp, let's say 1 tooth, is if they only have the 1 tooth in that quadrant, or if you're doing a really tiny occlusal, then you don't necessarily need to isolate too much. But that's it, okay? So I hope that helped you guys. I do talk more about the rubber dam, oh, that's my next slide. I do talk more about the rubber dam, actually pretty much everything that you have to know for the board exam. We will be going through hundreds of questions. It will be amazing, plus I will be sending more to you afterwards. So everything that you have to know for the board exam, so if you haven't signed up yet, you should. As of now, I'm just checking my notes here. We have 22 members, so you guys will be learning a lot, and this is the perfect time to ask me anything, because I will be live. You can ask me anything, because I am more than happy to help. I do the board exam boot camps probably every four months, so there won't be another one for a while. Now is the time to start, you guys. So thank you so much for listening, and sorry that you cannot see me, but hopefully soon you will, okay? I will talk to you guys soon, and see you in the next one.