I am 100% with you on that! The idea of watching the videos was my
own, after the fact, just for my own morbid curiosity.

Yes, I was very upset that the graft was not explained to me. It had
been mentioned as a possibility but I was led to believe it was not
going to be needed. Certainly, whenever that decision was made
(obviously it was made before I got there for the appt. that day), I
should have been informed and had the right to approve or disapprove.

However, I get the feeling that when you sign up for student
dentistry, even in the graduate program as this is, you kind of have
to accept a certain degree of, shall we say, "unprofessionalism". At
least that has been my experience. The way I look at it, I'll just be
happy if the actual operations, the implants and sinus lift, WORK, and
do not fail or are not done poorly!

The truth is, I would have most likely agreed to the graft, had I been
informed, anyway. But yes, I SHOULD have been told!

I *think* that the quality of work has been pretty good by my student
dentist, and certainly I have noticed the prof there at every major
stage, looking in every few minutes, sometimes hanging around,
sometimes showing the student a better technique. And after it was
said and done the prof said it was a good job. (Though maybe he always
says that, to make the patient feel better???)

But as for communication, it has been pretty poor. I almost never
discuss anything with the prof, he's very much always in the
background, not accessible to me, and sometimes I think he should be a
bigger part of the patient-relations aspect of it. I have come here
often to ask things only because I get the impression that my student
really can't answer the questions well or with authority and I do not
have access to the prof. I think this is a deficiency in this
particular school's system.

But as I say, I signed on, and now I just hope it all works out. At
this point I"ll just be happy if the sinus lift didn't screw up my
sinuses or cause me to have headaches for the rest of my life!