Last day of Fall Semester!

What a nice relaxing day in clinic today! I am not quite sure why we set up our units because we didn't use them at all....but other then that the day went good. It was a really good preparatory day for next semester. We learned what we need to know for clinic assistant duties (there are a lot of them and I have the first time so I will be the guinea pig for the semester), and emergency situations and how we handle them. I just hope that I don't have any dire emergencies EVER when I am practicing dental hygiene. But I am happy that if that does happen that I have a good understanding of what to do and hopefully can stay calm through the emergency. But it would really ruin my life if someone died in my chair! This is my last blog of the semster. It has been good, it has been fun, it has been good fun!
Ta ta until next semester!

My first real patient!

I consider today a success. My sweet and loving sister, Lindsey, consented to come in and let me work on her as my first patient! I was so happy to have instructor allen there today, she has the best personality and she was thanking all of the patients for coming in and helping us all out. It was really interesting to work on somebody who doesn't have extremely clean teeth and tight gums, she is still healthy, but she doesn't have the drive to keep her teeth clean like everybody in the program. I am excited to start working on real patient next semester because it makes clinic so fun! I feel more relaxed when we have patients because we get to focus on everything we have been learning and put it all together. But I am even more excited for thanksgiving in just a few short days!!! Yeah for short weeks!

One more day until real patient!

Kayla is such a trooper! She was my patient and I finished her up today! But darn that Kayla she does not have any stuff that needs to be cleaned in her mouth! She is just too clean.  I guess this wasn't the best practice for me because I didn't have to do anything hard, but it was good practice to do everything. I feel like I am rambling and not making any sense so I am going to be done now before I look like an idiot. Just know that it was a good day and that Kayla is an awesome patient!

Operator Mock Patient day

My first day of being the operator in a real/mock situation!!! It was pretty fun! I am excited for when everything just seems second nature to me so I don't have to keep looking at what I am supposed to do next. I found that I had a hard time with jumping ahead of what I was supposed to be doing...you gotta get those signatures! I say this again and again, but practice makes perfect so hopefully by next semester I won't be so out of it and I will know what I am doing! This has been awesome practice though. One thing I will need to learn is to not talk to the patient and ask them questions about charting, because Kayla knows what's up, but I am guessing my real patients aren't going to have any idea if I chart OHI or TX first!!! Excited for Wednesday!

End of my patient time in clinic!

I have much pity for the patients who will be coming to our clinic and having to sit with their mouth open for 3-4 hours. I wonder if that is one of the  ways the Chinese used to torture people. I shouldn't be complaining because Kayla was my operator and she did really good, but keeping my mouth open was the hardest part. As with Monday, I learned so much from being the patient and it will help me with things I want to remember when i am the operator. All in all it was a pretty good day. Except the very end when I couldn't remember my blog password and I wanted to throw the computer across the room! But I guess I figured it out today!

Patient day!! Thanks Kayla!

What a relaxing non-stressful day! I was the patient the whole day and I even got to wear my regular street clothes for the whole day. Kayla was my operator and she did so good! It was really good for me to have this time to sit and watch because I understand better the things that I want to do when I am the operator. One of the things that I will need is to have a system of how I go throughout the appt. Up until now we have learned everything separate but now we are putting all of that knowledge together and it has been a little confusing. But today was fun and Wednesday I am the patient again! Good job Kayla!!

Soap and Fluoride

What a gem that wonderful TA Marilyn is, she carved us each a tooth made out of soap!!! We worked with our same patients as Monday and so I was with Karen. I passed off 3 PE's today so now I only have one more PE left!!! The end of the semester is creeping up and I  am excited!!! I am excited for when it is my turn to be the operator and do a full patient!! Well I am excited it is wednesday and I am off to head home and have a good night with my cute husband!

Sealants

Today we did sealants. It was a stressful clinic because there seemed to me so much that each person needed to do and not nearly enough instructors. So I think it was stressful on both sides both for students as well as the instructors. We are getting closer to the end of the semester and it is getting down to the wire!

Day of nasty tastes

We started the day out watching Professor Costley demonstrate the air powder polisher and the rubber cup polishing. I have to admit that once we all got decked out in our gear we were looking mighty fine. Professor Costley kinda looked like the lunch lady. We wore hair nets, and this plastic/garbage bag looking thing so we wouldn't get sprayed really bad. But after being the patient I see that the person who is getting worked on needs something to cover their entire face because mine is SALTY!!
GROSS GROSS GROSS tastes! It started with the air powder polisher (sodium bicarbonate). It sprayed through our whole mouth (taking great care to stay away from composites, crowns, etc) and I thought I was going to vomit from the taste of the salt. Once that was rinsed out then Emily polished my teeth with toothpaste and that would have been the best part of the day, but she has the ProHealth stuff that I can't stand! Then to top it all off, this poopy tasting fluoride varnish goes on our teeth and then just stays there! It is slimy feeling and I feel like I haven't brushed my teeth for a couple of weeks (now I know how Marianne felt when she didn't brush her teeth for a few days). I can't wait to get out of clinic and go brush me teeth, and I want to watch Pirates of the Caribbean, but that doesn't have anything to do with clinic so I guess it is time to go!

Tata for now!

Practice makes perfect...hopefully!

So many instruments so little time!! Today was another practice day where we have partners and we switch and practice. It was really busy because everyone had to pass off their intra-oral camera and OHI PE and then we were encouraged to practice using different instruments throughout the mouth. I tried using the 204S and Dr. Hanson gave me some really good tips and advice on how to better use it. It is so awesome to have such wonderful professors who have worked in offices and have aquired so much knowledge through years of practice and then they pass it on to us. They are the best! I am excited for next time when we get to learn more about something other than scaling!
TTFN!!!

My turn for everything!!!

Today it was finally my turn to have the whole clinic session to myself to do whatever I wanted!!! Actually I had to do the stuff we were assigned, but that was still a lot of fun. I was with Heather today and she was my patient and I was the operator. I got to see how long it really takes to get everything preliminary taken care of before you can actually get in the mouth and start scaling. I really like how thorough we have to be in school because it shows how many different things the patient can have wrong that needs to be assessed to ensure the patient is receiving the best treatment possible. I am glad we have some practice clinics so we can all get more profficient!

Everything!!!

Today was the first day that we went through everything (HHx, HHRx, OD, and everything!!). It took a long time and it showed me how you have to be really conscientous of how efficient you are using your time. If you dawdle at all you will get really behind and the patient will have to come back a lot, and they might not like sitting in our beautiful clinic for hours on end. You learn a lot from being worked on concerning how you will treat your patient and things you want to do and things you want to avoid. I was with Heather today and she did pretty good at explaining the things she was doing. I think it is easier to see things when you are the patient versus the operator because you aren't feeling the stress of getting things done. We didn't switch today so I didn't get to get in any mouths, and that was kinda sad, but Wednesday I will have the whole time!! Yeehaw!!

Dental Screening

Today we learned how to chart a patients full mouth. From bite classifications, to caries, to restorations! I was with Adrienne and we ROCKED THE HOUSE! Adrienne passed of her probing on me, I don't like having probing done on me, but she did pretty good. I know that I will need a lot of practice charting because there are so many things and they are all different. But that is what we are doing in school so I can't complain, practice practice practice!

PFI%

Today was all sorts of fun. It all started with watching Brook getting disclosed! Lots of purple and pink! Professor Costley forgot to put vaseline on her lips so she had some crazy blue-ish/purple-ish lips. Karen and I were together again today, and we went over tissues pertaining to size, contour, and consistancy. Then the embarassing part of having that oh-so-tasty disclosing dye spread throughout my entire mouth to show everywhere that I am missing or not brushing well enough. I thought I was doing pretty good, but I have areas that I need to work on! I use a flosser and I love using flossers so I probably won't change, but I just need to work on getting both sides of my papilla when I do it.  All in all today was great and it went really fast. I tried to tell Karen a joke, but I stink at telling jokes so it wasn't even funny. I will have to think of one for wednesday and practice telling it to Bryce so I don't look so stupid when I tell it in clinic. Tata for now!

Posterior Instrumentation

After today we have accomplished every area of the mouth in exploring, probing, and scaling. Jodie and I worked together today and first we made each other treatment plans on Eaglesoft (p.s. I hate Eaglesoft!). We are actually coming along in our journey to become hygienists!  Posterior scaling isn't as hard as anterior scaling. For one, I think that I am less nervous to go subgingivally when there isn't a sharp point that makes my patients bleed! But I did pretty good today and I didn't make Jodie bleed, except for a couple of times. Sorry Jodie! It is so much fun to be learning so much and I am having so much fun!!! I can't wait until we can do extraoral fulcrums!!!

Finally!! Some scaling! (Sorry Kayla!!!)

Well today was our first day actually scaling each others teeth...and it was pretty awesome!! Kayla did so good with her scaling, it didn't even hurt once. I am pretty sure that I stabbed her a few times and made her bleed, but she said she wasn't holding it against me and that we could still be friends. There are so many things to think of when you are scaling. You have to make sure you are pulling with your wrist instead of your fingers, adapt the tip apically, turn the face towards the tooth, pull up instead of rotate...and so much more! Kayla was an awesome patient because she would encourage me to go deeper when I was a chicken and didn't want to hurt her and she didn't jump out of the chair and leave the room crying, I consider this day a success! Tata til Wednesday!

Rigid. Long Shank. Complex/Simple....

Today was just a great day. We got to start learning more about our instruments and where we use them and what they function best. It is the ah ha moment because now it is all starting to make sense and come together and it makes it so much more fun!!!
It was really nice to be able to spend so much time today just practicing! It makes me a lot more comfortable being in someone else's mouth with sharp instruments now that I know how to fulcrum better and have a better hold of my instrument. Good times in clinic!!!

This is just the funnest stuff ever!

I am loving school!! It is so fun to actually be in the program and studying for what I want to do for the rest of my life. I love that I am learning how to keep myself safe and the patient safe.

This is my soapbox for the day.

Today we were learning how to explore around the mouth. Karen was my patient and I felt SO BAD when I made her bleed! But she said it didn't hurt so I guess I am off the hook. When I was a patient I understood better why it is so important to make the turn with your explorer around the curve of the tooth, because it is painful when that sharp explorer goes into my gums. But Karen did a wonderful job and she only made me bleed and cry a couple times, and I made her bleed and cry more so she gets the points for today.

Today it was so funny because Leigh was having a hard time seeing one area of the mouth and she was learning really close to her "patient" I told her I was going to take a picture and send her a ticket for incorrect positioning. Her excuse was she was "telling the patient a secret"...good times in the east pod!!!

School is great and we are having a great time!!!!!

Ready, Get set, GO!!!

Today was a jam packed day of probing and fun! I was teamed up with Heather and we were practicing probing on each other. I am not going to lie, sometimes it was really painful when she didn't go around the tooth and angle the probe and it was going straight into my gums!  But she got better and then it felt like more of a massage.
Karen and I also passed off some PE's today. It has been really crazy with PE's lately, it seems like we have been given a lot (8!!!!)  and not anytime to pass them off. I have been ready to pass of 4 PE's, but haven't been able to because everybody still had to pass off ones that were really time consuming. That is what you get when you have 2 PE's a day, they build up fast and then you are trying to learn so fast that you aren't able to pass them off. My recommendation would be to have some time everyday where you can pass off PE's.

Busy busy busy

Today in clinic was pretty busy because we had a guest speaker so we didnt' have time to do a lot of practicing and passing PE's off. We have SO many PE's right now to pass off!!! But we did get to work on each other and do intra-oral exams. I was paired up with Leigh and we were on FIRE! Hopefully we can pass of a bunch of PE's next clinic so we can get caught up! Well that is about all I have for this blog, remember I said that it was busy, yeah it's already time to go. Wow does time fly when you are having fun!

Probe Probe Probe: Scale Scale Scale

Well I guess we aren't probing or scaling or really even doing anything yet. But Karen and I like to pretend that as we go around in our clock positions that we are actually performing grand works for our partner. It is always fun to get someone in the chair and practice positioning and have my hands in their mouth.

Today I also passed off a few PE's and the health history was really nerve wrecking. It would be alright if I had had some practice, but when this way of charting is totally new then it is hard to remember everything. Good think that I will have a lot of practice in the next two years.

This weekend is the UDHA convention and I am pretty excited! I am mostly just excited to ride the frontrunner because I have never ridden it before. I have only been on a regular city bus 1 or 2 times in my whole life! Adventure awaits!!!!

Just another day in clinic

I am sorry to whoever reads this blog because I am afraid I am slightly boring and not very witty. But it is fun to relflect on the day and how it has gone. Karen and I passed off our patient positioning PE's today and I am thinking that I am going to try and do the health history as well so that I don't have to do it next time. That means I gotta run and study a little more. I think I am getting the hang of this and everyday just seems to get easier. That doesn't mean that life in the other subjects is getting easier though because in the next 10 days I think I have 4 exams. Wish me luck!

Michelle

HHx/HHxRx

So much to learn, so little time. I wish I was just born with a tremendous wealth of knowledge so that I would just know everything!!! But  I guess I will just have to learn it day by day. Karen and I were together today and we took each other's vital signs (it seems like I always go first and I am the guinea pig and almost everything I do is wrong, I am making Karen go first next time). We learned that the importance of taking vital signs before anything is so that we don't go through the entire health history and then find out that we aren't going to be able to work on our patient...frustrating. We went around in a circle and each of us looked up different drugs and what their oral effects would be...not to exciting but good to learn.

Clinic was ok, but I really want to say what happened to me this weekend because it is much more exciting!!! I went down to do the hike Big Segars Hole. I drove down with my husband, Bryce and my dad. We got down to where we were supposed to be about 11:30 at night. We were driving across a river bed and KERPLUNK!!! We sunk axle deep into the mud. Since there was little we could do for the poor truck that night, we got our sleeping bags out and we had a wonderful night sleeping under the stars. The next morning we worked for hours trying to get the truck out. Luckily there was somebody staying in the campground next to us and they tried to help pull us out...unluckily we broke our rapelling rope TWICE and the truck didn't even move. But they did give my dad a ride 35 miles on a lonely dirt rode until he had service and he was able to call the tow truck. It took the tow truck 2 1/2 hours to get to us and even then they didn't have all of the equipment we needed. So we had to use our poor rapelling rope again. Obviously we made it out somehow and made it home safely, no worse for wear. Lesson learned: Don't drive into the muddy creek!!!

We're going to Rock around the clock!!!

"We're going to rock around the clock tonight, we're going to rock rock rock 'til the broad daylight"  

Today in clinic we were working on how to position our bodies correctly with the patient so that we won't get injuries and we can be ergonomically correct. This is achieved by orienting yourself in different times of the clock. I know this is a very important skill for someone who's body is so vital to their job. Instructor Hafen told us about how she had to take 5 years off of work because of injuries related to incorrect positioning over years of working. The weirdest thing to overcome is being SPREAD EAGLE above the patient's head. The other thing we went over was where we position ourselves so that we can see and perform well for wherever we are working in the mouth. It was my "AH HA" moment for the day because now I can see how much easier it is to move the mirror, pt's head, and light before sacrificing my body position. We had a lot of fun in our pod shouting out numbers and surfaces and then the rest of us would find where we were supposed to be, our clock position, if we were supposed to use the mirror and where the light would be. 

Well that is a lot of words for not very much cool information. From now on we are going to 

"ROCK" the "CLOCKS!!"

See ya next time fellas

Clean, Clean Clean!!!

Today in clinic we went over how we get our room ready for out patient and then how to clean it up afterwards. I can tell we are going to go through gloves and masks like crazy!! But that is ok because I would much rather be clean and safe then GREEN and disease ridden. Karen and I were partners in crime as we rinsed and sucked using all of our suction devices. We both got cheekfuls and just had to laugh as we learn new techniques and chair positions. I learned that I can't wear my hair in crazy buns because there is too much of it and it sticks out sometimes. Really I should just shave my head so I can wipe it with a cavi-wipe when done with a procedure. It might scare many patients and cause questions about cancer and what not, maybe I will just keep my hair. Well it is time to go learn another PE and pass it off. Cheerio chaps.
 

Gotta keep on keepin on

Today was my first full day with clinic and radiology. After all these years of dental assisting I guess I thought I was a cool cat and that I knew my stuff. Now I am figuring out that there is still so much more to learn, and I am excited! I am really going to like knowing "WHY"  I do everything instead of doing it just because I was told I was supposed to. My one complaint so far is all of the printing we have to do! It seems like every class has a gazillion papers to print off. We are just going to get through these first few weeks together and get to know the program better and we are off! This first week has been great and I am excited to continue learning and progressing towards my goals! YEEHAW!!

First day in clinic!!

Hot. Confusing. FUN!! These are the words I would use to describe the first day in clinic. It was so hot when I first got to clinic I thought I was maybe having an early hot flash. Thanks to the fan Mr. Solomon brought in I was able to survive the day. Confusing...well there is a lot of stuff that goes on in the clinic. It isn't just all about scalers and prophy paste, there are computers, storage areas, machines, and papers! I am sure that everything will make much more sense as I get more used to the clinic. And the best part of today was that it is the first step to learning everything I need to be a RDH!!! Well my fellow blog followers, more on Wednesday!

Michelle

First post!!

This is my very first post for blogging! I have joined the blogging world to help with the dental hygiene program. This is to keep everyone who is interested (probably only my mom) updated on what is going on! More posts to follow for sure!