Last clinic day!

Well our last clinic day did not turn out like it should have. I woke up that morning and there were crazy howling winds ripping campus apart! Some of the patients to be seen in the clinic showed up, but Prof. Alexander was telling us to reschedule our patients. My patient was a class III and also my mockboard patient for January. He was bringing his wife for me to see also, and his 2 daughters for Tanya to see. We talked back and forth and the parking lot in front of the school was closed so they would have had to park pretty far away and battle the wind with two little girls to make it up to the clinic. We ended up rescheduling them. I was fine with that because I was done with my clinic requirements and I really didn't want any injuries to come from me being to eager to get a patient in my chair.
Then the whole school was put on lockdown because there had been some injuries of people walking out in the wind and getting hit by things or hitting something because the wind knocked them down or propelled them against something.
Anyway, enough with the crazy wind day. I want to reflect on this whole semester. I feel like it went really well. I was able to complete all of my requirements and I was also able to get a lot of xrays, so hopefully I won't be too stressed next semester. I had a turn of luck with seeing class III's towards the end of the semester. I was feeling really stressed about them, but I am not feeling too stressed anymore. Hopefully it is too early to be getting too stressed about trying to find a class IV that has an entire mouth that qualifies for my assignment. I have found quite a few class IV's, but they haven't had a full mouth that qualifies. Or I have seen them at the VA and I was only able to complete 1 or 2 quads and I won't ever see them again. Prof Alexander just keeps telling us that everything will be alright. And for now I will believe her because it is Christmas break and things are going really well. Bryce has been accepted to Dental School, I am finished for the semester, and I get to think about spending some time with family. Things don't get much better than that!

Thanksgiving Break!

I just finished my last patient before Thanksgiving Break! She was the sweetest little latina lady. She is a patient of mine aunts. It is so tough to not be able to really talk to my patients. She only spoke spanish, so everything I said, her niece had to try and translate, but her niece doesn't speak spanish very good either. So we stumbled through the appt speaking what little of each others language that we could. I had a really good experience with her because I FINALLY checked all of the teeth for mobility and furcations! I am so proud because I usually either forget all together, or I just do a few teeth... I am not sure why I would only check a few, but it happens occasionally. But today is the first day I have remembered everything myself and Prof Alexander didn't have to say, What about...." and I had to secretly try and sneak whatever she saw onto the green sheet so I didn't get marked down again. I took xrays on her today and I took PA's of the front teeth,   (which I think I will make a common practice so that I can get PA's) and some of the teeth she had pain in. She had her upper wisdom teeth and she had a cavity on the distal of #16 and it was so dang hard to get all of the way in the back of her throat to get the xray. I usually get nervous taking upper PA's with the snap-a-ray because of angulation and stuff, but I took a pretty good PA of #16 and I got the very distal of it! I felt bad that the appt took so long though. And I didn't start cleaning her today because I would only have been able to complete 1 quadrant and then she would have had to wait until the end of January to finish her cleaning. So I asked her if she could come back in January over 2 weeks so we could complete the cleaning in a shorter time. She is such a sweet lady.
I am excited for Thanksgiving break coming up next week! But I am a little nervous because I am having surgery on Tuesday so I am probably just going to be healing throughout the break. And then when we come back we only have 1 week of class and then voila! Christmas break!
This semester has been really crazy and pretty stressful, but there have been so many wonderful learning experiences and I felt like I have matured so much as a hygienist and I just hope it keeps getting better!


SEE YOU GUYS ....tomorrow! ha ha

drug dilemma

I am at the VA today and my morning patient was pretty strung out on drugs. He said he was just "tired" from not getting a good nights sleep last night. I believed him at first, but then I read his note from last time and it said that he had asked for percocet and that they hadn't given it to him. He also said that some of his teeth hurt.... When the dentist came in he did some different tests to see what teeth were bugging him. My patient could barely keep his eyes open and his mouth was so extremely dry that he couldn't even swallow without his water from his waterbottle. This presented with a real dilemma as you can imagine. The patient is asking for 10mg of Percocet because it is "the only thing that will touch it" and fervently telling the dentist the Ibuprofen doesn't work. Needless to say it was really awkward in my pod this morning. I hope the afternoon goes better. I really need to pass of my LA and perio files. I wish I would have done it last week, hopefully I can get it done today, but if not then I will do it thursday.

Blog #66

This morning I had a patient who is a class III and he is going to be my mockboard patient. I am really glad that I could work on my mockboard patient before the actual test day because then I have a better idea about how well it will come off. I was also able to give 6 injections and they went really well. I wish I would have passed the LA PE off, but alas I did not. I did pass off 3 other PE"s so that is good (nitrous, calculus removal #2, and Ultrasonic #2). Something really neat about this appt was that my patient was extremely nervous for the injections. I recommended having nitrous on to help take away the sting and to help him relax during the injections. He agreed and after the injections he said he didn't feel anything. But then he said that he didn't want to use the nitrous next time, I wanted to tell him that the reason he probably didn't feel the injections was due to the nitrous. I guess we will see what happens next time. I am going to do the same quad that I did for my last mockboards (LL). I wish another quad would have been better because I wanted more experience in a testing situation with other quads instead of just the lower left. I guess if my actual board patient needs the LL cleaned then it will all work out because I will be well versed with that quad.
I think it is so interesting how different people react to the nitrous. I absolutely love the stuff. But my patient today said he felt like he was going to panic and it was only at about 15 %/1.5 lpm. I turned it down and he had it on for most of the appt. I think what he didn't like about it was that he had to keep adjusting his glasses and the nose throughout the appt. Today I felt really good about my explaining. It seems like the past little while I haven't felt as good at it and I am usually rushing to get through the appt. Something that helped me to explain was that my patient was asking a lot of questions and he wanted to understand.
I had a no show patient this afternoon and I called a few people and nobody could come in today so I am writing on my blog and helping out around the clinic. It is nice when we have the first years in doing observation because they can help out with cleaning up rooms and charting. Tonight my family is meeting in Salt Lake to go to dinner and a movie because we are celebrating/remembering my brother who passed away 7 years ago today. This is a really tough time of year and I always fall into a funk the first couple weeks of November. And Bryce is out of town at a dental school interview so I have just been alone. I am glad I get to meet up with my family tonight so I don't have so sit home alone.
Only a few more weeks until Christmas break! This semester is flying by!

Mockboard #2-patient found!

As of yesterday at 5:00 I didn't have any patients for today. I had a patient scheduled but she made the appt and I wasn't able to get a hold of her again. I have called her 3 times and left messages and finally I left the message that if I didn't hear back from her then I would be scheduling somebody else in that place. So I called this nice guy and he came in. I had him sit down and I did the OD and he had a lot of subgingival deposit. He had a lot of mobility and his teeth were starting to come apart. So I took a full mouth and it was great because he had a lot of stuff going on. He had a lot of bone loss and lots of radiographic calculus. And he is ok with being my mockboard patient!!
My goal after my midsemester conference was to be better at noting furcations and mobility in the chart. So today I felt over his molars and noted the mobility and furcation, but I forgot to note the mobility on his anterior teeth! Dang it! Goal: do better next time.

Crazy day at the VA

The day started out crazy because of the weather. It was really dark and on top of that it was raining like crazy and when we got to Salt Lake it was snowing a little bit! The snow didn't actually stick (dang it), but it looked like a blizzard. The bad news is that there were 2 patients for me to see and they were both no shows. One of the patients I am glad didn't show up because I have had him before at the VA and he is really nervous and he is really sensitive and he swore at Prof Bossenberger when she gave him anesthetic. So I kinda breathed a sigh of relief....
At 10:30 (30 minutes before walkout), Katie said that there was a patient that Dr. Erickson wanted to have cleaned. This was a pretty amazing experience because he was on a lot of medications and he had a lot of stuff going on with his mouth. First of all, he had not been able to taste anything for almost a year, second he had a fungal infection that had been going on for over a year, and he had the most dry mouth I have ever seen! He wasn't able to form any saliva to help him swallow. Dr. Erickson talked to him for almost an hour about his dry mouth. He reported that he sips on coke all day long to help him have some saliva. Dr. Erickson told him that he should be sipping on water instead because the sugar from the drink actually fuels the fungi in his mouth and is probably why he has had this chronic infection. I thought this was really interesting because we always come at that kind of situation with a caries approach. We encourage our patients to sip on water because the constant sugar and acid on the tooth will break it down. I guess it also feeds fungus!
After Dr. Erickson had talked to him she told me to clean him (time-11:00). Luckily he mostly had a lot of plaque and not a lot of deposit. My scale time was 20 minutes and he was a class V. The really gross part of this is that he had TONS of food and material alba throughout his mouth because his spit did not clean his mouth. Dr. Erickson wanted to put him on a saliva substitute, but he had a serious heart condition and she didn't feel comfortable using it. I hope that he will take this opportunity to change his habits so that he doesn't loose his teeth!
My afternoon patient was a really good experience because I was able to get xrays and do half of his mouth he he was a classIII/IV. And I was able to get him numb.  The following is something you shouldn't do when you are getting someone numb....DO NOT WEAR YOUR LOUPES! Nobody has ever told me this, but I was in such a hurry because my instructor was in a hurry that I forgot to take my loupes off and it was a weird experience. I will always remember to take my loupes off from now on. On his maxillary arch I was able to use Oraqix and I love that stuff. I like that I can just go get it out of the cabinet and use it without having a use ordeal made while normally doing anesthesia. But I do love to poke people!
Good news from the day: I met my mom at Nordstrom rack and I got some new boots that are super cute! Look for them Friday in class! 

plaque city!

This morning I had a lovely lady who is also in my ward. She has had bone loss before and she has a lot of crowns (every tooth except her lower anteriors). So she doesn't get a lot of calculus, but she had a ton of plaque. She told me that she had a tooth that was bothering her, but she didn't want to take an xray because she didn't want to spend the time. To me it looked like a loose crown and I stayed away from it because I didn't want to disrupt it. When Prof. Perry came over he looked at it and he thought it was probably loose from bone loss. So I was able to take a PA for her to take with her to her dentist. Bone loss is so crazy to me, the bone had completely shrunk away from that one tooth. She doesn't have disease in that area. I feel bad that she will probably loose that tooth.
My afternoon was pure craziness. I had 2 kids scheduled and they were 9 and 10 years old. I have worked on their mom before and she wanted to get her 2 boys in.

Good things about afternoon appointment:

1. Got to get 2 sets of bitewings

2. Was able to help Karen out with a pano

3. Passed off sealant and air/powder polish PE

4. Really able to get into OHI with young boys

Bad things about afternoon appointments:

1. Boy #1 was a crazy wiggle worm! Couldn't keep still for the life of him.

2. Completely forgot to show my instructor my xrays before my patients left (bad Michelle, but not as bad as when Adrienne sends her pt away without getting a scale check)

3. Took a lot more time then I expected

4. Wasn't able to complete the sealants on Boy #1 because he started crying thinking that I was shoving things down his throat and he was pulling my hands out of him mouth when there was etch all over his teeth.

All in all the good outweighed the bad, but I was still stressed because of how long everything took and because I was in clinic until after 5 o'clock today.

Another major stresser is class III's....WHERE ARE YOU! I feel like almost everyone in our class is struggling with finding class III's. Prof. Alexander just smiles and says everything will work out, and my brain trusts her, but my emotional side is still freakin out. 

Good luck fellow students in our search for those elusive class III's!

A breath of fresh air

I am finally feeling like I have my mojo back ( as Kelsey would say). I felt pretty down and out the past few weeks and I felt like I just wasn't doing well with any of my work. I felt like my school work wasn't as good and my clinic abilities were just out of funk. But today I felt like they were back on! I completed my mockboard patient this morning. She is the sweetest lady and she is so dependable and so nice. I was able to give her anesthesia and it was awesome! I love to work on patients with anesthesia because I feel like I can really get in there and clean without worrying about when they flinch. I would rather they flinch at the beginning for a minute and then it goes away. My favorite part of this morning was being able to see the health of the tissues in the area I have already been in. They looked so much better!!! I appreciated seeing this because I feel like when she leaves her tissues are so irritated from me being in those pockets, but after a few weeks of healing and rinsing with Listerine and doing better home care, her tissues looked amazing! Just one of those feel good moments! I was also able to pass off my ultrasonic PE with Instructor Perry, I like the way he quizzes us when he does the PE's because it helps to make sure we really understand why we do the things we do.
My second patient of the day canceled and this is the second time she has canceled on the day of treatment, so that is her last chance. I am not going to reschedule cancelers. But I was able to fill my afternoon with this really nice girl that goes to Weber State and I was able to get xrays and do my caries risk assessment PE. She had crazy amounts of saliva! I was actually pretty jealous. No wonder she only has a few fillings and not really any calculus at all! Go girl!

Mockboard #1

What a great learning experience I had today. First of all I am SUPER grateful that my wonderful patient showed up. She is so reliable and I just wanted to hug her when she walked in the door. Here are some things I learned from mockboards:

1. Try sitting in different positions not only for scaling, but also for exploring. I was amazed at how different deposits felt when I moved positions and tried different tactics. Too bad it didn't help get every single piece off though...

2. Some patients are just bleeders. I felt like I spent half of my scale time washing my patient out because there was so much blood. But then I figured out this trick of having a 2x2 in the mouth and sopping it up while I was working and that worked out a lot better for me. I didn't have to spend as much time rinsing.

3. I had morning clinic and by the afternoon clinic I was completely pooped out and when I had to be a student examiner and feel other calculus, I really just didn't feel like it. I had been feeling and stressing over calculus all morning. I mostly just wanted to sit in the wet lab with my feet up on the table and talk to my peeps.

4. Loved the rock 'n' roll music playing all morning. Dr. Hanson was rocking out with a patient and that made my day.

5. I can't wait until I don't feel like I am just using patients to meet my requirements, but instead I am really doing them a big service. So grateful for all of the mockboard patients that showed up and were so awesome to help us stressing students out.

Well guys, I guess it is onward and upward. Things on my to do list: local anesthesia test, patient education assignment, CHILL!

I QUIT!

So today I just feel like quitting. Well actually it is a juxtiposition of how well my week has gone. First of all, this week is labeled hell week. Every night we have something going on and I haven't arrived home earlier than 9 this week. Then I feel  like a horrible hygienist because I can feel the deposit and I go over the same piece ten times and it is still there! Why the freak can I not scale a stupid piece of calculus!?

I am also in a deep depression because of the test I took yesterday. But it is too sad and I don't want to talk about it anymore, but I just had to get it out there.

My patient this morning had so much subgingival calculus. But the really depressing thing is that it took me like 80 minutes to scale. That is a really long time. A freaking long time. My instructor came over and she said she was worried about my time...you and me both sista!

Well I feel a little bit better after getting my woes out of my mind. Now I just need to look forward and be better.

In the thick of it

We are really getting into our clinic sessions now. Mockboards are next week and I am really excited to see how this will all pan out. I am so grateful that Prof. Alexander gives us these opportunities to see what the real day will be like so that we are prepared when that time comes around in just a few short months.

I feel like clinic has been going pretty well. I am so excited to have our final LA lab next week so that we can start giving out own injections. I was at the VA yesterday and I had 2 patients that needed LA and Prof. Bossenberger had to come and do both of them. I was actually really grateful that she did one of the guys because he was so nervous and it had been over 20 years since he had had his teeth cleaned. He actually swore at her! I am not so excited to give patients like that anesthetic because I don't like knowing that I am hurting somebody and they just have to sit through it. But then I think about how nice it is for the patient to be numb so that I can give them a super good cleaning without causing them any discomfort (during scaling at least).

Yo hablo espanol

Seriously, when am I going to lean spanish? I think about it all the time and how useful it would be to be able to converse with my spanish. But I did have an interpreter today because I emailed this guy to see if he could come in and translate for me, and when he emailed me back he said that he couldn't come. But then he showed up about halfway through the appt! It was nice because I was able to give my pt some OHI and not feel like I am just using and abusing him because I need his requirement. Today was a pretty good day. I was able to take some PA's this morning on my patient because she fell down a few months ago and hit her nose and her mouth. Luckily everything looked good and she didn't have any fractures or anything.
My morning patient really opened up to me about her life and the problems she has had in her life with her husband and her kids and I felt so sorry for her! I guess people to tell their barber everything, and their hygienist falls under that category as well.
So today was a good day overall . I got some xrays, which I am kind of stressed about, and I had a class II and a class V.

What am I doing here?

My patient this morning is my patient that I will be using for mockboards and I have to admit I was having a little bit of a hard time. I get all pepped up from the VA because I do pretty good and then I sit down in my chair here and I use instruments that I haven't used very much and I can't angulate very well. I didnt use my gracey's very much last year so now when I use them I have to learn how. I feel really comfortable with my other instruments, but I was missing part of the tooth structure. Prof Alexander is an angel and she sat down with me and showed me how to angle my instrument so that I can get that area. It helped so much!!! But it pooped me out for the morning and I still have the afternoon to go. My patient canceled late last night and I have called 10 people to see if they can come and none of them could come in this afternoon. Hopefully somebody shows up out of the blue and they can be my patient, lucky person....

First real clinic day!

Wowza! Today was crazy, plain and simple. I had 2 patients this morning and it was a lady and she was bringing her 6 year old daughter. I was planning on taking a pano and some bitewings because this little girl had never had xrays before. Working in a pediatric office has taught me that it is SOOOO important to get xrays early. We do surgery on kids as young as 1 year old! But the little girl started crying and it is clinic policy that you can't stand in the room when xrays are being taken.  So I wasn't able to get the bitewings on this little girl, but I was able to take a pano and that took a load off!
Next I started working on her mom and she spoke mostly spanish. We could understand each other very little. But I got to practice my spanish!  She said that she didn't want to do xrays and a cleaning today because she didn't have the money so I told her I would take a look around and then if she wanted we could just do the xrays and then she could come back for the cleaning. I did my OD and I started probing and she didn't have very deep pockets, but she had TONS of subgingival calculus! Because she had it all across the front I recommending taking a fmx and she said that was alright. So I took a full 18 xray series and I saved it in the wrong folder!!! And while I was taking xrays the xray machine wasn't exposing! So it took about 20 minutes longer to finish! But I think she is going to be a good mockboard patient!!!
This afternoon was much more relaxing. I had a guy that is a 1B and he was way nice and I didn't have a ton of deposit. But I learned something very valuable from Dr. Hanson, she showed me how to look for sheet calculus that is smooth.
I am so excited for second year!!!! I love that I can really start to do things on my own and that it is my judgement instead of having my hand held the whole time. FREEDOM!!! I love working on teeth and I love working with patients. This is the best profession!! Now I have a whole other week until clinic again!

I am back in business!

Today is my first day back in clinic at Weber State as a second year. I have been to the VA and it was pretty fun. I had a nice patient and it was the first time that I have had my probe sink all of the way to 9mm! It was a really good experience for me because it forced me to make sure that I didn't just haphazardly go around probing, but instead actually felt for when it stopped. I didn't judge his tissues before and think, "well this guy has healthy tissues, I bet he has all 3's and at the most 4".

Clinic at WSU was good today because we went over sharpening. I didn't sharpen my instruments like I should have last year, I think the major reason is because I didn't trust myself to do it well and I was afraid of ruining my instrument. But I want to make a new goal to have my sharpening stone out for each appt, especially perio, because there is such a huge difference between a sharp and a dull instrument. At the VA on tuesday I had a whole tray of really dull instruments. This was really frustrating because I had to put so much pressure on the tooth to try and get deposits off.

Goal: Keep my instruments sharp!!!

LAST CLINIC DAY!!!!!

Yeah!! Last clinic day! I am so excited! And I am even more excited because today went so smoothly and I was able to see a 1B patient, do xrays, do OD, and complete scaling before first scale check! That is pretty darn good in my book. Definitly not 25 minutes! But pretty darn good for me. Today is the best I have felt in clinic I think so far. I felt really comfortable, now I hope I can feel good when I start 2ND YEAR CLINIC!!! I am officiall/clinically a second year!

Thank you Tori!

2 Clinic days left, 2 clinic days left, 2 clinic days left....YIPEE!!!! I am so happy that this semester is almost over! I had a little minor setback on Saturday night when my final requirements for class III canceled his appointment. But then an angel came in and saved the day and offered me the rest of my requirements on a patient that she has. The OD was already completed and the only thing left to do is just get that dang calculus off! So I am excited to see how today goes! If today goes well then I will be floating on cloud 9! I am also going to pass of my final PE's. I haven't passed of a PE in about a month because I usually did 2 every clinic session and then I had to wait to have the patient come in to pass off certain PE's. Wish me luck! If today goes well then Wednesday should be a dream!
Goal:
1. Practice and perfect using Gracey's. (I have only used one of them once...)
2. Be efficient with my time.
3. Not have anymore nightmares concerning clinic!

1B=25 minutes?!?!?!?!?

I had a patient come in today that I have previously seen. She has a flipper so I brought her in about a month ago and cleaned her flipper, but that happened to be one of my craziest days in clinic so I wasn't able to do anything else on her. So I had her come back in today and it took me pretty much all of clinic to complete her. In our pod wrap they said that we should be completing a 1B patient in 25 minutes..... I am a failure. Let me add up my times to see how long she took me. (1-2:30-ish) Yeah I should have been able to do a class II patient in that time as well. My only defense is that this patient had a ton of calculus everwhere and her lower ant had really thick stain all across the facials. In my whole experience I have never had a 1B patient who was a typical easy 1B. All of my patients have either had a ton of calculus (should have been class II but no bone loss), or their had full mouth ortho. Luckily I have all of my requirements and the extra time didn't really kill my score. But I do feel pretty down on myself that it takes me 2-3 times longer then it should. That time also includes checks that I had to wait for, so I guess that shouldn't count against me. But I sure as heck didn't get all of her quads done in 25 minutes! I hope they let me into senior year!

Goals:
1. be more efficient when I am scaling, don't go over the same spot a bajillion times, make good scale strokes and be more confident in myself.
2. Use my time more wisely (except when I am all of the way done and still waiting for checks).
3. Give better OHI information.

I see a faint light at the end of the tunnel

I think there is a light somewhere??? It seems like I get everything in order to go for my patients and scheduling, and then somebody doesn't show up, or they show up and they are a totally different classification then I need, or they have full ortho and I was hoping to do a pano on them... I really wish we could just do the best treatment for each patient and not have to worry about the requirements that we need to accomplish. We are so worried about getting a certain amount of quads, getting all of the right classifications, passing of PE's and taking xrays that I think the patient's sometimes fall by the wayside. Something that really bugs me is how patients are passed around according to their classification and then they end up with 1 or 2 quads that don't get completed this semester because somebody didn't need them. I don't like that our requirements trump patient care.  I completely understand that we need to have experiences with different types of mouths and that we can't see the same type of mouth the whole time, but to turn somebody away for another 5-6 months because they aren't a class III seems pretty ridiculous. I have to remember that this is a learning institution and that when I get out in the real world I will do my best to make sure this doesn't happen in the practice I work in. There is my soapbox for the day!
Goals in clinic (for you Marianne)
1. Be better at communicating if I am sharing the patient for requirements
2. Be faster, stop chatting so much, they really don't care what you have to say, they just want their teeth cleaned.
3. Keep cool, we are all going to make it through this semester and become seniors together!

Not all it was cracked up to be

So today I had a girl from a family that Karen found. The girl I was going to see  was 14 years old and when I looked through her chart I thought for sure that she hadn't been to a dentist in 2 years. So I had big plans to take my first pano, let Karen take the BWX, and complete a 1B in 1 appt (yes this would be my first time, I am lame). My patient walked in the door and what to my wondering eyes did appear??? Another FULL MOUTH ORTHO PATIENT! So to me that means two things. First, that she wouldn't need a pano that I desperately needed to take, and it would take me longer to get around those brackets. She was a bittersweet patient. Let me explain. She did not have very good oral hygiene so her gums were practically growing up around her brackets, (not kidding, some of them were covered). The good part of that is that they were extremely loose and I could get subgingivally (because that was all there was with her) very easily. I learned a lot about going more by feel than by sight (so why did I spend $850 on loupes?) and she was a good experience. I also finished her in 1 appt so I kissed my finger and put it on my head to kiss my brain and tell me good job. Now on to finding another patient who "needs" a pano.

I was getting kinda stressed out because my 1A requirements were supposed to be completed, but one of my patients wouldn't sit in the chair so I didn't get credit for her. I was feeling stressed with very little appointment times left and no contact to call. I had a prompting to walk by the resource list just to see if there was anybody that had any kids. Right there sitting on the resource list were 3 kids that had just called in that day!!!! Talk about luck! And they would all need panos! So I will be able to complete my requirements with my favorite type of patients and I was able to share 2 of the kids with Madi! We are going to make this all through together!!!! Thank you DH girls!

I wish I could have changed today.

Today was one of those days that I felt like I got nothing done. I was supposed to have two 1A patients come in. They came in late (which is fine because it doesn't take that long to get them completed), but the youngest one wouldn't lay in the chair so I didn't get credit for her. That really bums me out because I was planning on being done with my 1A's today. They both spoke spanish so it was hard to communicate with them, but their dad was here and he is a way nice guy ( he is a patient of mine) and he helped out a lot. The little boy did really good and by the time he left he was smiling and so happy. I love when patients leave happy!

BUSY BUSY DAY!

Man, today was CRAZY busy! I can't blame anybody but myself though because I am the one that scheduled today like I did. I had 2 patients come in and I was completing 3 quads on each patient and they were both 1B. My second patient had a lot more calculus and a lot more plaque than my first patient. I was kind of discouraged with myself because I missed so many spots on my second patient. I think I am doing pretty good and then the instructor sits down and she starts naming off like 3 million spots that I missed. Oh well I am still trying and I am still learning. If I have the same problem next year I will be in deep do do!

Thanks Saan!

I was so excited today because I had my mom coming in to finish her appointment. I was excited because I didn't have to take xrays and I didn't have to do an OD so I was able to just focus on not missing any areas and practicing with my new loupes! I am so excited to have the loupes, but I am freaking out about how much they cost. I used the ultrasonic the most today I have ever used it and I LOVE it! I love not having to sit and scrape each tooth, especially when the patient has sensitive teeth. I was so happy to get my mom done and to give her advice on how she can take care of her teeth better!

sweatin', cruisin', going crazy!

WOW!!! today was crazy! Here is how the day was supposed to go. I had a class 1B that I was going to complete 3 quadrants on and then I had another patient in and I was going to do and OD and pass off my removable appliance PE.  Here is how the day actually went. My first patient canceled so I looked on the resource list and I found the perfect patient, a screening patient! So I called and I was going to do a quick screening on him and take xrays and then bring him back for a cleaning and stuff, then I was going to see my removable appliance patient. Well I wasn't signed up for xrays early enough so I decided to complete an OD on my patient so that it was done when I saw him next. He turned out to be a perfect board patient! He was also a class III which is exactly what I needed! But I told the second years that they could use him for a backup board patient if they needed him. He was such a good sport about everything. I took a FMX on him and sent him to be screened by a second year and I was about 15 minutes late for my second patient. But she was also a good trooper. I was able to take xrays on her today and clean her appliance, but I have to bring her back to complete her appointment.
I feel like I am going to run out of appointment days before I can get all of my patients in! I have found all of my requirements, but now it is just a matter of getting them in and getting them done so I can have credit for all of them. I am glad we are having a screening day. I think it is going to help so many people finding what they need.
This is probably my longest blog ever, I wonder what people will have to say about it???

A pretty good day

Today was actually a pretty good day. I had a patient that had 1 quad class II and one quad class III I did 2 quads the previous appointment. This patient is so hilarious. The last time he was in I wanted to pass of a PE and he told me, "you just do whatever you have to do to get an A, it doesn't matter if it hurts, you just do whatever you have to get an A" You can't get a better patient then that! He is always so willing to do whatever he needs to to help me out. I wish all of my patients were as good as him. I passed off my universal sub PE and also the blood glucose PE. This patient was actually really difficult because he had a lot of recession and calculus and it was hard for me to decipher what was tooth anatomy and surface and calculus. I felt like I was doing as much as I could to get the calculus off, but I still felt rough surface. I can't wait until I get better, the good thing is that I feel like I get better and better each time.

Double Whammie!

Today was the first time I have scheduled 2 patients and it went really well!! I finished a class II patient and then I brought my niece, Evelyn, in as my second patient. She did so good and she was so cute. Everybody came to see her. She is only 4 and she let me do a sealant on her! She sat really still and didn't make a peep. But at the end she told me that I had taken, "a little bit of a long time." I laughed, but I was really impressed with how well she did in the chair. Today was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than Monday, I hope I never have another day like Monday ever again!!

Another 1B

I had a patient today who had a lot of calculus, on every single tooth, but she didn't have any bone loss so she was a 1B. She had a tooth that had A LOT of recession so that quadrant was a Class II. I will take a class II! I passed of my diagnodent PE today. I am not a fan of the diagnodent because it is so inconsistent. I did the same tooth 3 different times and got 3 different numbers. I think it is good when you use it to just see if there is decay, but not to tell how far it is into the tooth.
I was a little frustrated today because I feel like I would have been able to complete my patient if I didn't have to wait for so long. I waited for about an hour for my scale check to be complete, so I couldn't go on and do anything else and my patient just had to sit in the chair. This is frustrating because first of all, it means the patient has to come back for another appointment and it also means that you have another day where you can't schedule another patient. We all feel stressed because we are all worried that we aren't going to complete our requirements due to the time, and having the same patient need another appointment takes that slot away.

Just another manic...wednesday

I don't usually like working on people I know (unless it is my mom or sister), but today a lady from my ward came in and i didn't know who she was until I called her back. Then we made the connection. I get nervous working on people I know because I feel bad if I accidently poke them or I have to take retakes with xrays. It is just easier when I know somebody if I am not being critiqued all of the time by instructors. I am glad the instructors critique, I just feel uncomfortable when it is people I know because I want them to think they came to the best and I don't feel like the best when I miss spots or have to redo things.

Goal:  Be faster in the xray room. Conventional take a lot longer so take conventional on people who you can finish in 1 appt. (Thanks to Marianne I have added goals to my blog).

Happy Valentines!

It is so nice when your patient is an easy 1B with hardly any calculus! It seems like time flies and you do really well when there isn't much to get off in the first place. Professor Costley helped me a lot today with the ultrasonic! I haven't used it very often because I am trying to use mostly the hand instruments so I can get a feel for them, but I think I need to start using the ultrasonic because it takes a learning curve as well.
I cannot stand schick xrays! It seems like everytime I use it I have horrible xrays, well not horrible, but I usually need to retake at least 1 xray. Hopefully I can go through the learning curve with that also in case the office I work in only has that, I prefer phosphor plates to everything! Fast and they are convenient. It was a good day overall!

what the CEJ?

My patient that came in today is so funny and he has a great sense of humor and he keeps me laughing the entire time. He was a class III and he had a lot of recession. I am having problems getting the feel for the difference between calculus and the CEJ and root surface. I am nervous about removing cementum by being to aggressive. Even after my scale check I still felt like there were areas where the tooth felt rough, but it wouldn't come off! This was a great learning experience for me for trying to feel the difference between different structures. Another issue was that his gums were tight instead of "flappy" so it was harder to get under them with bulky instruments. I just need to get over my fear and get them down there. I only finished 2 quadrants on him, and I wish I could have completed him today, but I just didn't have the feel for it. I get scared that I went over it too fast and that I am going to have errors.

Day from HE double hockey sticks

I hope as long as I live that I never have another day like today. Talk about stressed to the max! I had a patient and a back up patient and they canceled the night before at 10:30 pm, that didn't give me very much time to find another patient. My back up patient was my original patients husband, and he left a message and said he could come if I could get him out early, I tried calling back 4 times to tell him that he could come in, and they never answered or called back. So I called another patient when nobody showed up and she said she was on her way and she would be to the clinic by 9:00am. I waited around until 9:45 and she still didn't come...Finally at 10:15 a walk-in patient came and wanted to be seen. So I was able to complete an OD and have him scheduled.
Good things that happened today:
-Passed of peer calculus PE since I had a no show
-got another patient.
So I guess today was not as bad as I thought. I can always use new patients.

Keep bringing on the 1B's!

So far I have had every classification except for 1A. But I need more 1B's! I am starting to feel nervous that I am not going to have enough time to finish all of my classifications for this semester because I still take 2 appts to complete a 1B. I thought I was going to be able to complete my patient today, but I ended up taking x-rays and he was full ortho. I think that if he didn't have braces I would have been able to complete him today. I am going to make a goal that if I need two appointments for a 1B then I will schedule another patient because it doesn't take me that long to complete scaling (OD's take forever!!). I still need to get  better at recoginzing stuff in people's mouths, I thought my patient demineralization, but it ended up being sheet calculus...way to go Michelle. Lesson learned for next time!

Good time

I was able to complete a patient today who I did an OD on last time and she was a 1B. We had to wait a long time last time for an OD check so I wasn't able to start her at all. So today I completed 4 quads and only had 1 error! I was really excited for this, even though she didn't have that much to start out with, I still only missed one little teeny tiny spot! This is encouraging to me, in the future as a hygienist I am not going to have instructors coming around and checking my work so it makes me feel good that when I go over and look for mistakes that I am finding them ok on my own. I need to get some kid patients and and find some people who need sealants!

Class II-Check!

Dear Blog,
I completed my first class II patient today! My patient had some recession and he had some areas of sensitivity so I put some topical on his gums to help with that and then I was able to remove the calculus. I had quite a few errors today, but the only thing that makes me feel better is that those errors were subgingival and this is my first patient EVER with subgingival calculus. Instructor Hafen was a HUGE help today because she stayed with me to help me find the errors. I hope that I can get better at finding errors because even when she was helping me I couldn't really feel the errors. I am so happy that clinic is finally starting to get better and that I don't go home everyday wishing I could just hide under a rock for the rest of my life.

Thanks Linds!

My patient today was my sister who came in and was my real patient before thanksgiving. I completed 1 quad last time and today I completed all of her quads. This is my first patient that I have finished!  I have had mostly OD appt's where I need my patient to return. I think I like continuing care much better than OD appts because I feel like I actually get something done. So far I have had pretty good luck with patients and I haven't  been too stressed out (knock on wood). I keep feeling better and better with each day that passes. I hope by the end of this semester that I feel as good as I did last semester! I think that the first couple of days just set a blow to my self esteem and now I am just trying to work it back up. I was so happy that I only had one missed area today for her whole mouth!

first cancelation

Today I had my first cancelation today. I was freaking out yesterday because I was calling and texting my patient to try and confirm their appt. I left 4 messages and sent about 4 texts. Finally last night around 7 my patient texted and said, "I am not going to be able to make it tomorrow"..and that was it! Luckily I had another name of a person I could call and lucky again that he could come in on short notice. Today was a better day than last week, I feel like I am starting to get in the mode better. I am still experiementing with what positions feel the best and what instruments work best for what kind of deposits. My instructor gave me a compliment today when she said that I was doing really well with the OD because I was catching stuff that she wouldn't have caught. Today was a much better day than last week and I think I will keep coming back!

Someone have some mercy and just put me out of my misery

I am dubbed biggest failure of the day today. I definitely got feeling very comfortable last semseter and now I feel like I have never seen a scaler in my life and the mouth is a completely foreign object. Maybe I will just drive to Mexico tonight and never come back...tempting, very tempting. Adios!
Today I had a class II patient and I wanted to pass of a couple of PE's...bad idea Michelle, very bad. First of all, you have to learn how to use an explorer (I thought I learned this, but apparently I have had it wrong all along), then I have to sit in the right area and actually scale to remove calculus.
Fail, fail.
Before I end this post, let me just let me say something I did right today, I didn't have to take retakes  and x-rays went fast today. I had a lot of time to scale, but I just didn't get done, oh wait, I am only saying good things here...Karen was awesome and helped me by writing down my probe depths because her patient didn't come (lame patient, if you say you are going to come the night before then you better be there or we will hunt you down).

Clinic day 2

The days just keep getting better and better. I remember things that in previous appts I forgot. I might actually make it through this semester!

Thanks/Sorry mom!

Today officially starts patient treatment for the next semester! I am really excited about this semester because I am excited to see new things and to become better at...everything! I forsee problems with PE's because they aren't scheduled and I can see myself forgetting them and then struggling at the end to get them in! This is why I have  planner. My mom was my first official patient and I was so glad because I am still trying to get the hang of things, and especially since we haven't been in clinic for a month...I am a tad  rusty! But I am excited to continue going!

Back in the saddle

First day back in the frigid weather! Today was not nearly as stressful as Wednesday probably will be. We had a lab day where we went over our new grading system (taleval), ultrasonics, gracey's and stuff like that. We painted out typodonts with whiteout, and it is horrible! It is sticky stuff that just baffles my mind. I am excited for this semester and I am excited that in 4 months I am going to be a second year!