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
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
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.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
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!
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!
Thursday, November 3, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
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!
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!
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