Here I sit, with 1 more clinic day left at WSU! I won't be able to come to the last day of clinic because my sister is getting married on our last clinic day. It is a busy time! I am so grateful that I only have 1 more quad of a class III (scheduled) and 1 more child (scheduled) to be seen until I am all done with requirements! I finished all of my PE"s about a month ago and today I finished my last arestin experience (Thanks Madi!!). I don't usually like to use arestin at school because the pt's have to pay for it and I haven't seen patients that have really benefited from using Arestin. The rep for arestin would probably hate me for saying that, maybe I just haven't seen the right kind of patient that would benefit from it.
My morning patient was a gentleman that I saw a few months ago and he wanted to get in 1 more time before I graduated. He is the sweetest guy, but he is pretty difficult because he has a ton of toothbrush abrasion and class V fillings that are chipped and broken and provide nice little nooks for bacteria to hide. He has really impeccable homecare so he doesn't have any pockets. I love when patients I have seen before come back and I am able to build more on a patient/hygienist relationship rather then just seeing someone because I need their requirement and then I never see them again. That is one reason I am so excited about working in private practice is to be able to see patients on a continuous basis. When I have worked in offices that is my favorite part of working in a dental practice. I love having a relationship with patients.
Next week is my last time ever having to have someone check my work off, and that is slightly terrifying, and then extremely exciting!!! I am so excited to graduate and to find out about clinical boards!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!!
Well folks, we are almost there. In just a few short weeks we will be graduated and hopefully have our scored from WREB. There were a lot of girls today that had our instructors check their board patients. To your girls I say you are brave! I feel like there isn't anything I can do now anyway, so why does it matter if I find out now, compared to if I find out in 3 weeks? Also, at boards 3 different examiners check the patient, and I think that is one of the things we really have going for us! But I am glad that so far the people who have had instructors check have been really happy with the results!
This morning my patient was late, like an hour late, and so I wasn't able to start scaling on her until 9:30, and then I had a retarded computer that wouldn't print. I was only able to get 1 quad done because she had to leave. What was a class III and I hope she comes back!
My afternoon patient was my first mockboard patient. I thought she would sit in the chair, do a quick ultrasonic, fine scale a little here and there and she would be good. Hoping for a class V because that would have meant that she was doing really good home care and that her mouth was improving. Alas, this was not meant to be. She still had A TON of bleeding and quite a bit of deposit! Luckily it wasn't really old calculus and so it came off fairly easy. But I was so surprised, and slightly depressed, that she had that much deposit! It probably means that I am not doing my job like I am supposed to and she didn't fully understand how important it is for her to keep up the oral hygiene regime at home. Hopefully I can stick it in her head and she can keep up her clean mouth after this appt.
Well folks, this is the end of this blog. I need to go work on my paper for 4890 as well as my professional portfolio for 3301. Dang those papers. I know I said this earlier, but I wish I would have kept track of service stuff in 1 place for the whole 2 years. Now I have to go searching through my planners and SADHA book to find my service activities. Memo to first year students: keep you information together! Also, when you are receiving awards or licenses or anything, put it all in one place so that when Alexander wants it for your professional portfolio, it is all ready to go. Wish someone would have given me this helpful piece of advice.
This morning my patient was late, like an hour late, and so I wasn't able to start scaling on her until 9:30, and then I had a retarded computer that wouldn't print. I was only able to get 1 quad done because she had to leave. What was a class III and I hope she comes back!
My afternoon patient was my first mockboard patient. I thought she would sit in the chair, do a quick ultrasonic, fine scale a little here and there and she would be good. Hoping for a class V because that would have meant that she was doing really good home care and that her mouth was improving. Alas, this was not meant to be. She still had A TON of bleeding and quite a bit of deposit! Luckily it wasn't really old calculus and so it came off fairly easy. But I was so surprised, and slightly depressed, that she had that much deposit! It probably means that I am not doing my job like I am supposed to and she didn't fully understand how important it is for her to keep up the oral hygiene regime at home. Hopefully I can stick it in her head and she can keep up her clean mouth after this appt.
Well folks, this is the end of this blog. I need to go work on my paper for 4890 as well as my professional portfolio for 3301. Dang those papers. I know I said this earlier, but I wish I would have kept track of service stuff in 1 place for the whole 2 years. Now I have to go searching through my planners and SADHA book to find my service activities. Memo to first year students: keep you information together! Also, when you are receiving awards or licenses or anything, put it all in one place so that when Alexander wants it for your professional portfolio, it is all ready to go. Wish someone would have given me this helpful piece of advice.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Ebbs and flows
So Tuesday sucked. Plain and simple. I had a patient for the afternoon and her husband was being seen by Jodie. I have never missed so many spots in my life! Whoa talk about a piece of crap cake. I was quite disheartened as you can probably imagine at doing so horribly right before boards. When my instructor sat down and named of 9 spots of missed calculus I thought, "there is no way, they are probably 'fake' clicks." But when I sat down, they were huge pieces of chunky glorious calculus. So I came to the conclusion that I just stunk that day.
This is why I was very grateful for another clinic day.
My morning patient canceled Wednesday night, but I was actually slightly grateful ( I probably shouldn't say that, but I was). I was only grateful for this misfortune because this patient is a class IV and I just didn't have the gumption to be able to do that this morning. So I spent the morning gathering my boards instruments, putting my cassette together and reading the candidate guide again. It was a very productive morning and it gave me a nice calm feeling of getting things done. Now I just need to take that dang board!
My afternoon was also very productive. I had a sweet lady who is in my ward and who I have seen a couple of times. She was super easy. She has a lot of crowns and she keeps really good care of her mouth. It felt good because I was completely finished with her in under an hour, except I had to take conventional xrays so it was a little over an hour that she got out of here. I think I am finally beginning to arrive at that awesome point when pt's done take 4 hours to complete.
It has been 4 weeks since I took my national board. I think my results should be in my email...but they probably aren't. I almost done want to know until after my clinical board, because I don't want to feel stressed about the results.
Well friends, this is it. Last clinic day before boards. Good luck everyone who is reading this. We are all going to do amazing and everything is going to work out!
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!!
This is why I was very grateful for another clinic day.
My morning patient canceled Wednesday night, but I was actually slightly grateful ( I probably shouldn't say that, but I was). I was only grateful for this misfortune because this patient is a class IV and I just didn't have the gumption to be able to do that this morning. So I spent the morning gathering my boards instruments, putting my cassette together and reading the candidate guide again. It was a very productive morning and it gave me a nice calm feeling of getting things done. Now I just need to take that dang board!
My afternoon was also very productive. I had a sweet lady who is in my ward and who I have seen a couple of times. She was super easy. She has a lot of crowns and she keeps really good care of her mouth. It felt good because I was completely finished with her in under an hour, except I had to take conventional xrays so it was a little over an hour that she got out of here. I think I am finally beginning to arrive at that awesome point when pt's done take 4 hours to complete.
It has been 4 weeks since I took my national board. I think my results should be in my email...but they probably aren't. I almost done want to know until after my clinical board, because I don't want to feel stressed about the results.
Well friends, this is it. Last clinic day before boards. Good luck everyone who is reading this. We are all going to do amazing and everything is going to work out!
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!!
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Marianne did awesome today...
I had a very productive day planned yesterday about 4:00. Until I got a call that my morning patient (a class IV!!!!) canceled because he found a job and couldn't come this morning. I was very sad about this because I was really planning and hoping for this patient for my eaglesoft patient. But lo and behold a miracle happened. I had my class III/class IV coming in today for a tissue evaluation after the laser. Thank you laser! I was able to input all of my eaglesoft information this morning because I didn't have a patient and I was able to get another project done! That was pretty awesome and I was happy about that. I love checking things off of my list to do.
I was very happy that I was able to complete this project, but I don't want anyone to think that I wasn't also very impressed with how well the tissue responded to tx! It is so glorious to see the beginning scary and then to see the after results of treatment. Her pocket depths were almost all wnl! There were only 3 areas that had a pocket depth of 4mm. For how much she had before we started this is an amazing feat. It was so amazing to see the difference because I had seen her before. It also made me feel really good when she was telling me afterwards how happy she was that her mouth was feeling better and that she was more healthy. Warms the heart.
My other afternoon patient was a little boy who I saw last year. His dad was a mockboard patient for a senior last year and so I asked him again today if we could have someone take a look at his mouth. And it worked out PERFECTLY!!! Jodie screened him and he is perfect for boards. I had him scheduled next tuesday to clean his mouth, and so now jodie is going to be able to clean the rest of his mouth, have him for boards, and the pt only has to take one day off of work instead of 2! This my friends is what we call a win-win situation.
I have to put a little diddy in on my day yesterday at the VA. I had a fast morning, and by fast I mean I was done by 9:00 and then I sat around until 1:00 because the 9:30 pt's never showed up. Boo. It was a LONG lunch. I took some xrays on my patient in the afternoon and then Connie came in and asked if I wanted to have a really cool experience. Um, of course Connie, is that even a question? So I walk in to this patient and he turns to look at me and he has a huge tumor on his neck! When I say huge I mean like there is a grapefruit growing out of his neck. I started working on him and he was only able to lay down in the chair for about5 minutes at a time without having to sit up and put his head between his knees because the tumor was cutting off his blood supply and giving him a huge headache. I felt so bad for him. It got so bad that he we sat him straight up and he was only able to lean his head back for about 1 minute at a time. I was having a hard time because he was a class IV and I was trying to go as fast as I could, but I just didn't have the time or the vision to be able to do a very thorough job. I asked Connie to come in and finish and she really went at it with the US, but the patient was having a really hard time, but he wanted to get everything finished because he was starting radiation. It was a pretty stressful and anxious appt. Connie went crazy with the US and we got done as fast as we could. I had a minor breakdown after because it was so hard to watch him and his wife have to go through this tough time. I was definitely ready to be home yesterday night. So relieved to be home that I forgot to call my patients (that hadn't canceled) to confirm them. Good thing the afternoon patients came!
I was very happy that I was able to complete this project, but I don't want anyone to think that I wasn't also very impressed with how well the tissue responded to tx! It is so glorious to see the beginning scary and then to see the after results of treatment. Her pocket depths were almost all wnl! There were only 3 areas that had a pocket depth of 4mm. For how much she had before we started this is an amazing feat. It was so amazing to see the difference because I had seen her before. It also made me feel really good when she was telling me afterwards how happy she was that her mouth was feeling better and that she was more healthy. Warms the heart.
My other afternoon patient was a little boy who I saw last year. His dad was a mockboard patient for a senior last year and so I asked him again today if we could have someone take a look at his mouth. And it worked out PERFECTLY!!! Jodie screened him and he is perfect for boards. I had him scheduled next tuesday to clean his mouth, and so now jodie is going to be able to clean the rest of his mouth, have him for boards, and the pt only has to take one day off of work instead of 2! This my friends is what we call a win-win situation.
I have to put a little diddy in on my day yesterday at the VA. I had a fast morning, and by fast I mean I was done by 9:00 and then I sat around until 1:00 because the 9:30 pt's never showed up. Boo. It was a LONG lunch. I took some xrays on my patient in the afternoon and then Connie came in and asked if I wanted to have a really cool experience. Um, of course Connie, is that even a question? So I walk in to this patient and he turns to look at me and he has a huge tumor on his neck! When I say huge I mean like there is a grapefruit growing out of his neck. I started working on him and he was only able to lay down in the chair for about5 minutes at a time without having to sit up and put his head between his knees because the tumor was cutting off his blood supply and giving him a huge headache. I felt so bad for him. It got so bad that he we sat him straight up and he was only able to lean his head back for about 1 minute at a time. I was having a hard time because he was a class IV and I was trying to go as fast as I could, but I just didn't have the time or the vision to be able to do a very thorough job. I asked Connie to come in and finish and she really went at it with the US, but the patient was having a really hard time, but he wanted to get everything finished because he was starting radiation. It was a pretty stressful and anxious appt. Connie went crazy with the US and we got done as fast as we could. I had a minor breakdown after because it was so hard to watch him and his wife have to go through this tough time. I was definitely ready to be home yesterday night. So relieved to be home that I forgot to call my patients (that hadn't canceled) to confirm them. Good thing the afternoon patients came!
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