It has been weeks since I have logged on to blogger.com and to my surprise today I found that blogger is completely new and it has taken me a while to figure out how to actually post. But I have figured it out and I want to share what my first day temping in an office was like. This post is actually dedicated to Marianne, because at Whit's shower I mentioned that I wanted to continue blogging, and Marianne was 110% supportive. Kudos Marianne!
Here we go. I show up to the office in Clearfield 40 minutes early, I had no idea how long driving would take in traffic so I left super early! Sat in the parking lot reading The Hobbit until 7:56 (honestly people, I thought people go to work at like quarter til? Guess not). Finally somebody pulls in the parking lot and I follow this girl into the office. She doesn't know where any of the hygiene stuff is. The schedule is double hygiene all day. Other assistant shows up, knows where some of the hygiene stuff is. Second assistant is going to be with me throughout the day helping me with both patients every hour. First 2 patients are no shows. Have to sit around for an hour before patients show up. VERY COOL and MODERN office. Everything is digital, including a cool Nomad xray taker, which I didn't use. Second round of patients are a mom and her 12 year old daughter. I was nervous because I have been working at my dads pediatric office and I felt a little out of practice with a complete hygiene appt. Finish the mom really fast, built my confidence back up. They clean up with rags....like reuse the same rag the entire day and just spray it with cleaner. Does that gross anybody else out?
Next cool thing is a hygiene appt and getting the patient numb for his wisdom teeth to come out. Can I just say I LOVE doing anesthetic, probably so much that I will never move to Texas. There is a downside to this wonderful part of the day.....the dentist wanted palatal injections! I hate palatal injections! They are OWIE WOWIE and I always feel bad because I know that pain personally. Anyway, the guy was way brave and no tears were present.
At the same time as this patient, the other patient had come with his "partner" and they were both HIV+. I think I was more nervous about this because I am pregnant right now. But I was very grateful that I had thought to bring my own eyewear (my loupes are hiding in a box right now in limbo waiting to move to Vegas) and I had my own lab coat because the office didn't offer either of this commodities. But the guy was way nice and he actually had pretty clean teeth so there was so splatter going on. But I was still grateful to get home and shower!
I learned a few lessons today. 1 hour is actually a pretty long time for a regular hygiene patient when the Dr does his own exams, and the assistant takes the xrays, and you don't probe every patient, oh, and you don't have to wait for an instructor to come and look for a spicule of calculus hiding in the sulcus of a 1B patient. I also learned that I definitely like the idea of trying out offices before settling down because when I commit to being somewhere, I want to have a similar philosophy as the dentist and the office. I also learned that I will probably NEVER be a commuter! I have been spoiled with my dads office only being 2 blocks away.
Well this is quite a post. I think I had better retire and get ready for a fun weekend! Bryce had his last day of work today and I can't wait to party for the next month!!!
I love the blog updates, from the real world perspective. Isn't it amazing how different offices can be?? I've had that same experience, where staff are showing up at the exact same time as the patient. It feels so weird, how can they feel prepared?? Wow, Hiv+ partners huh? Interesting.
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