Last Day!!!

Yay it finally came!! Today is our official last day in clinic! This semester went by soooo fast. I have learned so much and I am excited to start seeing patients next semester. Now I need to work on scheduling them in. Today was a very relaxed day. We had 3 different groups that we rotated to. One group we talked about emergency procedures and what we would need to do in a "Stat Situation". I really hope I never have one of these. Another group we talked with Mr. Solomon about the CA duties. This will be a task! There will be a lot to do but it will be good to know. The third group we learned the PSR PE. It was pretty easy and we passed it off today. Now we are just waiting for the other groups to finish so we can take a quiz on the clinic manual. Yay for Christmas and a break!!!

rEaL PaTienT!!!

Today was my first 'real patient' day. My sister Kaitlyn came in since Darin was 'injured'. It went pretty well actually. I got through all of HHX, HHXRX, and took 4 BWX. I was happy that I didn't have to do any retakes. Then we went back to my unit and I charted all the existing and probed. I feel comfortable with probing, now I just need to work on getting faster. When I finished doing all of that I needed an instructor to come check. Angelique was our instructor today. I know that she had 6 of us to check but I waited 25 MINUTES!!! I was so frustrated!! I really think something needs to be done so that we can have more instructors in clinic so that we don't have to wait around so much. I didn't even get to scale anything! Some girls finished 2 quads. I was really hoping to be able to do at least one. I just can't believe that it takes so long for an instructor to come check. In the meantime I did OHI with her and waited, and waited, and waited. I hope this won't be something that happens with every patient. Everything else went very well though. I am starting to get the hang of things and I think it is flowing better. I am excited to see more patients in the Spring.

2nd year observation

Today I had to observe a second year in clinic. Katie Gibbons was the one I was observing. I was excited going into it because I would be able to see how everything came together and hopefully very smooth. When I got there she told me it wouldn't be very exciting because all she was doing was the ultra sonic scaler on 3 quads. I was kind of disappointed. I will admit that a while into the appointment I was getting bored. This particular patient was in just last week so the HHX review was very short. Katie got her signatures and started scaling. I did think it was interesting to watch her give anesthetic. I'm very nervous to do that next year. I think it is a great idea to have the first years observe a second year and I think it can be very beneficial. I just think that it would be better to watch somebody who has a new patient so we can observe them starting from the beginning. Just a thought!

Operator day #2

Today was my last day to be the operator on a classmate. Sarah was willing to let me torture her. I got here plenty early so I could set up and not be rushed. As I'm setting up my ultra sonic I couldn't get the tip to snap in. The TA came to help me and she got it in so I was ready to go. I was going to start the ultra sonic scaling but no water was coming out!! I was getting very frustrated! So I finally switched machines and I was all flustered because I didn't get started on time. I just needed to relax but it was frustrating. So I did the ultra sonic and then I went over and did the hand scale. She had areas where there was ortho cement so I couldn't get it off. I ended up finished with good time and only missed 2 areas around her lingual bar. Sarah was a good patient and I hope I didn't hurt her too bad.
Darin was supposed to be my patient on Monday but plans changed! He was playing basketball last night and got elbowed in the lip. He walked in the door and was dripping blood and said he needed to go to the ER. So long story short...he has 7 stitches in his lower lip and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't feel too good if I was stretching his lips. So I am going to have to bribe my sister to be my guinea pig. This semester is almost over! YAY!!!!

Patient Day again!

Today I was the lucky patient again. Sarah was the operator. I don't even know why she was nervous because she did such a good job! I will even say that she has been my best operator so far!! She scaled one quad with the ultra sonic and one quad with the hand scale. Then she passed off her sealant PE, polished, flossed, and applied the flourida varnish (which is nasty)!! It was a really good day though and we are one day closer to being finished for the semester. Woo hoo!! Wednesday I will be the operator so I hope everything goes well!

I'm the patient

Today I got to be the patient. It was so nice to not have to worry about coming to clinic today and learning something new. I enjoyed just laying in the chair. I will be honest though and say I can't wait until we're done working on each other. I'm not a fan a getting poked in my mouth for 3 hours. I can't wait to see actual patients. Miriam did a good job but I'm ready to start seeing real people. One complaint that I have is that Mondays we don't have as many instructors and TA's so we don't get all the information that the people on Wednesday do. Kirsten was helping me understand how to do the ultra sonic scaler and it was totally different than what I thought it was. I am glad that I will be the operator on Wednesday so we can have more help. I also passed off my instrument sharpening PE which was super easy. Monday I am the patient again for Sarah. Wednesday I will be the operator.

Mock patient day 1

Monday I was the operator. Miriam was my patient. I wasn't really nervous about it I was just worried I wouldn't get everything done I needed to. Our patient was in 6 months ago so we didn't have to take their BP. I did the extra/intra, probed the whole mouth, disclosed, OHI, and we were supposed to scale one quad with hand scale and one with ultra sonic. Miriam's teeth are sooooo sensitive that I wasn't able to use the ultra sonic. So I didn't get to practice with that. I just did the hand scale on one quad because she was having so much pain in her jaw by keeping it open. I was struggling a little bit scaling the posterior. I don't know what my problem was! Miriam was such a good sport about everything. I'm glad we get to have a couple days of practice. It makes me realize how much time everything takes and I need to not waste it. I didn't know we had to have our patient checked out and the chart turned in by a certain time. Luckily I wasn't too far behind. The paper work and transferring everything over is definately time consuming! It will take practice to get it all down. Overall I think it went pretty well. Today Miriam gets to work on me so I'm excited that I don't have to do anything except lay there!!

That is sharp!

Today we briefly went over how to sharpen your instruments. It's not a difficult task but it is very important to make sure they are sharp. I hope that I will get in the habit of sharpening my instruments. We also did the Eaglesoft walkout which is pretty simple. I passed off my air/powder polisher and flouride PE. Monday is Mock patient day! I think Miriam is my first victim. I'm just worried about remember everything and the order it needs to be. I'm pretty sure I won't get to scaling but that's ok. I actually had a hard time sleeping last night because I kept waking up seeing Miriam's face and it was like she was my patient. I was so worried about remembering everything. I remember that I didn't put a bib on her or get out my blood pressure cuff. It was all ok because she was making me laugh. Do you think I'm stressing about this a little? Ha I think I am because it's interrupting my sleep!! Wish me luck!

Sealed!

Today we learned how to place a sealant and to do the flouride. I was nervous to do the sealant because it is permanant. But I did it! It is actually pretty simple and you can even scrape it off if you have to. I only have 2 teeth that need sealants because all the others have fillings! Crappy! Then we did flouride in the trays. We tried the foam and the gel. I don't really like either one but it's good to know how to do it. We only have one more day of clinic before we start working on each other. Scary!