Kids

Today I was able to finish my requirements!! I scheduled a family with 4 kids to come in. Of course they tried to cancel on me but I wouldn't have it! :) I hate having requirements because it is so stressful to make sure that we get someone with the right classification. I understand that we need the experiences but it's not fun finding what we need. I am so excited because we only have 1 more clinic day left!! I finished my last day at the VA yesterday. I won't miss the few weeks that we have off. I have my brother in law coming in for the last clinic day and I'm hoping to pass of a couple more PE's so I can get a little ahead for next semester.

Mockboard #2

I found my mockboard patient for January. (Well Dr. Hanson did). I'm relieved that I have one lined up. I cleaned 2 quads today and the calculus wasn't very tenacious so I hope that's how it will be for the exam. Hopefully she'll be reliable and want to come back in January.

Extra quads...check!

Well I finally got my extra quad requirements. Granted they are 1B's, but at least I don't have to worry about them! I had a patient this morning that hadn't had a cleaning in 5 years! Yep...1B! I was able to do my diagnodent PE but had to wait 30 minutes for tips!! At least my patient was ok with waiting. I wanted to do the corded one but I couldn't find the tips anywhere. It was really frustrating because nobody knew where they were. Oh well I did it and it's done!

Anesthesia

We are finally able to give our patients anesthesia. Of course I was nervous about being set free to do this but when it came time to actually do it I felt ok. My mockboard patient came back to finish 2 quads and he was the first one I gave LA to. I did an IA, long buccal, PSA, MSA, and and ASA. And....he got numb!! I was so happy I did it right. Granted we have our instructors standing over us but I was happy it worked. I also got my patient numb last week and it went well. I still shake a little bit but I think it's getting better. I have been really trying to pass off some PE's too and I think I only have 2 more left for this semester. I want to get those out of the way!

Mockboard! Ah!

I know this post is overdue but thought I'd write about it anyway. I found my mockboard patient and it ended up being my best friend's brother. He hadn't had a cleaning in 11 years since he lost dental insurance! And he smokes!! I was a little nervous about him qualifying since Prof. Perry wouldn't even check the quad I wanted to submit. I realize it is up to me to find my patient but come on...this was my first mockboard. The day of the exam I was going back and forth trying to decide if I should submit extra teeth. I ended up not submitting extra teeth and I'm glad I didn't. He qualified perfectly! I felt pretty confident while I was doing the cleaning. The paper work is what worried me. And after hearing some of the results from Tuesday's clinic I for sure thought I wouldn' pass. Luckily I ended up passing and it was a great experience. I'm so glad they give us 3 mockboards to practice! I just hope I can do well on the rest of them and of course the real one!!

Exam

I was excited for today because I thought my morning patient would maybe be a mock board. I saw his wife last week and confirmed the appt with her last night. So this morning I went out to the lobby to get him and he wasn't there. I guess he had to work but his daughter came instead. Phew!!! At least I had a patient!! Turns out she was 14 and a 1B. Yes.....another 1B!!!!! As of today I have 24 quads of a 1B completed. That is over half of what I need. And they don't roll over into spring semester. Ahh!!! The good thing is they will count towards my extra quads that I need so it's not that bad. I'm starting to get a little worried about getting a mock board patient though! My afternoon patient is the wife of a patient I saw last week also. She is a maintainence patient that has been coming every 4 months for 7 years. She has excellent home care and was cleaner than a 1B. All her probe measurements were WNL except for a 7 and a 5. I decided to have her as my class V exam and I'm glad I did. I was able to scale her whole mouth in 15 minutes and didn't miss anything. I think I'm getting the hang of it and hope I'm doing a good job. Tomorrow we are giving each other maxillary injections!!!!!! That should be interesting! :)

Thursday I was able to finish my class II patient that came in a couple weeks before. She had really tenacious calculus so it was difficult. My afternoon patient hadn't been in since 2004 and is a class III. I was a little nervous but it ended up being ok. I passed off my selective polishing PE and ultrasonic. Jen taught me to retract with the suction and also use it to get the saliva off so it doesn't fling all over the place. I kinda like that idea but it will take some practice to master it. I was able to finish 2 quads on my class III but I worry that I don't really know how to hand scale very well. I use my ultrasonic first and then my instruments but I don't feel like I'm doing much with the instruments. Jen said that's fine if I'm effective with the ultrasonic. I need to use more lateral pressure so I don't burnish calculus. I'm also still having a hard time distinguishing between calculus and rough root surface. Hopefully with time this will get easier. I'm still looking for a mock board patient and I'm kinda freaking out!!

Rough day

Well today wasn't the best of days and I hope it won't be a trend for this semester. First of all my morning patient didn't show up!! Mr. Saloman talked to him this morning and he said he'd be here in 10 minutes (after he got lectured) and he still didn't show up!! So no quads for me! My afternoon patient was quadraplegic so that was a new experience. It was very difficult to even look in her mouth because I had to stand the whole time. I did use the nomad on her to do a full mouth series of xrays which was actually fun. It's easy to use and I did it at my unit. She had really good home care and was very clean. It just goes to show that if you really care about your teeth you will take care of them. She has limited motion and can only move from about her elbows down but she is a good example of somebody that is limited but takes excellent care of her teeth. Hopefully I'll have better luck with my patients and schedule some that really want to come in!

Are you serious?!

Today was our first patient day. I had the hardest time finding 2 patients. I went through about 15 different people and either their number was wrong or I had to leave a message and they never called me back. I finally got 2 scheduled and of course....my first patient doesn't show up!! Ahh!!! It is so frustrating when a patient really wants to come in and sounds excited and reliable and then doesn't show. I should have known this would happen since I had the hardest time even scheduling them! So good thing I have a wonderful husband that is willing to come in last minute and let me poke around in his mouth. My second patient showed up in the afternoon so that made things better. Ok so today...Professor Wold helped me a lot today and told me to not be shy about going deeper into the gums. I get so timid and don't dare to go any deeper. This is something I need to overcome. I also need to lighten up on my grip. By the end of the day my fingers are killing me so I need to work on that too. My afternoon patient had no idea how to floss her teeth. This was a good time to do a little OHI so I am excited to see how her homecare improves from now until I see her next.

WSU clinic day 1

The first day at the Weber clinic was a relaxing day. I'm sure this will be the only one we have! We went over how to use the intra oral camera, diagnodent, and emergency protocol. I realized how important it is to know about the patient's medical history and current health concerns that they have. It is my job to respond to an emergency if one should happen in my chair and I need to know what to do in certain situations. This is kind of a big responsibility and it made me think that I really need to know how to treat every kind of patient. I am glad that I know how to handle these different situations but I'm crossing my fingers that I won't have to follow through with any of them.

Back to school!

Well school is back in full swing! I am excited for this year and also really excited for it to be over. :) I was able to go to the VA last Wednesday and can I just say I was a little nervous!! Everything turned out to be great though. My patient ended up being a 1B so that's good. We don't have to get our own patients at the VA so that took a lot of stress off. I think because I wasn't worried about getting my patient I was more concerned about their health and focusing on that rather than if they would meet one of my classifications. I came to realize that I really do care about their oral health and I do want to help them.

Goodbye!

Nah nah nah nah....nah nah nah nah....hey hey hey....GOODBYE!!! I am officially finished with clinic (for my first year)! Woohoo!!!! It was a relaxing day for me. My sister came in and I was able to finish her in just over an hour and a half. Scaling...done. PE's...done. X-rays...done. All classifications....done. Can you tell I'm very happy?? I even cleaned out my drawer and got everything ready to take home. The only thing I need to try to improve on over the summer is my posture. I am a hunch back. Hopefully I can work on that. I am going to miss the TA's that helped us. They were so nice and helpful. I will miss them! Well....til next semester! Buh-bye!! :)

Schick....ugh!!!

Today I had my sister come in so I could finish up my x ray requirements. I did a FMX on her with the schick. I hate it!! I felt so bad because the sensor is huge and it does not feel good. She was a good sport though. I wish we had one that wasn't so bulky. I ended up using the size one for the anteriors. I just took my time and got through the OD and let her go. She is coming back on Wednesday to finish up. I feel like I have improved so much from the beginning of the semester. I am glad I am finished with my requirements and now I can just take my time. Oh..and pass off 2 PE's.

Almost finished!

Wednesday I finished up my class 3 patient. The right side was more difficult than the left and this might be because she's right handed and most people don't brush as well on their dominant hand side. I didn't realize this until after she left so for next time I will remember that. I am finished with all my qualifications and it feels so good. My sister is coming in Monday so I can do a FMX and cleaning. Summer will be fantastic!!

Class 3

Today I had my class 3 patient come in. I was planning on just taking my time since I have 4 appointments available for her if I need to use them. I had Instructor Caldwell get her numb and it made me more comfortable while scaling and I 'm sure it was more comfortable for my patient. I finished one quad and had a scale check. Surprisingly enough I only missed 3 spots! I was pleasantly surprised. It was awesome to see the calculus break off while I used the ultra sonic. I have learned to really like the ultra sonic. Hopefully that won't hurt me in the long run. I was able to finish 2 quads but the second one I missed a couple more spots. I loved cleaning my class 3 patient. It means a lot more when you can actually see the calculus coming off. The only bad thing that happened today was that my patient didn't bring any money to pay. So I had to pay for her. She is planning on coming back Wednesday so hopefully she will remember her money!

Home stretch

Yippee!!! Only 4 more clinic days!!! I'm so happy I could cry!! Today I had a class 5 and it was the last one I needed to fulfill my requirements. I have 4 appointments open for my class 3 and then I'm finished! This semester has flown by and I'm still not sure I know what I'm doing. My patient was super nice today which made it a lot easier. I was able to pass off 2 PE's also. I feel like I'm getting faster with probing and scaling and it feels great. When I'm scaling I feel like I go through the motions but I don't really know what I'm doing but then I have my scale checks and I only miss a couple spots. So...I guess I must be doing something right! I just need to be more confident.

Hairy tongue

Today I had the lovely experience of seeing black hairy and coated tongue! It was disgusting!!!! Poor Instructor Kim almost puked when she did my OD. It was not a pretty sight. It was good for my patient to see and hopefully give her more of a reason to stop smoking. She was a class 2 and I was able to finish her. I was pretty proud of myself. I missed a few spots and they were hard for me to get. I don't know if I wasn't instrumenting right or what but Kim had to help me get a couple of them. I am feeling a little more relaxed now that I think I will be able to get all of my qualifications in. I just need to schedule one more class 2 and then do a FMX on my sister or husband. I can't believe there's only 5 clinic days left! Wahoo!!!!

Melt down...

Well today was interesting. My class 2 patient cancelled that I was planning on finishing. I was going to do 3 or 4 PE's on her too so that messed up my schedule. I came to school early to call a patient and actually got one scheduled that I got off the resource list a couple days ago. Mr. Solomon said she was 3 quads of a class 4 and 1 quad of a class 3. I took her name in hopes that she was just a class 3 all over. I was only able to finish the OD today. She definately has perio!! Probing took me forever because she had such deep pockets. Midtown actually took x rays last week and she has lots of bone loss and I thought maybe even a furcation or 2. She has mobility on 4 teeth. The crazy thing is that she doesn't have any restorations and only 3 suspicious areas! After I had an OD check, I started crying!! I don't know why I broke down or what happened. I guess I was just sad for this patient. She is only 26 years old and is in this bad of a condition. She's never had a cleaning and basically doesn't know how to take care of her mouth. I guess I'm just stressed and it all needed to come out and this was the time to do it! I hope with the OHI I did and after this cleaning and more OHI, she will be able to be motivated and keep her mouth clean and maintain her perio. It was just so sad to see her mouth in this condition. And maybe I'm just a baby!!!

Family

Monday I scheduled a family of 5 to come in. I was seeing a 12 yr old boy. The mom really wanted them to see second year students because 'they are usually faster'. And she wanted to be sure all of them were finished in one day, x rays taken, and all sealants placed that they needed. She was kind of making all of us nervous and scared of what she would do if we didn't finish all of them. Everything went really well though. We all finished each of them and I was able to do sealants on my patient and am done with those requirements. He actually needed 5 sealants so Kristen did a couple for me so she could get credit. It was a relaxing day and everything went well.

Spring Break!

I am so excited for a whole week with no school!! Of course that doesn't mean no studying :( Wednesday I had a 1A patient and I knew that would be fast so I scheduled my 2 younger sisters to come in for panos since they should get their wisdom teeth out. I learned that I should never think everything will go smoothly because....it won't! I did the 1A patient fine, no problems. I didn't realize that there was more to do for a pano than I thought. HHX, HHxRx, etc etc.... It took me longer than I hoped it would and the pano itself to 15-20, to be exact! Oh well I guess I got my pano requirements out of the way. Now I just need to kick my feet up and relax for a minute because I have been stressed out!! Happy Spring Break everybody!

No show :(

Today I had my first Spanish speaking patient scheduled to come in today. I had Karina schedule him for me. Around 8:10 when he hadn't shown up yet, I had Karina call him. He said he couldn't come in anymore and didn't know who to call. That's kind of funny since Karina gave him her number, my number, and the clinic number. Luckily I warned my mom that she was my back up patient and she was so good to come in spur of the moment. Of course she was only a 1B but I am grateful that I had a patient! I was able to finish her so it went well. I wish I would have passed off some PE's today though!! I still have 10 to pass off and I'm getting a little worried. I'm hoping to do a few Wednesday with the TA's.

Tenacious

Today I had a patient that was referred to us by her dentist. When I sheduled her appt she said she didn't remember the last time she had a cleaning. I was hoping she would be my class 3 patient. Turns out she was just a class 2 but that's A-okay since I need 6 more quads. Prior to today she let me know she's really sensitive and needs anesthesia. I was hoping to get at least 2 quads done....but of course when I make goals they don't seem to work out like planned. I was only able to finish one quad. There was a good amount of calculus on the mandibular anteriors and her teeth were malpositioned so it made it more difficult to get off. I missed 2 areas that I struggled with a lot. Prof. Costley ended up getting them off for me. I was a little frustrated with today because I just felt like I didn't do very well and I should have accomplished more. I guess there's not much I can do about now. I was able to pass off my explorer PE and detect calculus with it and that felt good. Sometimes it's hard to find calculus or feel what the instructors feel but I definately found it today!

Waiting.....

Today was supposed to be an easy and fast day. I had 2 patients scheduled. My first pt was someone that I saw last Monday and I only had 2 quads left. Since she should have taken me maybe 45 minutes I scheduled my grandma to come in so I could do the denture PE and glucose PE. Well.....since our favorite thing to do is wait, and wait, and wait....that's what I did a lot of! My first patient got out 30 minutes past my estimated time which meant my grandma was waiting for over a half hour. My grandma shouldn't have taken very long since she's fully edentulous but of course it never happens like we plan it to. I ended up spending an hour and a half on her!! I was frustrated today for sure. My instructor was busy so I was waiting around and when I saw another instructor was busy I asked them if they could pass off my blood glucose PE since my instructor was taking a while. This other instructor kind of acted bugged by me asking but ended up doing it anyway. I just get so frustrated with waiting forever and WAY too long for instructors to check. Patients could be out so much faster if we had more instructors to go around. I know this is a common complaint in clinic but I think something needs to be changed to help things flow better. Just a thought!

So proud

Today I had my brother-in-law come back in for scaling. Originally Instructor Hemsley classified him as a 3 on the upper quads and class 2 on the lower quads. I wanted a second opinion so Prof. Costley came and looked at the xrays and re-classified him as a 2 all over. I'm not disappointed because I wanted him to be my class 2 exam so now this will be easier to do it this way. I scaled the lower left quad first and was a little nervous that I would miss a few spots. I didn't miss any! So then I did the other 3 quads and had a scale check. I didn't miss any spots!!! That is totally worth blogging about! I was so happy!! I am also having him do the caries intervention project so I'm pretty excited about that. Today was a good day. Now I'm exhausted but it was a productive day.

I see it!

Monday I ANOTHER 1B patient. I am finished with my requirements for 1B's but I'm worried that's all I can get. I hope some dirty teethed people come my way soon! I was really excited with this patient though because I could actually see the calculus built up around her lingual bar! It was so cool. I told my hubby about it and he thought I was gross. :) I used the ultra sonic and it was coming off in chunks. This is the first patient that I felt I was actually cleaning something off. I wasn't able to finish her in one appointment but that's ok because I was so stoked about the build up!

Free day!

We had a whole week of no patients! It was wonderful!! We had President's Day off and then the Wednesday after that was a lab day. We learned 3 PE's. We learned the Diagnodent, Removable Appliance, and the Blood Glucose test. All 3 were pretty easy. The only one I'm worried about doing is the diagnodent. The other 2 shouldn't be too bad. I'm lovin this week with no patients though!!

I have to brush the lingual surfaces?!!

I had a 16 yr old girl today. She was super cute and way nice. She was just a 1B with a little calc on the lower linguals around her lingual bar. I was going over OHI and had her demo her brushing. Then I started teaching her and talked to her about having a system of brushing and going over all surfaces. Then she said, "Oh, I didn't know I had to brush the inside too!" She felt really dumb but I was like 'Seriously?' I didn't say that but it just surprises that hygienist out there aren't doing OHI. They must be totally skipping over it or something. OHI is something so simple and I think when we all are working in the real world we need to take just a few minutes and discuss it with our patients. You never know what they will learn!!

Kids

Today I saw 2 kids. They are my friends boys and they were sooo good! I wasn't worried about them being good I was just worried that it would be so different than an adult. I took BWX on both of them and I did the 4 yr old first. Right when I put the film in his tongue kept pushing it out. That's when I thought to myself, "This is gonna be a long day!" It turned out to be great! They are such good little boys. The only thing I struggled with is the OD. Their gums are bulbous, but that's normal. They have marginal gingivitis, but that's normal. It's just different than adults so I was just getting confused. Overall it was pretty simple and I didn't have to do much but I still took the full time regardless. I was able to do 1 sealant on the 6 yr old and I was nervous for that but it turned out good. Wednesday I see a 21 yr old so hopefully I can finish him too!

Crunch time!

Wednesday I saw another patient I didn't know. I was a little nervous when she wasn't there 20 minutes after she was supposed to be. She finally showed up. She was another 1B so I decided to do my second exam on her. She needed xrays so I did 4 BWX with the schick. I am so worried about the schick but one of the TA's helped me and it wasn't too bad at all. I didn't have any retakes but the TA pointed out to me that this patient's first year molars were all gone. I guess I should pay a little more attention when doing the OD. I was able to complete her in 1 appointment so that made me feel good. I think I am improving with my scale time but some days are harder than others because 1B's can be so different. Some more difficult than others. I have only had 2 quads of a class 2 so I'm getting a little worried about meeting those qualifications. I guess we've only been in school for 1 month so I shouldn't be too worried. I'll find them. Tomorrow I am seeing 2 kids. They are my best friend's kids and they are really good so it shouldn't be bad at all. I'm planning on using one of them as my exam and doing sealants so it should be exciting!

My father-in-law

Monday I saw my husband's step-dad. I knew he would be full of questions so I knew ahead of time that it would be a challenge to finish him in one appt. I planned on taking BWX on him with the schick, since I have only done scan x so far, but I found out that I have to do vertical BWX on patients older than 35. So once again I did scan-x. I was nervous to do the vertical ones but I didn't have to do any retakes. I might like vertical bwx better! He was a 1B so I was trying to hurry to get him done. When I had my scale check I missed quite a bit of sheet calculus on the lower anteriors. I wasn't seeing what my instructor was seeing. I was getting a bit frustrated. I need to use my air more because it is a lot easier to see the calculus. I think part of my problem is that I am horrible with indirect vision! That is another thing that I need to get better at. I ended up finishing him but I was rushing at the end. I just think it's stupid to have them come back to polish, floss, and apply fluoride so that is what I hurried through.

Oh my

Darin was my patient today. It was just his recall appt so I knew I would get done early. He was probably my worst patient so far. I guess it's just that he's comfortable with me but he kept flinching and talking and moving his head and just being difficult! Instructor Kirsten said I could thump him on the head a couple times if I needed to. I was able to pass off 3 PE's on him so that was wonderful! I am glad I finished him today and I think I'm getting better with my scale time but I know I still need to be faster.

So easy

Monday I had a patient that I didn't know. Her brother works with Darin. She had that cleanest mouth I have ever seen! She said that she brushes her teeth 4 times a day and never misses a day of flossing. I was very impressed. I took 4 BWX on her and I was so mad at myself because I had to retake the whole left side. I kept getting overlapping between the contacts. My retakes were actually worse. I definately need to work on getting the left side better. I was able to finish her in one appointment and it was great! Hopefully I'll get better with the xrays.

Woo hoo

Today my brother-in-law was my patient. I took a FMX on him. He has never had a cleaning before!! I was really excited that he would be my class 2 or 3 patient. After taking x-rays I didn't think they looked bad enough to be anything other than maybe a 2. I guess I just don't know how to read x rays and identify things because it turned out that he is my class3 on the maxillary and class 2 on the mandibular! Yay I'm so excited!! I declared him as my class 2 exam patient so that will be fun. I only got through the OHI today but I wasn't planning on getting any scaling done. One thing I need to work on is learning how to identify lesions in the mouth. I only saw a couple things but when I had my OD check there were a few more that I missed. They weren't anything bad but I guess it's worth noting. Well....til next time!!

1B exam

Today one of my other sisters Nikki came in to see me. I decided the other day that I would be brave and have her be my 1B exam. I was a little nervous at first but then realized that you don't do anything different besides circle yes for exam. I also wanted to get completely finished with her in one appointment. When I had Instructor Hemsley come over for an OD check she noticed a red spot on the roof of Nikki's mouth that I overlooked. She told me to record it and everything. Later she came back and told me Prof. Costley wanted me to take a picture of it with the intra oral camera. So then Hayley the TA said I should just pass off my PE with it. So that pushed me back about 15 minutes because I had to set everything up for it but I ended up passing off the PE. Long story short.....I was able to complete her in one appointment. I scaled all 4 quads!! One thing that I learned today was that I don't have to use a working stroke all the time. I think one reason my hand was cramping up was because I was trying to scale every surface of the tooth. Instructor Hemsley told me to do an assessment stroke with my Nevi and if it didn't catch on something, don't scale it! I wish I would have known this a couple weeks ago. It made such a difference! I am so glad she told me that. She also challenged me to finish 3 quads in 30 minutes. That's 10 min per quad! I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to do that but I thought, 'If she thinks I can do it, then I can do it!' I really liked that she challenged me to something. It was kind of like setting a goal and accomplishing it. Today was a really good day in clinic. I hope I can keep improving and keep getting better!!

.....Waiting.....

One word to sum up clinic today.....waiting. That's for sure what I did a lot of today! And it's frustrating. I know there's only 3 instructors for 15 of us but there needs to be a better system to do things. I waited for signatures, xrays, OD check, scale check. You name it, I waited. I could have scaled more than one quad if I wasn't waiting so much. I feel bad for the patients that just have to sit and wait, and wait. I really wish there was something we could do to make it flow better. On the brighter side, Darin was my patient today. I was able to scale one quad and didn't miss any areas!! I feel bad because I did stab him a couple times. But hey what can he expect? I hope I get better at it sooner than later. My sister is coming on Wednesday and I plan on having her as my exam patient so I hope I don't freak out!

1st patient

Today went a lot better than I thought it would. I had Kaitlyn come back to be my patient since last semester I wasn't able to scale anything on her. I was pretty excited because I would be able to get all 4 quads done. The biggest problem I had was figuring out if I had the right end. I used the Nevi and I think I like it. I had my first scale check and I only missed one spot! I was so happy. Then I was able to finish the other quads. I missed 3 or 4 spots on those but I felt really good about it. I learned that I hate scaling the UR quad! It is so difficult for me as a lefty! Hopefully I will get better. I was able to finish scaling, polish, floss, and apply fluoride. I am worried about my new patients that I will be seeing. I definately won't be completing them in one appointment! I hope I can just stay calm. The TA's are a big help too. They understand exactly what we are going through! Til next time!!!

Back to school

Well I guess it's time to get back in the swing of things, whether I like it or not! I am actually anxious to get back into a routine. I had a very relaxing break and it was wonderful!~ For clinic today we split into 3 groups. One group we went over case studies and how to classify patients and what instruments to use on them. I was lost! I guess I need to read my clinic manual and freshen up on things. Another group learned about our Graceys. I think I'm going to like these instruments a lot. We learned that the 1/2 is for anterior, 13/14 is for distals, and 15/16 is for facial, mesial, and lingual surfaces. The last group learned about the ultra sonic scaler. We practiced on our typodonts too. I feel pretty comfortable using this but I'm sure that will all change once I get a real patient in my chair. Now I'm just stressing about getting people to come in and be my patient!