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!

Air Powder Polisher

Today we learned how to use the air powder polisher. I was the patient first. It was working on my and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. So I didn't have the pleasure of having the nasty tasting salt and powder all over my face. I wasn't too disappointed about that. :) We also polished, flossed, and had fluoride put on. The fluoride is nasty! And it's yellow! We had time to practice any skill we wanted so I had my partner scale the fluoride off. Then we switched partners and we figured out that it was the tip that wasn't working. So my partner had the joy of powder in her mouth and experiencing how nasty it is. Then we all did our Dental Screening PE. They are grading it now so hopefully I pass!

Ultrasonic scaler

Today we learned how to use the ultrasonic scaler. We practiced on our typodonts first. Emily was my lucky patient today. We also experimented with the blue boa. I must not know how to use it correctly because as of right now, I'm not a huge fan. I soaked Emily! I was busy working away and I stopped and her face was all wet! And she didn't even say anything! She was a good sport. I tried both of the suctions to see if one was better than the other but they both seemed to drown her. The scaling part wasn't too bad though. Our OHI PE and intraoral camera was due today so I was able to pass those off. Wednesday I will pass off the dental screening PE. Now I'm off to take my Radiology Practical Exam!!