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!!