Signing off

Weird. This is my last post to record my experiences throughout the dental hygiene program. Today was really busy, I saw two patient this morning. One was my husband and I really wanted to get him in for a cleaning before I was done and I also needed to pass of Nitrous and he was all for it. I also finished my class IV patient and it was so great to see how much better her tissues looked. They still bled a little bit but overall her probe depths were better! (some of them got worse and I am assuming this is because there was calculus there the first time I probed). Then we had a potluck lunch in the wet lab with all of the faculty. I love them all so much, i was trying not to think about how much I would miss them! Then in the afternoon my class III came in and was so willing to let different students work on him to get their requirements for quads, injections, etc. I am done with my requirements! Yay!
This whole dental hygiene experience has been the hardest thing I have ever done, every single day I was wishing the madness would just end. Now that it finally is, I realize that although these past two years took everything I had and at times I truly hated it...I am so sad to see it end. I came into this program not knowing anything. I actually considered quitting at one point because I did not think that I could do it. Thank goodness I didn't. Cause I did do it!
Class of 2012 I love you girls with all my heart!!! WE DID IT!!!

Prof. Alexander is right..."It All Works Out"

Another clinic day down, the second to last one! I was so stressed because I only have one more clinic day and one more VA day to find a class III and I called a random dude off of the list and he came in today.....Perfect Class III! So now I do not have to stress so much about requirements! It was really hard to communicate with him because he does not speak any English, but we was right on time and so willing to be there! I am thankful to have Mr. Solomon there to translate to patients like this because it seemed like he had no idea why his mouth was hurting and why his cleaning was taking sooo long! He had radiographic calculus like crazy and so I was really nervous to get my scale check but I ended up doing pretty dang good, leaving only a few rough spots. I will bring him back on the last day to hopefully finish him up. Also, this guy bled like crazy, which for some reason makes me ten time more exhausted at the end of the cleaning, from all the suctioning, rinsing, scale for a sec, suction, rinse, scale for a sec...etc. ONE MORE CLINIC DAY, hopefully I wont be holding back tears the entire time!

Another busy day!

I did conventional films on my three patients today, it was good for me to practice it again since I had been avoiding it like the plague. My morning patient ended up being a class II with not much deposit, but I sill managed to miss some spots which was a little bit discouraging. I think as I am trying to pick up my speed, maybe I am exploring right over these deposits, especially pieces that are left burnished. Oh well, another learning experience. In the afternoon I saw the two cutest little girls. I love treating kid patients. These girls were so good and patient. Their mom had promised them that if they have no cavities then they can go get ice cream after the appointment. The youngest little girl ended up having 4 cavities that we could see visually. I thought she was about to cry, and then her sister informed her she could have "a little bit of ice cream". They were fun! I did not get to do a sealant unfortunately, but I did pass of my AP polish PE on Ashley. My goals for next week are still to pick up my speed, but to slow down as I am exploring so that I do not breeze right over the calculus. Two more clinic days...this is nuts!

Boards are done!!!

I have mixed emotions about the clinical board. I felt okay after it, but really somber, not necessarily relieved like I was hoping to feel. My scaling time went by really fast but I can honestly say that in the moment I did my best. The minute I got home I burst into tears, which was very confusing to my family, but those were tears of excitement, fear, and exhaustion.
In clinic today I had my board patient come back in. Professor Alexander suggested that we check out the quad that I cleaned for boards...that was scary! But it turned out looking pretty good, just a couple of areas that may have been burnished. So we will see! It was great to see the change in her tissues, especially in the quads I had cleaned a couple of weeks ago.

I passed my LA Clinical!

I can not believe it! I was sooo nervous for this day. And I do not know how it happened, but once I got in there and was being watched by the examiners, I felt completely calm. I remembered everything I had to do and say. Luck was on my side because everything went perfectly (unlike my mockboard which was a total disaster). I would like to thank my husband and his amazing anatomy. I mean, that raphe is gorgeous! Also, to our instructors, who always believe in us even when we do not believe in ourselves! It was a good day. Now on to the next one.

Found a Board Patient

This was a tricky one. First we thought she would work and then decided she wouldn't due to probe depths and about had her sent out the door...and then we figured out another way to make it work! I am going to clean her UR quad and 3-4 mandibular teeth. She is so sweet and willing to be there even before I bribed her with a cash reward! I am a little nervous about using that many extra teeth and my patient is a class III/IV, but it will all work out. I can not pass her up because there are students who have not even found a board patient yet. Luckily, my patient was willing to be both my morning and afternoon patient and I had time to clean a couple of quads today. And I did alright. I really need to work on that final twist though , even while exploring! Good luck on boards ladies, we are gonna rock it!

The Return of the No-Shows

Another almost patient-less morning, but the day was saved by sweet little Faythe who was a class V off of the resource list. She was really easy to clean because all of her teeth had crowns or veneers. She was so sweet and complimentary of me the entire time, because she came into the appointment quite worried that a student would not know how to clean around all of her dental work. She left very pleased and that made me happy. I had my class IV come in this afternoon. She is another on of the sweetest patients I have seen. I got 2 more quads done on her today. I felt pretty discouraged though because of my calculus errors. I think I still need to make sure that my lateral pressure is adequate enough and that I am ultrasonicing deep enough in the pocket. Marilyn was a lot of help to me today and stayed with me until I got every single error, so it was a great experience and I felt like I learned a lot, but couldn't help leaving clinic feeling a bit in over my head...for many reasons....like boards...which is all I can think about for the next two weeks!