I am gonna use all these?

Holy cow, who thought there were so many instruments with different names and uses and different ends to be worked on different surfaces of different teeth!!! Today helped clear a lot of that up, but this is gonna take some getting used to. I do not feel too confident with probing or exploring yet so i am a little hesitant to move on to anything else, but what can i do? I just gotta keep on truckin and keep practicing any chance i get. It is hard not having a dental chair to practice with someone at home and my dang typodant is not too cooperative without the nifty stand we have in clinic...but luckily we got a little more practice today on each other and the TA's were able to help us. My main critique was that i was being much too soft and much too hesitant to get in there and just make my mistakes and learn! So i am gonna try to be less soft on Monday, and we will see how that goes!

Bad Day

Just one of those days...fighting back tears, so badly needing a nap, and emotionally at my breaking point. I started the day off going to radiology since i missed last week when i was sick. We had a lot to do and only one instructor and i felt rushed and anxious so i messed up a million times and had ten minutes to eat lunch before going into clinic. We learned how to use the explorer. And i thought probing was bad??? It was tough and i could not figure out how to explore backwards in my mirror to save my life! After all, we are talking about me, the most uncoordinated person on earth. Karlie was my lovely patient and i did get my PE's passed off....Somehow i just have to find some confidence inside me, i know its there!!! The second i left school i let all those tears out and that is pretty much all i needed.

Marshmallows are like Gingiva

Today, not even food poisoning (which i am convinced i got from Beto's and i will never be eating there again) can keep me from Clinic, and i stumbled in there with a belly full of pepto and ready to go! We learned how to probe, which was something we were all a little nervous about! Kayla worked on me first and she did an amazing job! Then it was my turn to try it on her and it was pretty hard just like everything else was on the first day it was introduced. Luckily we first practiced on marshmallows because the bounciness (if you will) of them is comparable to the gums and what they would feel like when we have stuck the probe into the sulcus. We also practiced on our typodants and it was a pretty dang good clinic day, i made it through without puking or running to the bathroom and that my friends is success after the morning and night i had!

Still Trying to Find That Fulcrum...

This is hard! Remembering to keep perfect form and to use modified pen grasp and to be in the right clock position and to not poke my classmates gums with the probe as i am trying to find a fulcrum...i am hoping one of these days a light bulb will just come on and it will all just make sense. So today we practiced more fulcruming and we did intra-oral exams on eachother. We then had a guest speaker from UDHA who talked about what we can do as a UDHA member to support the profession of Dental Hygiene. Between that presentation and the student forum last weekend, i have become quite passionate about protecting the dental hygiene profession because i am working pretty stinkin' hard to get there! The end for today.

Finding a Fulcrum

It's like finding Nemo, just much much more difficult. A fulcrum is a place to anchor your hand while working inside someones mouth. I have to implement clock positions and tooth surfaces and 2 tools into this which makes my head feel like it is going to explode. I am so so timid when i am working on the other girls, i wish Jodie was my partner so i would just dig right in there and not worry about hurting them. But everyone is helping me out a ton and they are great sports, so thanks Heather and Adrienne! We also practiced extra oral exams which are pretty fun to do and even more fun to get, it is a mini massage i tell ya, my patients will love me for it one day. I better go cause I have a lot of PE's to practice on Kelly tonight!!

Vitals...

Today we took vitals on each other as part of the health history. We practiced more with blood pressure, i am getting a little bit better, its just that dang systolic i cant hear it, so once again i will be checking anyone's and everyone's until i get the hang of it!! They checked mine a couple times today and it was 125/80, so they had to put a medical alert stamp on my file saying i was pre-hypertensive and it kinda freaked me out. But oh well, that is so the least of my worries because this week is going to be intense. 3 tests! My brain is so full and soooo tired!! But...
I can do this, i can do this, i can do this, stop being a baby!
(This is my daily pep talk).

HHX...Dun Dun Dun

Today we learned a ton about filling out a health history on a patient, something i was really stressed about, but it actually turned out to be a pretty good clinic day. It can be quite time consuming, especially now that we are just learning. It is something that will get easier as i go along and i am hoping that i don't freak out every time i see a medical alert on someones chart. We also practiced taking blood pressure a little bit, and i had a hard time with that so i will be taking Kelly's (my gracious assistant/husband) blood pressure all weekend, it should be great! I think that is all i can write for today cause Wednesdays kick my bum, thats for sure!

Day 8

Today i did my very first set of x rays! It is a lot harder than it looks and thankfully we are not being graded on our first attempt because my bitewings came out a little iffy. I am really liking radiology though, i hope i start getting better at it!
I have also noticed that over the past two weeks i have become obsessed with teeth! When people are talking to me i cant stop looking at their mouth, and their canines, and the way they bite down, etc. It's fascinating to me now that i am learning all about it.
In clinic today we learned all about the different positions we are supposed to sit in while working on different sides and different surfaces of the teeth. It is a clock like system where you work at either 8, 9, 10-11, or 12 o' clock. I had no idea that it mattered where i was positioned while cleaning but it is super important along with very good posture, which i am glad i am required to make a habit out of. It was an overall great day and i have an overall exhausted brain.