Where am I?

Since when do we get 100 mph winds around here. I had no idea what I was up against when I woke up for my very last clinic day of the semester today. Seriously what i was seeing out those clinic windows should be in a movie. I will make this short since we are all pretty sick of hearing about the wind. Morning patient cancelled last night so I was not expecting her anyway. And guess who my afternoon patient was??? My required 1A's. Yep, had to call and cancel them since school was closing. She was sad, she really wanted to get her kids in. Oh well. I will just have to see 4 kids next semester which is fine. I got to pass off LA PE on Jodie's wonderful patient who did fight the storm to come to his appointment. Perry helped me with the PSA quite a bit but he showed me some good pointers since some cheek was getting in the way of my injection site, you really got to pull that out of the way! Also, recap the needle with only one hand when you are done...this gets me every time. Well what a day. Well thats a wrap on Fall semester. Peace out!

Not the kids...anyone but the kids!!!

So we are drawing near to the end of the semester here and I still needed to see my two kids for my required 1A quads. I finally found some and got them scheduled. I also confirmed them two nights before the appointment and the mother assured me that they would be there. Once the clock hit 8:01 am I knew in my heart that they were not coming, and I hate to be a complainer here, but it is just my luck this semester. So after a little panicking and a few minutes for myself to just be completely ticked off I got to work finding some new 1A's. I found some on the list and I have them scheduled for the last day of clinic. Phew.

In the meantime, Jodie had me clean the teeth of the mother of her patient. So that gave me something to do to pass the time because I could not handle another week of sitting there with no patient. She was a class V but I had a really good opportunity to go over some OHI with her and spend a lot of time talking about perio and what it is and what she should be doing. I find that it means a lot to patient to praise them for their efforts or the little things they are doing right and make a big deal out of these good things and then they are a lot more receptive to some instruction or tweeking of some of their oral care habits. I liked that this patient trusted me and asked me all about all of her questions and took my word for it. I felt like a real professional and I liked that.

This afternoon we had a lab to learn about periodontal medicaments and desensitization, wheelchair transfers, and the Velscope. We had way to much fun cruising around the building in our wheelchairs. It was our last lab ever and I will miss these fun days that remind me of first year.

Good Day!

First miracle: Both my morning and afternoon patients showed up... and even on time. Second Miracle: I could not believe my ears as my instructor told me afternoon patient was a class III! I was so excited...and even better than that, she wanted to be numb. So I finally got to do injections. I was a little rusty since it had been a while and Instructor Wold had to redirect me a little on both the PSA and IA. I also hit osseous for the first time and I now know what that feels like. My sweet little patient, she winced a little when I hit bone but after both injections she told me that I did a very good job. I just wish I had a way to practice these on real people like every day. Oh well. We made it through another week and I for one am pleased as punch with this semester.

No more no shows!!

My morning patient went okay, she was a IB, but I was pretty disappointed because I missed 3 spots. Only one of them was on the mandibular anteriors which made me feel like I was at least making some progress in this problem area. However, I still need to really work on what I learned last week. I am still trying to retrain my hands and my brain when I scale and I was also missing that last twist interproximally when I scale and explore. Instructor Wold worked with me today on the extraoral fulcrum where you rest your fingers on the patients chin as I scaled the maxillary molars and this really allowed me to get some extra power. This afternoon I did absolutely nothing because my pateint called last minute that she was sick and then Michelle found me an afternoon patient but she ended up no showing. But what can I do?

3 more clinic days till Christmas break!!!

Lightbulb!

I know this may sound dumb, but here we are towards the end of Fall semester of 2nd year and something has finally clicked. Today I think I figured out the "towards to toe" part of scaling. I had some terrible habits that Dr. Hanson was bound and determined to fix today in clinic, and I am proud to say that we got a good start on that task. Once my lateral pressure was applied I was scaling in more of a rocking motion towards the tooth and not towards the tip of the instrument. It was exciting to finally understand what I had been doing so wrong when I scale the mandibular anteriors. I found that I literally had to slowly say these steps out loud to get it down, but hey it worked...

1. Up high on fulcrum with the toe being the first thing sub-g.
2. Apply the lateral pressure towards the tooth.
3. Scaling strokes up toward the toe!
4. Now listen to that beautiful scratching sound that is removing subgingival calculus.

My patient may think I am a weirdo if I continue to say these steps out loud so for now, until I can re-train my hands, I will be saying these steps in my head constantly. It was a good day and I ended up getting 2 quads of a class III, which we all know is precious as gold at this point in time.

Another day in the life

Clinic went well today. I had a class V this morning which was easy and then I had one quad to finish on my mockboard patient this afternoon and that finishes up my class II/V requirement. I feel like I am getting more and more comfortable with the ultrasonic and I have been getting a lot of great tips on hand scaling, I just need to work on feeling for calculus. Me and Dr. Hanson discovered today that I sometimes stay too adapted to the tooth which makes it easier to breeze right over calculus without feeling the click. I am just gonna purge some of the things in my brain from clinic today.....It helps a lot to be behind the patient , like at 12:00 or 1:00 when working on the right mandibular linguals. More pressure towards the tooth! Oblique strokes on straight linguals/buccals. Toe down. Even when I think I am sub enough, go even more sub. Well...

Long weekend?? Don't mind if I do!!

Oh Mockboards...

What a week. I am so relieved its over, yet I wish so badly I could do it over again! I was really nervous for mockboards and I had nightmares all night about it. It did not end up being quite the nightmare I imagined, however I missed some calculus and was kinda bummed about that. My patient was a legit board patient with very tenacious calculus and I feel like I learned a lot from the whole experience. The distal of the #2 seems to get me every time and Perry showed me how to get it off using the SH67. It was great to have the practice with a real board patient and with all of the paperwork and order of things, which was not as bad as we all thought it would be. As far as calculus errors, next time will be better! This week we also had a local anesthesia lab where we practiced all 7 injections on each other, and I think it is fair to say that I am over my fear of shots now. Now we can give injections to our patients, yay! The one thing holding me back....finding a dang class III to anesthetize!

Cruisin!

I feel as though these weeks are going by extremely quickly, especially when we have weeks like this one.

Monday we had a really good CE course about ergonomics, and although it scared me a bit (I had neck and back problems before I even started the program) it was really good information and I was a lot more aware of my posture this week in clinic.

On Tuesday, I participated in the Hooper Health Fair where we did oral cancer screenings. People seemed to avoid our table like the plague...like we were gonna hurt them or something. Oh well, it was fun to be there and get to know a few of the junior students a little better.

Clinic this week went well, I saw a class II in the morning and I am so glad because I really needed the practice in prep for Mockboards next week. Prof. Perry came over to give me some helpful reminders on the mandibular anteriors. Sometimes we just go along and get so stuck in our ways, even though those ways may be wrong, so I appreciate the tweeking of instrumentation, chair positions, etc from time to time. I need to remember the V-of the hand grasp and watch my where my fingers are on the instrument because they tend to creep up and I lose more power and control that way.

Then Friday we helped with the Children's Health Connection which I loved. It was fun to watch the dentists. Watching the assistants made me realize there is still so much I do not know about dentistry! But it was a great learning experience and I loved being there to help calm the nerves of the little kids and see all that was being done to help them.

Well, told ya it was a long week...therefore a long blog post.

Week 6

Ever have one of those clinic days where you you wonder what the heck you are doing here? I felt so out of my league today and although it was a very discouraging day it was one that was much needed. Everything went fine with my first patient except she ended up being a 1B. My afternoon patient was my Mockboard patient and I brought her back in to get some PA's and some more quads cleaned. I guess this is my first experience with really tenacious calculus and I can see why they sometimes say class II's can be the hardest. There were a ton of spots that I was not feeling with my explorer so Dr. Hanson came to save the day and really helped me out and watched me for a while. This patient has overall been a really good experience for me and I need to think of it as just that.

I need to stay Up, up, up on that fulcrum, the toe need to be 1st thing sub-g, and just get in there with the ultrasonic and let it do the hard work. Unfortunately, not all calculus comes off as easily as I have previously experienced.

Sigh...

Well tomorrow should be fun. We are having our nitrous lab and it will be my first time experiencing that stuff. Well, time is flying!! It is freaking me out a little.

No Show #2

It was one of those rollercoaster days. Great morning, sad little afternoon. This morning I found my mockboard patient (thanks JODIE...how could I do this without you?) and that was a huge relief since she is the first patient I have seen this semester that is not a 1B or V. My x-rays were a success which always makes me feel like I just conquered the world. And then Mr. No Show ruins it all. I tried the best I could to get another patient in and waited for a whole hour and a half for this lady to show up that said she could and then she called to say nevermind. I left clinic feeling quite discouraged today, but writing about it and eating this Nutella right now sure makes me feel better! Its gonna work out. I have a few goals for next week...

Lateral Pressure...
Watch my time, try to speed things up a bit....
Have a good attitude...
Don't be afraid of conventional film...
POSTURE...
Learn Spanish...
and more lateral pressure.

Busy!

Once again, I had a class 1B's and V's at both the VA and in clinic. This has been really good practice for me and has really gotten my confidence up, but I am a little bit worried about finding a mockboard patient. I have to remind myself that I only have so much control over what class my patients are so I will just keep looking! Today I learned that getting the ultrasonic out even on a 1B gets them done so much quicker and I do not know why I have been so afraid to use it on them. We also got some really good instruction in class on Monday on instrumentation. We brought in all of our instruments and really went over the basics which was great to review and I felt like a learned a lot. We learned that we can not go wrong as long as we: Keep parallel with the long axis of the tooth, lead with the toe, direct your working stroke towards the toe, use lateral pressure, and twist! I just need to get that all down to one fluid motion and practice, practice, practice! We also did mandibular injections today which also went great.

Survived

This was the week I had been dreading for about a year and a half now. Today we gave our first injections! I seriously did not sleep last night I was so nervous. I think it is because all of the girls were scaring me about the nasopalatine injection and telling me that in their dental offices it made grown men cry like babies. Yikes I was nervous but thank goodness Jodie was my partner cause it calmed my nerves a ton. So, it went well! What a baby I was being, they did not even hurt that bad and I actually had fun when it was my turn to give the injections! Clinic was good and my patients were wonderful, except still class 1B and V's. Also, my vertical BWX were awesome. So that made my day.

Week #2

Another week down! Clinic went really well yesterday. I was a little worried about getting back into the flow of things but most of it came right back to me. I had a little bit of trouble with the x-rays I took on my first patient/brother-in-law. I know I need much more practice in this area and I hope that each week they continue to get better and better. Having two patients in one day sure seemed overwhelming, but it actually made the day go by very quickly. My patients were pretty easy ones though and I am looking forward to those more difficult patients. I also went to the VA for the first time this week. Boy, was I nervous, but just like always, I had the sweetest patient ever. It is so great to hear people express their gratitude for the services they are getting. He told me he was so lucky to be there and did not mind that his appointment took a little longer. I wish all of our patients would realize that although their appointments may be painfully long sometimes, they are lucky to be getting treatment for so cheap!

Senior Year, It's Here!

I am ready to take on "the beast" aka second year.

  

I am trying really hard to believe that no matter what, just like in first year, things will somehow work out.  This first week was pretty overwhelming but all in all, it was good to be back.  I am excited about having less class work and more clinic time which is definitely what I need.  I like the second year professors and instructors so much!  They are going to be pretty fun, I can tell.  I am thinking that clinic is going to be a bit more relaxed than last year and I am hoping within a few weeks I will not constantly feel as though I am going to barf before my patient shows up.  So a highlight about this week was getting to inject anesthetic into raw chicken.  And in only two short weeks, I will be giving injections to Jodie.  Oh boy... another thought that makes me wanna barf.  I do not enjoy watching needles break skin but I will have to just get over that. 

 

Well thats week #1 in a pretty little nutshell.

Just so ya know....LAST DAY!!!!!!!!!!

WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!!!!!!!
I can not believe i made it to this day, alive. I would first just like to start off by saying that i for sure would not have made it here without all the girls in this program with me. There is nothing like having 29 girls that have your back, and i love each one of them!!
So today i had a patient that was a 1B and a Class II in one quad. I got a little nervous after i did the OD and took the x-rays cause i had to finish her obviously since it was the last day. But somehow i made it. I am so thankful for the time Caldwell spent with me today and showing me tricks. She was definitely one of my harder 1B patients and i did not do as well as i wanted to and for some reason i left clinic feeling kinda defeated. But then on the way home it hit me...i have a whole year to finish getting this stuff to click....and also that other minor detail that....
I made it through my first year of the dental hygiene program.
I could just cry!

Second to Last Day

Today i saw my cousin's little girl Abby. I love seeing kid patients, it is definitely my favorite! She is only 3 years old and i was so surprised at how well she did. She did not get scared once! She let me polish and scale and even tried bitewings but her mouth was still too small and she was gaggin. I learned a lot today, mostly that i need to just slow down just a tiny bit and don't forget things like the ever so important HHX and required signatures!! Oops. Anyways she was memorized by all of my tools, she loved the saliva ejector! Every other minute i heard "can i rinse?" and i gave her some water while she held "Mr. Thirsty" the saliva ejector. I left for one minute to go get an instructor and i came back to her rubber cup polishing her own teeth. That girl is sneaky! She is going to be a dental hygienist one day that's for sure. I was also able to finish off my sealant requirements and do a sealant on Ashley. One more clinic day..........this is nuts!

Somehow things are just working out...

What a day! I was CA this morning and that always seems to keep me running around! But it was good to get that requirement over with. Then i had Kelly come in to do a FMX and 4 PE's on. I kept Caldwell so busy but i am so relieved i got so much done on him. I was worried i would not be able to seal one of his teeth but the dentist approved it! I left the clinic just happy as a clam. Now my last final requirements include....
-2 more quads of a 1B (lady coming in on Wed, i am 75% she is this classification)
-1 more 1A patient (my cousin's daughter coming in on Monday)
-1 more set of BWX
-1 more sealant
I am so close i am seeing that light at the end of the tunnel...and i love it.

Bathroom much??

Woot woot, thanks to instructor Demings who had to help me finish, but the point is that i am finished. If everything goes just as my little heart desires, i will meet all my requirements! I can not believe how close we are to the end of the first year! Anyways, my patient was wonderful again today i got to work on him while he was numb and i got 3 PE's done! The only thing was that he got up to go to the bathroom...guess how many times?? 2, maybe 3 you might guess?? But no he went to the bathroom 5 times! I learned that burnished calculus is really hard to feel! And my goal is to stop burnishing it!! eek! I had a ton of missed areas that i did not feel when i went back over with my explorer, so i am hoping this is something that will come with some better angulation and much much more practice!

Higher Spirits

So i came to school all flustered this afternoon not only because i could not get a hold of my patient to confirm, but cause there was a mouse in my house this morning. That is a whole other story but ya i was freakin' out cause this patient has no showed on me before. I got to school was sooo glad to see my patient standing there in the waiting room, i don't even care that he was 10 minutes late, he was there and that was all that mattered, i could have hugged him! What a wonderful patient he was. Like i have mentioned earlier, i have had nothing but angels in my chair. Not one that complains, not one that winces, not one that wasn't easy to talk to. I had a few new experiences today...i got that ultrasonic out and i feel so much better about it. I also got to work on him while he was numb and i love that because it has a way of putting you at ease! Can we numb all of our patients please??! I passed off two PE's and finished an OD and one quad of my class III. 4 more clinic sessions! I for one am pleased with that number.

So Much To Learn

Today my mother in law Leesa came back in so i could finish scaling. It was actually pretty easy except those darn mandibular anteriors...dun, dun, dun! They get me EVERY time. I dry them and i explore them and i scale them till the cows come home and i still miss so many areas down there. I was glad Demings stayed there to help me get most of them and showed me a few of her tricks. Its hard not to feel defeated, but i have to remember how new i still am at this and as long as i am learning what else can i do? I did blood glucose PE today and tried to do intra-oral camera but my computer sucks, so that will have to wait. I was also CA today so it was busy busy! Goal for Wendesday: Have my Class III patient show up, and get PA's on him, and learn how to ultrasonic!
He better show up, he has no showed before and patients like that give me anxiety!

Still Exhausted...

Am i the only one that is a clinic day away from falling face down on the floor due to complete and utter exhaustion. This program is taking so much out of me, but we are so close to being done for 4 whole months...so here we go. Today was good i finished my Class II patient from a couple weeks ago and learned a ton from Instructor Caldwell. I love that we switch instructors they all have such good advice, i would give anything to get to have them stand over my shoulder all day every day in clinic. I learned that i suck at ultrasonicing cause its just awkward to hold and i learned that it is really hard to scale a patient that bleeds like no other. But i was glad that this patient came in, he was super nice and i hope i was able to help him. He did not know what periodontal disease was so i was able to explain it to him and help him come up with ways to improve his oral health. He seemed interested and he seemed to care and i like that. I did 2 PE's today, and lots more to go. Goal for next week: Keep my chin up and work fast!

Typical Monday...

What an exhausting day! I definitely think a week for Spring Break is not enough, coming back was so hard today! I had a darling little 11 year old patient today which i thought i would finish so so fast but it turns out that plaque can be harder to get off than calculus. So i scale all his teeth and he has nothing so i feel confident as i get my scale check. Then Costley tells me to disclose him again. His teeth were completely purple, the entire surface. When i disclosed him the first time i showed him how to brush and we got the purple off, however we were only grazing the surface of that stuck on plaque covering his teeth. I felt like an idiot, but it was such a good learning experience. The easiest thing to do in this case was just polish it off and even that was tough. He was getting ancy, and i felt way bad. Didn't even get time to do a PE....Yep that sounds about right, it was a typical Monday.

Getting Better...

Today was not fantastic or anything, but its getting better! Except Jodie's patient did not show up and i felt sick about it the whole time cause i have to look out for her! I did a full mouth of x-rays today. The good thing is that i finally got PA's and another set of bitewings...the bad thing is that my poor patient had to deal with me for an hour trying to get them all done....Full mouths are hard. And the x-rays are hard and they hurt everyone's mouth! I need some serious guidance in the x-rays department, its still the thing that scares me the most. But my patient today was a class II which will fill that requirement for me! Yay! But he has quite a bit of calculus and he bleeds a ton. It should be a good experience. And he is the nicest guy ever, i have had the best luck with having angels as my patients.

No words...

I know i said i was going to be positive now and stop complaining but that would make it really hard to blog about how my day went today. I might just have to leave it to the fact that my patient did not show up, i managed to find another one to come in and his blood pressure was too high to be seen so i attempted a couple PE's to pass the time and it was just an all around emotional day. That is all i can say without being negative. Spring Break could not come soon enough cause i dont know how much more my little heart can handle. Goal for Wednesday: have a patient, get some x-rays, and leave there feeling like i actually accomplished something.

Attitude Change...Starting now!

So Monday after clinic, although nothing went terribly wrong, i could not get over a feeling of complete failure, just weeks and weeks of it building up. I cried it all out to my husband for about an hour (bless his soul) about anything i could think to cry about, such as:

-Not being able to feel calculus, therefore lots of errors
-No ideal what to do about my table clinic
-Not meeting requirements
-Nervous to pass of PE's
-What if i hurt my patient?
-If and when i see a class III patient, what the heck am i gonna do?
-What if i graduate and am the worst hygienist in the world???
-[Gasp] What if i don't even graduate?

These thoughts cross my mind every day, and you know what...I am sick to death of it! It is time for an attitude change. Yes i suck, but that is why i am a student. I mean, 6 months ago i had no idea what a scaler even was. So from today on, my goal is to stop beating myself up over every little thing. Clinic actually went good today. I finished a 1B in one appointment, i felt what a 7 mm pocket feels like even though i recorded it as a 4 at first (oops), and i had a lot of help feeling the calculus that i missed. My goal for next time: Go sub-g, and feel with an exploratory stroke before i try to scale deposit off!

10 more days till spring break! Can i get a woot-woot?

Just another day...

Today i finished another 1B, it was the kid that had a lot of suspicious lesions so i tried to scale pretty carefully, and luckily he had basically no calculus so i finished pretty early...the bad news is that my computer sucks and it keeps taking up all of my time...hopefully they fixed it now. I had it all planned to pass off my Universal PE today and then i started scaling on this kid and he has the tightest tissue ever and i could not get the Barnhart in there...so i lost all confidence and that was that. No more excuses! I can do this. By the end of a clinic session i feel completely drained, this is an exhausting job and some days i think the stress may kill me. Today was one of those days. On that note, i am going to bed!!

Back to Work...

Finished another 1B. Today i even got to try out the nitrous, well not actually me try it out, but i learned how to give it to my patient. My patient had a really bad sore throat and was getting over strep...so he wanted nitrous...okay, whatever you say kid. So that was pretty fun and i am feeling a lot more confident about 1B appointments but my goal is still to be much quicker. Time is flying and i know i have said this again and again, but i need to do PE's...i keep chickening out! Overall, today was a good day, no complaints.

I Miss Lab Days...

There was such a different atmosphere in clinic today. No patients. No frantic running around. No grading. It was basically a party and we all had a lot of fun being able to relax. We learned how to test blood glucose, which is totally not as scary as we were all expecting. We learned about diabetes in a way a kid could understand and that helped me out so much. We also learned how to use the diagnodent...which beeped like crazy on my maxillary 2nd molars and i am pretty sure i have a couple cavities....Noooooo!! I am going to try to remineralize them, wish me luck. And last we learned how to clean dentures. I hope to pass off all three of those PE's as soon as i can because they all seemed quite easy! I loved today. Now bring on that 4 day weekend!

Great day

Today went so well. It seems that if i have a bad day, i am bound to have a good day the next time. Its quite a rollercoaster of emotions going on, but im surviving it. Today i had a returning patient to finish up her cleaning. I was able to finish with only 2 missed areas! She was a class II, and i now need a class III and 1A's! I am feeling better about scaling, i love the advice i am getting from the different instructors, it helps a ton. That is about all i can say right now because all i can think about is that fact that i dont have clinic again for a week and a half....Yay for lab days and presidents day! Peace out homies!

I think i like the Ultrasonic!

That thing has been haunting me for weeks, i know if i just use it my appointments will go quicker but it scares the heck out of me. So today i decided to get it out...and it works so good! I definitely need more practice with it and it still scares me a bit, but i loved seening the calculus come off! My patient has not been to the dentist in about 4 years and he has beautiful teeth, just a lot of build up behind his mandibular anteriors. So i only got through one quad. Next time i will finish him up and it should all be peachy. Goal for next week: Pass off a dang PE! They are not going to go away Jamie, no matter how much you hope.

Another one of those Mondays

I actually found a patient that needed x-rays...the only problem is i have had zero practice with them this semester so i ended up needing 2 retakes and i am too nervous to use anything but scan-x! But they turned out okay in the end. So my patient is a 15 year old kid with hardly any calculus so he should be quick to finish cleaning next time, but he has caries...i mean suspicious lesions everywhere. Basically on every tooth. So next time we will go over OHI and the etiology of caries and that should give me some good practice with all that talk. Today was good practice but i only got through the OD, due to the time taking x-rays. Once again, my goal is to speed it up!

Oh heath history...

No not really, but i feel like today's patient gave me some intense practice at it. I took one look at her chart and got very overwhelmed by the multiple medications and conditions that i was going to have do document along with a possible physicians consult (don't remember how the heck to do those). My patient has a psychiatric disorder and i was really nervous to see her but it actually went so much better than i expected. She was such a sweet lady and i really did not have anything to be afraid of. Everything went as planned and although the Health History took about 45 minutes i was happy to at least finish the OD. I will be seeing her in a couple of weeks to start the cleaning. She is my 4th patient in a row that does not need x-rays! ahhh i dont know how i am going to meet all of the quantity requirements, but like i mentioned in a previous post, somehow it has to work out! Right?

Saved!

I was saved this weekend by my mother in law. The patient i had scheduled was the fiance of the patient Jodie had scheduled and she ignored our calls for 2 days and then finally let us know Saturday night that they would not be able to make it. Grrr.... Okay here is the deal....
I am a perfectionist.
I like to have my life planned out.
I hate when plans change.
I cant stand the fact that my grade depends on random strangers.
Some days i literally wondering how the heck i am going to do this.
But somehow, by some miracle, things always seem to work themselves out. My mother in law so graciously offered to come in to help me out. I was actually pretty nervous, but it ended up going so well! I got to scaling one quad on her today and i felt more confident that last week with the whole OD proccess. I am thankful to Vining for being around to tell it like it is. I like the straight forwardness and helpful tricks that he gives. My new goal is to have a whole month scheduled out so i don't loose sleep over finding patients. Wish me luck.

One of those days...

Discouraged is all i am feeling right now. So ya i know he is only my third real patient but i hate getting errors! I had like 12 missed areas, most of them were subgingival which i am having a lot of trouble with. I wish we had more one on one time with instructors, they are so busy though running around back and forth for us. They do a great job, i just hope i can get them over there to help me so i can get my confidence. Thankfully, my new friend and patient Wally made me feel great. He told me i did a great job and would be back to see me in 6 months. Well i have some practicing to do and i am going to dust of old Nield and get down this instrumentation thing if it kills me.

Finally some luck...

Another wonderful patient, cutest old guy ever. I did not even call to remind him or anything. And he showed up, just happy as could be at 8:00 this morning even though he had to miss his volleyball class. His name is Wally and he walked into the dental hygiene building wanting an appointment while i happened to be in the office searching for names off the resource list! So i scheduled him and i am so glad that he was the one to be my first non-family patient. He was the sweetest guy you will ever meet and he is perio maintenance so he will count as a Class II. I did get to one quad today and i missed 3 areas. That subgingival calculus is going to be the death of me. But all in all it was a good day and he is free to come in for me on Wednesday so there is another stress gone. I can do this...

Cutest Patient Ever...Fastest Patient Ever

So like i mentioned earlier i was struggling big time finding patients off the resource list. After having no luck, i scheduled my two year old niece for today as a last resort, but i was way excited for her to come in! I had no idea what to expect out of her and the appointment was a whole 25 minutes but it was fun! She came in all excited and rode in the chair for a minute. Once i started to lay it back though, that's when the nervous whimpering came about. So i decided no tools for a little while and she sat on my sisters lap. I counted her adorable little teeth and she brushed them with the Ariel toothbrush i gave her. That is about all we did. I tried to disclose her, but she could not put her tongue to the roof of her mouth so the drop ended up on her tongue and she started gagging, it was sad! I don't blame her cause that stuff even makes me gag! I called my sister after the appointment to make sure she wasnt traumatized by it all. Apparently she would not stop talking about it. She reported that the gloves were yucky, the blue stuff was yucky, aunt Jamie gave her stamps as a prize, and she got her teeth counted and has 3 teeth (she actually had 20, but she decided on 3 i guess)! Great day in clinic. Next time i know that if i have a young child coming in, i need to have a 2nd patient scheduled so i can use up all of that precious extra time...i tried to call more people today, no luck.

Another 4 Quads...done

Okay so i am feeling like each appointment it is getting easier and easier. I still feel like i need a lot more help with my scaling, that is one thing that i did not have enough time to practice last semester i feel like. Okay so now that i think about it i need practice with polishing and flossing and probing too, but lets not get into all that. My dad said that i did great and i did not hurt him at all, which was great to hear cause that is my number one fear! But i ended up doing pretty good i think and i am glad i have made it through. The first two weeks have flown by though, its almost like i never left for the break. The only problem now is....FINDING PATIENTS! I have had no luck with the resource list whatsoever! But i just gotta keep trying, somebody out there has to want to come sit in my chair for a total of about 6 hrs right??? That's the problem, not many people have that kind of time to spare on a weekday. Wish me luck...cause i am freaking out.

Breathe....

So this week my patient is my cute dad, but i was still stressed out during the entire appointment and i did so many dumb things. I decided i need to just breathe. I will be alive at the end of this and i will be a RDH at the end of this as long as i breathe. My goal this week is to relax. If i have questions, ask. If i have a problem, solve it.
Maybe try to have a little bit of fun throughout all this? Maybe?
So we will see how it goes. The appointment went pretty well i think, besides the x-rays portion. I had so much trouble in there and its like i forgot every single thing i learned in radiology. I wish i could somehow get in there and get some more practice but i guess that is what these patients for the rest of the program are for. I hope that scaling goes well tomorrow and i plan on passing off my explorer PE. I love my family for coming in as my patients, my only problem is that between me and Jodie, (having the same family and all) we are pretty much out. Well on that note, lets do this.

Real Patient...Part 2

Today i finished scaling Kelly's teeth and finished his whole appointment. I feel okay about it, i was shocked that i had no missed areas of calculus removal. Kim is the instructor for my pod and i just love her! So kelly's gums were bleeding a ton and i hope it wasn't that i suck that badly, i am hoping he just has really bleedy gums. When i panicked, he kept assuring me that i was doing soooo good...and let's be honest he has to say that, but it did make me feel good. :) TalEval is taking some getting used to, but i am happy about the way were are going to be graded from now on, it seems less intense. My goal for this weekend is to practice scaling. I need to find out which tools work best for which patients, because today i wanted to throw the Barnhart across the room, its too fat to work with!!! All in all, today was good i am just so nervous to be working on anyone except my lying husband. However, I am comforted to know that we are all in the same boat here, i don't know what i would do without those 29 other girls in the program with me!

Back in Business!

So it was the first day back to school for Spring semester and i was dreading this day like the plague, but it actually wasn't too bad, it was fun to see everyone again! I had a rough time getting back into the swing of things but we jumped right back into learning and we tried out the Gracy's and learned how to ultrasonic scale. It was fun to get the ol' typodont out again today, we hadn't used them in ages it seems like. This day sure was 1 million times less stressful than the first day of last semester, i just hope that this semester i can get a lot more comfortable in the clinic and stop being so afraid to mess up, cause it will happen a lot and my patients are just gonna have to love me or hate me and that is life. :)