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.