Class IV {Woot Woot}

This morning I saw my mockboard patient again but only had time to finish one more quad on her. I have come to the conclusion, at least in my experiences, true class II patients are harder than any other. I missed spots on her mesials on her premolars and Prof. Alexander showed me how to get them off using a horizontal stroke with the sickle and sitting at 12 0'clock. We also had quite the experience trying to give her an IA. The second I looked in her mouth, I could tell her anatomy was quite different than I was used to, it just felt different. So I attempted the IA 3 times with osseous contact. Prof. Alexander gave it a try and aimed really high, finally got the needle to go in and not hit bone but she got a positive aspiration. So we decided to stop trying and do Oraqix instead. It was a good learning experience, every person is truely different when doing injections! I will be calling her tomorrow to see if she is having any trismus in that area since I poked it so many times!
My afternoon patient ended up being a class IV and I got a full mouth on her. I got one quad done today and she did not even need anesthetic, it was crazy. She has some pretty deep pockets, like some 7's, 8's, 9's so the calculus errors I made today was just not going quite deep enough. So, I will do better next time!

Moving right along...

It was a pretty good clinic day. I got one PE passed off and I got some PA's which I have been in desperate need of. My morning patient was diabetic but she told me she was feeling fine. So we went along with the cleaning and she started getting really dizzy and not feeling well, about a half hour into it. I sat her up and gave her some water. This patient has an infection around her brain and I have been dealing with physician consults and working with Dr. Naylor to know that best way to treat her. She was on anti-dizzy medication for the infection, so I just figured her feeling dizzy in the chair was a normal thing lately...It totally slipped my mind that she was a diabetic. Turns out she did not eat any breakfast and this is one thing her doctor has stressed to her many times. Prof. Alexander was quick to act and got her a Pepsi to sip on. She started to feel better but I was still a little shaken up from everything. I tried to finish the quad I was working on but after a few minutes we decided we better dismiss our patient since we were running out of clinic time anyways. So I learned a good lesson even though I was discouraged for hardly getting anything done. In the afternoon I saw a class III patient who was really nice, but he was talking my ear off. I finished him in the nick of time and was really happy about that. Prof. Alexander helped me with a few areas today and she really helped me work on that last twist as well as using just the tip of the instrument to get off the calculus.

Mockboard #2

This one went much better than the last. I was in complete shock that I passed because I felt discouraged throughout the entire cleaning. My patient has some calculus that was clinging on for dear life and those third molars were really tricky...I was sweating like crazy! But I only missed two spots! Greatest feeling ever. I missed points on my x-rays because I completely forgot to get a film or pano of her 3rd molar, so that was a good learning experience for all of us. Also when I was anesthetizing my patient I ended up doing an infiltration instead of a PSA. Perry explained to me that since I was not quite angled towards the opposite side of the mouth it wasn't a PSA. I will eventually get that dang thing down! Mostly I am just relieved that it is over and hopefully for the real one I will not be quite as stressed about the process and paperwork side of it.

Not the most productive of days...

So my morning started out with my patient needing a physician consult because of a seizure she had 4 days previous and infection around her brain (this was throwing up red flags all over the place for me). After 2 hours of waiting, we never received it back and my patient was so eager to get started she was willing to wait that whole time to see if the fax would come. So basically I got nothing done, except the learning experience of my first physician consult. Those are not fun. The afternoon went much better. I finished cleaning my class III patient from last semester and so I got to do injections as well as finish her with only one error. There was quite a chunk of burnished calculus that took me forever to get off but this was good practice, and more determination to not burnish it in the first place. So things are getting better, slowly but surely I am getting there. She was really sweet and seemed very interested in coming back in for regular cleanings and keeping her teeth healthy. It was great to see the half that I had cleaned last time and to see that she had been flossing and brushing and that the tissues did not even bleed on that side. I love when people just get it and care. Until next time blog....MOCKBOARD #2....lets hope this time around goes better than the last!

Last Semester!

Here I am in my last semester of the program, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our first day back in clinic had its up and downs, which I am used to. I saw the 1A's that I had scheduled the day of the infamous wind storm. Things did not go as quickly as I had wished, even with 1A's in the chair, it is hard to quickly and efficiently switch from one patient to the other. I got some practice with primary dentition. I was also able to "diagnose" quite a few interproximal caries on their x-rays so I stressed the importance of fluoride and home care, especially with the mom so that she could help them with their flossing. I also saw a class III/IV patient in the afternoon! A miracle! I only got through the OD because she was about an hour and a half late but it went well and I got to know the feeling of my probe dropping into a 9mm pocket. She was very sweet I just hope that next time she has a translator with her so I can communicate with her better so I can feel as though I really helped her. Well, that's all for now, I am excited to be back!

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.