The day from H. E. DOUBLE

Yep that's right.. today was Mockboard day... and after this we shall no longer speak of this day.  Pretty much I sucked it up big time.. my patient had much more tenacious calculus than anticipated and I don't know how to use my files.. (which apparently I should have had out). I knew I missed at least one spot, but six spots AND a serious area of tissue trauma?!  I literally sliced her poor papilla in half! How did I even do that?! How did I not notice it?! How am I ever going to pass real boards?! 

Extremely... friendly... patients

Tuesday I brought back one of my patients that I saw last semester.  He is one of my favorite patients!  He is very strange and always comes in sweats and looks like he just rolled out of bed.  But he is so nice and friendly.  Last semester when I saw him he was a class II and now with good homecare he is a class V.  It is nice to see patient compliance (although I was secretly hoping he would qualify for mockboards).  After I walked him up to the front to check out my patient had me hold out my hand and close my eyes and he put two pieces of choclate in it (which he does everytime!).  The chocolate was melted from being in his pocket the whole appointment, but it was such a nice gesture! 

My afternoon patients was one that had been given to me from my peer pal he was a class II but didn't qualify for mockboards because of missing teeth and interproximal fillings.  My patient was 31 and friendly, but seemed a little nervous.  Which I really noticed after Marilyn pointed out that his back was sweating profusely.  I did everything I could to make sure that he felt comfortable and that he wouldn't be nervous.  I guess it worked because as I was scaling he fell asleep in my chair.. haha!  The next day I figured out why he had been a little nervous... He text me and said "Thank you again for yesterday.  I hope you have a beautiful week.  I hope that isn't too much to say, sorry if it is."  I didn't know what to say back so I just said thanks again for coming in last minute.  Haha.. very friendly patient..

Side Note: Kristen found me a mockboard patient!! I am so so so so happy! I have been a tad bit stressed about that whole situation.

Always nice to have a friendly face in your chair!

Today I had my friend Heidi come in for a cleaning.  She has been saying she needed one forever so I finally told her to just come in!  She got my hopes up telling me that she had horrible teeth and that her hygienist told her that she has deep pockets and stuff.  Well, she wasn't due for xrays but from looking at probe depths, BFI, and calculus, she was just a boring 1B. But finally i finished a patient OD and scaling in one appointment! (whoop whoop!)

This afternoon my patient cancelled and I was trying to find someone to fill the spot, when luckily Erin happened to have an extra patient! She was so nice to let me see the little boy of the mother that she was working on.  He was an easy 1A and didn't take too long to finish.  Then there were a bunch of children in the clinic that needed sealants, so I volunteered to do a couple so that I could pass off a pe!  All in all pretty  productive day!

Birthday in clinic

Today I turned 23! Happy Birthday to me! 

Yay, finally I feel like I am not completely worthless in clinic!  Today I was able to bring in a class IV that I saw at Midtown.  He agreed to come up to the school to finish the last 3 quads of cleaning!  Yay! That means it will count towards requirements! (PS... Freaking out that there is no possible way I will meet them this semester).  I still missed five spots on him, but considering he was such a hard patient, I was ok with it!  Then this afternoon we had lab.. it was kinda long and boring, but kind of nice and stress free!

Maybe I should rethink my career path.... :-S

Wow, I thought the first week was rough and I told myself this morning that this week couldn't be as bad as that week.. Boy was I so so wrong. Well lets start with my dad.. I finished with him but not before missing a bunch of spots.. Really.. I miss that many spots on a 1B? (LOSER!)  Then I saw a 13 year old boy who I assumed was just another easy 1A.  When Lis did my scale check, I missed 12 spots... no that's not a typo.. 12 spots on a 13 year old. Well Lis gave me the benefit of the doubt and told me that the spots were subgingival and he should really be a class II.  She told me that I can't assume every child will be healthy and that I just didnt' go subgingival enough.  Well it made me feel a little better.. but really I know that I just really sucked it up.. Well I ran over on time with him and my returning class V patient got started late and I only cleaned two quads.. so now I have to bring her back for a third time to finish!

On positive note.. It was really fun to have my Daddy come in and get his teeth cleaned! He was such a good patient! I just love him!

CA

Today I was the CA.  After last week it is kind of nice to not have to stress about patients, but really considering that I did pretty much nothing... I feel so behind.. It was fun to be CA with Michelle though!

First day of SENIOR clinic!

Who better to have as your first patient back than your dad? That's right my sweet daddy came into the clinic to be my patient today.  Things started out a little rough.. First the computers weren't working for me in xrays so I took a conventional pano on my dad.. something must have been wrong with the sleeve because I had two radiopaque lines go right through it and ruin the image.. so I got to take it again!  The second time it worked, but there still were some lighter lines towards the bottom of the image.. but at least you could see the image. So after my struggles with radiology I barely had time to finish and OD and I will have to bring my  Dad (a freaking 1B) back to scale!!  Things didn't get much better for me in the afternoon.  My patient was someone that I screened at Midtown over the summer at the Women's Health Connection.  She ended up being a class V, but she told me that after xrays she didn't want to get a cleaning because she didn't have the money to pay for it all.  So she left early with only an OD.  I feel so frustrated.. I didn't get ANYTHING done!!  I hope this is not a sign of what's to come for the semester.

My little studs!

Today is the last day of clinic! (Bittersweet)  I could not have asked for better patients for my very last day.  My husbands two nephews came all the way from Herriman to see me! They were so stinking cute and did so well! Through xrays, cleaning, sealants! They were my best patients yet! What little studs!

My Hubby.. He loves me..

Today my wonderful, sweet, adorable, whinny husband came to see me! I love him and I know he loves me, but he was the most whinny patient that I have had!  I kept thinking that I was hurting him when I was scaling because he was jumping.. but really he told me that he just didn't like the feeling of the scraping on his teeth.. what a baby! haha  Well I was pretty frustrated with him when he finally left... luckily he was sweet and after he left he sent me a text that said his teeth felt good and I was the best hygienist he ever had..(brownie points)! That's saying something too because his usual hygienist is Vining!

Fingers crossed... and.. He's a three!

Since I didn't get to do a full day last week I decided to do it today.  Well first I saw a 17 year old boy who was a 1B this morning.  Then was the real test.  I still needed two more quads of a class three to finish my requirements.  I had scheduled someone to do a screening last week.. but he canceled so I was bringing him in today to hopefully do an OD, XRays, and scale two quads of what I hoped would be a class three!  Well I did it! I even got done scaling the two quads I needed!  It was very different from my last class III, he didn't have a ton of calculus build up, but he did a TON of tobacco stain!

Bad luck Wednesdays!

So at the beginning of the semester it seemed like every Wednesday i would have my patients cancel at the last minute.  Well today I had scheduled to come in morning and afternoon to make up a day.  Well last night one of my morning appointments canceled rescheduled someone else.. well on my way in this morning both of my morning appointments canceled! ARGH! Well so much for my make up day.. So I went and got my hair dyed and cut to put me in a better move and came in for afternoon clinic where i finished up my mother-in-law which went well.. and take a Pano and Kelsi which didn't go so well.. lame, now I have to do a retake.. I hate bad luck Wednesdays!

Braces?! I don't know how to do that...

Today I saw a 1B patient that had braces.  I have never cleaned a patient with braces,  another student had asked me if I could see her and I had no idea i was going to be cleaning braces until right before the patient got there.  I started the cleaning portion using the air powder polish (which also passed of a PE.. YAY).  I think that this saved me a lot of time to start with the polish! Well overall everything went well.  I did diagnose some sealants but I didn't get to do them so hopefully we can get her back to finish those!

what a good family!

I have the best family!  After Spring Break last week I couldn't find a patient to come in, luckily my mother-in-law said she would come and be my patient.  We didn't get to the cleaning today because we had some issues with xrays today.. I was still very thankful to just have a patient in my chair.

She loves me!

Today I had a really awesome beautiful patient.. It was my Momma!  She was so nice to come in and see me and since they have switched insurance, coming to me will save them money! Anyway.. today we did a pano BWX and some PA's.  We wanted to see if there was a possible "suspicious lesion" in the anteriors.  Not that we were hoping for one.. but my brother in dental school was looking for one more patient for his boards.. so it would have been nice.. but everything looked good (oh well)!

Darn that Tenacious Calculus!

Today I finished up my class III/II patient.  Man it really takes time to get in there and get everything out!  My patient was so sweet though.  I was surprised she never wanted to be numbed.  She was a trooper! I am getting a much better feel of Gracey's and I think they are such a great tool! Also can I just say.. I love my swivel ultrasonic!

Lessons learned!

Today I finished up a class two patient.  It is a lot more difficult to get all the calculus off a class II patient than a 1B.  Today was really the best day I had though.  Although I missed calculus spots Costley really helped me to re-explore those areas and feel what I had missed.  I feel like I learned more today than I have the whole semester.. It was great!

Great patients!

Today I am thankful for great patients!  I was a little worried because I could not get a hold of my patient to remind her of her appointment today.  I found this patient when I was CA, she originally needed a pano and a cleaning, so Jen and I shared her, she scheduled her for a pano and I scheduled her back for a cleaning.  Jen had told me that she had also not been able to get a hold of her but that she had remembered her appointment and came on time.  When I hear that I decided to just take my chances and hoped she showed up.. and she did!  She was so nice and I was so grateful she was on time!

Diet analysis patient

Today I saw a returning patient who had a lot of restorations and  a couple of active caires as well.  I did everything I needed to with the appointment and I introduced the dietary analyisis and asked her to fill out a diet diary.  I think this will be very beneficial for my patient. 

LAB DAY

Today was a lab day so I didn't see any patients today.  Today we had three rotations, we learned how to use the diagnodent, how to care for a patient with a removable appliance and how to do a blood glucose test.  I have never used or even heard of a diagnodent but the concept is really neat.  I can see how it might be taken advantage of in offices to gain profit on diagnosing more caries than really necessary.  The diagnodent was really easy to use though and I can see the benefit in using it.  Caring for a patient with a removable appliance was pretty straight forward and took no time at all.  Doing the blood glucose test was kind of fun.  I didnt' really like to poke myself but this was my favorite part of lab was learning how to do the test and how to care for diabetic patients.

Finishing Feels Fabulous!

Today I was able to finish, for the second time, a patient in just one appointment!  My patient was a 1B and I was able to get her scaled, polished and gave her flouride!  I didn't have to take any xrays though and I dont think I could have gotten done with her if I did.  Hopefully I keep getting a little faster and I am able to do it all in one appointment.. but for now.. finishing feels good!

Bad luck...

So I have decided that I am just really bad luck.  I have had MULTIPLE patients cancel at the last minute, patients that don't want to come back because of the long appointment, and then today as I am finishing probing my patients she tells me that she didn't needs to leave and she didn't realize how long the appointment would be. She was really nice about it but I was very sad that I couldn't get more done. I did at least get to do xrays (which totally sucked and I had to retake them all) but so it wasn't totally a wasted appointment...

Patients!

Today we started our first official semester of seeing patients!  I actuallky saw my same patient from last semester! I was able to finish her three remaining quads, polish, floss and give flouride!  I really enjoyed today! It was really nice to be able to finish my patients.  It made me feel more confident.  I learned how to use the nevi! Instructor Vining noticed that I kept using my Nebraska and asked if I had ever used my Nevi.  So he taught me how to use it and I love it!

First day back!

 So it was the very first day back from Christmas break.. it went alright.. Pretty much I have forgotten how to scale.. but other than that everything is great.  Ultrasonic is pretty freaking awesome! I can see why it would be nice for lots of calculus and perio patients