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...