PE's and Class III

I feel like I got a lot accomplished at clinic this week!  I was able to see my Class III back for the 2nd appointment to complete her treatment.  I started getting nervous when it was 1:00 and still no sign of her... luckily she still came!  I finished her and didn't miss any spots and then I got to do a sealant and pass off the diagnodent and air powder polisher PE's on Candice's cute brother.  He was a trooper to let us do so much on him.  I liked using the diagnodent and really helped when it came time to do sealants because 2 of the teeth we wanted to seal had high numbers on the diagnodent which meant decay, so we didn't end up sealing them.  Overall, it was a good productive day!

I wILL sUrViVE.

Or will I?!?!

Mock Boards are now over, so glad.. until the next one that is.  Let's just say I did NOT do so well.  In fact, I failed.  Not just failed by a little, but failed by A LOT a bit.
It sucked.
I was not stressed until I walked into clinic Thursday morning. You could honestly feel the tension in that place, it was crazy.  We had 2 hours to complete 1 quadrant (which is only approx. 8 teeth) which is totally do able. I thought...
I started by actually being able to give anesthetic!
Yes! I gave a shot!  It was amazing! And it went so well!
Then,
I started cleaning with the ultrasonic and just took my time with every tooth.  I focused first on the Lower anteriors which was a huge mistake.  This is usually a great plan on your normal mouths, but with periodontal diseased patients its not the best idea because calculus has more places to attach to on the back teeth.  LESSON 1 LEARNED
Then I went around with hand instruments including my mini gracey's.  Lesson 2 learned.  I should have used my normal gracey's that are stronger and more rigid to remove the kind of calculus that I was dealing with.
I was feeling good and even finished 30 minutes before my 2 hours was up so I could mark recession and probe depths.  I was confident.  I explored, flossed, and used my air to make sure I didn't leave anything behind.
After my patient was checked by one of the examiners she came back with a list of spots I missed, it was not a good sight.  I didn't even have time to remove all the spots... Yikes I know! I realized my exploring technique is not the best and that I need to come up on my fulcrum in order to dectect the calculus.  Lesson # 3.
 My patient told me if she had to give me a grade it would've been an A, that was the highlight of my day.  lets just say good thing it was a "Mock" Board and not the real board.  I have a lot to work on!

Struggling

Sometimes I honestly feel like quitting, I am not a quitter but some days it sounds nice!  I have been struggling the past few weeks.  I feel like I am spread so thin!  It is midterm, so of course we have 3 tests that are all right in a row.  I took the first midterm, take the 2nd one tomorrow and the 3rd one I have to take by Tuesday... Can I do this?!?!
I love and I hate school at the same time.  I think its been so good to push me and make me better, buts its so hard when there is so much going on!  Today in clinic I made a huge mistake and didn't get an OD check from my instructor and it was just horrible.  I felt so dumb/humiliated.  I know one thing though...

I WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN.

LESSON LEARNED.

I am burned out at the moment.  We have mockboards next Thursday which I am sick just thinking about, I will be glad to get that over with!

On a positive  note...


This cute baby was born on Monday at 1:50 p.m. and is so precious!

Congrats to my darling sis!

 

We also got to partay last weekend and went to see THRILLER, It was so fun and a much needed girls night....

 

 

 

Tomorrow is our last and final Local Anesthesia lab.  We get to have 7 injections and get to give 7, better giving then receiving trust me.  After tomorrow we get to start giving them to our patients.  I cannot wait!

 

 

Until next time...

Flu bug=patients cancelling

Thursday morning I got a call from my sweet patient saying she was sick with the flu and couldn't make it to her appointment (which was in 1 hour).  I was STRESSING!  I decided I wasn't going to call anyone till at least after 8am.  I was so lucky because the first person I called said that he would come right up!  Guess who it was?!?! GRANDPA Mike from last semester!  We even got our picture together and I am so sad that I can't post it on here because my battery in my camera was dead, so I took it with my phone, but problem is....I have a phone from the stone ages! Take my word though it was cute! hahaha I love that guy!  We became facebook friends so now we can keep in touch! 

After seeing patients in the morning we had lab in the afternoon.  I learned all sorts of stuff about Blood Glucose/Diabetes, ultrasonics, saliva tests, and gracey's!  Gracey's are my new favorite things, they are amazing!  I got to use a periodontal file at the VA on Wednesday that was pretty cool too.  I also got to experience placing arestin on 2 different patients, it was so fun and so much easier than I thought it would be.  Last week was a great learning week and if I can find a mockboard patient this week will be even better!

Week numero quatro

Wow, where does the time go?!?! Honestly... SO busy!  I am loving my new chair in clinic, I get to have a window overlooking the west side of Ogden, its so pretty and makes me so happy!  I have had a lot of great experiences this week.  The VA was great and just kind of mellow and today was such a great learning experience.  I had the cutest patient this morning.  hahaha.. he was a 23 year old boy who was the BIGGEST flirt, but so fun to flirt back too.. I was waiting for him to ask me if I was married and I was dreading telling him I was.  He finally asked so uh are you married?  Not like it matters or anything, but are you? :)  yup... I am def. married.  He was fun and reminded me of why I wanted to be a hygienist in the first place.  I saw another patient this morning that came all the way from Park City and is terrified of the Dentist.  We got through an OD and he hopefully will come back to get his teeth cleaned.  I feel bad he comes from so far away so I hope I will be able to finish him completely next time he comes.  My THIRD... yes third patient ( I usually only have 2) for the day was a sweet lady and also so fun to work with.  I have been wanting a tougher patient that has a lot of calculus on the Lower anteriors and she did!  I was excited!  I whipped out the ultrasonic and used my indirect vision to get those teeth cleaned up.  It was hard!!! The calculus was in every nook and cranny, WATER was my best friend.. I scaled, then dried, then scaled, and dried I don't know how many times.  The hard work paid off because I only missed 1 spot and it wasnt even in the LA region!  Yay!! Prof Alexanger taught me how to do an oblique stroke with the SH6/7 on the mesial of the premolars which was so helpful because that is a tough spot.  What a great day!

3rd week in

Well, we have already been back in school for 3 weeks.  I feel like these have been the longest 3 weeks of my life, yet at times I feel like they have flown by!  This week was a good week.  Wednesday was good and I got to see a 1B and a class V.  I still haven't seen any class III's so I am getting anxious to find those requirements.  Thursday in clinic I saw a tough class II and learned alot about ultrasonics and how to not use them as a scaler, but to let them do the work.  My patient in the afternoon didn't show, but I was able to find another patient which I was super grateful for.  I am still slow at scaling,  I want to try and speed up my time a bit.  I feel like when I first sit down I feel so overwhelmed and have NO idea where to even start.  My cute pal Erin suggested I try starting on the linguals of the anteriors then finishing the mandibular teeth then moving on to the maxilary, so I am going to try that this next week and I will let you know how it goes.  Today we got to inject raw chicken, next week it will be eachother :)

My Ah Hah moment

Today I had a great learning day at the VA.  I  FINALLY feel like I am getting this whole teeth cleaning thing down.  As I passed off my calculus detection PE, one of my instructors taught me to "explore like you mean it".  I learned how to detect calculus and really get in there with the explore to see just where you need to be.  We also worked on fulcrums in the mouth and I just felt like today was a great learning day.  I had two great patients and am loving getting the opportunity to work at the VA.