Last day in First Semester Clinic

Bittersweet!! (minus the bitter part). First semester is over! And I'm alive! I can not believe that I am 1/4 the way done with the program, crazy!! It is crazy if I think of how much I have learned over these past few months. I came here knowing pretty much NOTHING about dental hygiene, and now my brain is chuck full of information! For our last clinic day, we learned emergency procedures, CA duties, and had our Clinic Manual test. All i can say is...I am in desperate need of break, and I'm sure everyone else is too. There could not be a better group of girls than the ones in our year! I love them all! Happy Christmas break everyone!!

Real Patient Day!

Real Patient day arrived. And I survived! Thanks to my wonderful husband for being my very patient, patient! I have been so nervous/excited for this day since the program started! I did not expect it, but things came pretty naturally to me. I got all of my paperwork mostly correct and remembered the order of things. And luckily, my X-rays turned out good! I was worried about my x-rays because I just never know how they are going to turn out. Some days they are great, and some days it looks like a monkey took them. The only thing that could have gone better was waiting for an OD check, timing was just not on my side today. When it was finally my turn for the OD check, I was gone taking X-rays so I had to wait again. So I did not even get to OHI, but hey, that's just how it goes sometimes! I learned a valuable lesson about timing and how long a real appointment takes! Overall, I am just glad it is over and that I did okay! I am glad we got to have this little practice run before next semester, when every clinic session is a real patient day! Oh boy, ready or not!

Relaxation Day 2

Another great day in clinic! Heather scaled my last 4 quads, did a great sealant on my tooth number 21, and finished up the appointment. The next time I am in clinic, my husband will be too! Crazy how fast it came! I wish I could say that I feel 100% confident about seeing real patients, because I don't. But it makes me feel better that pretty much NO ONE feels ready for real patients, so I'm not alone. Hopefully this feeling will go away as I get more practice. I am scared about finding patients also. Me and Jamie share a family, so that cuts my patients in half right there. I know everything will work out though!! Prof. Costley told us that we have basically learned all we will learn in clinic! The rest of the program will mostly be practicing and refining everything! I can not believe how fast this semester has gone by. I am excited for Christmas break to spend time with my family. I miss them. My textbooks have been my family for these past few months, and I have not been the most pleasant person to be around due to stress taking over my brain! Until next time!

Relaxation Day 1

Today was wonderful because I got to relax and be the patient all day! Heather is the operator and she did a really great job today. I am glad we have had the opportunity to do these mock patient weeks. Even being the patient, I am still learning a lot about a real appointment. Some times I feel like I finally have everything down, and other days I feel like there is just TOO much to remember. It is just all going to come down to practice, practice, practice. So every chance we get to practice is a good thing! One week from today is real patient day!! I'm getting excited, I entered my husband's appointment in Eaglesoft today. It all feels official now! Am I hygienist ready?? Let's hope so! Also...I passed off my last PE of the semester today!! What a good feeling! About 1/4 of the way done with the program, I can't believe it!!

Mock Patient Day 2

I finished! YAY! And passed off my sealant PE, which means...Only ONE PE left! Today I finished OHI, did a sealant, scaled the 4 quadrants, polished, and the applied the fluoride varnish. WHEW! Appointments take a long time!! I really need to speed up the process, but it will just take some practicing! Heather has been a great patient this week. I was nervous for scaling and I definitely need more practice but I did okay! I love Dr. Hansen! She is so helpful and encouraging and she has really great pointers for scaling. She also told me that I catch on to things quickly, which shocked the heck right outa me! It made me feel good. I love all of our instructors and TA's, they all have been so sweet and helpful! Now that the semester is almost over and I finished a "real" appointment, I have just now realized how much I have learned this semester. I'm finally starting to realize that I maybe can do this! This semester has flown by so fast. I have heard people say that it's the quickest 2 years of your life, they weren't lying! Some days it feels like this might be the longest 2 years of my life, but this semester felt like a blur. I love all of the Dental Hygiene girls, couldn't ask for better friends to do this all with! What a good day!

Mock Patient Day 1

Wow! Today went better than I expected. I am really glad we are doing these mock patient days because today really reinforced all of the "housekeeping" parts of an appointment. I feel much better about the order to do things, treatment planning, and when/what to have an instructor sign. It finally all clicked to me. I did get a little confused about when to do a new blue sheet, green sheet, and health history survey (every appoinment? every 6 months? every year?) but I think I've got it down now. I want to read over my clinic manual again before real patient day so I can make sure I have everything correct. Today I got to the end of OHI. So Wednesday, I will be scaling all 4 quadrants, selective polish, fluoride varnish, and complete Heather's last 3 sealants. I will also need to pass off my sealant PE and my sharpening PE. I hope I can get it all done in time! Another reason that these Mock Patient days are a good idea is because it gave me a really good idea of how much time I will have. I definitely need to pick up the pace! The time flies so fast when you are the operator, I had no idea it took me so long to do all of those things. I think that now I have the order down, I can move a little quicker and the appointment will flow much better. Crossin' my fingers that Wednesday goes well!

Instrument Sharpening and Flouride

Today I passed off my air-powder polish, Fluoride, and Walkout PE's, yay! I don't really enjoy receiving fluoride in any form I have decided, I wish Weber County would just fluoridate the water, dang it! But If I have to pick one, I pick varnish because it's quicker and more effective. Today we learned how to sharpen our instruments. We got to practice on WSU instruments so that we don't ruin our own. We used mostly the stationary instrument, moving stone technique. The laminated sharpening guides are really helpful to make sure I am using the correct angle of the stone and my instrument. Well, real patient day is coming up quicker than i ever thought it would and next week is our mock patient days. I will be the operator all of next week and the week after that, I will be the patient. I'm excited to do a "real" appointment start to finish next week so that I can feel more prepared for the 22nd, when I will be working on my husband. The pod wraps that the TA's have done this semester have really helped, like giving us an example of a great OHI entry and also Marilyn made us all a tooth made of soap so that we can practice our angulation while scaling. I feel like we have not had much practice scaling at all. This worries me a little. Hopefully this week will give me some time to really practice my scaling!

Dry, Etch, Rinse, Isolate, Dry, Seal, Cure, Rinse, Check.

I am trying to make sure I get all of these steps down in my head so that I can be a sealant pro! Today Heather M was my partner and we got to do a sealant on each other. The sealant I did turned out pretty good! The only thing is I think I used a little bit too much sealant because I had to do some filing down because the the occlusal paper was showing up on spot of the sealant. I passed off my Selective Polishing PE today too, and was given some more good pointers for rubber cup polishing. I learned a valuable lesson today... I had just applied the seal to Heather's #31, when I realized, I don't have a curing light! DUH! Luckily an instructor ran and grabbed one for me, but LESSON LEARNED! I really need to have everything ready, and not just for sealants. When I have a real patient in the chair, I don't want to have to keep stopping and taking off my gloves to get things that I forgot. We also treatment planned the sealants in Eaglesoft and recorded our TX in the paper chart. Real patient day is coming so fast! I will need to read all of my PE's and make sure I know what I am doing so that it's a good day!

Polishing, all a lie!!??

Did you know that polishing is pretty unnecessary? (unless you have staining). That is so weird to me! Ever since I have been going to the dentist, I have always thought polishing was a necessary and important part of the cleaning. It's good to know the truth. Four words...Holy Air-powder Polish! I think that devilish little machine was invented by Satan himself! I just feel like it's utter chaos! Too much happening at once and too many things to focus on (Don't spray the gingiva, move lips FAR out of the way, make sure not to hit the tongue, avoid all composite and crowns, don't spray towards the gumline, all while holding the HVE) A little overwhelming. And that does not even mention all the SALT... I was a walking potato chip when it was all said and done! Mollee did a really good job though and she was gentle and careful. Then we got to rubber cup polish, which I like much better. We used toothpaste instead of a grit prophy paste because none of us really have staining. I was taught proper polishing technique and motion and I feel pretty comfortable with it! Then after a few swipes of the flouride varnish, that's a wrap!

Practice day!

Hooray for Practice days! Professor Hansen came in today and helped me with my instrumentation. From what I have heard, she is the instrumentation guru so it was great to learn from her! She showed me a great/much easier way to get the correct angulation while scaling the mesial surfaces of posteriors. If I just move over into the 12 o'clock position, getting the mesials was much easier on the mandibular molars and premolars. She said it is legal because it is a surface away from you. Mollee was my partner today and it was fun because we have never been paired up together! First we disclosed and then brushed each others teeth before we practiced our instrumentation. We both did not get too much time to practice, hopefully we will have more time during these upcoming clinic sessions before our Real Patient Day! (Ahh!) We both passed off our OHI and Intraoral camera PE's today. Great day in clinic!

Relaxation in clinic....Is that Legal???

Today Emily was the operator and it was a very relaxing clinic day! I just layed back while she did her thing! Just one question...What the heck is up with my freakin' blood pressure? It's always high in clinic (which I think is mostly due to stress!) but I should probably just go to the doctor just in case because today it was 135/82. Emily did a great job being operator today! Later, we got to practice scaling and pass off our posterior instrumentation PE. I am excited for 2nd year observation tomorrow, I am eager to just watch an entire appointment from start to finish and see what I will actually be doing in the next few semesters. Oh, also, we learned we were counting PFI wrong! No wonder I was getting 40's! I am a loyal brusher/flosser so a PFI in the 40's was ticking me right off! I can't believe how fast this semester is flying by! I have learned SO much in this short time I have been in the program, I can't wait to put it all to good use after LOTS of practice!

All together now!!

Today we mashed up our past PE's into one and did a complete OD. You know what I realized? This all takes a long time! I need to practice even more so I can be quicker because a real pateint will not be as willing as Emily is to sit in my chair for fifty years! Another thing I realized...I forget things quickly. Today was a good reminder that I need to be going over all of my past PE's once in a while and making sure I still have them down (like vitals and extra oral exams). Like I said, Emily was my parter today and she is just a perfect little patient! We also learned the intra-oral camera today which was pretty cool! I can not wait until the day that I just dig in and get to work and don't feel so uncomfortable in the clinician's chair. I feel very inadequate in clinic some days. Today was no exception. I am so glad we have such great professors and instructors and TA's who are always so willing to help me and don't make me feel stupid when I look at them and say "I just really don't get this". I am excited for my 2nd year observation on Thursday so I can see the process of a real patient and implant it in my brain.

Composite or Sealant...that is the question

Today we learned dental screening. I was paired with Karlie N. and she was a great partner! Leigh announced that she wanted to be my partner because she wanted to do the "tornados" for charting my implants! I love all these girls! I learned a lot today about charting as well as looking at different things in the mouth. It was difficult to tell the difference between a composite filling and sealants but thankfully Marilyn was helping us a lot today. I think with a little more practice, the dental charting will not be too bad at all. We finished early and had time to practice anterior scaling. I learned that I need to work on using wrist motion only, Marilyn said I was moving my whole body! What the!! She had to hold my shoulders still while I was doing my working strokes. Thank goodness for her! She gave me lots of much needed one-on-one time today and so I feel much better about it now. I just need to become more brave and get in that gingiva!! Me and Jamie have some practicing to do this weekend, three PE's to pass off Monday (counting the probe). My life will be so much better once I have passed off the probe. Hooray for Fall Break! Which will be spent studying! But I'm not complaining, It's Wednesday and my week is over! Knock on wood I do not get the sickness all of the other girls are getting!

Disclosing Agents and PFI

Today was a fun day, the day we have all been waiting for, disclosing! I was paired up with Leigh today and we had lots of fun. That girl makes me laugh! It was cool getting disclosed and seeing the areas that I need to give more attention during my oral hygiene routine. I think they need make disclosing agents flavored because that was a little nasty tasting there for a second! I now can see the benefit of disclosing patients to create an effective learning experience for them. If it was effective for teaching me how I can improve, it will be even more effective for someone who does not know as much as I do about at-home oral hygiene care. After disclosing, we calculated PFI. (Me and Leigh had almost the exact same score!) I got a little confused on the surfaces to count..was I missing some, was I counting some twice? Does this count as one area or two? I think my calculation was mostly correct, but another demo would not hurt me. After calculating each other's PFI, we brushed each other's teeth using the Modified Stillman's Method. I am excited to do this with a patient and show them the correct method for brushing and flossing.

Eaglesoft TX and Posterior Scaling

I like treatment planning in Eaglesoft. It is very different from treatment planning on Dentrix like I am used to, but it was refreshing doing a non-stressful PE today. I just need to memorize the steps and practice in the wet lab whenever I can to make sure I have it down. We also learned Posterior scaling with our Barnhart today. This is a little tougher than anteriors. Although, I like that it has a toe rather than a tip so I am less scared to go subgingival. I was really getting the hang of it until I tried different areas of the mouth. I do that sometimes, practice and practice in one area of the mouth, finally get it right, and then remember I have other spots in the mouth to master. (Like the dreaded linguals). All in all, I think I did a pretty good job today. I have mastered how to know if I am using the correct end, and I think I have the angulation and adaptation down as well. Prof. Costley says we have lots of practice days coming up, and for that I am very grateful. Me and Jamie practice in my kitchen. The patient lays across four lined up kitchen chairs, while the clinician sits on my computer chair. It works for us...but it is definitely much easier in an actual dental chair with dental light.

Scaling Anteriors!

Today we learned anterior scaling with our Nebraska scaler. I was a little nervous going subgingival with this scaler because it has a sharp tip, but I just need to remember that as long as my adaptation is correct, I won't hurt my patient. I think I have the angulation down and the the working stroke. Jamie was my partner today and we were very excited. We like working on each other because we are less timid and less worried about hurting each other. We need to get over this fear. I feel like my fear of hurting the patient is holding me back a little. I just need to remember to keep a good, strong fulcrum and do everything I have learned and practiced! Also, my modified pen grasp needs work. A crazy little thing happens when I am not paying particular attention to my grasp, my index finger creeps way high up on my instrument. What the heck! What the devil is possessing my finger to do this?? All I know is that it happens ALL the time and I need to stop it! Also, Mr. Pinky finger likes his alone time and does not like connecting to my other fingers. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!

Intro to instruments and Practice day!

Well let's just say I am ticked today because it turns out I have a 4mm pocket on one of my molars. Well that just sucks because I am supposed to be a hygienist here! I brush and floss everyday so what's a girl to do?? Anyways...I was really glad to have a practice day. We got time to practice probing and exploring for a while, and we also learned more about all of our instruments. The practice went well, and it was much needed, but unfortunately I am still not as comfortable probing and exploring as I want to be, so me and Jamie are bringing home our probes and typodonts and practicing all weekend together. I will tell you what, I am so lucky to have my best friend in this program with me. No one can fully understand all of the emotions and excitement and fear and pressure unless they have been through the program. We are each others little support system and I am so grateful! KUDOS to those in the program with a child and/or a job. I was lucky enough to quit my job while my husband supports us and I have no children yet. And still I feel like I never have enough time! I have no idea how those with kids or those who are still working are handling it all. Superwomen I tell ya.

Going Explorin'

Exploring. How do I sum it all up? Well, let's just say that today had lots of "Ah-ha" moments with scattered "Wha????" moments. At times I felt like I was really getting it, and then I would try another area in the mouth and a monkey may as well had been holding that explorer. It's so hard to focus on my mirror placement and fulcrum, my posture, my explorer placement and fulcrum, don't stab the gums, use the correct end for the correct teeth.... It's all floating around in my head and I can't seem to focus on them all at once. Professor Costley was very helpful and gave me some good pointers that I'm sure I will forget tomorrow due to brain info overflow. I really like clinic, I have just felt pretty overwhelmed lately. It's just the nature of this program. Everyone said, It is a hard program. (Were they ever right! ) But they all said it was completely worth it. I'm trying to keep my eyes on the prize.

Probing...Dun Dun Dun!!

The day has arrived, we probed today. I was so nervous! It is very difficult, and is so much harder than it looks. I am actually feeling pretty discouraged today about it all. How on earth am I ever going to be able to correctly probe an entire mouth in a reasonable amount of time? I have the hardest time seeing the readings in the back without compromising my posture. It feels impossible. I guess it will just come hopefully with more practicing and learning. Everything feels like its happening so fast, one second we are learning how to correctly remove our gloves, the next we are probing each others mouths. Its kinda freaking me out how fast this is all happening, but hey...it's a two year program, it's gonna be speedy. The instructors and TA's are all so helpful and encouraging. I just need to practice practice practice!

Intra oral Exams & Oh yes, more Fulcruming!

Today we learned how to perform an intra-oral exam on our patient. Like the extra-oral exam, it is a service to the patients to screen for any abnormalities, namely cancer. I like that we do this for every patient. I bet they feel safe coming here when services like these are performed. We learned the different structures to look at, feel, and palpate in the oral cavity. We have learned a little about what is normal and abnormal, as well as different types of lesions, but most of that will come with practice and seeing lots of different mouths. We learned more fulcruming today and the correct grasp for the explorer and probe. The grasp is very light, but is stablized by the ring finger fulcrum. When we learn to use scalers, our grasp will be a little tighter on the instrument. On certain teeth and surfaces I felt I was doing well, and then other areas are much more difficult to see what I am doing and to find a fulcrum. My main thing is I need to focus on remembering to maintain my proper body mechanics and move the patients head, the light, the mirror, or my chair position..but do not lean or bend over the patient. I hope that will come more naturally to me with practice. Costley said don't worry, they will break me of that habit!

Using the Mirror...A little easier said than done

Of all the years I have been getting my teeth cleaned by a hygienist, I never thought about.."hmm, I wonder how the hygienist is holding the mirror?" I always just thought that they do whatever they want to see the best. It never occurred to me that my molars are difficult for my hygienist to see while maintaining correct clinic posture, or that the way they grasp the mirror is important. I have realized that everything a dental hygienist does is very detail- oriented, and usually has deeper underlying concepts and reasoning for doing it that way. Needless to say, its all appears much easier than it actually is. No wonder when I tell people I am in the dental Hygiene Program they say "that is really a two year program? I can't believe that the program would last two years just for dental hygiene" That comment bugged me before, but now it makes me mad!! After learning all that I have in these few short weeks, I am surprised it's not longer than 2 years! There is so much to know and master. I hope it will all come with practice because I feel like I will never understand it all! I just have to keep telling myself... it is still very early on in the semester and everything is going to be foreign and new but I will get the hang of it all. As I was saying before I got on that huge tangent, we learned the different uses for the mirror and fulcruming for the mirror. We also leaned how to give an extra oral exam, which I had a tiny bit of practice with at the Women's Health Connection. Until next time!!

Vital Signs

Today we got to practice more with taking vital signs and did our Vital Signs PE. We got to practice a little bit last week too, so now I feel like I am really getting the hang of it. But like with everything we have done so far, I feel like I could use a little more practice, so I am going to take home by blood pressure cuff and stethoscope. Unfortunately my BP keeps appearing a little prehypertensive in clinic, so I will need to go get that checked. Really, I think it's STRESS! Some days I deal well with all this stress, other days I don't. It just depends. Today I passed off my Patient/Operator Positioning PE. Jamie and I spent quite a long time practicing those positions and they are implanted in my brain now. Now I need to study the heck out of my Health History PE, it's a detailed one!

Health History

Today in clinic we learned how to take a patient's health history. We also got to practice taking blood pressure, pulse, and respirations. Health histories are a lot more detailed than I thought they would be. I am finding that out about the WSU DH Clinic...everything we do is very thorough and precise, which I would say is a good thing. Health histories do take a long time though, so it's a good thing to learn really well now before we have actual patients in the chair. We learned what things we would put as a medical alert, and what things to put in the HHx and HHxRx. We also leaned how to look up medications in our Dental Drug Reference book. I really like the instructors for our pods, they are so helpful and nice. Hopefully as I do health histories more, they will go a little quicker and smoother with practice. We have the Women's Health Connection tomorrow, should be fun!

Who knew??

There are different positions for the hygienist to sit in, depending on the teeth they are working on. In clinic Wednesday, we learned the different clock positions to sit in for certain sets and surfaces of the teeth. All this time as a hygiene assistant and I never knew that actual positions existed. I just thought the hygienists were moving wherever they feel like it. I learned the hard way as an assistant polishing and flossing teeth, if you sit with bad posture (like bending over to see in patients mouth)... you will pay later. My back was always hurting as an assistant. But we learned a glorious new concept today, ask the patient to move! Believe it or not, a patient can and will move their head for you! And I won't need to compromise my posture or position. Unfortuantely, good posture is not something that comes very natuarally to me, so it is a good thing for me to focus on.

"Sorry Leigh!''

This phrase could be heard around my pod over and over as I used the high volume suction today. I kept sucking up Leigh's cheeks and tongue. Even her lip a few times. Luckily, she was so patient with me and let me practice all I wanted with the high volume suction. Holding this suction feels so un-natural to me, so this practice was much needed. After a while, I started to get the hang of it. Hopefully, with more practice, I can suction up some water insead of someone's face. We also learned how to set up our unit and tear down our unit. We learned how to use the barriers and covers to get our unit ready. I feel like I have most of that down, there is just lots of little things to remember. I think it will come to me once I form my own little routine of barriering, disinfecting, etc. I also was able to pass off my PPE PE. I love this new little feeling of passing off a PE, one tiny step closer. Great day in clinic! But...I do need to find someone to hem my scrub pants due to the fact that sewing machines really don't agree with me. At all.

Blue Boa, Typodont, and PPE

In clinic today we had a guest speaker who is the inventor of the blue boa. It was cool to see a hygienist who saw a problem and came up with a solution to help other hygienists while using an ultrsonic scaler. I was impressed with her idea! We then got to practice with the blue boa and our typodonts and with using the suction. It was fun to do something hands-on for the first time in clinic. We also learned about personal protection equipmet and the proper ways to stay clean and safe by using gloves, masks, and safety eyewear. I was glad that I was able to pass off my Eaglesoft PE today so that I can focus on my next PE. We then watched a video about Universal Safety for health care professionals. I love how all of us girls are already becoming good friends. There is a little comfort in knowing I have 29 other people stressing and learning along with me!

My First Day of Clinc

It was exciting to start my first day as a dental hygiene student! Today in clinic we became familiar with our pod and unit. In our pod there is me, Michelle, Leigh, and Karen. We practiced using the things in our unit and learned what they are called. We also did a scavenger hunt to learn where supplies are kept and where certain things are in the building. We started our first PE, which is learning the Eaglesoft program. I have only used Dentrix software so this was new to me. We also had time to ask Proffesor Costley any questions we have about passing off PE's, what to bring to class, etc. I feel much more relaxed now that I know a little more about what is expected of me here in clinic. Overall a good first day!