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.