Thankful

Good news, Some x-rays!! My father-in-law was my patient today and he needed some bitewings! YAY! I took 4 vertical BXW, but I missed the very distal on the 2 back films. Vertical BWX are a little harder to get everything in. But Professor Costley said the contacts looked good, which made me feel good! I also was able to pass off my Blood Glucose PE today, another thing that Costley said I did good at. Wow I needed today! It gave me a little boost that I have not felt in quite a while in clinic. The OD went well and my probe depths were accurate. I also accurately charted the recession and my perio statement was correct. He is a class II. I was hoping I could get to scaling a quad or 2 today, but it did not work out that way. Oh well, I learned a lot today and I feel pretty good about my speed. I have decided that I like charting. Most people are going to think that is nuts, but I do. I like the feeling of having my patient completed and walked out and just relaxing while I chart what I did today. It's a stress-free time for me. I wish I was not so tense in the clinic setting, I get nervous (still) and my shoulders get tight and achy. I hope this will stop as I get more confident in my abilities. My goal is to keep knocking out the PE's!

Bad News, Good News

I'm sure you can guess the bad news...My patient today had x-rays six months ago. Of course! Why should I expect anything different!? I was very stressed and when I went to have Instructor Hafen sign my HH, I told her my situation. More than half-way through the semester, I have taken ONE set of bitewings. ONE! She brought it up in pod wrap so people know how desperate my situation is in case they get their requirements done and want to help me out. I have decided that before I schedule patients I am going to have to ask if they need x-rays first. I hate to do that, but I have no choice at this point. The good news is today went pretty smoothly! I finished the entire HH, OD, and had time to scale two quads. no errors in my first scale check and I will have the last 3 quads checked when i finish her next week. I really like Instructor Hafen! I was nervous about scaling because almost all of this patients teeth were porcelain crowns and i was worried about scratching them and was not sure how to scale them. Instructor Hafen was happy to help and showed me how to feel under the margin and to follow it along with my instrument so i know if I am feeling deposit or margin. One thing I learned is I need to really make sure I'm going down all the way when probing. I did good on my probe depths except on one I got a 4 and she got a 7. Good reminder for me to practice probing angles and not stopping until I feel the attachment. My goal is to finish 1B's in one appointment from now on! I hope I can do it! I am getting quicker and more comfortable in clinic!

Lab Day 2

Today in lab we learned three new PE's. We learned about taking Blood Glucose, using the Diagnodent, and Oral Prosthesis Care. It was a nice, relaxing day. But I could not help but think how badly I need this day for clinic to meet requirements! I am going to pass off the blood glucose PE in a few weeks when my father-in-law comes in. He is diabetic so I have been saving him for after this lab day. I am somewhat familiar with the Diagnodent because it was used all of the time in the office I worked in, but today was my first time actually using one. I hope I can find a patient with dentures or a partial denture this semester to pass of my oral prosthesis PE. I miss lab days, they are much less stressful than real patient clinic days. My goal is to be less tense in clinic and to try and focus on the accomplishments I am making. Part of me is excited for this long weekend, having Presidents Day off, and the other part of me is freaking out because I need all the lab days I can get!

Happy Valentine's Day! NOT!

Not a great day. I called my patient over the weekend to confirm his appointment, to which he replied "Oh yeah, I'll be there"! Well, 8:15am strikes today and I'm getting worried. So I called him and he said he forgot! I asked him if he can still make it and he says he will have to ask his Dad first and then he will let me know. He did not call me back until about 20 minutes later to say that he said he would need to reschedule. So I have him scheduled for March 9th and you better believe I am going to call him the night before and the day of to make sure he doesn't forget again. But what now?? Its already almost 9:00! I call a patients listed "on call" on the resource list, but no luck. Luckily, there is a family sitting out in the waiting area. I asked if any of them would be interested in getting a cleaning right now. The mother said her 17 year old son was interested. It turns out, Karen is scheduled to see him for a cleaning in a few weeks. I talked to Karen and she said I could start on him. I was happy that I could maybe get some x-rays out of this! But sure enough, he did not need x-rays. He has recently had a lot of x-rays taken at his orthodontist. So I got all the way through his OD today and had some good learning experiences, so today was not a total failure. The end of the semester feels closer than ever when I look over the requirements. I really hope I can get more x-rays and find a class III!

Proud!

I was proud of myself today. Here is the story. My patient arrived and explained that she really needs to be done today, she can not come back for a second appointment because she is starting a new job. I panicked a little inside, I wished she would have told me that on the phone! I have never finished a patient in one appointment before. Then more bad news, Yes...Once again, my patient did not get x-rays. She refused x-rays today. What a bad start to an appointment! I talked to the TA, Stephanie, and told her I was going to try and finish in one appointment and asked if she could chart for me. I did it! I was so happy I was able to finish the entire appointment! And she was a class V. This was the first time I was really proud of myself in clinic. Then, I did not have any errors on my scale check. All of this good news was overshadowing the bad news of the x-rays. It was so good to see Instructor Allen today! She gave me some good advice, she said it's great I was able to finish my patient today. She wanted me to know that the patient does not dictate the appointment and it would have been okay if I would not have finished. That was good advice. I learned today how hard it is to chart occlusion when the patient is missing all their maxillary molars on one side. I need to learn a little better how to recognize occlusion on the premolars. My goal is to keep getting faster and to hopefully get some x-rays!

My First 1A

Finally, a 1A patient! My patient today was a 10 year old girl. My goal for her was to finish the entire appointment and have time to do sealants. Unfortunately, I did not finish in enough time to get sealants today. Something I learned today, mixed dentition can be confusing! I was getting confused about my letters and which ones were primary or permanent. It was a good reminder to study the primary tooth letters. She was very well behaved and cooperative. She did love to talk though! It made it a little bit difficult at times to work in her mouth because she was just chattering away! It was funny. Bad news, she did not need X-rays! She had them a few months ago at Midtown. Not the news I wanted to hear today! I learned that I really need to make sure I am sweeping gingival to get not just calculus, but the soft deposit as well. Overall, it was a good experience today working on my first child so I can know what to expect when working on children and about how much time it takes. She had a mandibular lingual expansion bar which made the cleaning a little more difficult, but it was a good learning experience. My new goal, go even MORE sub! I think my posture was a little better today because my back is not hurting.

Getting the hang of this...

I feel like I am getting the hang of the OD appointment, finally! It's all going a little bit quicker and smoother for me. I was able to reach my goal and get to some quadrant scaling on an OD appointment! Karen was so sweet to give me my patient for today, she was working on his Dad and gave his name to me, Thanks Karen! I love the girls in this program, it's nice how we all try to help eachother out. I did not miss very many things on my OD so I was glad about that. Today was a day where I realize how much i have learned. My patient was asking me questions and the answers were just coming out of my mouth without hardly thinking about it. It was a good thing to realize how far I have come. I tend to focus on how much I don't know, or the things I am not good at. It's nice when I realize some things that I am good at. I am feeling very overwhelmed about all of the PE's and requirements this semester. Another patient who doesn't need x-rays!! X-rays might be the death of me this semester! My goal is to focus more on my posture because my back hurts!