Not the best of weeks...

VA this week went pretty good, I was able to get some x-rays! The VA x-rays took a minute for me to get used to, it seems like I need to come way more mesial than I normally would with the x-ray tubeheads at WSU. It was a good lesson to learn a new x-ray system. Also, Prof. Bossenberger showed me some good tips about scaling the distals of the second molars using horizontal strokes. I do want to work on being a little quicker at probing when I update the perio charts at the VA. Clinic was a little rough for me this week. I found out after my morning patient filled out her health history that she needed to premedicate for a knee replacement. I spent the ENTIRE appointment on the phone with her orthopaedic office, trying to find her doctor, waiting and waiting for a fax back. It was quite ridiculous. I did everything I could on her without having her premed, which was basically just charting restorations and tissue descriptors. She will be coming back in two weeks so that I can start her treatment. The good news is that she is at least a class II or III, so that's good. For the afternoon, I had a patient who ended up being a 1B. If she would have had a little more bone loss she would have been the perfect mockboard patient. She is a nice lady but she literally would not stop talking the whole time. Towards the end, I was getting pressed for time so I would try to put my instruments in her mouth while she was talking but she was not having it! It is one of the most frustrating things I have experienced so far in clinic. She was also quite sensitive as the instructors and I explored/scaled, which made things a little difficult. I ended up missing quite a few spots on her and I was extremely discouraged that I missed that many spots on a 1B. Prof. Alexander could tell I was not okay and she really made me feel better. She said that sometimes 1B's can be very difficult patients and she explained that I was just missing that final twist once I am in the pocket. Adapt, adapt, and adapt some more! Next time on a patient like her, I would use some Oraquix so that I am really able to get down in there and clean. Although it was a hard day, I am glad I learned those lessons. Today we had our maxillary Injections LA Lab. Another successful lab! Me and Jamie partnered up again and we both did a good job! I am really enjoying local anesthesia. Until next week...here's to hoping it can only go uphill from here! My goal for next week is to reduce errors and scale times.