Wheelchairs are not for racing...

I called my patient to confirm her ( for the second time) and she said "Oh, I can't make it" (for the third time this semester) so I gave up on her. I really needed her to come in because she was bringing in her son who I needed to meet my 1A requirements for the semester. So I quickly called a patient that I saw last semester and she wanted to bring her daughter in again. I still think mixed dentition is quite confusing and I do need to study the tooth letters a little bit more. I was able to get some x-rays, despite her excessive gagging. I did use the ultrasonic just briefly because she has a lingual expansion bar which was very difficult to clean. I did not miss any spots and I was able to do one sealant and pass off my sealant and Diagnodent PE's. Then in the afternoon, it was Lab time. We learned how to transfer wheelchair bound patients in and out of our dental chair. We also pushed each other on wheelchairs around campus and had a race, which we quickly found out was not the best idea because I was almost launched out of my chair onto the cement. It was the funnest lab activity we have done so far! We also learned about desensitization, the Velscope, oral irrigation, and the placement of Arestin. I am excited to get to use all of these things in clinic. Lots of people have had opportunities to place Arestin at the VA, but I haven't yet. My goal for next clinic session is to complete my requirements because next clinic session is the last one this semester! HAPPY THANKSGIVING BREAK!

Let's call it...a good day for learning

Or we could just call it a bad day. Dr. Hanson says they are the same thing. It is true I guess, If we never had the bad days, we would never be learning or progressing. Still, I am a little discouraged. My morning patient no-showed, but a lady in the lobby waiting for Midtown wanted a cleaning. She was an easy 1B and everything went well with that appointment. My afternoon patient was a class III and I missed more spots that I would have liked to. But look at the bright side, I got a class III today! This patient has not been to the dentist in years and he was a smoker. He had a thick dark bar of supra and sub calculus on his mandibular anteriors, and plenty of calculus everywhere else. The calculus was very tenacious. He wanted all of his mandibular teeth cleaned because he wanted the visible stained calculus off. So, I did 2 IA's and a mental injection. As I was bringing the needle into his mouth, I stabbed his lip! AH! Dr. Hanson kept me very calm and told me to proceed with my injection. The unplanned "lip injection" threw me off a little because I totally forgot to aspirate on the IA and when I realized it, I said "Oops" ("Oops" is not the thing a patient wants to hear when I have a needle in his mouth). Thank goodness my patient is so nice and so patient. Dr. Hanson taught me to pop up under the contacts with my sickle. If I would have done this, she said I would not have missed the spots. She also told me to literally think "lateral pressure" in my head with my strokes until it becomes a habit. We also worked on the finger twist and she showed how to better explore the anteriors by using the end of the explorer that wraps around the tooth. Overall, I really learned a lot today. I wonder if I can count the lip injection as an injection toward my requirements??? :)

"Wow, he is strong."

My morning patient was a 1B and I was able to complete her with no errors. I was also able to get 4 bitewings and 6 CONVENTIONAL PA's. I am glad I finally got some PA's and I am also glad that I finally forced myself to use conventional film! For the afternoon, I saw my mockboard patient one last time to finish her last 2 quadrants. Professor Perry showed me some really good tips as he did my scale check. He reminded me to do a horizontal sweep with my scaler on the straight facial and lingual of the anteriors. When Prof. Perry left, my patient said to me "Wow, he is strong." So what does that say about me? It says my lateral pressure is garbage, that's what it says! Lateral pressure..do I need to print that in large letters on all of my scalers?? I look forward to the muscles in my hands getting stronger as I build this skill. My few missed areas were mesials, so at least there is a pattern I can try and work on. I have noticed that I sometimes skip around to different areas of the mouth when I scale. For instance, I may start on the mandibular anteriors, scale them for a while, then hop to a different tooth. Then back to the anteriors. This is little thing that will become a big time waster! My goals for next clinic day are to always scale the area to completion before moving on and to try exploring from different chair positions to make sure that I have removed all of the deposit.