Cancellation

This morning I saw a new patient who ended up being a class II. He has quite a bit of subgingival calculus but not quite enough for boards and has multiple restorations. I was able to get a pano and a film set of bitewings on him. He had lots of plaque and bled a TON! I polished before I scaled to try and save some time and get rid of most of the plaque. The injections went well and I had one calculus error. I learned that I need to really explore those line angles, and use a horizontal stroke to feel them. I also learned that it is best to not use my thumb to retract when giving a left PSA. When I use my other finger to retract, I have more room to get my angle right. Instructor Wold also taught me to feel the vestibule before entering the mouth with the needle, to feel the soft little depression where I want to insert the needle. My afternoon patient was supposed to be seeing my class IV patient back, but he called and left a message during my morning appointment saying that he found a job and he cannot miss work and he needs to reschedule. I am worried that I won't be able to get him back in to finish his cleaning and my Eaglesoft patient assignment. His teeth are very mobile and I worry that if he does not come back to get them cleaned, they will fall out very soon. Hopefully I can get him rescheduled. I really can not complain too much, I have been pretty lucky when it comes to my patients confirming and keeping their scheduled appointment times. The search for a board patient continues! My goal for the upcoming weeks is to be more active in my OHI and try to really get my patients involved in their own treatment.

Final Mockboard!

Yesterday was our final mockboard! I can not believe that was our very last practice run before the real deal. I am glad it was a success. I almost died of shock when Adrienne told me that I had no calculus errors and no probe depth errors. I love seeing improvement, it makes me so happy! I gave my patient a little thank-you note is his toothbrush bag becasue I am so grateful he came in for 2 of my mockboards, and kindly came in for Karen when her mockboard canceled. He was so reliable, and I am so grateful for patients like that! Now on to finding a real board patient, which is my main stressor right now. I really wanted my final mockboard patient and my real board patient to be the same person, but that did not work out. I hope I find one soon so that I can at least clean one quad and see how the calculus is or how the patient's tolerance is before the day of the real board. Monday was my Process of Care Exam, I am not so sure how I feel about it. It was more subjective than I thought it would be. I just have the National board on March 10th, my clinicals the next week, and then I think I can finally breathe easy. It is really sinking in that I am not going to be around all of these girls and instructors in a couple short months and it is making me sad! I love everyone here! My main goal for next week is to find a board patient!

Class IV

This morning I saw my previous mockboard patient to do his OD and scale another quad. I was getting worried because next week is our last mockboard and I still had not found a patient. This patient had one quad left, and I asked him if he would not mind being my mockboard patient one more time. He said that was no problem at all, I was so relieved! My afternoon patient is my class IV. Jamie found him at the last screening and did not need anymore class IV quads, so she did his OD this morning and he stayed all day so I could start his cleaning this afternoon. I have come to the conclusion that I really do not like working on Class IV's. I 'm so glad he got an appointment because he really needs it, but I think mobility is just the saddest thing! All of his teeth are mobile and as I ultrasonic the bars of calculus off of his teeth, they just get looser and looser. I was getting really worried that he would be confused of what is going on becasue he doesn't speak English. I had Mr. Salomon explain to him that his teeth may feel more loose than they did before becasue of the calculus is holding his tooth more snug in the pocket. Once that is removed, the teeth are going to be more mobile than before. This patient is so kind and he brought Jamie and I a little gift when he came for his afternoon appointment. His calculus is some of the most tenacious I have ever seen. I had to go over it several times with the ultrasonic to even make a dent in it. I do not dare scale the teeth too much becasue I am worried that any lateral pressure will pull it right out! I finished one quad today and did not have quite enough time to finish another quad. So Instructor Wold recommended that I do one quad + 3 teeth and call it a day since he had been there all day. I am sure glad he came in. I am worried to start his mandibular anteriors becasue I know they are going to be so mobile when the calculus is removed. But the patient says he understands, so hopefully it will be good in the end and he will be glad he came. He seems so grateful to be here. My goal is to practice the angles for the left PSA. My left PSA today was less than beautiful. Final mockboard next week!!

LA Mockboard...A Success!

This morning we had our local anesthesia mockboard and I passed! My wonderful husband was my patient. I promised him beforehand that the the injections do not hurt, and he agreed... they didn't hurt at all. I am so glad that we do mockboards so that we can learn from our mistakes and know the process of real boards so it is not so terrifying when the real day comes. I did learn that I am being a little too aggressive with my aspirations, and that I just need to pull back a few millimeters when aspirating. My examiners reported that angles on my PSA were correct and that my IA was right on. It was a much needed little confidence booster. Until..my afternoon needed a LEFT PSA...FAIL! I forgot how hard it is to get the correct angle on that left side. Marilyn gave me some really good pointers to pull the cheek out and up, and to feel the site of penetration with my finger before had so I know how far back I need to be. I did have a few scaling errors today. I feel like I could have done so much better if I could have used my ultrasonic on him, but it's a great experience to just scale and know that I can remove all of the calculus just with my hand instruments. Marilyn gave me some good pointers today. She reminded me to always examine my x-rays for little flecks of radiographic calculus so that I know the areas to really explore when I'm done scaling. She also reminded me to get the tip under the deposit after exploring with my scaler, and then pop the calculus off. Don't just blindly scale the missed area again, really feel the deposit, and get directly under it. Overall, it was a pretty good day! My goal is to find a mockboard and hopefully a real board patient at the screening on Friday! Fingers crossed!