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!