Technology...a blessing and a curse!

Today was a good day. We finished early for the first time in a long time. I was able to pass off my anterior intrumentation and my intra oral camera P.E. I still get a little nervous going interproximally with a scaler, especially on healthy tight tissue, but I am getting the hang of it...you can go a lot further in than you would expect! The intra oral camera some how got messed up when I was passing it off and it said "no card" so I didn't get to finish demonstrating the funnest part, but I just did it verbally. Today we did selective polishing. I had no idea it isn't recommended to polish everyone! That came as a big surprise to me. I had also never brushed someone else's teeth so that was a new experience, but not as tough as I anticipated. The rheostat here is really touchy so it also took a little practice to get used to the amount of pressure needed! It was also the first time that I had ever had the varnish applied. It feels so stinkin weird!!! I don't blame patients for not liking it, but it is definitely a better method for the benefits of fluoride. I am just glad I don't have to have the varnish put on everyday!

The Pre-Party Event

Today went really well. We learned about the classifications of patients and treatment planning. It will be interesting because we won't really be able to practice this until we start seeing patients. We also practiced instrumentation. I am still nervous to use the activation stroke...especially using indirect vision. It is tricky to make sure that I am always adapted, etc. I love it when we get to practice. I feel like I learn alot by just doing it. We also had fun becuase a few of us were dressed up for the Halloween party today! That's where I am headed...to go PARTY!!!

Good Day!

I loved today. It was a little bit more layed back and I feel like I also accomplished quite a bit. I passed off my instrument design and classification P.E. and adaptation, angulation and activation. I feel more comfortable with what the instruments are and what they are used for. I hope that my fingers get calloused soon because they get kind of sore when I was scaling those posterior teeth! There are some difficult areas to reach and stay adapted but I like the sound I hear when I am doing it right!
We also got to play with the intra oral camera becuase last time it got a paper jam and I wasn't able to try it. It feels good to finally be ahead again on PE's because I don't like just doing them when they are due...especially when we start to run out of time.

Trial Run

Today I felt really rushed! But at the same time, I felt like it was a really good experience! We were assigned "patients" from another pod to do a trial run. I had gotten pretty used to working on the people in my pod, so there were quite a few new things that I hadn't seen before on one of my patients. I still need to get the flow of how things need to be run and the order that I need to do things. It is crazy for me to think how soon we will be seeing real patients! The thought of that makes me nervous! I also attempted to pass off my dental screening P.E. I don't know if I passed yet, but I do know that I felt really rushed becuase I was trying to do this and get my chart in to the instructors in like 10 mins! It was pretty crazy. I just really hope that I don't end up redoing it!

There is a First Time for EVERYTHING!!!

Today I had a lot of fun! I passed off my probing PE and then we learned how to scale the anterior teeth! It was so much fun becuase I have never done anything like this before. We put white out on the typodont and scaled this off first. This was good, but I knew it was going to be a lot different when I got to a real patient! It was cool to actually feel calculus and remove it! Then we switched and I was able to get my teeth scaled. This was actually the first time my teeth have ever been scaled before! It sure was interesting! I had some calculus right between #24 and #25. Professor Costely came over to remove it...my eyes started watering, not becuase it hurt but just the sound! It was an aweful sound! It was just something I had never experienced before! I didn't feel quite as overwhelmed today which is good!

Wow.....

Wow! Well....today I felt pretty rushed and kind of overwhelmed. I passed off my exploring PE but I still need a lot of practice to get used to how to adapt quickly to every tooth. I'm starting to see how the flow of things is going to be when we start seeing patients...which isn't too far away! We learned some details about the scalers which is pretty intimidating. I just hope everything is processing in my brain so I can make sure and retain all this information! I really just want to get this basic stuff down and sometimes I worry that I am not! I guess we will eventually find out!

Stains galore...WHAT?????

Wow! Today was good, a little bit longer than normal because I had a headache, but the time still flew by. We used the disclosing agent today. It is so amazing to me how hard it can be to get your teeth clean! It is quite humbling...just when I think I'm doing a decent job brushing I find out I've still been missing spots!!! It's kind of depressing, but it's really good to know where I need to focus on more.
I think this is a really good way to motivate our patients...it's great to individualize your OHI to them and for them to be able to apply it to their own mouth. I'm also really glad that I learned the trick about the vaseline on the lips....when I did the dental assisting program we never learned that and so we were always walking around with bright pink lips and it was a little much for me! My next project is to disclose my husband and get him brushing better! Disclosing agent is an amazing thing!!!

Healthy as a Horse

I was kind of rushed today in clinic. The good news is that I passed off my intraoral exam P.E.! I also saw my first palatine torus....that was pretty cool. I also learned how to chart existing conditions...some composites and sealants can be pretty difficult to find...I swear they hide from you! I guess that is one more advantage of amalgam...you can't miss them! I didn't get done probing, but I created a perio statement from what I had. It was really easy becuase her mouth was healthy as a horse, but it makes me nervous for when actual patients come in!

ZAP!

Today was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it! It was kind of crazy. I had an interesting experience with my "patient". Angie was helping me to try to get the angle down as I come around the tooth and we were just hovering the probe over the top of the tooth and my patient all of a sudden jumped really high and flinched. She felt something in her nerve and she felt like it had shocked her! I couldn't believe it when it happened a second time! I didn't want to put her through that any more so we just decided to skip over the 2 maxillary central incisors. We couln't figure out what was causing it because it didn't happen the whole rest of the time! Needless to say I was a little bit nervous about it after that, but everything went a lot smoother after that compared to last time! I actually fell asleep when I was getting my teeth probed! I was so relaxed! It was so nice to get a nap! Today was a lot of fun, I hope I can continue to figure things out!

Three-Two-Three!!!

Today was a lot of fun, just because it was all new stuff...Anything going subgingival is new to me of course! It was interesting becuase I had never had this done to me, so it was new to be doing the probing, and to be probed! The fulcruming is starting to come a little bit easier. I still struggle a little bit with having a really light grasp on the instrument...I just forget! It is really hard to see the distal reading on the most posterior teeth! It's going to take a lot of practice to get used to reading the probe. Right now becuase I am not too familiar with the probe I just count the lines as I go in and it seems to be working okay. I'm excited to be able to practice more!