Test Run

Today Jake came in to be my patient. Things went okay overall. The biggest mistake was that I forgot to turn the eposure time up from a 6 (for digitals) to a 14. My films obviously came out way too light! The good news is that I will probably not ever do that again! It took me forever to do things. I need to get more practice at identifying and locating restorations. I also need to get quicker at probing. Hopefully this will all come with time! Jake probably isn't too excited to come back, but I'm going to save him for next semester if I ever have a cancellation and hopefully he can come on a moments notice!!!!

Emergency Situations

Today was insane! It was good becuase we talked about what to do in emergency situations. I learned a lot. The insane part was that we only had an hour to pass off our sealant and air powder polishing pe's. .. and there was 2 of us trying to do it and we were all trying to share the instructor! We got to have Instructor Snow help us today, she was filling in for Angie. It is really crazy that we are going to see our first REAL patient on Wednesday! I am just crossing my fingers that everything will work out okay!

Reverse Roles

Today was a very relaxing day. I got to be the patient the entire day and Katie gave me a real treat. It was bad news that I have a cold but she was very nice about it and was good to help me be comfortable. She did a very good job bringing everything together and set a good example for me to follow on Wednesday. There are a few things that I want to review before then, but I am excited to see how it will all go!

Refresher!

Today was a good day. We learned how to do a PSR reading. It was a very good chance to get to practice probing, which it seems like I haven't done for forever! I was also able to pass off my fluoride PE and my instrument sharpening PE. I wish we would have had time to do the air polish powder PE because next week is going to be pretty crazy. I am excited, but nervous at the same time. It will be good to see everything come together.
Today I also had a huge brain fart when I was trying to clean up. I was cleaning the trap and for some odd reason could NOT figure out how to put it back together! Luckily Laurie was there to save the day!

RUSHED!

Wow...today was crazy!!!! I only had 40 mins to pass off my selective polishing PE, do some sealants and take care of the chart and everything. It seems very possible but I felt really rushed. I wanted to pass off my fluoride PE but we just didn't have time. Needless to say, I'm getting out of clinic quite late. I enjoyed it though.
I have never really interacted with the Dr's so it was good to get a chance to talk to them as they came over to check the teeth we wanted to seal. It was also good to get my teeth touched up on sealants. The funnest thing today was being able to adjust the sealants if they were high becuase this is something I have never been able to do before. That was always left up to the Dr.
I feel like I still have a lot to learn and it is crazy to me how quickly this semester is coming to an end!

Disgusting mess!

Today was a very interesting day. We learned how to use the air powder brush. We got started a little bit late becuase we didn't have any sterilized tips. During this time while we were waiting I was able to pass off my Eaglesoft Walk out statement PE and my universal instrumentation PE.
We first practiced on a penny with the air powder brush, then on Dexter. I was scared to do it on a real person! When I had it done to me I hated it... the taste is horrible and the powder burns, and a mess just goes everywhere! It's really tough to manipulate everything I feel like...probably just becuase I have no prior experience with this. One thing that really helped me feel more comfortable is putting a dry angle by the cheek. I feel like this protects the patient and also helps me feel more confident. I don't know how much I will use this if I don't have too! I guess I will find out eventually!

Ultrasonic & Sharpening...A Great New Adventure!!!

Today was a good day. We learend lots of new things. Today was the first time that I had ever seen instruments sharpeneed. I was so worried that I was going to ruin my instruments...and I'm still not sure that I didn't. I was just worried because we spent so much money on them! It was a good thing to learn to do and the paper visual angle really helped me alot. I think I will probably use that for a while until I get really comfortable with it.
We also learned how to use the ulrasonic! I was stoked about this! We learned it earlier than we were supposed to and I think that is going to be a great benefit. My typodont didn't have lips or cheeks on the left side so I had a hard time not making a mess by spraying water all over the place. It will be interesting to use on a real person! I can't wait!