To the Rescue!!!

I wasn't quite sure how well today was going to go. My patient I had scheduled previously cancelled yesterday, so luckily my grandpa was able to come in so we could finish up with his work. When I talked to him last night though he said that if it was snowing bad, like it was supposed to, he may not be able to make it...That is not a comforting thought! Luckily he came to my rescue. I was a little nervous because most of his teeth are crowned. I have never worked with scaling crowns so I wasn't very confident with it. It wasn't as bad as I anticipated. The hard part was his mandibular anteriors. There was some hard calculus on there! Boy was my arm tired! I missed a few spots on the anteriors, which dissapointed me a little bit, but it is okay, I just want to get better. I was able to pass off my anterior scaling PE and my exploring PE.
I worry that I am not accomplishing enough in each appointment, but I guess I should just feel lucky today that I even had a patient because there were several girls who didn't have a patient today, which is sooo frustrating!!! I guess I will just keep taking it one appointment at a time and keep trying to improve.

Whew!

Today I had a goal of completing a class 1A patient and passing off my selective polishing PE. I really wanted to get 2 BWX's and 2 occlusals. When I saw the weather outside I was worried my patient wouldn't show up, but I lucked out and they got here right on time! I feel good about what I accomplished today. It was my patient's first time to the dentist, so I knew that could be a little challenging, but nothing I couldn't handle. When I went in to do the x-rays, we got the 2 occlusals taken just fine. But then when it came time to do the BWX's he really struggled. I learned something though. Prof. M mentioned that I should have had the dad wait outside the room. I feel like I could have gotten them, but the dad had already made the decision for the kid that it was too hard to do. I will know better for next time to have the parent wait outside the room.
We came back to do the cleaning. He was getting really antsy and didn't want to lay in the chair anymore. I did half a mouth RC prophy and half toothbrush prophy to pass off my PE. We finished it up and got them out of here. I felt like I was a little more at home today working with the kid, but it still is a lot of extra paper work etc, that I am not used to doing at the office! Overall, I feel like the day went smoother than past days have gone. He is the first patient I have actually completed all the way through (not much of an accomplishment since it was just a 1A, but still.) What a relief to have the day over!

A Little Bit of Help Makes a World of Difference!

Today went well. I made it through the OD check and OHI with my class V patient. I was really hoping he would be a class II....but it just didn't happen. He had the bone loss present, but his tissues were pretty good and didn't have enough calculus to be classified as a II. Better luck next time right! I felt like today went a little bit smoother. Prof. Costley came in to help me with my vertical BWX. I didn't use the Rinn kit this time and it seemed to work better. I think in the future I will just use the tabs. Also something I didn't know...you can't take vertical BWX with the digital sensor, I guess it doesn't work!
Another thing I learned today is how to detect which teeth are the pontics in bridges. If you can't get between the teeth with the floss from the incisal edge, then get a floss threader and point it toward the tooth (away from the gingiva to prevent poking the pt!) and see if you can run the strand of floss up under the tooth.
I haven't even scaled a patient yet this semester so it could be interesting the next time I get too! The thought of reaching my requirements is always in the back of my head. I need to pick up the pace at each individual appointment and accomplish more, but at this time I'm just not really sure how to do this!!!

CA Day! Hooray!

Today was A LOT less stressful than the rest have been. I wish I could say I had a patient and it was less stressful, but that isn't the case! I was CA today and I learned a lot! There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes! There are so many places to stock and so many duties to attend to with such a large clinic! It was a good experience. Mrs. Campbell had a lot of good suggestions for us and gave me a lot of little hints when scheduling patients. For example, make sure when scheduling an appointment you edit the preference so your name shows up. If you don't, then that patient's name won't show up on your recall list, it will go to the WSU recall list. I don't want to lose a valuable patient because I made such a small mistake! I also realized how much easier it is for Mrs Campbell or the CA to schedule an appointment if you email them instead of calling them...then they can do it when it is convenient for them.
Today I was also able to talk to a few of my peers who shared my same stressful feelings about clinic (I didnt think there was anyone else out there!). This made me feel better that I wasn't alone! I just have to keep telling myself that lots ofother people have made it through this program and I can too. I just hope it all works out in the end with my grade and meeting all the requirements!

Turn My World Upside Down!!!

Well, today my goal was to pass off my sealant PE and my air-powder polishing PE becuase I had a little girl coming in just for sealants. In my mind I had planned it going pretty smoothly becuase I have done sealants plenty of times in the office that I work in. Low and behold...my world got turned upside down today!!!
First off, the patient had cystic fibrosis so I couldn't do my air-powder polishing PE. I was having a hard time getting used to the switches on the suctions with the plastic barriers on them and really struggled turning them off and on (I just switched ops this semester). Then my air-water tip was broken inside and so I was pushing the air and water would come out...which doesn't work well to create a dry field to place a sealant. On top of all this I dropped my etch 2 times and had to go get new tubes. It took me forever and a day it seemed! Luckily I had a patient with patience and a mom that was as well. I'm really struggling to know how I can make my clinic sessions so smoother. I get so nervous and stressed out...a situation that I don't handle well. I need to find some ideas of how to make my mind set like it is just a regular day that I am working in the office. I was just so frustrated because I didn't hardly feel like a accomplished anything, and what I did accomplish was a disaster. Is there any hope for me???
Prof. M said to learn that I shouldn't struggle for so long. If I am having touble with things in my unit I should get one of the CA's to help me set up a new op quick for treatment. Especially when I am working with kids becuase they dont have much of an attention span. I think it would have helped the situation, but not my stress level!

Snowing Stress!

I had a goal today to get through an OD check with my patient. I wasn't quite sure which class type she would be, but I knew I was going to have to hurry. Well, things didn't really go as planned. It was snowing like CRAZY this morning! My patient actually ended up being almost an hour late so we weren't off to a good start. She had a lot of new things for me to see intra orally that I hadn't seen just working on each other in clinic.
I decided to take 4 vertical BWX. This is the first time I have done verticals on a human patient. I completely bombed the 2 molar BWX. I retook them, and bombed them again!!! I was so frustrated becuase I had tried so hard and totally thought I was far enough back to get the distal of the second molars. I obviously need to change something!
Needless to say, I was running behind and I got all the way through, but didn't have time to have the instructor come do my OD check. In fact, I didn't even have my patient walked out by the time we were supposed to have our charts in. Luck just wasn't on my side today. The instructors were really good to help me out today, which I really appreciated. We decided that my patient should be classified as a V, which will count towards my 1B requirements. I guess it was a good experience to help me to learn to deal with my stress!!!

Welcome back!!!

Well, it's crazy that school is already back in session. I am in a new operatory, so the switches on the suctions are a little bit different and the setup is a little bit different, but hopefully it won't take me too long to get used to that! I felt a little better after I had organized all my instruments so that I could have some sterilized packages ready to go. We were also able to practice the ultrasonic. I need to remember to not get close to any soft tissue, because it will burn it. I also need to remember to go a little bit faster paced over the teeth with it. It should be faster than the air-powder polisher!!! I am excited to get to use this on our patients and think it will be a great benefit.
We also learned more about the Gracey instruments. Before I didn't really know how they worked, so this was a really good thing to learn. Wednesday we see our first patient for this semester. My grandma is coming in. She hasn't been to the dentist in a while so I'm sure it is going to be a little more difficult than anything I have done up to this point. Hopefully it will go okay!