Handy Helpers

Today went well. I accomplished everything that I had set out to do. I was able to pass off my universal instrumentation PE and finish scaling my 1st class II. I had a lot of help today from Russ and Joni administering N2O and LA. I didn't use the ultrasonic becuase of all the crowns she had. I know some people have been shown how to use it around the margins but I haven't been shown and I don't dare. I only missed 2 spots today, but I took a little bit longer than I wanted to. One of the spots I missed I was really struggling with because of the malpositioned teeth. I still really struggle with finding calculus deposits under the margins of crowns just becuase I get nervous around the margins. I hope I will be able to improve my confidence in this. I feel good about my progress today. I have my 2nd class II coming back on Wed to scale him for more practice before my exam class II in a week! I still need 9 PA's so I'm hoping they will show up somewhere!

What a Day!!!

After today I think I am going to have a breakdown. I didn't get near what I had expected to get done. I had my class III scheduled to come in this afternoon, but then Monday I found out that Clair had a pt that she needed to give away (1B). She said she could ONLY come in today at 9:00 becuase that is when she was originally scheduled. I made arrangements with Costley worked it out and told her to come in this morning. Low and behold...she no showed. Lovely. I was so mad that I had made the extra effort for her, and then she feels like returning the favor by just not showing up. What a waste of my time!
Then it was time for afternoon clinic. My patient is so sweet. I was able to talk her into getting numb today which helped both me and her. Her calculus was SOOOOOOOOO stinking hard to remove. I would work at a spot and work at it some more and it would still be there. Prof. Costley was a huge help and was really good to help me not get discouraged. She had to come back and try to remove a bunch of spots after me. I finished the spots that I was not able to remove in the UR from last appointment and there are still a few spots on the LR that Costley says she will just remove next time. I feel like I worked my butt off and was still missing so much. I still need to do her UL and LL, which I have to finish next time. I just pray that I will be able to do it and that whoever my instructor is next time will be just as willing to help me. I feel a lot more comfortable with my graceys after today, which is one good thing. I'm so glad today is done with...I don't know if I could handle much more!!!

What a Day!!!

Draining Surprise!!!

Wow. That is the only word I can use to describe today. I wasn't sure what to expect out of today. All that I knew is that she hadn't been to the dentist in like 3 years and that she was terrified. I was really hoping for a class II. I definitely had a learning experience today. She was so difficult! I wanted to have my OD done by 1:15. Much to my surprise, my health history took 50 minutes in and of itself to do! Ouch! I used my drugs book more today than I had ever used it put together since I've owned it!
She was soooo anxious. I even had a hard time probing becuase she was jumping so much. She needed N2O, which I have worked with in an office, but not in here. Tamara came to administer it. Tamara also gave the LA, or attempted to. The patient grabbed her arm in the middle of it. Another thing that I found was very annoying is that her phone rang probably 8 times and she answered it every time. Bless her heart, she is such a sweet lady and I really like her, but she caused me a lot of stress today!
I didn't get to do my universal instrumenation PE today like I had planned, but I'm just glad I got through what I did. She had some farely deep pockets, but not too much calculus. She has a crown on almost every tooth. Kim was having a hard time trying to decide which classification to make her, but luckily she chose in my favor. She said she really should be a class V, but with the difficulty of the patient and everything else involved she gave me a class II. I am so grateful for this!!! I honestly would have started crying if I knew after putting up with all of this that I would only get a class V. It was definitely a good thing for me to experience, but I hope I don't get any more of these for a while....except she is coming back next monday for me to finish. I'm just glad we won't have to do the HHX again! Hopefully it will go smoothly...I will be crossing my fingers. She is my 4th OD of a class II (becuase going right along with my luck one of them decided she didn't want to come back so I had an entire day wasted on her! Oh well, such is life right?!) All I can tell my self is just keep chugging along and hope for the best!

Double Time!

Well, today was quite the day. I knew it was going to be a little bit of a stretch trying to fit everything in today that I did, but luckily Professor Costely was very patient and helpful and I was able to make it through. I had my grandma come in to finish scaling her. She was my first patient of the semester and I just barely finished her up! Sheesh! We got started 20 mins late, so that didn't help. I started with my OD and then we went on to OHI and scaling. I passed off my anterior scaling PE. It was a really good one on one time with Costley. I feel like she really helped me to make some improvement with my stroke. I feel a lot more confident about getting down into the col area now. I learned that I also need to make my stroke not just in the direction if the tooth, but more in the direction of the toe. I feel like it was a good opportunity to have some help, becuase when I am practicing the wrong thing....I obviously don't get anywhere!
I had my sister-in-law come in to take a FMX on her. I didn't get started until 10:45 and I had to do it today becuase she is from Salt Lake and it is their spring break right now. Costley was really cool about it though, which helped me to stay calm. I feel like the x-rays went well. Out of all of them I only had 2 retakes, and one of them we still couldn't get after trying it again...it was a very tricky one! We couldn't get them to print so I will have to go back in to do that when mrs. campbell is around. Although I had to pay for the x-rays (because I was desperate!...bummer!) I feel like today overall was very productive...not only in meeting requirements, but also in what I learned. Hopefully each clinic session I will start to catch on to more and more each time!

I'll take Relaxation over Stress ANYDAY!!!

Well today I had Jamey, my peer pal, come in. I used her as my second 1B exam. She was actually a fill in for me because my patient cancelled on me last friday. I was a little more relaxed (still a little stressed...naturally) with her, it was good to get to visit with her and get some suggestions from her. She was also great to give encouragement. Obviously she didn't have very much calculus so that made it easy on me. I was able to pass off my intraoral camera PE on her which I had set as a goal because I expected that I would have some extra time. I was also able to get my PE done where I observed Janet scale. I really think you can learn a lot from watching people scale. I wish I could do it more often. I didn't miss any spots! (which isn't a huge accomplishment on someone with such good OH, but still it will help my grade!)
I also found out today that one of my class II patients that I have already done an OD on may not be able to come back becuase she may not have a car available. Shoot! One full day wasted if that is the case. I'm kind of worried about that!
It is so crazy to me that we are almost done with our first year....in not too long I will be in Jamey's shoes!!!! I told Jamey it would probably be a good experience for her because she would be able to see how much improvement she had made since this time last year!!!

What a day!

Well, one thing I discovered today is that it is a lot of pressure being in charge of having other people's patients show up! I had scheduled a family of 5 for me and a few others and yesterday I couldn't get a hold of them. I thought I was going to be tarred and feathered by my peers! The family seemed like they were pretty on top of it, but you can never be 100% sure. A few mins after 8 I called the number that was listed under the work number of the mom. She answered and it freaked me out becuase I thought she was at work! However, it was her cell phone, and she said they were actually out in the waiting room filling out some paper work. I felt like an idiot for being so annoying but it sure was a relief!
I wasn't quite sure about what to expect from my patient today. He hadn't been to the dentist for a few years. We took vertical BWX (which I struggle with) and a pano (yeah my last pano requirement!) becuase he still has his wisdom teeth and they have been bothering him. However, I had to do some retakes, which took FOREVER!!!!! I was really nervous because I knew he was going to be right on the border of a really hard 1B and a easier class II. I knew if he was a 1b I had to finish him today. Luckily Costley agreed with me. She said he wasn't healthy enough (maintained) to be classified as a V, and he definitely had some pockets going on, but not a ton of calculus. She said he could be counted as a Class II but she demanded PERFECTION out of me when I scale...that's pretty scary...I have yet to accomplish that!
I now have all my OD's complete for all of my class II's and III, I just have to complete them all so hopefully they will all return. I'm still really stressing out about my PA requirements. I was able to complete my PSR PE today as well.
I also realized today that I need to look CLOSER in my extra oral exam. My patient today had a 6x6 flat light brown lesion on his left cheek. It went completely undetected until Pro. Costley took a look. He said it had just recently appeared and so he was going to go get it checked out. I for some reason thought that anything suspicious would be a lot darker colored than this was. It was good for me to see what I need to be watching for. It's really easy to miss stuff like that. Sorry this is forever long to whoever is going to read it!

A Very Rewarding Challenge

I originally had no idea what to expect about today. My patient showed up and I was soooooo stoked!!! I finally got a class III patient! I didn't need to take any x-rays becuase she just had some taken a month ago at Mid town so that helped me be a little quicker. It took me a while to probe (Luckily Jessica helped me chart) but they were the deepest readings I have ever gotten...all the way up to a 9!!! It was exciting but at the same time intimidating. There was a little bit of a language barrier, but I think she understood me pretty well and I was able to get most of my message across. She had brought her 2-year old little girl with her which at first was quite the distraction. After a while Amber said "she's so cute, but I think she is falling asleep!" She was sitting on the floor just swaying back and forth. Luckily I was able to grab her before she hit the ground. The rest of the appointment she layed between her moms legs and snored. It was a whole new experience scaling. I missed 9 spots in 1 quad...it is amazing to me how far you have to stick your instrument to remove the calculus...and this wasn't just any calculus, this was some tenacious stuff! I hope to be able to continue to learn as I complete the other 3 quads next time. I was also able to pass of my ultrasonic PE today, which I wasn't originally expecting to be able to do, so now I have all the Pe's done that are due next Wed. I don't get quite as nervous about the appointments as I used to, so hopefully I will just continue to get more comfortable and build more confidence. I'm totally up for the challenge!