Frustrations!!!

Well, I've had better days. This morning I didn't get started on my patient until 8:30, but at least he showed up. I got one quad of a 3 and one quad of a 2. He is the first patient that I have had on Peridex so that has been a good experience. He had some pretty tenacious calculus and I got some more good practice with my graceys.

This afternoon rolled around and at 12:40 I got a text from my patient saying that he was really sorry but his boss wouldn't let him off work. I was in a big dilemma becuase he is my mock board patient and I really wanted to see him before mockboards and my whole schedule is booked until then. I told him if you could be here by 2:00 then we could still get done. (I just had to clean his Left side, I'd already finished the OD). However, 2:30 rolled around and he said he was on his way. Well, he walked through the door at 3:00. I was major stressing it! It gave me a LONG while to study, but I didn't want it. I wanted my patient in the chair. I was able to get one quad cleaned and missed 3 spots, but at least now I know what to expect now for my mockboards. In the end, I wish I would have just tried to find a different patient, but what is done is done. Oh well! Now my worry is if his boss is going to let him off work for mock boards. He says he will be there, on time, but I guess we will see.

Blessed AGAIN!!!

Clinic today went well, with some moments of stress that is! My patient this morning showed up 45 mins late...but I was just glad she was there! (Yesterday at 1:00 I was looking for 2 patients for today!) She turned out to just be a 1B (I REALLY don't need any of these!), BUT when she got there I noticed she had braces so I hurried to get the air-powder polisher out so I could do that P.E. I guess I grabbed the polisher that was brand new and it wasn't set up for the unit so I had to change it out, which was kind of messy becuase of all the cords, but I eventually got it taken care of! She was a really good sport about using it, even though it sucks!!! It is a really good tool, but just a pain to set up and really messy!

This afternoon I had a patient scheduled that already cancelled on me 2 times. I was desperate so I called to see if she wanted to come in today at 12:30 and she did but I told her this was her last chance. If she didn't show up she wouldn't be able to be seen by the clinic. Well, at 1:00 I still had no patient in my chair. She wasn't answering her phone so I knew I was out of luck. Just then 2 ladies walked in wanting to make an appointment to get their teeth cleaned. I was able to have one!!!!! Seriously, SOMEBODY is looking out for me! I didn't figure we would be able to get done with the appointment becuase we got such a late start, but I was just glad to be able to be getting something done! I took another set of Vertical BWX and didn't have any retakes! I'm starting to feel more confident with the vertical BWX's. I did my OD and she was classified as half a mouth of class V and half class II. I was stoked! She was a really fun patient to work with. I only completed the UR, but have her scheduled to come back for the rest. My peer pal, Candace, was there to observe me today. I felt bad when I thought I wasn't going to have a patient, but luckily things worked out! It was good to have her help to chart...it sure helped move things along! Thanks Candace!

Count Your MANY Blessings!

Let's just get to the point. I was extremely blessed today. My first patient went great. Instructor Wolde helped me with my exploring (duh, should be so easy right?!). I couldn't believe how big of a difference it made when I made sure my explorer was parallel to the long axis of the tooth. Oh we forget simple things so easy! It really helped me out though becuase I didn't miss any spots!

I was extremely worried about the afternoon becuase my patient cancelled on me last night. I had called everyone I could think of and nothing was working out. My husband was going to come in if I absolutely needed him, but I wanted to avoid this because he came in only 5 months ago or so. Boy was I praying! I was walking around campus trying to find somebody...nothing. Then 10 mins before clinic started a miracle occurred. This guy walked into the clinic and wanted to get his teeth cleaned, but he didn't have an appointment! I was able to have him, and he was the perfect patient. He had never been to the dentist before. I was able to take a full mouth series on him (I was struggling at first, but then I got on a roll and didn't have any problems.) He has lots of calculus and shockingly no decay or restorations anywhere. His deepest pocket was a 5. I am going to be able to use him for my mockboard patient on Oct. 21st, which is a huge stress reliever. He seems to be very reliable and very willing to help. All I can say is somebody was really watching out for me today!

First day of WSU clinic

Well, we made it through the day without anything too traumatic happening! Yesterday my holiday came to an abrupt halt when I called my patient at 5:30 to remind her of her appointment at 8:00 this morning. She told me her car was broke down and so she couldn't come today. After a slight little brake down and my husband and I both thinking how we didn't miss this stress during the summer, I got to work trying to find a new patient. Luckily mindy came to my rescue and her brother in law came in to be my patient. It went smoothly and I was able to pass off my Diagnodent P.E.
I was a little nervous that my patient for the afternoon wasn't going to come, but he didnt' let me down! We got started a little bit late and needed some help translating, but it worked out okay. I was dissappointed that all I got down was an OD, but I'm excited that he will be 2 quads of a class II and 2 of a class III! He is the first patient I have been able to recommend the Peridex for so I will be able to see for myself if it makes a difference at his next appointment. I was proud of myself for doing well on my vertical BWX because it is something I'm not 100% confident with...they turned out much better than I expected!

Back to School!

Wow. I can't believe it is here. Summer went by WAY to fast! We had a good review today in clinic, which was helpful to get my mind back into the patient mode. We were supposed to do an OD on another student, but I was the odd man out and so Professor Alexander let me do it on her. It was so helpful to get feedback from an instructor acting as my patient! (especially when I needed to work out some squeeks from the summer!) She told me I could use a little lighter pressure when probing the anterior teeth and to go higher up the neck in the extra-oral exam up into the hair line and more behind the ears because the lymph nodes extend clear up there. She also told me a good hint to make the patient own the pain. If they experience blood or tenderness when you are probing explain that it is becuase they have gingivitis in that area, not from anything you did. I thought this was a great way to approach that and a good way to educate the patient.

I also got some good tips on sharpening instruments...I really appreciated the hands on help. I hope that I can take what I learned today and apply it so I can really develop the skill of sharpening and do it right...I don't want to ruin my expensive instruments!!!

This semester I really want to learn more about the individual instruments...I want to use all of them and become comfortable with all of them and know when it would be best to use each one...and then after becoming familiar with them I can choose my favorites! I am excited to get started with the semester, and of course extremely nervous!!! I feel like we have great staff to learn from and we need to take advantage of this! Good luck to all my classmates!!! Let's stick together and Get 'er done!

Mission Accomplished!!!

I just have to announce that a miracle has occurred. Somehow, that can only be explained by a miracle, I got an A out of clinic! Through the whole semester I didn't think this was possible...so boy did it make my day when Costley told me this in my end-of-semester meeting with her. It's time to celebrate!!!! Wahoo!

Final Day!!!

Holy Cow.....I can't believe that the last day of clinic is already over. I made it through...It doesn't seem real. Today was a good way to finish off the semester. I actually saw 2 of the 2nd year students (Chanci & Skye). It was really good to get some extra tips from them and get some good feed back. I did have help recording probe depths, so that helped me to get through them quicker. That is one thing that I have loved about our class....everybody is always willing to help out whenever help is needed. Thanks everyone for all your help throughout this whole semester! I really like how everyone has tried to help get everyone's requirements met.
I feel like I have learned a Ton this semester and gained a lot of confidence, but it is overwhelming to think of how much improvement still needs to take place. I have become so much more comfortable with exploring and probing and taking x-rays. I can actually feel the calculus and then know that I have removed it.
A few of my goals for next year are:
-Get a sequence down to help my scaling be quicker
-Overall better instrumentation and choice of instrument
-Get quicker at EVERYTHING!
-Learn something new and improve at every clinic session
Right now my biggest concern is that I'm going to forget everything over the summer...I hope I'm not too rusty when school starts again!