Finished in one appt!!!!

Today I had a patient that sweet Karlile gave to me! He was a border line 1B-2 but he classified in to the 1B category. We didn't take any x-rays so we went right in to treatment! The whole appointment actually went pretty smooth. I did have some spots that I missed or overlooked, but overall, the appointment went pretty well! Karlile also let me do a sealant on her patient, so that's one more thing out of the way! Thanks Karl!!!!

Why am I so slow?

Today I had my mom come back in. She is a class 5 and has a lot of restorations. I had a hard time getting around her old fillings with bad margins, and around the crowns with recession. I had a hard time detecting if there was calculus under the overhangs of her fillings, or if I was just hitting the overhangs?! Ah, I get so frusterated sometimes. I'm glad she's my mom and will come back with no problems. She said she likes to get off of work and come see me! I'm glad my patient is still happy, cause me... ahh! One day, I will be so good and so fast... hopefully!

STRRRESSFUL day

So today, my patient showed up... but someone else's didn't so the other person got to see my patient. So the beginning of my stressful clinic. I called five family members and my dad was in salt lake more than willing to hurry and come up, but i wasn't about to let him do that and not accomplish much once he got there. So thanks to Mr. Solomon, Minerva was able to come in! We got started about an hour and a half late. I didn't get to scaling but I did get my OD done! The best part is, is that she's a class II and qualifies to be an exam. Yay, class II exam. That's pretty much it!

Easy goin' day!

Today I had my sister come in to get her finished up. I was also able to do 16 PA's on her for a full mouth. I finished her two quadrants and had some time to spare. It was such a nice day because I wasn't rushed the whole time! The instructors were very busy and it was hard to get one because everyone was calling them from each operatory. I was glad I wasn't in a hurry for one to come check because it wasn't happening. They go as fast as they can, but there's so many of us to check I'm sure it's hard and frustrating for them. I'm sure I'll have the days of trying to hurry and having to wait, but today was really nice. I hope I get fast enough that doing a 1B start to finish will be a nice easy goin' day!

Another day...

My dad was my patient! That was fun to have him come in and see me. He's so excited for me to be in this program! I feel like I leave my patient sitting by themselves a lot. I had to wait for a second year (that wasn't scheduled on the computer) to take x-rays on her board patient, and then clean her room and set up mine and then go get my dad to take four bitewings and a pano. I felt bad cause he sat in the chair for like twenty minutes just wasting his time. But he is so sweet, he said it didn't bother him a bit. I used the ultra sonic scaler on him too and I didn't like it so I think that no one else is going to tolerate it either, but he said that didn't bother him at all either! He was a great patient. I only got one quadrant done but he will be back to get finished up! I hope next time I can spend more time with him and not leave him sitting alone forever.

STRESSFUL day

So an hour and a half before clinic, I called my patient to make sure she had directions to the clinic. I had recived her name and number from the list in the front office. When I called she said, oh yea I'm not coming, I'm glad you called. WHAT? So I had a frantic search for another patient and luckily I found a nice man named Roberto. He didn't speak english but the appointment went well for having him come about 25 minutes late and being a class 5 the appointment went ok. He still needs to come back to finish up 3 quads. I'm really hoping I get faster really soon. I want to finish patients in one appointment NOW. I'll keep workin' on it though!

Wow... Hygiene is stressful!!!

Today I had a hygienist I work with come in and see me! She's awesome! I did 4 scan-x BWX on her and finished two quads. My goal was to get finished today but that didn't happen. I'm still having a hard time detecting calculus. After Pro. Costely showed me where it was and how to get it off, things clicked for me. I hope I can remember how to do it on my next patient! It's really fun and rewarding when I actually see stuff coming off! My goal is to be more careful in detecting where the calculus is and then working hard to get it off!
I also need to speed up the probing and whole OD. I think this is where I get behind. I'm not the world's fastest "probe-r" but I'm really working on making sure I'm getting the right angles and feel for it. I guess practice makes perfect, I just wish I had a little more patience.

First child patient!

I had my first 1A patient and his oral hygiene is not very good. I learned a lot in that one appointment. I learned a certain instrument that is probably not good to use on a child. I also learned that when a child has heavy plaque, it might be easier to polish first, after you show them their disclosed mouth and teach them OHI. I scaled all of his plaque off which was good instrumentation practice, but I wasted a lot of time being very picky when I could have removed a lot of it with selective polishing. I know next time that to make it easier on myself, get the loose stuff off first and then get the harder stuff off; it should go a lot faster that way. It was a really good experience for me! I'm glad my patient was cooperative because it took a long time! But I've learned new tricks!!

I'M BACK!

Well... I'm back. Today we learned more about ultrasonic scaling and using area specific curets also known as gracies. I like the gracies, they help me with angles and therefore getting more calculus off! I needed more practice with the ultrasonic too. I think both the gracies and ultrasonic are going to help me a lot!

First REAL Patient!

If my sister really counts;) Today was very beneficial to me. I really like to know how one full appointment would go. I got a lot further than I expected to. My sister was only a 1B and had zero calculus pretty much. So I can't count on getting as far if I have a class I or II perio patient, but I'm glad I had this oportunity! I scaled two quads, so her next appointment she'll need two more quads scaled and selective polish, flossing, and fluoride. So next time, her appointment should be pretty short! The things that frustrate me are the transferring of charts at the end and writing down everything. I think next time I will give myself more time to do that, rather than cram in one more quadrant. Well, live and learn!

Patient Day Two!

Today I was the patient for Karina. The appointment went by pretty fast and she did a good job. She put two sealants on me teeth, and passed off her sealant PE on me. After I was done I helped clean her and others operatories and we had a pod wrap and went home early! I love early days! Well, I don't think I'll be having any more of those. I hope my sister is ready for one long appointment monday!

Back To Wrenching My Tools

So I was the operator again on monday. This time my patient was Karina. I just hand scaled one quadrant and used the ultrasonic scaler on another one. Then I passed off my sealant PE and placed another one for her. Her teeth are perfect and pretty much all of them need sealants, but I only got two of them done for her. I've had her before for a patient and placed one on her the first time so I guess I've done three for her. It was a good day and a good experience, I'm really excited and nervous to start real patients. My biggest fear is the health history. This always throws me off and I'm afraid I'm going to do something wrong, hopefully nothing that will make me fail an experience. Well... here we go!

Ah, being the patient!

Today in clinic I was the patient! It was great and relaxing! I had Megan Gillespie for my hygienist and she did a great job! She was so good with my frustrating mouth. She didn't hurt me even though she thinks she did. She did GREAT! At the end we all wanted to get out of there so we all helped do the operators instruments for them and clean their operatories. We got out of there on time, it was nice! I was also able to pass off my sharpening PE. Yay! Only a couple more PE's to go!

First Mock Patient!

I had my first mock patient! It went way better than I had expected. I struggled with what I needed to do after I was done with one task, but now I think I understand the order better. I know with a new patient I'm going to struggle with charting because I haven't done that in a really long time, and I never really did understand it completely. Megan G. was my patient and was a great one! She didn't complain one bit even though I know I hurt her. She was very nice to me! It was a good day, except being rushed in charting and not knowing there was a certain time to have it turned in and being late turning it in because I didn't know; other than that it was a good day!

Are You Sharp Enough?

Well my instruments are. They weren't ever dull, but they are now super sharp. Today we learned how to sharpen insruments. It is really straight forward and easy.
We all passed off our air/powder polishing PE and our fluoride PE. The rest of the day was a practice day. Today was pretty laid back. Next monday we start patient treatmen! Ah, here we go!

Have You Been Sealed?

Well, my tooth was today. I have a few more sealants that need to be done, but I got one done today. I put a sealant on a molar for Karina. She has like no fillings and a lot of spaces for sealants. She has really pretty teeth! Mine on the other hand..., I only have spaces for like six sealants. Anyway, we also did fluoride today and I had Karina drooling. I guess my suction isn't powerful enough, Ha! I like placing sealants on adults, but not so much on children. Today was a pretty good day, I still need to work on my charting skills, but it comes to me a little more everytime I do it. Practice makes perfect I guess!

Don't have grimey teeth? We'll do it for you!

So today in clinic, we did the air-powder polisher which made a huge mess of my operatory, the floor and my patient! It is like sand blasting your teeth, really. Then we polished our patient and flossed and then put varnish on. EWE! It feels like waxy plaque all over your mouth. It feels really gross after a nice cleaning. It was a fun day though! I was with Megan Jurk! She's hilarious! It was a good day!

Ultra Sonic

Mmm... ultra sonic scaling wasn't as scary as I thought. I didn't get to do it on a live patient very long, but it was pretty straight forward. Today we were all in a hurry to pass off our OHI PE and our intra oral camera PE. We didn't have a lot of time in the first place, and all of the instructors were busy passing everyone off, so I was a little late getting out of clinic. It was an okay day, but not very exciting.

Practice Makes Perfect... I Hope

So today was a practice day in clinic. I'm hoping that scaling comes with time and practice. I passed off my universal scaling PE and I still don't feel very comfortable doing this. I tried to pass off my intra-oral camera PE but we ran out of time after I already had it set up and ready to go. Oh, well. It's a super easy PE, so I'll just get it out of the way next week! Anyway, I didn't feel too productive today, I really hope that next week goes better than this week. I didn't really like this week... at all. It wasn't a hard week, just not very fun.

Eh...

Clinic wasn't very fun today. I wasn't able to pass off any PE's because we ran out of time. We were supposed to have a lot of extra time today so my plan was to get way ahead, but I didn't. Oh well. We went over some health history stuff which is still confusing to me. I feel like I get things and then I go to do them and then I realize, I don't. I'm sure the more I do, the more it will come to me. I get really frustrated when I can't do things. I want to learn something and then be able to do it really good. Well, I'm gonna have to learn some patience. Hopefully Wednesday goes better than today.

How many fillings do you have?

Today in clinic we did dental screenings. We just counted the restorations in each others teeth and charted them. We also wrote down any "suspicious" areas. This was pretty easy and fun! Then I was able to pass of a couple PE's. I did the instrument classification and the eaglesoft treatment plan PE's. I feel caught up now! On monday, my plan is to pass of the universal instrumentation and dental screening PE's. Pro. Costley said we should have plenty of time monday so I hope everything goes to plan!

Do You Bleed Purple? Or Just Have Plaque?

So today in clinic we did Plaque Free Indices. We checked out each others plaque and wrote down their plaque free percentage. This was done by using a purple disclosing agent. It made our mouths totally purple. It was gross looking. All of us had plaque so it wasn't too embarrassing. My score needs to be improved so I'll work on that. Then at the end we did some scaling. I mostly did posteriors because that is the next PE I need to pass off. We charted for our partner and that was pretty much all we did, it took us a while cause we're all slow at pretty much everything!

LeTs DiG iN!!!

Today in clinic we learned to use the columbia and the Barnhart. They are pretty much the same thing but one is longer than the other. We did mostly posterior scaling with them and I tried some anterior, but I think there are better instruments for the anteriors. I feel actually pretty comfortable with posterior scaling. I had a lot of fun today! I also got to scale someone's lower lingual anteriors that had some calculus! It was sooo satisfying to get stuff off! That was really fun! We also learned how to do treatment plans on Eaglesoft. It seems pretty straight forward (but we'll see how I do when I don't have a cheat sheet.)
I also was able to pass of two PE's! I did the anterior scaling and the adaptation, angulation, and activation PE's! This is way more exciting than exploring and probing.

AH! Scaling

Today in clinic we learned how to scale the anterior teeth. This was really fun and really scary and really hard. My fingers hurt, especially my fulcrum. On the typodont where I started it was really fun because I didn't have to worry about hurting Gunther, his gingiva doesn't have nerve endings. The calculus on the typodont wasn't supposed to be tenatious, but it seemed like it was to me. It was fun when I could get some chunks to fly off! Then it was real patient time. Linda was my victim and I didn't go too subgingivly. I really didn't want to hurt her, but I think I have the right concepts, I'm going to practice on "Gunther" my typodont a little more so I can get more comfortable with it!

Instruments!

The instruments weren't too bad to learn, I expected a lot more information on them. Maybe there's still more to come. We learned about the shape and contour of them, why some are shaped different from others; where in the mouth to use certain ones, and different angles on them for specialized areas. I'm excited we get to use them soon! I hope I can identify them better though. Some of them look very similar and they all have way different names. I guess that will come with time and experience using them.
I was able to pass of the intra-oral exam, probing, and exploring PE's. Woot! I'm excited to be ahead again. I was getting stressed cause I was getting behind, but we're back on track!