Real Patient Day!

Today was our first real patient day. I was so nervous all morning. I couldn't even do anything, I just sat at my house worrying. I was just worrying about the charts and x-rays and everything.

Mock Patient Day!

Today was our mock patient day, and I was the provider today. I was so nervous all weekend for this day, even more nervous for today than for wednesday. I was just scared that I wouldn't remember everything. It went well. I had trouble with the anterior scaling. She was bleeding all over, and I couldn't figure our why. Even instructor skeen watched me and she thought I was doing fine. I just felt bad. Oh well. I am just soooo glad that today is over! Yeah!

Starring me, as the patient!

Today was our first mock patient day. I was the patient first, and Holly R. worked on me. Everyone was really nervous because we don't really know what we are doing, but it went really well. The instructors and TA's were all really helpful. Everyone worked really fast, probably because they wanted to leave because tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I thought that Holly did a really good job. She had a good method of where she scaled, and she was very thorough. It was good for me too, because I got to review what I needed to do, so I will be prepared for next time.

Emergency day!!

Today we learned what we should do in the case of an emergency situation. It was pretty fun and laid back. It is scary to think that something could happen to one of my patients that would cause me to need to know how to treat them for an emergency. It reminds me of when I was an assistant, and a guy fainted on me when I was trying to take a pano on me. It was scary, but in that situation my instincts kind of kicked in, so I didn't freak out as bad as I could have. We also passed off our sealant PE, and it went well.

Sealant day!

Today we learned how to do sealants. I did sealants when I was in dental assisting school, but that was only on a mannequin. I have seen them done more times than I can count though. In the office that I work in, the hygienists don't do any sealants. The dentist does them all. So, I don't know how I feel about them. Anyway, it wasn't hard. It was fun. And it was a totally laid back day. We passed off our air powder polishing PE and our instrument sharpening PE. They both went really well. I am getting more nervous for our first real patient day! It is exciting, but scary too!

Air powder Polish day!

Today we learned how to air powder polish. It was really crazy. You have to put on all sorts of fun stuff to protect yourself from the aerosol, which goes everywhere! We had to wear a hair net and a plastic apron over all of our other PPE's. It was kind of tricky to manuver the high speed suction and the air powder polisher. It was fun though. To start off, we practiced on a dirty penny. It was amazing how clean the penny got. It ended up being really shiny. When Laura practiced in my mouth I gagged. It was so disgusting. I thought I was going to puke. It tasted like I had a mouthful of ocean water. It was the most terrible taste ever. EWWW! I am just dreading being the patient for someone to pass their PE off on the air powder polisher. YUCK!

The best day yet!!

It really wasn't the best day yet, but I couldn't think of a title now that I have changed my settings to allow me to have a title!! I never knew you could. Anyway, today was a great day in clinic. We worked on instrument sharpening. I was quite hesitant beforehand because I didn't want to ruin any of my instruments. I was relieved though, that it wasn't as bad as I had expected (I feel like I am always saying that about everything we do in clinic). Insrument sharpening isn't very scary or hard, but I could see how it could become boring or tedious. My goal for today was to pass off my selective polishing PE, and I successfully did that and also passed off the fluoride application PE too!! Yeah! I was looking at the rest of my PE's, and I discovered that we only have 4 left. It is so strange to think that we are so close to being done with the semester! Scary!

Today was fluoride day. We had a lot of time to just review, and it was really nice to have a laid back day. Fluoride is really easy, but we have to leave it on the patients teeth for 4 minutes which seems like an eternity. I practiced my universal posterior scaling, and it went really well. I felt good about it, a lot better than last week. Last week was awful, and today felt really good. I am feeling a lot more confident. I even passed off my universal scaling PE which isn't due until next time!! Yeah. I am feeling more on top of things this week.

Well today totally sucked!! It is the day before Halloween, and we were supposed to dress up, so I did, but hardly anyone else did. That is disappointing. I really did not want to be in clinic, and it showed. We practiced scaling and I just felt so disoriented. I couldn't get the right angulation and it was just not going well. Then I had to do my activation, angulation, and adaptation PE and I thought I was ready, but I could not get the right angle or wrist movement for it. It did not go smoothly. And professor Costley is so intimidating to me. I feel like a stupid retard who has never been inside a mouth. I am just so disappointed in myself. I have to redo that PE. I have never had to redo one, and I feel sick about it. I just want to cry!

Today was a really laid back day. This morning channel 2 news came into the clinic and we had to be here at 5:30, so we were all really tired. But, it was so much fun, and we got to be on TV! In clinic today we just practiced any skills that we wanted to, and also we learned how to use the intraoral camera. It looked really easy when she showed us, but it is pretty tricky to manuver the camera around in someones mouth. We had fun though, and we found out that Laura is a polyphidont! jk

Today we went through and did everything that we have learned so far. It was really good because it gets kindof confusing about when to do what and where and how. It was nice to go from start to finish and review the things that we haven't practiced in awhile. It was good to review. I didn't get to scale for very long because we ran out of time, but I felt more confident about my anterior scaling.

Today was scaling day!!! AHHHHH! I was very nervous. Exploring and probing is one thing, but scaling is something entirely different. You can hurt someone with a scaler, they are sharp!! We practiced on the typodonts, and it was okay. When it came time to actually work on my pod partner I was feeling okay about it. We all bled, I guess it was inevitable. It didn't hurt as bad as I had anticipated. Things always go better than I think they will. I need to work on my wrist movement when I am scaling to give me more strength.

Clinic was very productive today. We learned about the different types of scalers. They all had looked the same to me before today. Then we paired up with the same partner as last time and did OHI again and probed. I passed off my probing PE. It wasn't hard at all. I felt really good about it. I am just glad today is over.

Today in clinic we learned how to do a PFI and OHI. It was pretty easy, it is just tricky to remember everything and to remember to do it in the right order and go through all the motions. I worked with Monica and it went well. It was a change to be brushing and flossing someone else's teeth. It is tricky to get into their mouth. It also made me realize all the ways that I can improve my own oral heath care. I could really brush better and floss better too!

Today, clinic was pretty laid back. This was such a nice change. It has felt like we have just been cruising through stuff, learning tons of new stuff. It has almost been a little overwhelming. But today was good. We practiced charting existing conditions. We had plenty of time to work and practice, which meant that we could take our time and really understand what we were doing. Everyone in my pod passed off their intraoral PE, and I should have but didn't. I think I could do it, but I just get nervous. I am kind of disappointed that I didn't do it, but I am going to practice so I can do really good next time.

Today we discussed the bleed free index for probing. We also talked about perio statements which are very very confusing. Professor Costley said that perio statements are probably the most confusing thing that we will do. I think that we started to get the hang of it, kind of!! We practiced probing today, and we had to actually record the probe depths. Then the instructors came around and checked them to make sure that we were getting accurate depths. I did pretty good, but afterwards, Kim told me that I was pressing pretty hard. I will need to be better! It is good to practice though. Professor Costley said something good today: "Perfect practice makes perfect." True!!

Today was our first probing day. I was somewhat apprehensive because my first day exploring (last week) went terrible. I guess I was planning on the same sort of experience. Luckily it went very well. We changed pod instructors this week, which was sad for our pod because we really really liked our pod instructor, Instructor Vining. He is very cool and helps us out a lot. Our new pod instructor this week is Professor Costley. I was a little nervous about that because she intimidates me, but she really is very nice and helpful, she even told me that I was doing a good job. Our TA for our pod today was Emily. She is really nice and she is a huge help. Probing wasn't half as bad as exploring was. I got the hang of it quicker and I didn't even make my pt. bleed which was such a relief. I am so glad that things seem to be getting somewhat easier. I also passed off two PE's today. The fulcruming one and the instrument one. They were both really easy. Yeah!!

I did not sleep last night because I was so worried about clinic today. I think it was just because it felt like I killed my patient last time, and I didn't want to do that again. I really dreaded coming today, and I just felt sick thinking about it. When I got here I realized that my whole pod was nervous too! That made me feel so much better. Today we got to practice explorer instrumentation again. It was good to be able to spend more time on it. Professor Costley helped our pod today, and I really started to get the hang of it. Finally!! I didn't make my patient bleed nearly as much as last time. I even felt more confident!

Today felt like the longest day. I missed clinic last week, so I had to come in and make it up this morning. That means that I was here all day in clinic. That is kind of tough. This morning went well. The time flew by, and I felt like I knew what I was doing with fulcruming and instrumentation. Then this afternoon was not so hot. Holly R. worked on me first, and she did really well. She didn't have any problems with her instrumentation, it went really smooth. Then it was my turn and I totally had major problems. I could not adapt my explorer along the surface of the tooth. I was really struggling, and I kept poking her and making her bleed. It is so frustrating, but everyone in my pod felt the same way which made me feel immensely better. I am just glad to be going home.

Let me just say that I am glad that today is over. I was really worried about clinic today because I was sick last week for clinic and I missed the extraoral exam, so today I had to do both the intraoral exam and the extraoral exam. It went well, it was just a lot of information to take in. I did my patient and operator positioning PE today. It went okay. I kindof felt flustered which made me mess up on some stuff, but that was okay. I still passed. Yeah!!

Today in clinic went really well. I was nervous because we did vital signs, and I have never learned how to take blood pressure. Everyone else seemed to already know what they were doing. I did surprisingly well. It wasn't as hard as I had anticipated. I think with a little bit more practice (on my husband and family members), I will really get the hang of it. We also practiced positioning. I am slowly getting the hang of it. I don't know why it is so difficult for me to fully grasp. I guess practice makes perfect!

Well, today in clinic felt very productive. The past couple times in clinic have been relatively boring and uneventful. It has mostly been review stuff, and then we have had a lot of time to sit around. I am sure I will look back on those clinics and wish that some days could be like that! Anyway, today was busy and the time flew by. We went over health histories, and it was really good to learn. At the beginning of class I felt lost, but by the end I felt like I had learned a lot of useful things. We also passed off 3 PE's. I was really nervous and worried about doing the PE's, because I thought that I would forget something, but it went really well. It is a relief to have that done. I am feeling a lot better about clinic today.

Today was the second day of clinic. It was a very productive day. I was somewhat nervous, but I had no reason to be because everything went smoothly. We started off by disinfecting and setting up our rooms. Then we actually got to work in a real mouth! We paired up and worked on chair placement. It went really well. I was glad that I have had previous experience because I felt relatively comfortable working in my partners mouth. It is kind of scary to think about working in a real patient's mouth!! AHHH! One step at a time!

Wow! I can't believe that dental hygiene has begun! I am just setting up my blog!