February 26

Today I had a patient that Kim gave to me. She had talked to him on the phone and asked him all the medical questions, and he said that he didn't have any problems. Then when he came in and filled out the health history he marked that he had a heart murmur. This was frustrating to me. I had to do a physicians consult, which I had never done before. everything went fine though. I only got through OD, but he is a Class II so I am glad. I was just so glad when clinic was done!

Febraury 21

Today I had my Spanish speaking patient back to start cleaning his teeth. It seemed strange to me when my instructors told me that I would probably only get one quadrant done per appointment, but now I know how hard it really is to clean a Class III patient. We started off by taking a full mouth set of x-rays. I did really well. I didn't even need any retakes. Jeff was my instructor today, which was great because he speaks Spanish. Although the son was there, it was nice to have Jeff be able to explain dental things to him. I was worried about my patient needing anesthetic, but he was tough. I am sure it hurt him. I started with my ultrasonic hand piece. It was awesome to see how they really work on patients with a lot of calculus. It was blasting all sorts of crap out of his pockets. I wasn't sure that I was getting everything, but I went back over and handscaled. My patient was bleeding like crazy. I mean, incredibly amounts of blood! I really didn't think that I had gotten everything, but I asked for a scale check anyway. Jeff was so impressed. He couldn't believe what a great job I did. I missed some places on the wisdom tooth (that I could barely see) but he didn't count that against me because he could hardly get it. I felt so good!! I am finally seeing some progress in my skills! Yeah!

February 14

Today is Valentines Day! Yeah! It was also a no-patient day. We learned how to use the ultrasonics. It was a lot of fun. I was kind of nervous to use them, but they are a lot easier than I had anticipated. The instructors say that there is less of a learning curve. They just blast calculus off the teeth. It is great! We got to practice on each other, which I didn't like because our tissue is too tight to fit the ultrasonic tip into, and I got nervous to put it into the sulcus, especially the col area. It was fun though. We also passed off the intraoral camera PE and learned how to use the Diagnodent. It was a really good day!

February 12

Today my cousin came in and was my patient. She was about 30 minutes late, so we got off to a late start. Everything went well. She is a class 1B and everything was normal. I didn't get to scaling her teeth, because she was late, so she will have to come back. Oh well!

February 7

Today I was Clinic Assistant again. I made sure to be on time (because last time I was late) and I felt a lot better about things. Everything went more smoothly because I kind of knew what I was doing. I didn't have to ask very many questions, and I had a really fun time. It is nice to be the clinic assistant, because then you get to know what goes on behind the scenes. You get a feel of how things run in the office, which I think helps me work better as a hygienist. It was a lot of fun!

February 5

Today my patient was a man that I got off the clinic resource list. I was really nervous because he is Spanish speaking, and I don't speak any Spanish whatsoever. He came with his wife, who saw Valerie, and they brought their son who could translate for them. It was an eye opening experience for me. This man had never been to the dentist before, and never had his teeth cleaned. When I looked in his mouth, I thought it looked relatively clean, the gums were just really inflamed. Little did I know what was really under the gums. This patient had never flossed before, and when I flossed his teeth, I pulled out stuff that had been there for years, and it was absolutely disgusting. He is a class III and I am so glad to have found one.