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!