October 23

Today seemed like a really bad day when I was in the moment, but looking back on it, it really was not that bad! I had a patient in the morning who had not had her teeth cleaned for almost 3 years. I was crossing my fingers that she would be a good mock board. I didn't like her. She was just a hard person. I had to take some x-rays, which she didn't want, so I paid for them thinking that she would just be a mock board and it would be fine. My instructor checked to see if there would be enough calculus and she thought there would be, but it was pretty light calculus, so I don't know that I trust her. She is not a 2nd year instructor so I am worried that my patient won't qualify next week. It is frustrating to find a patient who is good for the board. I just hope she comes and everything works out.

This afternoon my patient cancelled. I was actually really glad because we had to get our poster printed off at lunch and it wasn't working and we had to have it done today so we can present it on friday at UDHA in SLC. Everything worked out though because I was able to get the poster done and help out a lot of other girls with their charting and stuff. Everything always works out really well!

October 16

Today was a good day. We had a lab all morning which was nice because then we didn't have to find a patient. We went over the saliva test which was absolutely disgusting. I was gagging so bad. We also talked about the right and left ultrasonic handpieces. I was intimidated by them at first, but they seem like a something that will be great to use. We also learned how to place periodontal medicaments. We got to practice placing arestin, atridox, and the periochip in a hot dog. It was actually really fun and interesting.

The second half of the day I had a class 3 patient come back to start scaling her. I had to finish taking a full mouth of x-rays and then I got one quad done. I had instructor Perry who was filling in for professor Alexander. I was really nervous to have him as my instructor, because I have heard that he is hard and he asks you a lot of questions, but I thought he was great. He does ask a lot of questions, but it really makes you think and learn new things. It went well and I didn't even miss any places in the quad. It was great!

October 9

Today was a good clinic day. My first patient was 45 minutes late, and she brought her little one year old baby. It took a lot of time to go through everything, but one of my peers helped me record and it went well. My patient is 3 quads of a hard 3 and 1 quad of a 4 which will be interesting. I couldn't believe the probe depths I was getting. A lot of 8mm's and even an 11 and 12. The probe just kept going farther and farther. I got a few x-rays taken and I couldn't believe the bone loss, expecially on the lower anteriors. It was crazy.

My second patient was a class 2 who had very tenacious calculus. I missed a lot of places on the lower anterior teeth. Kami told me that this was a very good learning experience for me. It was really challenging. The calculus was so hard to get off. It was a really good experience and I got some good pointers. I just need to remember to go toward the tooth!

October 2

I DID NOT WANT TO BE HERE TODAY! I was so tired this morning, and I feel like a grouch. Luckily my patients weren't too bad, and they were pretty easy. My first patient was a very nice lady who was a class 5. I did BWX and I could not get the crestal bone on the upper molars, so I ended up taking 2 supplemental PA's. It was fine, I just got frustrated. Her mouth was quite healthy. We switched instructors today, and now I have Professor Alexander. I feel like she gives good feedback. She didn't have much calculus, just some on the lower anteriors. I made good time. It was good.

My second patient was an older gentleman who was also a class 5, which is fine because I need fives. I declared it as an exam just to get it done. He was a very nice man, and it went fairly quickly because I didn't have to do any x-rays and the CA helped me to probe. I scaled his teeth pretty quick because he didn't have hardly any deposit on his teeth. I felt pretty good about it, and I only missed one spot. It feels good to have that done. I think that for me a good goal would be to just trust myself. I always feel like I have to go over areas just in case I missed any calculus, but I should just ask for a scale check and have them check. Then I will be able to go quicker and know areas that I have trouble.