Our Last Day

I can hardly believe we are reaching the end of the semester.  I have learned so much!  Today in clinic we learned emergency procedures, clinic asst duties, and evaluated our patient day.  It is important to be aware of our patients health histories and to tailor our treatment to the patients needs.  By doing so, we can eliminate 90% of potential problems that could occur in the office.  I take that very seriously.  I am assigned clinic asst duty on the first day that we welcome patients back into the office.  Hopefully Ill be able to take care of things alright.  Next semester is going to be intense.  I really hope Im ready for the pressures.

Real Patient Day!

I got to play with my sister-in-law today!  Sharlene came in as my first patient outside of the girls I practice on every clinic day.  I walked into the day pretty confident.  Ive been practicing my technique in a lot of areas (in scaling, probing, etc) and felt that my second year observation would help me to be organized and speedy.  I completed the health history pretty quickly and got my HHxRx signed off.  Then I went into my OD.  OD takes forever!  How on earth can I get through this faster in the future!  I dont know how hygienists ever get through an appt in 30 minutes.  That seems crazy to me.  I feel like Ill be lucky if I ever get through one quad when I have to perform an OD.  Goodness gracious!  I hope thats not the case.  I realized how hard a time I have determining sealants and restorations that are already present in the mouth.  I felt really dumb when I was being corrected.  I need to let those feelings go and just be really happy that I have educated indls there to help me learn.  I need to focus less on being critiqued.  I also need to research the appearance of these things in the mouth so I am better prepared for next semester.  Can I google something like that?  I did fair on my probing...I dont think my measurements were more than one mm off from Costleys.  She seemed somewhat unsatisfied with my probing though.  I wonder if that was just me imagining things.  I found that Shar had a stillmans cleft!  Cool to actually see one of those in the mouth.  I took fair xrays but one was cone cut.  What the heck?  I never cone cut xrays!  I pride myself on that.  I must have just been really nervous.  No matter.  I passed.  Then I was barely able to finish everything else that was required today.  I think I was the last one to get my patient out the door.  I couldnt tell you how that happened!  I dont know where Im slower than others.  Ill have to pay closer attn to how much time each thing is taking me.  Hard task.  I also want a clock in my operatory.  Its not very convenient having to look over my shoulder at Karlies.  I forget to clock my time in some instances.  In lots of instances actually.  Thats one thing I can work on.  I did well on my paperwork I think. I feel like slime for not fitting in much OHI.  That is so important.  I cheat my patients if I dont educate them.  Thank goodness she is my sister in law.  Ill make up for it on Thanksgiving. ;)  That was my day.  Now I can take a deep breath, and pray to feel more collected and at peace next semester when we take new patients.  I am really really nervous. 

I got another sealant placed today!

Kristie is wonderful and did a very thorough job at cleaning my teeth.  It was a learning experience for me just to see her methods and preferences.  She has some great technique.  Good work Kristie.  Its really strange having a week where I just sit in the chair without having to do much, except for passing off my sharpening PE...it was my last PE for the semester!  I can hardly believe it.  This year is going by so fast!  Yesterday in class Costley told us that we have learned pretty much everything we are going to learn from clinic, and that the next year and half is going to be spent tailoring and perfecting our technique.  It is hard to believe that we have gotten this far already.  But it makes me feel accomplished! 

I fell asleep!

Today was awesome!  Kristie gave me a neck massage, brushed by teeth for me, and gave me some great advise about getting those bacteria bugs away from my mandibular linguals.  While she created my tx plan, I fell asleep in the chair!  She did an excellent job probing and evaluating my tissue health.  She even got a quad of scaling completed!  Yay Kristie!  On to dinner and stats!

Thank Goodness for Calming Influences

Today was my nightmare.  Alarm didnt go off so I slept in till 7:50, the time I am supposed to be to clinic.  I call and Professor Costley was very calm and sweet.  I appreciated that.  I got here late and Marianne had set up my operatory for me.  I am grateful for her.  My pt Kristie had a big smile on her face and reassured me everything was okay.   I appreciate her.  Hemsley made sure I got my HHXRX signed quickly so I could start scaling.  I appreciated her attention.  Hafen was exciting me about learning to use the ultrasonic.  I LOVE THE ULTRASONIC!  Kristie, bless her heart, sat there forever while I scaled and while Hafen checked my scaling.  Im slow, to be sure, but I didnt miss many surfaces, which I was happy about.  I learned how to better scale around lingual bars and I actually feel quite comfortable with it now.  Thanks Hafen!  She is left handed too, so I love when she visits me ;)  Marianne was sweet to let me pass off my sealant PE on Sarah...and when I started crying because I was missing instruments that I needed in order to check my sealant, Marilyn and Sarah were super sympathetic and wonderful calming influences.  Deep breath...okay...I made it through the morning. I didnt get in as much scaling as I hoped to, but I got some good practice in.  I love those ind'ls that I was able to work with today.  Marilyn is amazing...I really appreciate her.  There are so many sweethearts in this program.  When I learned that I had forgotten to chart OD on todays pt, Costley let it slide on the understanding that I would remember to do it next time.  With a really sweet smile, she nudged me and said "You didnt forget OHI though!  Good job!"  I am very lucky to have Prof. Costley as my professor.  She is a really neat, educated, and understanding ind'l.  I hated the circumstances of this day, but I loved that I was able to come to appreciate everyone I associate with a little bit more. 

A day with Kristie

The poor darling!  She had to spend her whole clinic day, back in the chair, mouth wide open, with a sore TMJ.  She cowboyed through it really well though.  We were able to start from scratch with our patients today.  Half of us walked through check-in to check-out.  I learned how easy it is to fit in OHI and how long it takes to probe an entire mouth!  but I do think Im getting faster, and Im feeling alot more comfortable with exploring.  Im excited to scale next time.  Im getting more and more excited to have Sharlene in the chair next week, or soon, whenever that day actually is!

Lovely!

Today was fantastic, especially compared to monday.  I got to work with MeChel again.  We passed off our air powder polishing PE and our fluoride PE.  When air polishing, make sure to stay 3-5mm away from the tooth surface and orient the spray 2-3mm away from the gingival margin.  Make sure you dont perform this procedure when a patient has a composite restoration, on a crown surface, or on a sealant.  You can, however, polish below the margins of the crown where there is a significant stain.  Next week I get to go to town on Kristie!  Hooray! 

Sealants

Holy freak today was a little stressful.  This was my first chance to apply a sealant to a tooth, and I was rushed a thousand miles an hour through it.  I wanted assurances that I was doing things correctly but our professors were just too busy trying to watch everyone.  I hate polishing...Im glad that these days its less recommended.  I just dont see where it does much good and Im not the most gifted ind'l when it comes to doing the rubber cup polishing.  But...working with MeChel was great.  She is really adorable.  And she has it down!  I have full confidence my sealant on tooth 3 will be in place for the rest of time.  I'm going to eat my burned lasagna now.