1B Day

Today I knew it was going to be a light morning. My friend Rachel came in for a cleaning.  She was my first patient in the program last year and I remember her coming back three times in order for me to finish her.  Today I finished her in 20 min.  Haha.  I'm glad she was able to see my improvement.  I was hoping my afternoon patient would be a class III or board worthy.  She hadn't seen a hygienist in years.  Unfortunately, she too, was a 1B.  If I would have known I would have scheduled them together in the morning!  Oh well, easy day.  I need to remember to give my explorer an extra twist on LL premolar mesials. 

Tri-Mockboard

I was surprisingly calm when my patient tried to back out of his appointment for today.  I reminded him of the significance of this exam and he agreed to make it work, thank goodness.  Unfortunately, he still came late.  I was planning to take a couple PAs before sending him to the front to meet with the student examiners, but I I had to throw that out the window.  Fortunately, I was able to get through his HHX super quickly and didn't lose any scaling time.  I don't think Maren was as lucky, poor thing!  She was in a similar situation, but her patient never showed.  Stupid undependables.  Anyway, scaling went smoothly, thank heavens!!  No errors, and only a few probe readings that didn't mesh (which is actually quite peculiar for me...usually I'm spot on with probe readings.  Curious.).  I was pleased with the day, overall!  Heather and Ashley, who evaluated my patient pre and post tx commended me for the challenge my patient posed.  I'm really grateful to have increased my skill level.  I've passed all my clinical mockboards and I feel ready for Clinicals...if I manage to find a patient ever!

Happy Valentines...Im going to sleep.

Well I managed to get myself sick last Thursday and it carried through the weekend.  No fun.  Today I was groggy and a little hesitant to come in but I had to finish my Class IV patient so I made it.  Sad story though.  His blood pressure has risen each time he's visited the clinic.  The first time he was only prehypertensive.  The second time he was hypertensive because he had drinken an energy drink (ww?).  This time he came in, he assured me that he stopped drinking energy drinks because "I had scared him" into watching his B/P.  This time, even without the drink, his B/P was in the Stage II Hypertensive state and we had to dismiss him.  I still have to follow up with him to make sure the doctor thinks he is okay.  I was worried for him and his wife.  They are a nice couple.  Whitney wasn't able to find an afternoon patient and my energy was kaput, so she was willing to take the patient so that I could go home.  So...no patient treatment this week.  Oh well.  Happy Valentines all!  I hope you didn't have to spend your day like me! 

LA MOCKBOARD

Kristen, my peerpal, volunteered to be my LA mockboard patient.  She makes for a great patient because she can open so wide and she's super cooperative!  I was grateful for her help!  I remember being Ashley's patient last year and thinking how amazingly awesome she was.  That girl always seemed to have it together...she was always so chill and confident.  Observing her made me feel as though I could expect to feel the same in the coming year.  I hope I have played some reassuring role for the juniors this year.  With hard work, you really can be successful at this stuff.  Anyway, I didn't pass the Mockboard, but I was kinda glad I didnt.  A lot of us failed actually, and I think we learned a ton from eachothers mistakes.  I was never really worried that I had failed...I think it provided my teachers the opportunity to target some small areas that I could improve on and I know Ill go into my board much more confident.  My IA was slightly too high.  I was a little surprised at this.  Every time I've recieved direction on my IA, I have been told to go higher...I think I played it a little too safe this time, haha.  Good to know for next time.  Oh, and I got used to putting the barrel of my syringe to the crest of the lip (dang I forget the right term...you know, where the upper lip and lower lip meet??) because that landmark is usually where the premolars are.  Well I didnt watch her dentition specifically, so because she could open her mouth so wide I was actually a little too far posteriorly.   The injection was still overall effective...she was numb and all, but my technique needed polishing.  For my PSA, I had the same issue everyone else was facing.  I needed to increase my lateral angle.  Lesson learned.  If I ask the patient to relax thier jaw and to move it toward the side I am giving their injection, it allows for more buccal displacement so I can get the correct angle.  Good information.  I will try to get lots of experience with these injections before clinicals. 

Lisa came in as my afternoon patient.  Shes a cute one.  There have been two times as a DH student that I have felt nausious.  My first experience occurred at VA last week when I smelled my Class IV patient's perio breath.  The second experience was today with Lisa.  In August of last year, she had 13&14 removed.  There is a cavernous area in her alveolar bonewhere those teeth used to ly.   Covering this 5X12mm hole was a yellow "sheet" of something gross.  It was soft, but of a thick consistency and it held together really well as I peeled it off the hole.  I couldn't even tell you for sure what this filmy bandage-like layer was composed of but it made me want to hit the floor.  I was so disgusted.  The rest of the appointment went really well though, and she was a Class III so that was good. 

Not my best day at VA...but hey, we learn!

The morning went well.  All our patients decided to cancel, no show, or show up really late.  Adrienne learned that I haven't treated any 1Bs this semester and spent her morning trying to make sure I got a 1B.  I thought it was so cute...she's so kind.  Despite her best efforts, I ended up treating a Class V.  I was a little disappointed because the patients xrays were most definitely Class III material in the past...Class IIIs are very much appreciated by us all right now...but when I look at the big picture, its really great that this person has been able to take care of his mouth so well and that his periodontal disease is managed.  We all went to lunch (which is so nice...I love having downtime with the girls) and then the afternoon turned into a nightmare.  My patient had 11 teeth so even though he was Class IV material, I expected the appointment to go relatively quickly, without many complications.  Boy, I called that one wrong.  I pulled out all the tools in my VA arsenal and it wasn't nearly enough.  This man needed serious root planing.  When I observed Professor Bossenberger's lateral pressure against those teeth, my jaw almost dropped in awe.  Her arm was kinda shaking!  My injections weren't taking effect due to his level of infection and PB didn't seem all that impressed with my technique.  It was all in all a pretty sucky afternoon.  But, in the end, the patient was taken care of, I finally got out of there and I learned a few things so I can't really consider it a failure.  Note to self:  don't suck so much next time ;)