Welp, I planned on using the day more efficiently

Today my goal was to work on my speed.  I intended to schedule 4 ppl for one day...and I had 3, but one cancelled so I was left with two 1Bs.  Bummer.  I still urged myself to hurry and I had my second patient out the door in an hour!  Exciting!  My morning patient was my brother in law!  I was able to complete my last sealant experience requirement on him, which was nice.  Today has been super chill and I wish I could have been busier but it is what it is.  You know what sounds grand?  A smoothie.  I cant wait to go home! 

BOARD EXAMS

Let me list, in proper order, the exams of which have given me the most amount of stress and anxiety.  1 represents the most stressful.
1.  National Board Written Exam
2.  Process of Care
3.  WREB Local Anesthesia Written
4.  WREB Local Anesthesia Clinical
5.  WREB Clinical Dental Hygiene Exam

I am anticipating the results of my National Board Written this week and I'm reasonably confident that I passed.  I hope that is safe to assume.  The first half of the exam was a little scary and I didn't like that there were so many pharmacology questions but the case study portion of the exam saved my tucus, I think.  That was pretty straightforward.

Process of Care sucked.  I really don't know what to anticipate.  I feel there is a 50/50 chance of passing it.  I didn't like the format and how subjective the test seemed to be.  The huge annoyance with this exam is that we have to wait until we have taken the WREB clinical to get our results for POC.  So I have 30 more days to wait on my stupid results.  At least I know that this is the least important Board to pass on the first shot.  If I fail, I just pay $25 and take it immediately again.  It would be no fun, but pretty atraumatic.

Of all my exams, I felt the most confident coming out of LA written...and I passed.  I was grateful that this exam ended up being fairly stress-free.

LA Clinical went really well, as well...but I was really nervous going into it after failing my mockboard.  I passed on my first go, though, so I was pretty excited.  I left immediately for the airport to pick up my brother-in-law from his mission.  After the adrenaline wore off, I was seriously in shock.  I couldn't believe I was through with one clinical and that I had done so well.  I kept telling my family, "I passed!  I can't believe I've taken my first clinical board!!!"  I'm sure they were sick of me by the end of the night.

Once I found my patient, I had zero stress about taking my clinical board.  I probably should have been stressing a little more because I was 10 minutes from having to submit my patient for his scale check and I was still scraping calculus off his molars.  I would have much rather spent a solid half hour finding nothing, but I guess it was what it was.  I PRAY I passed this.  It would be such a holy annoyance to have to take this exam out of state.  Please oh please oh please say I passed.

In other news, I saw Linda this morning and cleaned her UL class IV quad and her LL class III quad.  No errors...felt good!  She didnt like the ultrasonic much, so I went light on that.  It has been a good day, so far.

THANK THE ROYAL HEAVENS

I found a patient for my clinical board exam last friday during screenings.  I was so grateful to Emily for looking him over while I finished up my previous patient.  We were concerned that his pocket measurements were too deep so I ran to the store to purchase him antiseptic mouthrinse and some good toothpaste.  I very thoroughly described the methods I wanted him to use to brush over the next week and we scheduled him for today to look for improvement.  This patient is amazing.  He came early to his appointment (which makes me hopeful that he will be dependable the day of boards) and his mouth looked 75% better than at the screening.  His gums were less inflammed, there was less bleeding on probing, his PFI had decreased considerably, and he was in the perfect position to be an ideal board patient.  We took forever on his xrays because try as we may, we couldnt keep an UL molar PA from looking elongated...and this was with Professor Alexanders help!  Oh well, it wasnt too extreme.  Hopefully it wont come back to bite me.  He was perfectly comfortable with me cleaning his UR quad, even without LA.  Another plus!  He stayed wide open the entire time and was super cooperative.  No errors!  I am set!  Hooray!

Linda cancelled with the front desk and I never got the message so I was without a patient for the afternoon.  I ended up putting Tori in the chair and cleaning her up.  Professor Alexander asked me if I thought she needed to do a scale check.  I said no and she was alright with that!  What a complement to Tori and me.

Next week...Boards and lots of hair falling out.