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.

Air-polishing, Screening PE

Goodness!  This PE was awful.  I will cringe if I have to redo it, but oh well.  I actually did better on rubber cup polishing than what I expected, but I have lots to work on.  I need to improve.  I air polished a penny before working on Marcy and I was amazed at how much gupe it took off.

GOSH IM TIRED.  I dont know if I can make it thru radiology...for reals.  Esp since we are watching a movie.

Turning the Tables

In clinic on Wednesday, I worked on Heather Taua.  What a cute girl.  I started by looking over her health history (there were no changes to be noted).  I took her bp, p, and r.  I performed an intra/extra oral exam.  I am feeling more comfortable with those exams.  I remember working with the second years at the WHC and as I performed the extra oral exams I really didnt even know what I was looking for.  I understand more now.  We took probing measurements.  I found it alot easier to get accurate readings on posterior teeth, which is backwards from what I expected.  I was pleased to have been close to my instructors measurements (well, the TA's).  We charted any changes in dental anatomy and pathology.  I still find it difficult to know what to look for when searching for suspicious lesions (caries, specifically).  Its easy to tell whether they have an apthus ulcer, but not so easy to know whether or not that small spot on their mouth indicates a caries or something else.  I need to learn more about different filling options as well.  I really have a hard time knowing what Im looking for as I chart restoration materials, etc.  My exam in radiology helped to get me more familiar, but I feel Im behind in this regard because I never worked for a dentist.  Continued exposure will help, Im sure.  I charted perio...Heather was healthy, as you would expect.  Then I was able to start scaling.  I passed off my universal instrumentation and adaptation, angulation, and activation PE's.  Not too bad.  It was a great review day.  I was grateful for it. 

Relax!

Today was a cinch.  I got to lay back in the chair while Heather Taaua went to town on my mouth.  From HHX, they had us run through everything up to and including scaling.  We didnt switch so the most difficult thing I had to manage was the dizziness from finally sitting up 3 hours later.  Not too bad.  Heather did great.  I think she was nervous but she was excellent and I hope she knows that.

I did get a second to pass off my probing PE.  I havent been able to practice even nearly as much as I was hoping to before passing it off, but by the grace of heaven, I managed it.  I need to work on my angulation as I probe the distals on posteriors.  I will practice on my sister.  This week is going to be exraordinarily crazy.  I hope I can keep my composure and excel through it.

Heres to hoping and praying!

Dental Screenings, ouch!

If there is one thing to say Im most fearful about, it would probably be this.  There are some in class who have worked for dentists for years, and that would recognize crowns, restoration materials, etc with no troubles.  It is for this reason that I suspect we spend little time going over this subject, but for me this is foreign.  I am really nervous about my efficacy in charting what is to be found in the mouth pre treatment...not because I dont know the markings, but because Im not sure what Im looking for.  I hope this will come easier with time.  I wish I had more time to study these things out individually when I have a harder time understanding.  I just feel that we are continually being pushed to the next and next thing and that if we allow ourselves to look back at old material, we miss something important in the present.  I wish we had more reflective days.  It would be neat to have a day where we can study a subject that seems more challenging to us...or to practice that thing exclusively in clinic.  Id ever write a short paper to show what I was learning and why that day was important to me.  I dunno. 

Wednesday

Today we got to practice!  Thank the Heavens!  We also passed off our intraoral PE's.  I was nervous a bit but things ended up working out smoothly.  I was grateful to get all 4's!  I remember seeing that PE for the first time and thinking Id never be able to memorize it all!  It was nice to be able to practice for a bit.  Ryan wont let me practice on him...little stinker.  I need to find a more willing helper.

Oh! and Karlie and I won a bag of starbursts today for being the fastest pod to set up our operatories for pt tx.  We probably had too much an advantage, seeing as there were only two of us.  We worked together though and "gotter done" real fast.

Kim gave a really great pod wrap up today, in which she reminded us to humanize all our pts.  It can be easy to think of them as mouths, and not impressionable individuals.  We should do all we can to make them comfortable, to speak in their language, to build rapport, and to inspire them to take good care of their teeth.  I look forward to being a personable dental hygienist.

My new goal is to throw "really" out of my vocabulary entirely...its such an ucky word.

Get up on your explorers Ladies!

On Monday we learned how to use our explorers.  It is important to maintain appropriate adaptation when working around the teeth and to angle the explorer appropriately given the tooth surfaces to be explored.  On the anteriors we want to use the side of the instrument whose terminal shank is most closely adapted to the tooth.  On the posteriors, we want the terminal portion of the shank to be nearly parallel with the long axis of the tooth while bringing the working end to the distal of the tooth.  Choosing the right end to use can be tricky.  I will need to practice this...but once I got under those sweet sweet gingival margins and into the sulcus, life was wonderful.  IT IS SO FUN!