GREAT DAY

Today I finished a class 2 patient and passed off 2 PE's! It was such a productive day and it feels so good. I also got some great tips from Emily on using my Graceys (thanks Emily!). It's amazing how much we are learing everyday. I feel like I have come such a long way even since just the beginning of the semester. One thing that I really need to get on is xrays. I still have not take any PA's. That will be my goal for next week. I also did really good on my test in oral pathology yesterday, I was a little worried because I didn't have my study buddy Jess, but it went ok. I am feeling really great about school these days WOO HOO!!

A Good Day

Today was one of those good clinic days. I was a little upset because my class 5 patient is only going to count as 4 quads of a 1B, but that's okay. I was able to scale 4 quads today, it took me awhile(1 hour 35 minutes to be exact) but I got it done. I felt pretty good scaling today, I really felt like I knew what I was doing for the most part. My patient had a fair amount of calculus but he had ton of biofilm today. I felt like I spent a lot of time digging out and scraping off biofilm. Kara mentioned that she toothbrush polished her patient before scaling and that worked great so next time I am going to try that. I also was able to pass off two more PE's!! YEAH!! I am finally feeling like I am a little ahead on my PE's so I won't be stuck at the end of the semester passing off PE's. I am still worried about getting all of my radiograph requirements and my quadrants, but it is only midsemester so I still have a lot of time!

Not what I thought

So I woke up this morning thinking that today would be a way easy day for me. I was bringing in Tristun (my four year old son) and I feel like I take pretty good care of his teeth at home. So I was excited for a relaxing day. What was I thinking? To begin, he wasn't feeling so hot, but he was not compliant at all. First he didn't like me wearing my gear, I think it scared him. Then he wouldn't wear the glasses, or the bib. He was just playing games with me and so I tried playing "mean mom" and being serious to see if that would help. Oh no, it just made things worse, he started crying and it all went downhill from there. Lesson learned!

Unexpected

So I was planning on bring in my little boy last wednesday, but I got a phone call that a patient needed to be finished that afternoon. So I cancelled my little guys appt. and seen this new pt, when I wasn't all that excited because I am all finished with 1B pts and I assumed that is what he would be. I looked over his chart I seen the reason he was not finished this morning was a complex HH. Well as I got into scaling him I started to see that he was possibly a class 2. It was such a great experience for me, however, I was not able to finish him in one appointment. I am excited to see him next time. The reason I blogged about this...Life really is like a box of chocolates and you never know what you're going to get!!

Wonderful DAY!

Today was the first time that I seen a patient I don't know. It went extremely well. I actually like it a little better, because then I am not constantly apologizing for taking so long. I got the chance to go from start to finish on with a new patient and I even got her completed. Instructor Caldwell showed me some great techniques to get lower anterior calculus and it helped so much!! Thanks Kim!

A not so good day:(

So last wednesday I brought one of my good friends in for a cleaning and nothing would go right for me! I tried so hard to finish her in one appointment, which was a mistake. Instead of taking my time and working on one quadrant at a time, I rushed to finish her and ended up missing a ton of subgingival areas! However, I did learn a few very important things. 1) always take your time and just do the best you can (don't stress the small stuff, would be a good way to put it) and 2) You can't be scared to get scalers subgingivally! I am always terrified of hurting my patients and so I barely get below the gingiva. I now realize I would be doing my patients harm by not getting down there and removing everything. WHOOOO just breath, and get through it!!!