End of Semester

Well it's been a good semester. Only 1 left! I've improved my speed when seeing patients too. The thing I need to work on is having my class III's be seen in a timely manner and have them return for perio maintenences.
I've met all the requirements for this semester so the pressure's on for next semester. The written board exam is in February so I've got a lot of studying to do now in the next 2 months! As long as the patient I found that meets board requirements shows up for me I'm set! I think I'll find an extra board patient though!

Found: One Board Patient

I got lucky on Tuesday. I had to find a patient for 8:00 and pulled in someone new off the resource list. Well guess what? He meets the requirements for boards plus I'll use him as a mock board too! He's really nice and speaks English too! I'll have to numb him up for cleanings with how jumpy he was with probe readings though. Only need to find someone for the Feb. mock board and I'll be set!

Yay for Dayna!

My patient this afternoon no showed on me but luckily Dayna had an extra patient show up who I willingly took off her hands! He was 13 and his mom had taken him to the DDS in August who told him he needed sealants and she wanted to get them done. Hallelujah for me! I needed a patient to do my sealant PE on. 5 sealants and a cleaning done on him in 1 hr. 15 min. Thank you Dayna!

Found class III!

I am so happy! I was able to find another patient with class III to finish my exams for this semester. This means if everyone shows up for their appt's I will meet my requirements with no problems for this semester. I did have to dismiss my first patient this morning which is my other class III patient because he woke up with a cold sore, dang! He felt really bad even though I told him there's nothing he could do about it. But I was able to pull someone off the list and get another 2 quads of class II and bw x-rays done.

Done with II's & V's

Ok so I'm done with II's and V's now, I even have 4 quads over for requirements. This means I'm done with all 1A's, 1B's, II's, and V's. but not with III's & IV's. I need that DH god to smile upon me and open the heaven's with class III's PLEASE!

First Mockboard

We had our first mockboard and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It seemed like another day at clinic except with more paper work. I lost 2.5 points because I forgot to put 0's in the boxes for recession and I missed 3 highlighted spots which gave me a score of 79 so I was happy to pass!!!!

Happy child day!

Today I worked on nothing but children! The only thing that bothered me was that it took me all morning to get a 9 year old done. It wasn't the cleaning itself that took time, that was only a half hour. It was waiting for the mother to do the HH, taking xrays took a little more time than normal, then we had Dr. Naylor come over and do an ortho eval which she then wanted a pano for as well. It's a good thing Jen was able to take his sister or I wouldn't have been able to get both kids done! This afternoon I saw my 2 nephews. It was Porter's first time having a cleaning so he was a little nervous and didn't want me to "turn his teeth purple". He giggled through the cleaning though so all was well!

Patient panic!

I had my patient cancel and had the whole day of clinic open for today at this time yesterday. I was able to call and fill my afternoon but couldn't get anyone for the morning. I ended up sticking my hubby in for the morning, then get notified during his appt that my afternoon patient had to cancel. AWWWWWW! I went up front and asked Mr. Solomon if anyone needed to get in, he tried a couple of people with no luck. About 10 min later he came back and told me he was able to find someone after all. YEA! Hopefully a day like this NEVER happens again! Fingers crossed!

Two new patients

This morning I saw one of my husband's coworkers. He said he hadn't had a cleaning in probably 5 yrs so I wasn't sure what to expect but wouldn't you know it he only turned out to be a 1B with gingivitis! Dang! Oh well.
Then this afternoon my patient was a returning patient to the clinic. The first question she asked me was how long it would take. I told her I had until 3:30 and she about freaked! She said she thought it would only take 1 hr. yeah right! If she's been here before she should know already how things work around here! Anyway I told her I'd be as fast as I could. It was a good thing she had been seen in April so I didn't have to do BP and no changes to HHx so we could get started right away. I was able to have her out of here in 1 hr 40 min and she was a class II! She gave us a hard time when Dr. Hansen was trying to check her because she was in a hurry. She had Dr. Hansen remove the spots I missed so it was not a good learning experience though I guess it made me work on my time.

First Day Back in Clinic!

Yea beginning of 2nd year I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I had a family member that has never had a cleaning in his 40 years of life come in today. He's also a smoker so I knew he was going to be a good class! He ended up being only a class II but he qualified for my mock board patient! 1 down 3 to go! He had sooooo much stain on his lower anteriors that he was surprised I was able to get it off which he was very happy I did. Last year I was hating the ultrasonic because every time I used it the patient was very sensitive and I'd have to quit using it. Well today it was my friend! I cranked up the power and away the stain went! Loving it!!

Last Day Of Clinic!!

For my last day of clinic I needed to accomplish my last 2 things: 1 quad of class II or V and my posterior universal instrument PE. I was set up with a patient that was a class V the only thing I worried about was she needed a new health history and she being 74 I didn't know what that would include! To my horror she had had heart surgery just in January where they placed 2 stints which means physician's consult! I was clinging onto hope because she said the doctor told her she did not need to be premedicated but we still had to do the consult. Luck was with me when we called and they said no premed was necessary!
We proceded to the OD which I need to stop and thank Sarah for helping me both with the physician's consult and charting for me! She also wanted xrays taken since it had been a year. I was sweating it thinking there was no way I would get all of her cleaning done that day after all of this! Luckily she did not have much in the way of calculus and even though I was the very last person with a patient in my chair I finished her! Whew!! My last 2 requirements fulfilled! Bring it on 2nd year!

McKenzie

Today my 2 goals were to do the blood glucose PE and do sealants on McKenzie to finish up that requirement. The blood glucose went ok except I wasn't fast enough and had to get another strip out before blood started running down her finger! Sealants were a little challenging cuz I did them on #14 & 15, a more difficult spot in the mouth. I kept gagging her but was able to finish them. Sarah also came over and did a sealant on #13. Goals completed! I only had a half hour left by the time those were done so I just scaled a little around her lower anteriors to help with the gingivitis down there. ONE MORE DAY OF CLINIC!

Class II Exam part 2

So after the first appointment with my class 2 patient I was feeling awful. She came back in on April 7 to finish the cleaning and I decided I was just going to take my time and try to do things right the first time which means exploring before, during, and after I scale. The first quad was pretty good I only missed 2 spots in it. When I did the other quad my hand was getting tired and I guess I didn't go subgingivally enough to feel the calculus because I missed everything in that quad! So I went back through to get it and like I said in part 1 her calculus was tenacious and it took me another 45 min to get it to where I felt like I could have Prof Costley do another scale check. I still missed a few spots but the tip of my thumb was numb so Prof Costley worked on those spots. The only thing that made me feel better was when Prof Costley said she was having a tough time getting the calculus off too! Bad patient to do my exam on but at least it's done!

Finishing Sam and more

My goals for April 5 were to finish Sam who was a 1B, pass of a PE, and get sealants done on my daughters. It took me a lot longer than I thought to finish Sam and I could not believe I missed so many spots on a 1B! Here it is the end of the semester, I shouldn't be doing that! I was able to get 3 sealants placed on one of my daughters but not both. I also was able to pass off my anterior instrument PE.

Class II Exam part 1

I needed to find a patient to do my true class II exam on and luck was with me when Prof. Costley drew my name for 1 of 3 patients that the Sr's had screened. The only problem was she was Spanish speaking. Thanks to Karina who helped me get her scheduled for April 1. I was going to try to speak a few phrases in Spanish that I had my Dad help me with but when I told them to my patient she just looked at me with a confused look. Oh well. My goals for the day were to do the OD, one PE, and get at least half of her mouth done. Check, check, and check. I was able to get my ultrasonic PE done though I definitely need more practice with it! My patient didn't have what I considered to be much calculus but it was so tenacious that I kept missing areas when it came to my scale checks. I felt like such a failure by the end of the day.

Finished with class III

My class III came back today and I was able to finish her up! I was very lucky to have found my class III because many in my class still haven't found one and there's only 3 weeks left in clinic. I was going to try to pass off my Area Specific PE but didn't get around to it. Here's to hoping for Wednesdays patient having deep enough pockets for me to use them on!

PE's

Wednesdays are turning into PE days because we have the TA's here to help pass them off. Last Wed. I was able to pass of both the Diagnodent and sharpening PE's on my patient Brook. She was a 1B and I had 3 quads to finish. But because she didn't have much in the way of calculus I was able to get her done with plenty of time left over. I also was able to do the peer calculus review on Emily's patient so I'm winding my PE's down. I only have 5 left to do!

Dawn

I saw my husband's niece Dawn today. She's 16 so I knew she'd just be a 1B but my goal was to get her all done today. Whew barely made it too! I took a pano and 2 bwxrays on her and found that she only had 1 wisdom tooth which made her happy, though she'd have been more happy if she had none! She had a lot of decalcification around the margins of her teeth so I ended up having to be really careful when I scaled but really she didn't have any calculus on her teeth anyways.

Tyler and Kaitlyn

I was able to see my niece and nephew on March 10. Tyler is 4 and Kaitlyn is 2 1/2. I planned on passing off my IA exam with Tyler and everything went well. When I got to Kaitlyn I didn't know how much she'd let me do since it was her first time in the dental chair. I gave her a ride in the chair, showed her Mr. Slurpy, squirted air and water at her sister to show her the air/water syringe, and she loved it all. She sat so good for me! She even had a little calculus behind her lower anteriors that I had to scrape off. I think the hardest part was polishing. She didn't care for the taste of the prophy paste and kept gagging on it so I'd have to stop and let her use Mr. Slurpy a lot. But what she liked the most was the disclosing agent. Her mom had been saying that she wanted her mouth to turn purple like I did with her sister. So when I disclosed her she started giggling even though it didn't taste very good. For a 2 1/2 yr old she did awesome!

Dang, another 1B!

I had a patient come in on March 8 that I was hoping would be a class II for me. He hadn't been into the dentist for 3 years so I thought for sure he would be! Come to find out he has immaculate home care, there was nothing on his teeth! On with my search for another class II!

Brook

I was really hoping when Brook came in that she would be a class II that I could do an exam on. No luck. She ended up being a 1B. With how crumby her teeth are she did not have enough calculus built up to be a class II. I did do a full mouth xray on her which checked off the rest of the pa's I had to do.

Sam

Monday I was planning on getting Sam done in that one appt. That is my goal to get a 1B done with xrays in 1 appt. But it was not to be. I ended up having to retake her pano for one and then I knew when I put her on my schedule that I would be going over OH with her but not to the extent I ended up having to do. I did accomplish my first pano though!

Give Kids A Smile Day

I volunteered at the Give Kids A Smile Day today. It was great but tiring! We hygienists had half of the clinic while dentists had the rest. There were so many people there lining all of the hallways that at times it was hard to weed your way through them to where we needed to go. The sad thing was that even though we had so many volunteers that we still had to turn away people starting at 11:00 cuz there were just too many.

UDA Convention

I attended the 2010 UDA Convention last week. I went to a class called "Work would be great if it weren't for the people". It was ok. She talked a lot about different personalities and communication in the work place. I also volunteered at the Crest booth for a couple of hours on Friday and listened to a few of the table clinics. Over all it was a good convention. I've always enjoyed going especially when I meet up with my Dad and his office for lunch on Thursday!

WHOA what a day!

I was very busy today! First I had to be CA in the am clinic session and by myself too. Mr. Solomon was very nice and helpful. Then it was my clinic session. My goals were to finish Bobbi who had 2 quads of 1B left and I also had lined up Alison my 5 yr old niece to come in-she would be my first 1A of the semester. I also wanted to pass off the sel polishing PE and possibly the sealant PE. I accomplished everything! I was unable to do the sealant on Alison because she was pretty much done and ready to go by the time I was done with her cleaning but Emily had a patient that needed several sealants and was kind enough to let me do a couple. So including the CA PE I actually passed off 3 PE's and cleaned 2 patients today! The surprising thing was that I was done with my patients by 3:00 too.

YEA Class 3!!!

So a couple of weeks ago I had my mother in law Danna in. She had deep enough pockets for a class 3 but not enough tartar without xrays so we had to classify her as a class 2 then. Today she returned and I took some bitewing xrays on her and it turns out she is a class 3!!!! I am so happy about that! I was able to use Gracies today for the first time on a real patient. Still can't do the ultrasonic without the patient being too sensitive. Maybe next week! Yyyyeeeeaaaa!!!!

Danna

I saw my mother-in-law Monday. It was so funny getting her scheduled cuz she's retired and not used to keeping track of days or times any more. She even had Bryan call her Monday morning to make sure she was up in order to get there on time. She was great though! I wanted to classify her as a III because she had several 5-7mm pockets and Angelique did too until after she was gone we were talking about how she goes to the dentist every 6 mos for a cleaning so she's being maintained and needed to reclassify her as a II. Dang I thought I'd have my class III!! Have to try again!

Bobbi Jo

On Wed. I saw Bobbi as my patient. She let me take a full mouth set of xrays on her which I needed! I thought that because she hadn't had her teeth cleaned for at least 2 years that she was going to have as much or more build up than Bryan had but it turned out not to be true. She hardly had any! I finished her OD and 2 quads of scaling but then ran out of time. If I only had another 15 min I would have finished her up all in one appt! But it was not to be. I was feeling really good about the day due to the xrays and also I didn't hurt her nearly as much as the patients in the past. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this after all!!!

Kim

My sister in law Kim came in for me last Wed. I was determined to get her done in 1 appt because she had taken work off and was using leave to come in. The good thing was that she didn't need xrays so that saved me some time. I was a little frustrated with our instructor Julie when she was checking for calculus because she told me of a few areas and I couldn't feel what she was feeling. I've been able to feel what I've missed up until now. I was able to finish Kim even though I was 20 min. late walking her out.

New Patient

Today I saw a patient that I didn't know at all! No family or friend. She was sixteen and really nice! I was able to do bwxrays and get her cleaning done all in one appt but she didn't have much to clean. I so want to be faster because I feel bad about making people sit there so long. But I also want to be better at my adaptation because I'm still hurting patients.

Jari done....check!

I was able to clean Jari's teeth in one appt due to the fact she really had nothing on her teeth and I had already completed the OD. She's a scrub brusher and they don't usually have much calculus built up, instead they cause damage to their gums by brushing too hard causing recession. She is working on her brushing technique though.

Bryan's done!

Last Wed. I finally finished Bryan! 3 appt's was too long for him but he was good about it. I scaled both of his lower quads. The first quad I only missed 2 spots and I was feeling really confident. But then the second quad I missed 8 spots and was burnishing calculus! Pop goes my bubble! Then on top of that I wasn't fulcruming when I was flossing him and Prof. Costley saw this so I was kicked out of my chair so she could show me how to floss. He didn't want a polish so that saved me a little time. Better luck next week!

Done in 1 appt!

Whew! I brought Ainsley in today and was determined to get her done in one appt. Even though she had full braces I did it! I even passed off the air powder polishing PE. I did feel bad while cleaning her though, between her gums being inflamed from the braces and my technique not being the greatest yet she did not have a pain free cleaning. She even refused to open her mouth a few times! Afterward she told me I was scaling too fast and that was what was hurting her. Oh well like I keep saying, practice makes perfect!

A little worried

I had one of my mother in law's, Jari, come in yesterday. I started getting a little nervous when by 8:15 she wasn't there yet. Luckily I had her cell # and was able to find out that she was lost on campus. I guided her up to clinic and finally started on her around 8:30. I was able to get through xrays and the OD but had to have her come back for the cleaning. Hopefully I can get her cleaning done in 1 appt. because 3 out her 4 quads are 1B, the other is classII.

First Clinic Patient Day for Spring 2010

Woo Hoo! Finally working on real patients! I started cleaning Bryan's teeth on Wed. Considering his patience level he did very well. I missed 7 spots on my first scale check and still had 2 spots left on the second scale check but overall it was good. I can feel the tartar when it's rough but the thing that threw me off was when Prof. Costley found some burnished calculus. I felt it and because it was a bump that was smooth I kept thinking it felt like part of the contour of the tooth. All I can say is it's going to take lots of practice!!!