I am DONE!

I went into Senior clinic to work on Sam's patient today. I was intimidated to be in Senior clinic. I still don't feel like I am very good and I don't know how I am going to get 3 quads done in the time frame that I have but I am sure as hell going to try!

So I did it!! After Sam was done with her quad and the health history I got in there and just started ultrasonicing my heart out! I then went back and used my gracy's and passed off the PE for that. Then I finished her up and Sam checked it thought I did pretty good so I got the instructor for a check. I only missed 4 spots!! I am so glad to be done!

Breakdown.....

Today my class 3 patient was scheduled and I needed to finish 3 quads and I would have been done but she didn't show up! I was in a panic. It was the the last day of clinic and now I am short 3 quads of class 3! What am I going to do???? To add to the mess I am suppose to go out of town this weekend to spend time with my family and if I have to find another patient and see them Thursday afternoon or Friday then I can't go. Ho do I tell my kids that we can't go? So of course I started crying. I hate it when I cry in clinic. Come on I am old enough to be able to hold it together! Sarah Morris a senior called me and told me that I could do her patient. She said that I could just come in to the afternoon clinic and do hers. I was surprised at the generosity but I knew that then I wouldn't be able to go on my trip on time. Then Sam another senior who I haven't always got along with came over and told me I could do hers in the morning and then I could still go with my family. I was so surprised at how nice and generous everyone was being which made me cry even more! At least I don't have to find another patient. Now I just have to go into senior clinic and finish a patient. Well tomorrow is a new day right?

Getting closer.........

Well we are almost finished with our first year of the hygiene program! I can't believe how fast it had happened. It feels like just yesterday that we were walking in for the first time! I have almost all of my requirements. All I have left is to finish up my 3 quads of class 3. I am a little frustrated that I found out late in the semester that just meeting your requirements does not give you an A. If I would have known this earlier I could have worked harder at becoming faster and gotten more quads in. Oh well passing is passing right?

Welcome Event

I was in charge of the welcome event for the incoming class. It has been a lot of work and I am excited about the outcome. I remember so clearly coming to this event a year ago. I was so scared and left wondering the the hell I had gotten myself into. I want the new class to feel excited and welcome. We did a funny video about Costley's nightmare. I am sure it is way funnier to us then it will be to the new class! All in all it was a good night. The food was good and the best part was all of the decorations and the way the room looked. It looked fantastic! I hope that we can be good mentors for these new girls!

My dad

Today (Feb. 27) my dad was my patient. I wanted to do a fmx on him to help with my PA requirement. He hasn't had one for many years so it was a perfect fit. I have so much trouble with xrays so I was not excited about it. I warned him that it would be a long visit! Thank heavens that it was my dad because it didn't go that well. I decided to use the Shick system since I hadn't done any yet this semester. Doing an fmx with Shick is a treat! My poor dad was such a trooper. The sensor is so big and it is hard to place to get the right angle. I so appreciated him. I did have to retake about 4 of the films which was disappointing but Wold said part of the problem was the sensor so for the retakes I used the ScanX. It was so much easier to use the plates vs. the sensor.

Lab day.....

Today (Feb. 15) we didn't see patients we learned new skills! I was excited to have a days off of sorts and learn some new things. We learned about cleaning removable appliances, using the Diagnodent and taking blood glucose. These are just a few new things that we can use to better educate and know our patients. I was excited to learn about the Diagnodent because in the office I used to work at the hygienist is required to use it often. I figure this will most likely be the case in many practices. I also took my own blood glucose and was pleased to see that I was within normal range!

Finishing up another 1B

Today (Feb 13) I saw my neighbor to finish her treatment. She was so kind and I was excited to finish her because the second appointments are always my favorite. I get to just do what I love to do which is clean teeth. I don't have to worry about x-rays or all the paperwork. I had done her lower anterior's at the last visit so I had to finish the lower and so the complete upper. I knew I could do this in one appointment. I also prepared to do some PE's. I did my universal instrumentation, selective polishing and peer calculus review. I felt so accomplished to get all of these done. I also didn't miss any spots on the cleaning so today was a very good day! Now next visit I know I am going to have to take x-rays so I am hoping I can do better and not have any retakes! Lets keep our fingers crossed!!!

Another day another patient

Today (Feb.8) I saw Jared's cousin. It was a little awkward because we are not that close only Christmas and Thanksgiving kind of family. As we went in and went over her medical history she had some items that I could tell she was embarrassed about but I was able to calm her and make her feel comfortable. I was very please with my progress about this. I took 4 BWX and a PA. Unfortunately I had to retake both a premolar BWX and the PA. I swear I can;s get the x-rays perfect. It is so frustrating. The right premolar shot I didn't get the distal of the canine, I tend to do this so this is something I am really going to work on during the next week of patients. The PA was not low enough but instructor Caldwell came in and gave me some tips in getting it lower, like putting the sticky tab higher on the sensor so she can bite down sooner. This seemed to help. I was able to complete my ultrasonic PE, which was exciting to get to use it on a real patient. I haven't used it since we practiced on the typodont. I really LOVED it!! I can't wait to use it on a patient with a lot of calculus. The fun thing about this patient was that she had some calculus buildup on the lower anterior's and I could watch it fly off as I worked!!

Finished another 1B

My patient from a few weeks ago returned today (Feb. 3). She was a pretty easy patient and I had to finish 3 quads. The second visit is always my favorite because I don't have to worry about doing all of the paperwork I can just get in the mouth and clean. She was a good candidate for sealants because she only has had one filling and her molars are unsealed. So I was able to pass off that PE and also my sharpening PE. It feels good to be getting my requirements passed off. I missed NO spots during her cleaning!! WAHOOO!! I really concentrated on my distal technique and I really think it paid off.

Finished up another patient today!

I had a returning patient today (Feb. 1). I had seen her a few weeks ago and she was not the easiest patient so I was not that excited to see her again. I didn't get to cleaning her last time so I wanted to get all 4 quads done today. I started by doing the LR and I missed a spot on the the distal of 25. Haefen was my instructor and I passed off my anterior scaling PE with her. I was excited to get one more PE done! She said I had really good technique but needed to apply more pressure and also making sure to adapt more. I finished cleaning the rest of her mouth which I was so excited about!! All 4 quads!! I missed another 3 spots. One on the straight of the anterior's which irritated me since you could see it! The other two were on the distal of 12 and 13. I need to really work on my distal technique since that is where I am missing spots. I am going to concentrate on this during my next appointment.

Working on technique!

Today (Jan. 30th), I had another neighbor as my patient. She had mandibular tori which was the first time I had seen this clinically. I had a bit of a hard time with her x-rays since the placement was different due to her tori. I did have to take a retake. :( I am still working on x-rays and am hoping I can start to see improvement soon. Vining was my instructor and he was so kind to come and sit with me and help improve my technique. He taught me some valuable techniques for the LA's using the Nevi. After my patient left Vining pulled me aside and told me that I am too timid and need to just get in there and clean! I am worried about hurting the patient and that holds me back. Vining made a good point though, he said that school is when you can be a little rough and once you get the technique then you can refine it. I am going to take these words to heart and work on my technique and try to put the fear of hurting them aside for a bit.

I remembered why I wanted to be a hygienist today!!

Today (Jan. 25) I felt like I had a bit of a breakthrough. This semester I have had a hard time in clinic and was beginning to wonder what the hell I was doing all of this for. Today i remembered! My patient was my neighbor and she was just great! I did BWX on her and had to retake the premolar shot on the left side since it didn't show the Distal of the canine. I also had some overlapping issues on the right molar shot but didn't have to retake it since it showed in the premolar shot. I really need more practice with x-rays. I swear they are going to be the death of me! Anyway I was able to get through the OD and clean a quad which made me so happy to achieve this small goal. I am progressing even i it is just little bits at a time!!

My first no show

Today (Jan. 23rd) I had a patient scheduled off of the list at the clinic. I scheduled her back in December and told her I would call to remind her in January. When I called the night before her number was disconnected. I figured she probably was not going to come but the hard thing is I couldn't put someone else in her place in case she did show up. After waiting about 20 mins for her to show I ran to my son's daycare and picked him up so he could be my patient. I was a little nervous because he is only 2 and I thought he would behave but you never know!! He did!! He was such a good kid! I tried BWX on him but he gagged so I took occlusal PA's. I forgot to change back the pano setting so the development on them was a little off but it still worked. First time I didn't have to retake!! YAY!! All in all in turned out to be a pretty good day! Goal for next time is to continue to improve on x-rays.

Better than last week!

Today was better than last week, though that doesn't say much since anything had to be better than that, overall it was OK. I saw a woman who had been into the clinic about a year and half ago. She was very nice but she was a talker. She had all these questions and ideas about her teeth and I was having a hard time with time management. I did 4 bwx and a PA on the LL where she was having a slight pain on and off. I had to retake the PA so Instructor Caldwell came in to help me. Once we got the xray the patient cornered Caldwell and asked her so many questions. We were in there for what seemed like forever!!! I was able to get OD and OHI done but no scaling. OD is taking me such a long time. I wish I could identify things better so it would make things go much faster. Hopefully in time that will happen! I accomplished my goal of keeping my emotions in tact and most importantly not having throw up anywhere around! ha! New goal is to be better at taking xrays and becoming faster at my OD.

WORST DAY EVER!!!

Like I said in my previous post I have had a lot going on in my personal life so I have not been on my game when it comes to school. This day for clinic I attended a funeral procession before hand and was about an hour late to begin. My son Andon was my patient for that day and I brought my 2 year old son Trevin to watch and see if he would be willing to be a patient in the future. I thought I would get a feel of how he would do so I could see if it would be a waste of my time to bring him in as a real patient. When I got there I was an emotional wreck and so flustered but tried to hold myself together. Andon hopped up in the chair and was the greatest patient!! I was so proud of him. Instructor Caldwell was so helpful and encouraging so I would have the confidence to complete him in one appointment. Trevin was being so good sitting in his stroller watching us and his movie. Things were going pretty well. Then I decided to take BWX on Andon and we went into the lab. I took Andon's xrays and as I was developing them Trevin came over to me to tell me he had pooped and wasn't feeling well. He then threw up! I was so humiliated! I didn't know what to do! When I explained the situation to instructor Caldwell she was so understanding and told me it would just take a few minutes to finish Andon up so his scaling would count but I had wiped off his info on my laminated charts. At that point I started to tear up. I couldn't believe my day! Instructor Caldwell and Karen then came to my rescue telling me that I could quickly probe again since he only had 8 teeth to probe and then just quickly reevaluate and get him done. I rushed out to the waiting room where my kids were and got them. Andon was so good to sit up in the chair and let me probe again and then have Caldwell check him. I was so proud of him and felt so bad for Trevin and humiliated and upset for myself!! A roller coaster of emotions to say the least! In the end I got my first 1A done and that is what matters! Goal for next time is to not have throw up anywhere around and to learn to keep my personal emotions bottled up better!!

Back to school!

For my first patient this semester my mom came back to finish her cleaning. I was nervous but so excited to finally get in and start cleaning. I have had a lot going on in my personal life so I didn't feel on my game at all. It took me a bit to even feel somewhat comfortable with the instruments in my hands! It was nice not having to go through the whole OD and xrays this time. I was glad to just get in and clean teeth. Instructor Vining was very patient and nice to me. He helped me get comfortable and explained everything he was doing and why when he did my first scale check. When all was said and done I only missed one spot the ML of 12. After he told me to feel it. I still didn't really feel anything but a little grit but then the tooth was smooth. I guess that was it??????? My goal for my next visit is to complete one thing at a time so my mind isn't all over the place!