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!