November 30, 2009

Last day of clinic! (For this semester, anyhow...) Feels good. We learned the PSR system (again) and passed off the PE. We also took a test on the clinic manual (failed it). Guess that will be my reading for the holiday. We learned how to be clinic assistants next semester and learned emergency protocol. See y'all in January!

August 26, 2009

Today we learned the hard task of saliva evacuation. Luckily I have done this more times than I've ever wanted to do. We also went over sterilization, personal protective equipment, exposure control set up. Our PPE and dress code is pretty strict. I guess my hair will be up every Monday and Wednesday for atleast the next year.

September 2, 2009

Today we learned how to sit. I would have saved myself a lot of pain if I would have known this as an assistant. Since our jobs are very demanding in the sense of repetitive motions, sitting for long amounts of time, and using the same muscles every day, it is vital to learn how to have proper positioning and erganomics. We learned the different positions for every surface of the teeth using the clock system. (8 through 12 o'clock)

September 14, 2009

We learned how to take blood pressures today. I had done it a few times before, but I am not very good at it. Hopefully I'll keep getting better and better. I had never seen vitals taken at a normal hygiene appointment in any private practice I've been to, but I learned that it is important in monitoring overall health since dental health and whole body health are so connected. It's also important in screening for high blood pressure. We're not allowed to see patients with high blood pressure without a physician's permission.

October 5, 2009

I scaled teeth today! Wow it is so much more complicated than I ever thought. Angulation, Adaptation, and Activation are the words of the day. You can definitely hurt someone if you aren't correctly doing any of those. We just worked on anterior teeth today, because apparently scaling posterior teeth is a whole different thing.

October 21, 2009

I really like Oral Hygiene Instruction. I love the education part of my job. I hope I'll be able to get good enough to make a difference in people's lives. I think a lot of people could save a lot of their dental problems if they knew how they were caused.

November 4, 2009

We learned how to sharpen our instruments. Ugh what a pain! Unfortunately we have to sharpen them to keep them at their best and most efficient quality. We also learned more about Eaglesoft (how to print off a walkout statement).

November 18, 2009

Loved being a patient today. There's nothing like showing up at school knowing you just get to lay in a dental chair all day. My teeth are all clean now, got the last two quadrants done, polishing, and fluoride. I got a new sealant and everything! I don't know when I'll get my teeth cleaned next, or my cavities filled! Next time in the clinic, I'll have my first patient... :S

November 23, 2009

First patient day. First day I felt like giving up. What a disaster! I made so many stupid mistakes and continued to feel more and more stessed and less and less confident. Luckily, my mom was very patient with me and I did end up getting good scores. I definitely learned a few lessons the hard way, though: 1. put the earpieces on the stethoscope TOWARDS your actual ear drums, 2. take x-ray retakes on the correct side of the mouth, 3. put recession measurements where it says "recession" and pocket depths where it says "pocket depths", otherwise you have to erase it all. What a fabulous day of education! :D

November 16, 2009

Today was essentially my last day of practice.... AHHHHH! I'm nervous. My next time as an operator will be for real! (Luckily my first patient is my mom :)) I did a lot better today and I'm getting the hang of things more and more. One of the instructors, Angelique, had me try some new instruments and although I was nervous, I liked getting used to some of the others we'll be using. We weren't really taught them at all... I passed off my sealant PE, which was great. I love doing sealants! On adults, atleast. :)

November 11, 2009

Happy Veteran's Day! Unfortunately we still have school today. :( Today was my first mock patient day. It went A LOT smoother than my nightmares were preparing me for. I am still struggling with scaling and probing, but everything else went great! I think what helped is I showed up 1/2 an hour early. It was so nice to feel prepared and organized before my patient even showed up. I passed off one of the last PE's and I scheduled my mom for the 23rd!

November 9, 2009

I'm getting quite sick of being a patient. I've never been a huge fan of the sound and feeling of getting my teeth scaled, but every 6 months I could handle. This once a week thing is getting to me. Luckily I'm the hygienist on Wednesday so I just get to deal with the stress of remembering everything we've learned instead!

November 2, 2009

More sand-blasting and nasty varnish today. The best part of the day was having time to practice scaling!!! I feel so much better. Which is good because we start mock patients next week and REAL patients in 3 weeks :) Only a few more PE's to go too....

October 28, 2009

Air-powder polishing is kind of fun to do, NOT fun to have done to you... YUCK! We also polished with a rubber cup and prophy paste (which was nice). We applied fluoride varnish, which I had never had either :P. We did our dental screening PE, I'm not sure if I passed yet. That was today! Time for lunch :)

October 26, 2009

Ultra-sonic scaling....not my favorite thing. It was very different on a real patient compared to my typodont. It was nice to use our blue boas for suction though. It was one less thing to worry about. (They sure do taste funny, though...). I passed off my OHI and intraoral camera PE's. We are getting down to the last few things and then I guess we know it all because we see a real patient in less than a month!

October 17, 2009

I used an intraoral camera for the first time today. Way sweet! Apparently a lot of offices are using them now for educational and insurance purposes. I got to see my "suspicious area" on a picture and it does look pretty scary. I also passed off my anterior scaling and adaptation, angulation, and activation process evaluations.

October 14, 2009

Not a great day in clinic today... :( We did dental screenings and charted all preexisting restorations or conditions, occlusion, and marked "suspicious areas". I did well on my patient, but then my partner (with the help of Prof. Costley) found 2 "suspicious areas" (aka CAVITIES!!!) on me. :( I just went to the dentist right before I got married and told him to find anything and everything because I was losing my insurance. Unfortunately I'll now need to go and get those filled without insurance. I also learned I have enamel hypoplasia on my molars and premolars most likely because I had a fever during the formation of those teeth. Just not a great day, but I did pass of the instrument identification PE. That's it for today!

October 12, 2009

Today we performed plaque free indexes on each other with disclosing liquid. Purple and pink mouths all around! My PFI could have been better had they let us brush before! I also passed off my explorer PE and found areas of gingivitis on our patients. I had two spots with a little inflammation (aka localized papillary gingivitis). I was struggling with my patient in finding any areas, so I had Professor Costley come help and she helped me to see what it would look like. It was much easier to see and I was able to identify a few areas. That's all for now!

October 7, 2009

Our last two clinics have been frustrating. We started scaling with a sickle blade on Monday and then today learned with a universal scaler. I feel shaky and inconsistent. My movements aren't very controlled and I just don't have a lot of confidence in what I'm doing. I'm taking my typodont home with some instruments to practice, which will help I think. It's also frustrating because someone in our pod was gone so we didn't have a lot of time to practice with our patient AND I didn't get to pass off any process evaluations.... ARG! Hopefully things will get better soon! I'm feeling behind.

September 30, 2009

Not much time to blog today, but we learned the classification of all our instruments and sterilized all of them. I only got to pass off the intra-oral exam PE, but I'll do more on Monday hopefully. I was a patient 3 times and just ran out of time!

September 28, 2009

Exploring was the activity of today. I felt a lot more comfortable than when we probed. I think that I'm figuring out the fulcruming a little better. I passed off my extra-oral examinations and my instrument grasp and fulcruming. Kailene keeps us entertained by singing to every song that comes on the radio!

September 23, 2009

Well I did it! I probed a real patient (aka my clinic partner). I think the hardest thing is reading the probe. The lines are so tiny and it's so hard to see (especially using indirect vision for the posterior teeth) what the depth is. Another challenge is getting the right angle. I need to do better at visualizing the tooth and following the angle. Poor Ashlee got to help me learn the right angles. She would jump when I didn't get it quite right. Hopefully she'll forgive me after all of this. Well the Process Evaluations are piling up, so I think I'll go work on getting a few of those done!

September 21, 2009

I don't think there has been one day of clinic where I have remembered to bring everything that I need! I forgot my PE binder today, but was still able to pass off the Health History PE (finally). We learned intra-oral examinations today and instrumentation fulcruming. It definitely gets a little more difficult when you have to maneuver a mirror AND an instrument at the same time. I also almost got a lip piercing when Kadee was doing my intra-oral exam. The probe "accidently" pierced the inside of my lip! It didn't really hurt that bad, but it made me nervous about things coming up...like actually scaling each other and giving anesthetic shots. :S I have to take my DENT 2207 exam right after class, so I'm off to study a little bit...

September 16, 2009

Today we worked with spit and a tongue and the whole real deal. We learned mirror fulcruming and the different uses for mirrors (indirect vision, transillumination, illumination, and retraction). I learned that it's harder when I think about it, as opposed to just putting my hand where it feels natural and stable. We also reviewed how to do health histories and any problems that could arise. We had a lot of fun coming up with random situations and weird medications people could be on. We also learned how to perform extraoral examinations or cancer screenings. It felt more like a massage than a screening so we really liked practicing this one!

September 9, 2009

Today at clinic we went over how to perform health histories and patient interviews again. I had no idea it was such an involved process. We practiced on our clinic partner and actually had to a real interview after reviewing their health history. Our Dental Drug Reference books are used to look up different medications that our patients are on so that we can determine if there are any implications with dental treatment or specific changes with oral health instructions. It was freaky to find out some of the adverse health affects my medications can cause! I passed off a couple process evaluations and am caught up in those now. I need to study hard this week the health history process so that I can become confident with those.

Monday, August 31st

Today is my 3rd day of clinic at the Dental Hygiene program at Weber State. My classmate Ashley helped me set up my blog today so I can start recording my experiences and things I learn from this program and especially my time in clinic. I think it's a great idea to capture the moments we'll have for the next 2 years as well as follow the other students' experiences. I'm feeling more and more comfortable during clinic, and it's a good thing too, because today we worked on an actual patient (our operatory neighbor)! Ashley Saltern is my clinic partner and she is so sweet to be so patient and positive with me. Today we just did a simple rinse and suction exercise, and even though I've done it more times than I can remember, I'm still a little unsure and nervous in this new setting.