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.