April 14, 2010

My patient was about 45 minutes late but I was still able to finish her today. An easy 1B was a great way to end my first year of clinic. I feel like I've really improved my scaling techniques and knowledge, I am just worried about retaining what I have learned through the summer so I can continue to improve next year instead of starting all over again. My goals for the summer are to review my instrumentation books and to practice on my typodont at least a couple times a week. Till then...au revior! (sp!)

April 12, 2010

Finished my requirements today. What a sigh of relief. I saw a 9-year old girl, attempted to take a pano (pano machine was broken, also left her goggles on..oops!), did a few sealants (yes!), finished my 1A requirements and then finished my class 3. Lesson for next year: get my requirements done as early as I can. Treat the beginning of the semester like it's the end!

April 7, 2010

My patient today used to be a class 3, but now...yup you got it, another class 5. She was very sweet. She spoke just a little English so I hope I didn't take advantage of that by getting her to do my blood glucose test! I just asked her if she had been tested before and she said she would like to...so I did! I was also able to take 8 PA's on her. (She had never had x-rays, at least in the last few years she had been coming to our clinic.) Something interesting: I had never wondered whether something was a cavity or an amalgam before! It looked so much like an amalgam, but it was a cavity. Oh and on a wisdom tooth. All 4 wisdom teeth=my new worst nightmare. I wasn't able to finish her and I have no more room to fit her in (and neither does anyone else) so I feel awful. I hope she can come in the fall. Oh also, I was so amazed by her homecare! From what I could tell from my evaluation and reading past chart notes, she has been doing so well since she first came in as a class 3. I could even tell that she flosses regularly! I never see that!

April 5, 2010

Had another class 5 today....argh. It went well though. I was able to take BWX and PA's! Finally, I'm in desperate need! I passed off the last of my Class 2/3 PE's. Yes! Those have been haunting me. I barely finished in time. I need to do better at getting faster. I'm at a lost at what to do different though. Call ahead for a health history? Probe faster? When instrumenting, don't come out of the mouth as much!? I have no idea.

March 31, 2010

My patient had braces! And I succeeded! I really do appreciate these learning experiences, even though I don't need the classification and would really feel more comfortable getting in some easy patients for my extra requirements, I am glad I am challenging myself. I really think it's best I have these difficult experiences while I'm in school rather in a professional setting. It actually really wasn't that bad. Yes, probing was impossible and instrumenting was less than smooth and skilled, but I cleaned him! I was also inspired by my patient. He has dental insurance and just wants to stay extra clean during orthodontic treatment so he comes into our clinic in between 6-mo appointments. Needless to say, I didn't have a lot of oral hygiene instruction to give him!

March 29, 2010

I got to see my husband today! It was such a relief after such stressful patients before. He was easily cleaned and even let me do a sealant on him. What a nice husband I have! My goal is to find another patient to do a sealant on! Every patient either has sealants, fillings, caries, or I just don't think to look or ask! So many things to think about and remember!

March 24, 2010

I had a hard time communicating today. My patient was a little defensive during OHI. The weird thing is, I hardly saw any signs of infection yet when I took a look at his x-rays, he had significant bone loss. This is when I went through the whole "perio talk". After struggling through that, I talked with my instructor and figured out that his bone loss was due to malocclusion and past trauma! It all made sense after that. I also had to sheepishly take back my periodontal infection speech.

March 22, 2010

CA in the morning and a class 3 in the afternoon. Whew! Unfortunately I was only able to finish 2 quads on my patient. He and I were both upset, but he was a doosey! The ultrasonic was really bothering him which made it extra hard on me. He has one of the strongest mentalis muscles I've ever seen as well. I was very greatful to my instructer who had a little talk with him and told him how important it was to come back and get finished and not to get frustrated with me because I didn't know how tenacious the condition of his mouth would be (not to mention he hadn't been cleaned in years). I really hope he comes back! I hope he doesn't hate me after not finishing him...I really need the last 2 quads...

March 10, 2010

The worst part of clinic is securing a patient! I'm not even picky enough to demand certain requirements! I just need a body in my chair! I called the Kenyan patient a had and told him I would pay to finish his cleaning. I wasn't just desperate to have a patient, I just felt like I was doing him a service and it felt good! I found out that he had been flossing!!! Everyday!!! His BFI and PFI GREATLY improved. What we do really makes a difference! I just think it's amazing that I was able to help a young, healthy man who had never heard of floss develop habits that increase his overall health.

March 8, 2010

I finished a patient in one appointment today! I love that feeling. I'm feeling more and more like a professional! Of course, his wife and kid were getting cleaned at the same time so I pretty much HAD to finish him. I realized today that OHI isn't always a breeze with some patients.

March 3, 2010

Another hectic day trying to find a patient. In the end, I had my nephew Camden come. I was a little worried because he is 2 1/2 and from what his mom says is scared of the dentist. While working as an assistant, it was always a fun challenge to allow the kids to cooperate and let me do my thing. I took today as a challenge and it went soooo well! I was thrown off a little bit by the fact that in the process of (casually) calling from the resource list to secure a possible 2nd patient of the day after Camden, I had a spanish-speaking patient come in when she misunderstood me and came in without confirmation and about an hour early. AHHH! It was neat to see a child's mouth, though. I was intrigued. He had frenal attachment and pacifier habits that really affected his occlusion. He had a few white spot lesions as well. The greatest thing of the day was seeing him really enjoy the time he spent with me and hearing later that he liked to play dentist! It is such a great feeling to give a good dental experience to such a small child. I think your initial feelings of the dentist will stay with you the rest of your life! My second patient was very sweet, though it was hard to communicate. She is coming back the last day of clinic for me to finish her.