THE FINISH LINE!

IB, 2 panos, 1 no-show....and that's it!  Kind of sad actually.  Here's to hoping I've taken advantage of this amazing opportunity I've had to complete my education in this program and become a great clinician out in the real world...because ready or not....HERE I COME!

April 5, 2011

Saw my cute, cute little sister to finish off my IA's.  THANK YOU FOR COMING IN, HANNAH!  Finished my class IV as well.  He was a fun patient.  I hope he gets on a good recall schedule and is able to keep his teeth.  He is only in his late-thirties and has severe bone loss.  I educated him and hope that he was able to understand the severity of his disease and take control.

March 29, 2011

Saw a sweet, sweet lady (class V) in the morning and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her.  I'm so excited for that part of my job.  I also LOVED that she is 85 and asked about bleaching.  She's a cutie.  Luckily she is in PERFECT oral health.  Probably one of the best well-kept mouths I've seen.  Saw another class V in the afternoon.

March 22, 2011

Today my patient was SARAH!  It was so fun and a nice break after a heck of a week. (yes, I survived, yes I passed the all the ones I've heard back from.)  I saw a class IV in the afternoon.  Having a IB and then a IV reconfirms the fact that I LOVE WORKING ON PERIO PATIENTS!  Is that sick?  Am I weird?  I totally enjoy working on the people that need me the most.  Maybe it's all a selfish thing because I feel needed. ;)

March 8, 2011

I can't believe next week is our boards...

Update:  found a different board patient; one that I am 100% confident about.  The only problem is he has HIV so I need to get a physician's consult.... :O

Today I saw a class III in desperate need of dental hygiene care.  She also came with the HHX from heck.  And when I saw "came with" I mean she literally came with pages of medications and allergies and problems.  After over an hour, we worked through it and finally cleaned 2 quads.  I scaled the other 2 quads in the afternoon.  WHAT A LONG AND EXHAUSTING DAY.  Praying hard that things go well next week.

LA mockboard, March 1, 2011

I feel like a complete failure.  I failed BOTH injections on our mockboard.  I felt so confident so it was a huge blow!  Apparently I haven't technically kept my "window" open as much as I need to.  I always have it facing me, but apparently when board examiners are watching, I need to have it straight up.  Can't believe that constitutes failing, but it was a good lesson to learn at a good time!  I have been giving injections the same way all year so I'm glad I found out before the real thing...still doesn't feel very good though.  Saw a recall pt in the afternoon.

FOUND A BOARD PT!

I screened all morning and guess what?  Found a board patient!  His calculus is great, but I have to add several teeth to make it the solid 12 clicks so I'm a little concerned about how strong of a candidate he is.  I have no alternate submission...  I took a FMX series and I feel so much better.  Saw a much needed IA in the afternoon. I seriously feel like I'm pretending to clean when I see a healthy patients, especially IA's.  I know that I'm making a difference microbially but it's hard when I can't SEE the difference I'm making.  I guess I just have to have faith in the science!  Good day!

February 15, 2011

Mockboard.  Luckily Emily let me use a patient of hers for mockboard.  He was great and I got 100%!!!!!!!!  Wahoo!  I felt like I had all the time in the world and that things went so smooth.  I felt confident too, which is a great feeling.

February 8, 2011

Getting down to the wire.
No time to do whole appointments until I find board patients!!
Screenings in the morning...no success.
Brought my husband in for me to practice anesthesia and pass of nitrous.  He handled it surprisingly well!

I learned a lot I didn't know yet about giving injections:
One thing I learned is:  touching anything with the needle while in the path to the site of injection is contamination.

February 1, 2011

Still need a mockboard AND a board pt... :S

Today I treated a class V and a IV!!! Love treating IV's.  Things went really well and I felt like I was really helping the patient control the disease and increase her overall health.  That's my favorite thing about cleaning severe periodontally-involved patients:  I feel like I'm really doing some good!  Hopefully I'll be able to work in a periodontist's office or at least a office with a population of perio patients!  That is if I pass boards...so sick of studying and stressing.

January 25, 2011

Mockboards...
Rocked em!
My patient had heavy, heavy deposit and I only missed one spot so received a 94 on my exam. Hopefully this means I have improved and refined my skills from last semester where I received a 74 on the first mockboard.  I also really felt great about my speed and exploring skills.  Things just went so well!!! Hopefully this is how the real boards will go...more stress to come...

Will work for 1 perfect board patient...

AM: Had a recall patient from last semester.  He is a sweet, old, 85-year old man.  When it was time for him to go I just felt so sad thinking I might not see him ever again.  He wished me and my husband the best on our future endeavors and I told him I was so glad I got to know him and that I would refer him to a good student next year.  I love this part of my job.

PM: Saw a 15-year old.  She was fun.  Did 5 sealants on her (all by myself, might I add)...assistants?  Who needs 'em!

I NEED A BOARD PATIENT, ANOTHER MOCKBOARD PATIENT, SOME CLASS IV's....
That's it.

So...what's calculus?

AM:  Finished my patient from last week.  She was very sweet and tolerated injections very well.  Note on the PSA injection:  come in to the penetration site with the correct angles.

PM:  I'm trying to look for another mockboard or board patient for myself or someone else with every patient and I really thought I found one today.  Nope.  What the heck does calculus feel like?  THIS IS MY 4TH SEMESTER!  I should know by now!  I think I have a pretty good idea, maybe it just wasn't enough areas....I don't know....
OH well.
Finished a class 2 in 2 hours. (She had to leave early, but it tested my speed skills that is for sure!)

The VA...kind of like a re-occuring bad dream

I just can't seem to come to love the VA.  I love a lot of the people I meet there, but the clinic is just disorganized and some of the people are just not very understanding to us students!  I'll choose to be optimistic!!!

Two great things of the day:  I may have found oral cancer.  The doctor wants to do a biopsy and took a picture.  Wow-scary stuff.  (Obviously this is not a highlight for the patient, but it is great that I am able to see that it DOES happen and all those cancer screenings we do that come up negative are worth the one that comes up positive).  Also another patient helped me to feel peace during my super busy and stressful day.  He is a very selfless man who takes care of his wife who just had her 2nd stroke.  He talked about how much he loved his wife and wanted to take care of her.  He spends a lot of time in the temple volunteering and is a scriptural genius.  He taught me some very insightful things about Isaiah.  Although this isn't dentally related, I just love the part of my job that gets to meet amazing people like this who help me realize what is really important.

First of the Last

AM: We didn't start clinic until 9 today so we could get a hang of TalEval.  Still pretty lost...
My patient was very sweet. A class 2/5.  I missed a very obvious piece of calculus...oops!  Luckily she is coming back (since I didn't finish) so now I know what kind of deposits to look for.

PM:  A FOUND A MOCKBOARD PATIENT!!!! I am so happy!  I found a very sweet man with plenty of calculus who very kindly agreed to be my mockboard patient.  I am so grateful I kept offering over and over again to pay for his treatment, but he said even though he had no money, it was his responsibility to pay for his treatment.  Talk about an angel.

MOCKBOARD

FAILED...dangit.  It was very good to go through how the board procedures will go.  The paperwork was so confusing at first but is a lot more clear, now.  It was also good to experience what my stress levels would be like.  My professor talked to me after the ordeal to let me know how I did and what I could work on.  He complimented me on my probe and recession measurements, but told me I missed one spot and burnished a few more. :(  We talked a lot about improving my exploring skills.  He said to explore as if you are looking at someone else's patient, because when you think of them as your patient, you rationalize saying "there can't be anything left there, I spent forever in that pocket".  I think it will help me a lot.  I haven't really focused on exploring a lot because it is so time-consuming, but it is definitely worth the time if it is the difference between passing and failing.

You've gotta pay for what you want!

Had another class 3 patient.  He said he didn't have the money so I paid for him.  :(  Lame, but it's my grade so I guess it's worth it.  Quite the experience cleaning a real class 3.  

September 30th

Another day of class 3 patients!  YES!  My first patient has been a class 5 for years but hasn't been in for a while now so there were signs of infection and some calculus deposits.  I didn't feel like she was a well-maintained perio patient so I took a chance and explained her case to my instructor claiming I felt better about classifying her as a three.  Maybe a tiny portion of that was that I need this classification, but I really did feel like she was not a 5!  End of the story...got a class 3 exam done. :)  My afternoon patient was incredible.  He had never had a cleaning before and displayed the worst infection I've seen yet.  He even had occlusal calculus!  And tons of it.  He requested some x-rays so it was a good opportunity to get some periapical x-rays done.  I took a lot of pictures with the intra-oral camera as well because I thought it would be neat to see before and after pictures.  It also helped to use for educational purposes since he didn't speak a word of english.  I put him on a chlorhexadine rinse to reduce the infection and bleeding before I attempted to clean.  I'm looking forward to him coming back. It should be a great experience.

YIKES!

Started the day with a class 3 (so exciting!!!!), but unfortunately I only finished one quad...
WHY?
Well...problem number one..
I BROKE AN INSTRUMENT
Yup, that's right.  I didn't even do anything differently and wasn't putting more force than I usually do...but it was in a very deep and bloody distal pocket of #3.  Luckily on the outside I remained very calm.  I told the patient to bite on a piece of gauze and I would be right back.  In my head all I could think of was "OH CRAP, OH CRAP, OH CRAP!"  I notified the CA (thanks for your help, Kathy!!!!) to find the instruments that we use in this situation, but apparently the VA doesn't keep them on hand.  I asked Professor Bossenberger to come help and luckily after a few minutes of skilled searching she pulled it out.  WHEW!  Later she complimented me on how well I handled the situation, which surprised me because I just felt terror throughout the whole ordeal.  She also told me that it has happened to her many times in her 30 years of practice so maybe I won't make such a big deal about it next time.  It was quite the experience, but I actually think it's a good thing because I figure no matter what happens, I've already had worse (hopefully)!


problem number two....
The dentist took a long time doing the exam...which is ok because the patient needed the attention, but frustrating for me.  On the upside, I ended up only missing 2 spots.  A lot better than I expected.


Afternoon patient was a young and healthy guy...pretty easy class 2.  Gotta remember those distals of the 2nd molars...

A CLASS 4....

My morning patient....Wow...I have my work cut out for me.
I finished my day off easy (as planned!) with an 11-year old.  One 1A down...one to go.  I usually am more enthusiastic and put more effort into being fun with the kids I see, but I think I was still thinking about my morning patient.  I'm not too proud of myself for not putting my energy and attention into making the kid I treated feel comfortable and motivated to improve his oral hygiene.  Sometimes I just don't have the energy...