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.