January 4, 2010

First day back! Seems weird to be here. It feels like I just left for the break! We practiced ultra-sonicing and area-specific scaling (with the Gracey's). It felt good to practice on my typodont again. It helps regain my confidence. We'll see how it goes on Wednesday!

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.