March 1, 2010

My long awaited, non-English speaking, never had his teeth cleaned patient didn't show up. I had my brother call to remind him of his appointment and he said he couldn't come! I spent last night and this morning trying to find someone to come in. I was unsuccessful but was able to schedule 2 future appointments. My mom had to end up coming and finished her cleaning from when she was my first patient. I think I learned something new...if I have had bad patients for a while and then a clean one, I need to be a LOT more gentle. I kept catching myself digging in way to hard into her shallow pockets. Good thing she is my mom and she will forgive me. I also learned about the different effects of the different prescription mouthwashes and the locally applied antibiotics. Cool stuff.

February 24, 2010

A CLASS THREE! Holy smokes, it's like I'd never seen calculus before. Everything I've seen before seemed so minimal to this guy. It was covering the buccal surfaces of his max molars and the lingual surfaces of the mandibular anteriors. I learned that if I'm not able to get accurate probe measurements because there is too much calculus, I have to do a gross scale. So that's all I did today...and take a set of BWX. I'm excited for him to come back in so I can do a proper scale and root planing. I saw calculus for the first time on one of my patient's x-rays. He spoke broken English, so I hope he was able to understand the importance of BRUSHING and FLOSSING and coming in every few months. I really hope he comes back too, first of all because we learned that gross debridement is not effective and also because I get my 4 quads of class 3!

February 22, 2010

Lucky day today. I had a patient from off the resource list and she turned out to be a class 2! I was able to do my exam on her and I finished her in 1 day!!! I loved seeing all her calculus chip off. Such a huge difference when it was all clean. I talked to her about coming in more regularly and she told me to call her when I started next year to schedule her again. Good day.

February 17, 2010

No patients today!!! Wahoo! Such a nice break from the stress. We learned how to do blood glucose testing, the diagnodent, and denture cleanings. I learned that I really need to get in to see a dentist about a cavity. The diagnodent registered a 52! Denture cleaning was a breeze, now I just need to find someone with a denture! Glucose testing was pretty simple and way fun. I got poked twice :S, but found that my blood sugar levels are pretty normal, even a little low. I even got to pass off my instrument sharpening PE. Yay!

February 10, 2010

My patient today was from Kenya! Such a nice guy. Unfortunately, the cultural and language barriers prevented me from letting him understand what I was going to do to him today. Even though I talked to him on the phone and felt like he understood everything, he came thinking he would get his two very broken and decayed teeth fixed. I had to tell him I was just there for prevention and would only be cleaning his teeth. He was very nice to let me clean, but was unprepared for the charges. He didn't want to take x-rays because of the cost, and was very hesitant about the cost for the cleaning, but agreed at least to the cleaning. He told me a little bit about the dental care in Kenya, and then I told him all about American care and how much we value prevention. I loved teaching him about the etiology of gingivitis and caries because it was all so new to him. I felt like I had sufficiently taught him the importance of prevention, but after I only finished 2 quads today he asked me if he REALLY needed to come back to finish. Poor guy, I could tell it was just a financial problem. I told him that it would help to prevent further big problems, but that if he needed to just use his money to get the very visible concerns restored first, then that would probably be best. I told him to call me if he ever wanted to finish the rest of the cleaning. I hope he comes back. I want him to understand a little bit more about prevention and hope to avoid the big restorations that could come.

February 8, 2010

I finished my dad today. Everyday I care more and more about my patient's oral health and I really love teaching about what I've learned in classes about oral problems and how we (the patient and I) can both do our part to improve their oral health. I also love the feeling that comes after finishing a patient! Wow, I just feel at peace and accomplished...unfortunately, it starts all over again in 6 months for that patient and in 2 days for me!

February 3, 2010

My first stranger patient, today! She was very sweet and patient with me. She was a 1B, but with some actual visual calculus! So exciting. I love getting it off! Such a great feeling. Also took another set of BWX. My goal is to get some sealants done. I just found out we have to do 3 by the end of the semester!