Jan. 25, 2010
Today I had a new patient off the call list. She was very nice and on time. I was so happy to see that. When its not someone you know all you do is worry that they wont show or will be extremely late. She was a great patient though. She was having some grinding in her jaw that had never been there and had never caused her problems and was worried that sometime it might lock on her. So I got to take a panoramic x-ray on her. so part of another one of my requirements was filled that i was so worried about finding. Now that i've been doing conventional this whole time, I am feeling much more comfortable taking x-rays then I was and need to start using schik and scan x for the rest of the semester pretty much. I didn't get to scale on her either but we did go over a little ohi just for before her next appointment and that was all other then the regular probing and stuff. So she is coming back in just one week to finish her up. she's been very cooperative and easy to work with so thats made things really nice.

Jan. 20, 2010
Today my mother in law came in. It went really well. I planned on a simple 1b and taking normal 4 bwx x-rays. Instead, we ended up taking a full mouth of pa's and 4 bwx. so that was really great experience. she was a good patient and toughed through all those x-rays. they are my weakest point for sure so that took the longest but i didn't have to retake even one, so i was thrilled. Normally out of 4 bwx I would have to retake 3! I got done with all the probing and extra and intra stuff. so now I've just got the cleaning left. So I was pretty pleased with that day. it went well and i got to do a full mouth and had wondered how and who i was going to get to do that, so it worked out perfect. I've got her coming back in 2 weeks to get her scaling done and the rest of her appointment.

EXAM

Today I had a new patient that I have never met come in for the first time. Up til now I haven't had many patients but they've all been family. I was really worried about her showing up on time or showing up at all. But she came only 10 minutes late and had already filled out her health history without any medications or anything, so we could get right into it. she had just had x-rays taken so only wanted a cleaning, so that was nice and I was able to finish her whole appointment in one session. I ended up using her as an exam which was nice cause I felt like I did well and its one out of the way now, which is a huge stress relief. All my probe readings including a 4 were agreed upon and she had a lingual bar on all her anteriors upper and lower with cement on each tooth. So it was harder to get all the plaque off but I got a good score and only had to go back to a few. Which wasn't bad for my first patient I scaled on and a full mouth. I also passed of my exploring PE that day. So all in all, I had a really good day that day and made me feel like I was improving.

Good Day Finally!

So today i got a class 2 patient expecting a 1b. So I was really excited to have that for the experience. My x-rays turned out well finally, and i saw some things that i haven't got to yet. I saw quite a bit of recession, a furcation, and attrition which was pretty cool. It also helped with my OD for finding different things in the mouth like different fillings, crowns, sealants, and charting all that with the recession and the other things that were a bit unusual for me to have seen already. We also after taking the x-rays, found two incipient caries so that was pretty cool too. I didn't get to scaling so hopefully he will come back and I can finish his appointment. But he was a great patient and really easy to work with. So overall I didn't feel like I got a lot done fast, but I learned a lot and the next appointment should be much easier and faster.

First Patient day!!!

My mom came in today. She was a great patient. I didn't get much done. I only got done 4 bwx done, the hhx, od, extra and intra exam and full mouth probe. I had to retake every single x-ray. But at least the second ones turned out much better. Not great! but better. It was a little harder to take I felt like because she has bilateral mandibular tori. I got my conatacts open both times this time though so i think thats an improvement. Next time will be a little better since all I will have to do is scaling, polish, ect. No x-rays! thats all I care about, they are definetely a BIG weak point! I look forward to working on her again, but I'm still pretty nervous about anybody else. Hopefully I'll get faster pretty quick, I feel so bad having people come twice just as a favor.

First day Back!

Well our first day back we didn't see a patient. we split into groups and went to three different groups of learning. our first one we learned about the ultrasonic scaler and practiced with it on our typodonts, then we did some case studies on how to classify patients, and what to do for their OHI, then the last group we learned about our graceys and the different ways and circumstances that they can be used in. Next time is our real patient day. I've got my mom coming in but I'm still pretty nervous so we'll see how it goes.

Last day of Clinic today! We separated into 3 different groups. In one we learned about perio screening, the other was emergency procedures and the last one was how to be a CA and we signed up to do that 2 times next semester. After that we took an exam on our clinic manual. We were out a little early and it was a really chill clinic so it was nice for a last one before our next semester starts and we see patients every time. Wow. I'm soooo nervous for that one!