Last 1A....for now

Today I saw a 4 year old and it went really good and fast!! His teeth were so clean and I only had to polish. I tried to take bitewing films but he wasn't ready for that yet so I took 2 occlusal films instead. I was finished with him in about 30 minutes so the rest of the time I was babysitting him and his little 5 month old brother while their mom was getting her teeth cleaned. It wasn't too bad but my arms are even more tired than are after cleaning a Class V!!!

Recession

My patient today had a lot of recession so I was having a hard time getting the calculus off there. I didn't want to use too much pressure and scrape the cementum off, but then I wasn't being aggresive enough. Instructor Vining taught me a few tricks with the Nevi and 135 and so now I really like using them.

Finished my CII exam

Last Wednesday I finished my Class 2 exam. It went pretty well and I'm SO glad it's over. Prof Costley was helping me at first but then she had to go to a meeting so Prof Hanson came and took her place. She was SO helpful and she taught me how to use my Gracey's and some better techniques for my other instruments. I was able to pass off 4 PE's so that means I only have 5 left and I have to do them in the next 3 weeks.

Done with sealant requirements

I was able to do 3 sealants on my patient today, so now I am done with my sealant requirements. I'm pretty close to being done with my x-rays too, I only need 3 more PA's and 1 set of BWX. My quad requirements are coming along pretty well too. I'm currently at 55 quads and I only have to have 60 for full points. But I don't have my Class 3 yet, so that's my biggest stress....

Class 2 Exam

On March 10th I had a class 2 patient so I declared it as an exam. I got done with the x-rays, OD and scaling one quad. I used my ultrasonic first and then hand scaled after. I still missed a few spots and I had a heck of a time getting them off, but Kirsten was very helpful. This was my first patient that I didn't know and I thought it went pretty well. I didn't feel too bad at getting under the gums and really going at that calculus. She was bleeding like crazy and it didn't even seem to bother her. I learned a couple new tricks and she is coming back this Wednesday so I am hoping I can get some PE's done.

Second 1B Exam

I did my second 1B exam on my cousin yesterday. I did pretty good, but the only thing I had a problem with was cleaning around the lingual bar. I also did 4 BWX and a pano to check for her wisdom teeth. I thought it was funny because I've had my brother and 2 cousins come in recently and they are all 17, and all 3 of them have to get their third molars out within the next month because they are very close to coming through. It's a good thing they have a good resource now and were able to get in and get those teeth checked :) Overall, I think the appointment went very well and I did good on my exam.

catching speed

I had another 1B today and I was able to get him completely done in 2 hours, plus pass off my ultrasonic PE, so I felt pretty good about my time utilization with him. It was actually my brother that came in and he's 17 years old. He drinks a ton of pop and eats plenty of treats so I decided to do my diet analysis project on him. He's supposed to be recording all the snacks he eats between meals for 3 days in a row. I think he's going to be very suprised at how many snacks he's eating and how long the acid is staying on his teeth.

Finishing a Class II

Monday I finished up my class 2 patient. My goal was to finish him in an hour because I only had the mandibular teeth left to scale, but things didn't go as planned. I had a really bad day with my instructor and it's a very long story, but mainly I just wasn't happy about her making me use the ultrasonic because my patient had a pacemaker, and she knew about it. Plus, I only missed 4 spots of calculus on all the mandibular teeth and I thought that was pretty good for my first class 2. And I was forced to use the ultrasonic after my scale check because of those 4 spots I missed, so I had already done most of the work manually!! She also talked to me about going to fast on a class 2, and I didn't feel like I went that fast. It took me about 25 minutes per quad, and my patient was still there over 2 hours. Overall, it was a very frustrating day!!!

Dentures with Diabetes

Last Wednesday I had my grandpa come in and he has a full upper denture plus diabetes, plus a million other health issues. It took my over an hour just to fill out the health history. He had 13 different medicines he was taking but he didn't know what each of them were for so I had to look them all up and group them together before I could write them in the chart. It was exhausting!! The denture was really easy to clean and he didn't have any stains or calculus on it so I just soaked it in the solution for the whole appointment. I did PA's on all his remaining mandibular teeth so I could check the bone levels. I also got to do the blood glucose test and that went really well. I was a little nervous about it, but he guided me through it since he's used to poking himself.

Trying the Ultrasonic

I used the ultrasonic today on the lower anteriors and it went pretty good. I was scared to try this because I haven't used it yet this semester, but my patient didn't seem to mind it and it worked pretty good. I still prefer hand scaling but I can see how beneficial it is to get off the bulk of the calculus first.

Lab Day

On Wednesday the 17th we had a lab and we got to learn how to do the blood glucose test, denture cleaning and the Diagnodent. It was such a relaxing day and it felt good not to stress about having a patient. I was a little nervous to do the blood glucose test but it worked out really good, especially since I had a diabetic and denture patient scheduled next week.