FINISHED FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was my last day in Clinic and I was able to get quite a bit done. Maybe I shouldn't have saved so much for the last day :)

This is what I did today:
Diagnodent
Sealant
Subgingival Irrigation
2 Injections
2 LA PE's
Curved Slimline Ultrasonic PE
2 Scan-X Pano's
2 Class 4 quads

It is such a great feeling to know that I have finished all my requirements for Senior Clinic!!!!

It's about time

Yesterday at the VA I ws able to get quite the variety of quads. In the mornind I had 2 quads of a Class V (which really should have been at least a Class II), and then 4 quads of a Class 1B. In the afternoon I thought I was going to get one quad of a Class III because my patient had moderate bone loss and was coming for SCRP, but he only had 7 teeth. He ended up not coming so I saw a different patient that turned out to be 3 quads of a Class IV and 1 quad of a Class II. I had to handscale everywhere and it took forever!!...That calculus was like cement!!! My patient was like 85 years old and had pretty severe Alzheimer's. He couldn't remember where he was and I had to keep asking him to open his mouth and explain what I was doing. It was really sad!! I was also able to do a Pano and 2 PE's today so that is going to make my life next week a little bit easier :)

So Close.....

I only have 2 more clinic days, one at Weber and the other at the VA.  I still need to do 5 PE's, 3 Pano's, 1 quad of a Class 3 and 4 quads of a Class 4. YIKES!!!  I was supposed to see one of my Class 4 patients yesterday morning but they cancelled so I ended up having my brother come up for x-rays and he brought my son with him cause I still needed a 1A.  That patient is supposed to be coming next week so I really hope that he does or I won't get my requirements. Maybe I'll get lucky and find something at the VA tomorrow, but that never happens! My other Class 4 patient is coming next week also, but he's really dependable so I know I'll get those 2 quads for sure.

I finished up my PA's yesterday so that was a relief.  I thought I was going to have an easy appointment with my son because he's been to the dentist before and he did pretty good. I think it's better to have someone else clean his teeth but I didn't have any other options because I still needed to see a child. I basically flossed his teeth and brushed his teeth with his new toothbrush and still had to pay $28. What a rip-off!!....but at least I got my requirements done. 

Emily and I did a few PE's on each other in the morning since our patients weren't there yet. It was a pretty good day, but now I'm just worried about getting all my Class 4's done. Only one more week :)

Wrapping Things Up!

Well I'm on the countdown now. I'm still waiting for my WREB results but everything else seems to be falling into place. I still need 3 pano's, 10 PA's, a 1A, 1 quad of a Class III and 4 quads of a Class IV...oh and 6 PE's. I guess I better get going on those!!

Today I had my dad come in for a FMX. It went really well and I didn't have any re-takes so I was pretty happy about that (and I think my dad was too). This afternoon I had a recall patient that counts for 4 quads of a Class IV!!! I think I have everything that I have left to do scheduled into the next 2 weeks of clinic. I'm so excited to be done and I can't believe that graduation is this close! One more time at the VA and 2 more clinics at Weber and I'll be done with patients for a while (at least until I get my license).

Good Day

Today was a pretty good day for me. I didn't have a morning patient but I ended up seeing one anyways. Ashley's patients girlfriend was there with him and she wanted a cleaning so I started working on her. I got through the OD and I scaled the UL quad. We got a late start and she had to leave early so I was pretty excited to get that far. She was 3 quads of a Class 2 and 1 of a Class 3 so I did the Class 3 quad first since I'm way over on my 2/5's. It turns out that Ashley's patient is going to count as a Class 4 so I'm going to see him in a couple weeks and clean 3 quads and Ashley is going to finish up the girlfriend. Kristen also gave me a Class 3/4 patient and he's coming next week. YAY!! I might actually get my Class 4 requirements done!!!!

My cousin was my afternoon patient and it went really well. He has full braces but it wasn't nearly as bad as my last patient with braces. He had pretty good homecare and it wasn't too bad flossing either. He was just a 1B, but I was pretty excited that I didn't miss anything!!

BOARDS!

Well Boards are over!! Wednesday we took our LA written test in the morning. I usually take tests pretty fast but this time I only had about 5 minutes to spare. We were all sitting down the hall waiting for them to put the envelope with our results out on the table. I felt physicially sick as soon as someone said they were out there; it felt like going over the railroad tracks or on a roller coaster and having your stomach drop. IT WAS HORRIBLE!!! I felt very prepared to take this test and I really felt like I knew the information well, but I was extremely nervous for the results. Everyone started opening their envelopes right there in front of everyone, but I had decided I was going to go sit in my car to open it up. If I passed I had to get my stuff anyway, and if I didn't I wanted to hurry and get out of there without facing anyone. Fortunately I passed!!! It was such a relief!! I also passed both my injections on the first attempt so I was really excited about that. I was a little bit shaky because I hadn't eaten lunch yet, but overall I did really well.

My clinical exam was Thursday afternoon and it was SO stressful. 2 hours seems like a long time to clean just one quad but the time flew by!! My check-out time was 3:05 and I think I checked my patient out at 3. I was the most nervous about my patient not qualifying. I was pretty confident that she would, but you just never know. Luckily, my first submission worked! I even got to do anesthesia and it was so strange to not have someone watching me the whole time. There were a couple pieces of calculus that I was really having a hard time with; I just hope that in the end I got them off. I explored each tooth so many times and I know I got the majority off, but I'm just nervous with what the examiners might have found. I was also scaling one of the premolars just to make sure it was smooth, and my instrument slipped and I cut her gums. She was numb so she didn't feel anything, but then I had to try and smooth it out. I've never done that before and I don't like the thought of trimming off tissue :(  I don't know the rules about tissue trauma, but I hope I smoothed it out enough that it won't count against me. I guess I'll just wait for my results and hope that I passed!!!

Hardest 1B EVER!!!!

My patient on Tuesday was a 1B but she was freaking hard!!! She had full braces, she hadn't had a cleaning in about 3 years and her tissues were SO inflamed. It was so hard for me to get around the wires and it was very frustrating because she would barely open her mouth and then she kept whincing every time I touched her. It would have been way better if she was numb but she wasn't interested in that. The good news is that I got to pass off my Air-Powder Polisher PE so I finally have that out of the way. I really enjoy using that now that I've got the hang of it, but I still don't think the patients really enjoy it. I was a little disappointed that this was my last patient before Boards, but I guess it was good practice and I really had to focus on keeping my instruments under the gingiva, especially on the pre-molars, and not just following the contour of the enamel and gingiva.

My first Class 4 Patient

I finally got a Class 4 patient at the VA last week!!! He only had 2 quads left to finish so that's what I did, but it was so nice to finally start those requirements. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, but I know that every patient is different so hopefully I'll be able to do well on the next 6 quads. And I really hope that I'll be able to get 6 more quads!! I only go to the VA two more times and I've had ZERO luck finding a Class 4 patient at Weber. Other than the 6 quads of a Class 4 that I need, I need 3 more of a Class 3, and a IA. The only thing I'm worried about is the Class 4's, but I think there's a lot of people in our class that still need them too, so hopefully I'm not the only one stressed about this!!

LA Mockboards

Well my LA Mockboard exams didn't go as well as I was hoping. I thought I did great on the IA but the examiners said I was a little too deep and I need to make sure I'm over the opposite pre-molars instead of by the canine. I thought it was a great injection :(  On the PSA I hit bone so I re-directed and then the second time I got a positive aspiration. I kinda freaked out cause I've never had one before. I announced negative aspiration because it looked negative and one of the examiners said okay, but the other one just kept waiting and then said that I had a tiny amount of blood show up. This wouldn't have been a problem because I would have been able to see another one, but they had me withdraw anyway. When I did it again it was fine, and I even used the same syringe so it was kinda pointless for me to start over, but whatever. I also need to work on my second 45 degree angle a little more!!

I barely failed the written mockboard, but I'd only studied to chapter 2 by that point. I mostly missed all the questions about which drugs are amides and esters and the others names of each drug. I've read all of the chapters now and made my own notes so I feel a lot more comfortable with the information and hopefully I'll be able to pass both the exams this time :)

Class III's

Both my patients on Tuesday were Class III's, and I didn't miss any spots!! Now I only need 3 more quads of a Class III to finish those requirements. I also had my husband come in so I could practice injections since he's going to be my Anesthesia Board patient. He said he felt a ZING when I did the IA so I was pretty excited that I hit the nerve right on. He wasn't too happy about it because he was numb for about 4 hours and I had told him he wouldn't be because I was barely depositing any solution. He had great landmarks so I was way excited about that!!

What a Week!

This has been a crazy busy week for me. Class on Monday, Mockboards on Tuesday, National Board Exam on Wednesday, VA on Thursday, Sealant Clinic on Friday, work on Saturday. I am really looking forward to having Monday off!!

I didn't do great on Mockboards, but suprisingly I still feel pretty good about Boards coming up. I missed 3 spots in the UL quad, and I'm submitting the UR quad on the same patient for real boards. I feel really comfortable with this patient and I'm so glad that she's willing to come back in March. I'm also very glad that she speaks English. I added teeth 25, 26 & 27 to my submission and I missed the facial on each of them. I think I was mislead by the probing depths. I only got 1/2's on the anterior teeth and they seemed pretty healthy besides all the supragingival calculus, but I must have been hitting calculus when I probed because I didn't even know there was calculus there until Dr. Hanson pushed my explorer down further and I went right over top of it. I really need to work on exploring and working from different positions so I can feel everything. I gave a PSA injection for the first time and I still need to work on those. I was happy that I didn't need any help on the MSA and ASA though, and I found the correct spot the first time. I really enjoy giving injections while I'm doing it but it scares me to think about it before.

I thought the National Board Exam went pretty good. I finished the test at 1:45 so I was really glad to not be there all day. My favorite part was the case studies and I think I did really well on them. I sure hope I get at least a 75%!! My reward for taking the test was a Butterfinger Blizzard and fries from Dairy Queen and then watching the Bachelor. What a great night :)

At the VA on Thursday I got 6 quads of a Class V and 2 quads of a Class III. The patient with the 2 quads of a Class III was just there in October, but he must have had some major residual calculus because on the distals of every posterior tooth in the UR quad it was SO tenacious. There's no way it could have built up like that in just 4 months. I really need to get some Class IV's. It seems like the same students in my group are always getting the harder classes, and I always get the 1B's and V's. I feel pretty good about my requirements. I need one more 1A and 1B, 6 quads of a III and 8 of a IV. I know the Class IV's are going to be really time consuming so I sure hope I can find one soon!!

Maybe I Really Can Scale

Yesterday was a little bit better in Clinic for me. I worked on the LR quad of a Class 3 and I only missed 3 spots. I'm sure most of the girls in my class never miss 3 spots and that probably sounds like a lot to them, but I was so excited!! Plus they were burnished so at least I actually worked on them. I even got to do 3 more injections so I feel like I'm getting a little better at that. I did fine on the Long Buccal and Mental injections, but I had a little bit of trouble with the IA. This was the first time I've done injections on the right side and I hit bone twice before I finally got it. It was pretty frustrating!!

My afternoon patient qualified for mockboards so I did all the x-rays on her and let another student have her because I already have someone scheduled. I wasn't too worried about cleaning any quads on her because I've already finished my Class II/IV requirements and she had to leave early so I was just glad to be able to get some x-rays out of it. Overall, it was a pretty good day for me in Clinic.

3 down....4 to go

I wish I was talking about my Class 3's and 4's, but I'm just talking about my VA days!! Almost halfway done....YAY!!! I always seem to get the patients that have SO much dang plaque and then I get that written in my evaluation that I missed all the plaque. They should have seen what was there at the first!! Plaque is frustrating to me, to say the least! I can never seem to get all of it. Even if I scale it off, polish it off, floss it off....it just doesn't all come off. I don't know what the deal is!

My patients were both really nice today. I only had a 9:30 patient this morning and that turned out to be really nice. I think he talked about Hawaii for about half the appointment, so there wasn't much time for actually scaling, but it was VERY relaxing!! He had crowns and bridges on all of his anterior teeth and I guess I was under the impression that calculus doesn't build up on them, but that's wrong. I didn't even bother scaling those teeth and so when my instructor came over she said I missed those areas. Oops! Guess I'll be scaling EVERYWHERE now. I should have been doing that before but I've never seen calculus on a crown. WHO KNEW?!?! My afternoon patient was really good too. I got 2 quads of a 3 and 2 quads of a 5 so I'm pretty excited about that. He comes in every 3 months, but he really builds up that calculus fast!! There was major recession going on and it was nice that it wasn't sensitive to him. Usually I start to scale on recessed areas and the patients about fly out of the chair.

I also got to place Arestin on both of my patients today so that was really good practice. Too bad we don't have a few PE's for that one. I was pretty happy with my scaling abilities on the second patient. They've been down the toilet lately and I felt like I actually knew what I was doing today.

Hard Patient or No Patient....Which do I prefer??

This morning I had a Class 3 patient. According to his probe depths and bone level he should have been a Class 2, but he had SO MUCH deposit, and it REALLY didn't want to come off. I worked on the LL quad today and it took FOREVER!!! I thought I was doing such a good job too. When Dr. Hanson came over I told her that I knew there was still deposit on 19D and 21D but that I just couldn't seem to get it off. It turned out that I missed a few more spots than that, and I was feeling really crappy about it, but even Dr. Hanson wasn't able to remove some of the deposits so that made me feel a little bit better. I used almost every instrument, the ultrasonic, gracey's and files on this piece and it still didn't budge. We ended up just making a note in the chart that there was still deposit there and hopefully we'll be able to get it off next time. I also got to give 3 injections so that was nice. 6 down.....29 to go!!

I didn't have an afternoon patient. I called 8 patients to come in and no one was able to so I just helped others in the clinic and did some studying. It is SO stressful to have to find 2 patients every week. I had list of patients that I thought were mine, but it turns out most of them have been scheduled by someone else. How does this happen?? I'm pretty sure I was the preferred provider so I don't know how someone else got their information. RIDICULOUS!!! Oh and BY THE WAY :) There was a patient here today that really wanted to be seen, but Pam was already listed as her preferred provider and the last thing I want to do is steal someone else's patient!

BOARDS....YIKES!

I can't believe that it's almost time to take Boards. My first exam is in 11 days and I still don't feel like I'm retaining any of the information that I've gone over. I'm not really that nervous...yet....for the National Board, I'm really just dreading going all the way to Draper and being there so freaking early in the morning. I guess I'll just be going to bed at 7 the night before so that I can get enough sleep to stay alert for the 8 hour test!

I also had my second Mockboard exam on Tuesday and things didn't go very well there. I missed almost every dang spot, plus I had to take all the x-rays that morning so I got a penalty for late check-in. BAH! At least it's over. I really need to work on my lateral pressure!! That's my biggest problem right now....and it's a HUGE problem!!

Screenings

We had screenings today and it was out of control!! Emily had scheduled 5 screenings for us to do and we both ended up finding our mockboard patients so that was good. I needed to do x-rays on my patient but the rooms were all full and I guess the Nomad is off-limits so it looks like I'll be doing x-rays Tuesday morning which is going to be stressful!! I hope this patient isn't going to be too hard. My exploring skills have been crap lately and I'm not sure what has happened to me. She was bleeding all over the place today and I was barely touching her tissues. She was actually a mockboard patient in 2009 so that's nice that she already knows the drill. The only problem is that she only speaks Spanish so that should be interesting. I'm also thinking that I'm going to have to get her numb, which is a MAJOR PROBLEM since I have't given any injections since our labs. I'm freaking out about that just A LITTLE BIT!!! Well I hope everything goes okay. At least I'll have a patient in my chair.....if she shows up! Karina gave her quite the speech and basically told her that if she fails to show up, then I fail too!! Let's hope for the best :)

Were my eyes closed?

This morning I had a patient that only wanted to come in to have some Arestin placed around a failing implant. She brought an x-ray with her and the bone loss was unbelievable. She still had enough that the tooth wasn't mobile, but it seemed like it should be. The procedure went well and she's coming back in February to have it checked and then have a full cleaning. I also had an issue with implant homecare instructions. One certain individual said to ABSOLUTELY not floss an implant, that it was like taking a knife to the soft tissues; but we learned it class that it's VERY important to keep the implant clean. I showed the patient how to floss around the implant using Superfloss and dipping it in Listerine first. I hope she can keep it up and that the implant won't fail.

This afternoon I think I had my eyes SHUT during the appointment. I was thinking he was going to be scheduled as a Class 5, but Dr. Hanson said she would call it a 2. I was pretty happy about this, but I wasn't sure what deposit she was feeling. I did pretty good in the posteriors and only missed 2 spots, but I seriously think I was BLIND when it comes to the mandibular anteriors. I started the appointment with this area and then went back to it at the end, but I missed A LOT of areas, and most of them were SUPRA!! How embarrassing!!! It turns out that I wasn't high enough up on my fulcrum and I needed to just use the very tip of the instrument. I haven't missed supra areas on those linguals for a while now, so maybe I was just getting lazy. I really don't know what happened, but I hope it doesn't happen again. I'm really going to focus on staying up on my fulcrum and trying to explore from different angles so I can feel what the instructors find.

Back to the VA

Today was my first day back to VA and it feels like I never left. The day went pretty smoothly, except the x-ray unit in my room was broken so I had to find a new room every time I needed to take radiographs (3 times!!) It was a really big pain to move all over the clinic, but I think it will make me appreciate the times that I have it so easy. I actually only had a Class 5 and a 1B today but it was really relaxing. I hope to get a lot of Class 3's and 4's down here, but I'm glad I got an easy day today.

Last First Clinic Day EVER!!!

Today was my first day back in clinic and it was pretty successful. I had a 1A patient this morning and everything went good with her. I had to retake one of my x-rays and I was kind of bothered by this. I had a cone-cut and it was really disappointing. This afternoon I had my returning Class 3 patient from last fall. I basically did a gross debridement on the right quads last time because there was SO MUCH calculus. She's 37 and NEVER had a cleaning. I did amazing/horrible all at the same time. I would do one thing and Dr. Hanson would be so excited about it, and then on the next thing I would totally suck it up. It was ridiculous!! I'm not sure what happened. But I'm really glad I got to work on my ultrasonic skills and see the calculus coming off from all my hard work. All in all it was a good day......but I'm sure I'll be sore the rest of the week :(