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 :(