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.