11/29

Erik came in today as my first patient, and I was nervous. I was so flustered, I couldn't find a pulse and couldn't hear the BP, then I had to retake an x-ray so I felt so behind. But everyone else was pretty much at the same pace as me. I started to scale a little bit but didn't finish a quad. Hopefully I can get him done next visit. At least I'm getting down the paperwork and the order of procedure.

11/27

Today Ashley worked on me. She didn't get as far as I did, so I think I did pretty good on time. Erik is coming in on Wednesday so hopefully I can get enough done to feel comfortable. This weekend was thanksgiving and on Friday I had an emergency appendectomy. So today I'm not real excited to be here, but I didn't want to have to make it up.

11/22

Today I worked on my first real patient, kind of, it was Ashley. BUt i think I did really well. I completed scaling and everything. Of course she didn't have much calculus to remove, but at least I jot the hang of doing everything in order.

11/20

Emergency procedures. It's kind of scary to think of what I'd do in an emergency. We are supposed to tell our pod partner that we have a stat situation and then they are supposed to go and get an instructor. But I know that if I really had a situation I would just stand up and say HELP! SO hopefuly I just never have to deal with that situation.

11/15

Today we did sealants. I touched up a tiny one on Cassandra for practice, but I've seen so many of them done that I think I'll be ok. It just is going to be hard to do them on little children. We also put some flouride varnish on eachother. My #30 is soo sensitive, I'm hoping this will help. We also found a sticky spot on #15, but the diagnodent did not give a reading so I'm not sure if it's decay or not. I need to make an appointment and see a dentist to make sure.

11/13

Today we did the powder polishing. I am only going to use it if I have to because it is a pain to set up, and it is messy. I didn't mind the taste too much, it's not any worse than the regular prophy paste. I kind of went through and scaled the whole mouth, and I think I'm getting more comfortable with everything, I'm excited for Erik to come in and practice on him.

11/8

Sharpening! Today we sharpened our instruments, I was suprised at how dull they already were. The DXXTR's probably dulled them some, and we've only worked on each other a little bit. It made me realize how important it is to sharpen, and how often we need to do it.

11/6

Flouride! Today we learned how to do a flouride treatment, 5 minutes. So the rest of the day we practiced what we needed to brush up on. I probed and explored a little since I hadn't done it in months ( at least it's felt like a while). Then I scaled, polished and did a flouride tx. I quite enjoyed the orange flouride, but it was a bit sour, but no bad after taste.

11/1

Today we went through the patient treatment and learned polishing. I have already polished when I worked in the dental office, so that was nothing new. But we are only supposed to selective polish. I think some patients might think we're doing a crappy job if we only polish a few of the teeth and hand brush the rest, but I guess we'll just have to see.

10/30

We continued to scale anterior and posterior teeth today. I'm feeling pretty good about it. We used the intra oral camera and i have some gingivitis on my lingual. I am paranoid about it now. I need to start flossing every day and using listerine-that's my goal.

10/25

Today we scaled posterior teeth. I didn't find it too difficult. We used curettes, so the toe wasn't sharp, so I wasn't as nervous as using a sickle. It felt cool to scrape off calculus, I love that sound. And I like being scaled on, it feels good to hear that scratching on your own teeth I think, I feel cleaner.

10/23

My pod likes to slack. We were supposed to go over anterior scaling AGAIN, and we'd had enough. So we tried to be busy by passing off our instrument and Dental Screening PE(which I failed!) I really shouldn't have failed. I was kind of pissed, because I just didn't mark a couple things in red. It was really a minor mistake, but oh well. But we did go over the intra-oral camera. I want to look inside my mouth. It will be cool to show patients before and after images of their teeth.

10/18

We did our od, ohi and continued to scale anterior teeth today. I'm starting to get the hang of it, but am definately not ready to practice on a real patient. I just hope I get comfortable with scaling before I start seeing patients, but I probably won't really be comfortable for a long time. My husband will be my first patient, I'm sure he can't wait.

10/16

Today we used our sickles and scaled the anterior teeth. It wasn't as hard as I had imagined, and I only stabbed ashley a couple of times, so I think she was pleased as well. Posterior teeth will probably be harder because I can't see as well, so good luck to whoever my partner is when we start that.

10/11

We went over our instruments today which was interesting. It was good to see the instruments and learn what area they are used on. I think we start scaling next week-I'm nervous for my own mouth and for my partners.

10/9

We used the disclosing agent today in clinic and me and brittney paired up. Normally I would brush after lunch, but they told us not to so we could see how much plaque we had on our teeth. My PFI was like 34 and Brittney's was 24 because we had just eaten. So I don't think that it is really acurate, because not all people brush right before they go to the dentist. I hope we don't have to use it on every patient.

10/4

Today Tiffany and I did dental screenings on eathother. We both have a lot of fillings and both might have a little decay-yikes! I'm due at the dentist but I wasn't going to go since I'm in hygiene, but I guess I'd better go and get my teeth checked out. It made me realize I probably better do a better job at brushing and flossing.

10/2

My pod is speedy. We finished probing eachother by 3 so we had a good hour left. I practiced on Kimber, and hopefully I didn't hurt her too bad. Our instructor checked me and I was pretty accurate. I think I need some loops though, I have a hard time seeing the tiny lines on the probe. Maybe next year I'll get some.

Clinic 9/25

Today I passed off 3 PE's, I was happy to get them out of the way. The health history one was so long and took a while. My treatment record was 3 pages long, I hope I don't have too many patients who are like that.

Clinic 9/20

Today we practiced using our explorer on the dxxtrs and on a partner. Jamie was my partner and I hope I didn't hurt her too bad, she was a good sport. I'm starting to get the hang of exploring and fulcruming, but I still have a long way to go.