My Guinea Pig

We were able to practice on each other today!!!  Stef was my guinea pig while I suctioned and squirted her mouth.  I was able to try four different styles of suction devices.  We have a really neat suction thing called a Blue Boa.  As a practitioner, I rather enjoyed using the Blue Boa.  It was very convinient to place on the corner of my patients mouth and let it rest there while I practiced rinsing the mouth with my air/water syringe.  Thanks for letting me work on you Stef!!!

Today we also practiced setting up and taking down our operatory.  There is such a particular way of doing everything.  My pod and I were going over everything together to make sure that we each were understanding how to do each step without missing something.  There is so much to remember to do to get set up before seeing a patient.  I can't wait until we get to start working on each other.  It will feel so fantastic to hold an instrument and actually scale calculus off of someone's teeth.  I love my clinic days.  It is fun to learn what we are going to be doing.  My hands sure a taking a beating though.  I feel like I have used about a cup of alcohol rub to sanitize inbetween glove usage and 5 gallons of water to wash my hands.  Any day now my skin is going to crack.  I just need to do a good job of keeping them moisturized.  I love what I am doing.  Everyday I am feeling overwhelmed at the end of the day.  But the next day I am ready for the next adventure.  Bring it on!

Baby Steps

This is what we have been told we are doing.  We are learning to take baby steps in this process called "becoming a dental hygienist."  Yesterday we went through a process called "washing our hands."  We were taught the proper way to wash for 15 seconds, rinse, repeat for 15 seconds with scrubbing between the fingers, rinse, repeat for another 15 seconds with scrubbing under the finger nails, rinse and dry.  This will be my routine for the next two years every time I am in clinic.  I love my clinic days.  It is so fun to be learning what we are actually going to be doing when we are cleaning a patients teeth.

We had a special treat yesterday.  We had a guest speaker come and demonstrate the use of a suction tip called a Blue Boa.  The inventor of it is a graduate of Weber State Dental Hygiene and lives here in the Ogden area.  She is so nice and has created such a wonderful product.  The second year students didn't get a personal demo from her, so they haven't become too accomstomed to this awesome device.  I think it is something that I could get used to and appreciate in the dental profession. 

It was also a great day, because I was able to pass off my first PE, or process evaluation.  We have a number of these every semester that we have to pass off by demonstrating our knowledge on the task described.  One down and ? to go.  I am loving being here.  It is such a blessing to be in the program and I can't wait to finally get my feet (or hands) "dirty" and actually learn some scaling and probing.  Until next week!

First Clinic Day

All day today, I have had the chills because of how excited I am to finally be here.  I will admit that I was terrified yesterday.  Every time I thought about school, I got a pit in my stomach and my heart started to race.  Now that I am here though, I couldn't be more happy.  It has been fun getting my supplies stored in my assigned drawer.  I always enjoy learning new things and have had fun getting to know the software that I will be using for the next two years.  It is also nice to get to know my classmates as we have spent the ENTIRE day together.  I now feel that I have to go home and get all of my stuff more organized.  I have many things that I need to get together so that I have the right things with me for each class.  Hopefully I will get used to this new schedule quickly so that I have more time for lunch.  I am STARVING right now!  What a great day it has been so far.  I am so ready for this new adventure to begin.

Orientation

Boy, am I feeling overwhelmed and slightly out of place.  I feel like I know nothing about the dental field even though I worked in it for 7 years.  I am bringing home with me enough stuff to fill a room in my house and all of it needs to come back to school with me on Monday.  I have been told that I shouldn't be too overwhelmed, yet it is hard not to.  I am very nervous, yet so excited at the same time.  As I opened up some of my instruments, mostly my fake mouths, I got the chills.  I know that this is where I am supposed to be and that I am doing.  I know that this is going to take a lot of work and I am ready.  I am really excited to get to know the other girls in my class.  We are going to have a great time together, learning and helping one another.  Let's ROCK Dental Hygiene Class of 2012!!!