Prophy

I enjoyed what we were doing last Wednesday.  I have done so many prophylaxis cleanings on patients in the past that it was second nature.  I felt very confident in polishing Tori's teeth and making sure that the prophy cup flared underneath her gum line.  I didn't do a fluoride varnish treatment on her, but it can't be too hard!  All you do is paint some nasty fluoride on all surfaces of the teeth.  I will have an opportunity to do it on my patient tomorrow.  I can't wait for tomorrow because we get to do at least one sealant on each other.  I have several molars that are in desperate need of sealants.  Hopefully that goes well.

It's all a blur

I have been struggling to keep my days separate.  I keep forgetting to blog about what I have been doing.  I only hope that by the end of the semester that I have enough blog posts to get the grade.  My days are really blurring together.  I can't believe that we are halfway through our 10th week of class.  I am almost finished with my first semester.  I have heard that this time flies.  I am grateful that it is.  I am really enjoying my education, but I can't wait to be done with school and have this education thing behind me.  I am excited to feel comfortable with what I am going to do for the rest of my life.  Also, the work load will be so much nicer.  Right now my "work" comes home with me, whereas when I am working as a hygienist, work stays at work.  Monday, October 25th, we just had a practice day.  We had to pass off our Oral Hygiene Instruction PE and the Intraoral Camera PE.  My instructor kept telling me to slow down while I was instruction my "patient" on how to take better care of her teeth.  I didn't feel like I was talking fast, but she apparently thought I was.  I think that made me even more nervous.  Oh well, I got through it.  Now I am on to tomorrow, Wednesday.  We are getting closer and closer to our actual patient days.  I can't wait to work on Trev.  Thank heavens he is willing to be my first victim, I mean patient!

Relaxed

I got to sit back and relax on Wednesday, October 20th.  I was able to enjoy being a patient today and not have to do too much.  I enjoyed being able to lie in the treatment chair and just chill.  MeChel worked on me and life was good.  She did a really good job!  I did have to pass off a couple of PEs right before clinic ended.  I'm not quite as comfortable with posterior scaling as I am anterior.  I know that it will come.  I just need to practice.

Easy Pleasey...

As my son would say, "Easy Pleasey, Lemon Squeezy."  Monday, October 18th was really interesting.  We started learning how to use a intraoral camera.  I thought that it was going to be the easiest thing in the world to put a small camera into someone's mouth and snap a picture.  Well, I was wrong.  It is very easy in theory, yet to actually do it and get the picture you want is another thing.  I had a hard time stabilizing the camera long enough to take a picture.  I was eventually able to do it, and it is really fun.  We are supposed to take pictures of things inside a patient's mouth to use for patient education purposes as well as for documentation.  That will be a nifty tool to use once we start working on patients.  I was also able to start scaling on anterior teeth today.  That is a BLAST!!!  I practiced at home and got a decent sized chunk of calculus off of my husband's teeth!  Let the calculus fly!

An easy PE

So, every day we have a process evaluation that is due for something that we have learned so far.  We are to have practiced these skills sometime on our own and then pass it off with one of our instructors.  Todays was a piece of cake!!!  I am glad that I am getting down the classifications of instruments.  I understand that.  Now I need to go home and practice the working strokes, adaptations, and angulation.  I need to get myself feeling more comfortable with how to adapt to the tooth and how to really get in there and make the calculus fly!!!

Sorry Karlie

Dear Karlie,

I am so sorry that I made you bleed today.  I felt so bad every time that I saw a slight flinch.  You were so good to work on.  You sat there so patiently every time I poked you.  I make a promise to you right now, that I will go home and practice on my typodont.  I will make sure that I adapt my scaler to the tooth better than I did today.  It really was hard concept for me to grasp.  I don't really know why, but I will work hard to get better.  I hope that your gums heal quickly.  If you read this blog post, it will be good for one free flower headband from me!  You better act quickly.  This offer won't last forever!  Thank you for letting me get back in there, even though I kept hurting you!  You were a great patient!

Sarah

Yikes!

Today we practiced scaling the front teeth on the top and bottom.  I was terrified.  I would much rather have a newbie working on me than work on someone.  I sometimes feel like I really shouldn't be doing this.  I failed a PE today.  It is really disheartening to have that happen.  I feel sick about it.  I know that it means that I just need to improve my skills for that PE. I haven't worked on that one enough to really know how to do that one.  I need to work harder at making sure that I am prepared for each clinic day.  I am so glad that this day is over though.  I am ready to go home and spend some time with my family.  Oh, wait!  I still need to study for my two classes for tomorrow.  It really is never ending.  I feel like I started to understand how to scale.  There is more wrist movement to it than I originally thought.  I would have thought it was the fingers moving the instrument.  I am going home to practice so that I can pass off my PE that I failed today.  I will not fail another one.  It made me feel like a complete idiot!!!