Bitter Sweet

Well, it's over.  I can't believe that after two years of working my butt off, it is all over.  Today was the last clinic day.  It doesn't quite feel real yet.  I think it will be more so when we actually have to take all of our "crap" home.  I wanted to really push myself today so I scheduled two class V patients for the morning and what I thought was a class III for the afternoon.  The morning went just as I had hoped.  I didn't need to take any x-rays on either of my am patients.  From start to finish each took me about 1 hour 10 minutes.  I didn't think that was too bad considering we need scale checks and charts signed before starting.

We enjoyed a fabulous potluck lunch together, instructors and all!  It was very enjoyable to sit down a eat a meal together.  We had stuffed taco shells (is that what they were called, Kristie?), soup, salad, chips/salsa, and many desserts.  Oh, it was so yummy!  Thanks everyone for contributing to our feast!  It was so good!

My afternoon went a little differently than I had expected.  I was planning on two Jr. students coming in to work on my patient.  I thought he was four quads of a class III, but he wasn't.  The last time I cleaned him I was given two quads of a III and two of a V.  The two girls that were supposed to come in, came in in the morning and worked on Leigh's patient.  That turned out to be good because my patient for sure didn't have 4 quads of a III.  Another Jr. was going to be in clinic in hopes of getting some IIIs.  I begged, well not really, Jen to let two quads remain a III so that this student could clean my patient and hopefully finish up some requirements.  So, I proceeded to clean my patient's mandible.  Easy-peasy!  Then we had to wait on the Jr. to finish scaling one quad on another patient.  My patient really needed to get back to work, but within a couple of minutes the student was ready.  I couldn't believe how much he was making my patient bleed!  My patient had a couple of deep pockets, but he shouldn't have been bleeding the way he was.  When we finally got him finished up and I walked him out, I told him that he might be a little tender later tonight.  He told me that he could definitely tell a difference in the way this other student and I scaled.  When I was exploring around to check for calculus, a chunk of tissue came up with my explorer!  This other student made the comment "oh a blood clot!"  I thought "no you dope, that isn't a blood clot. you cut off his tissue!"  I felt bad sending my patient away on a rough note!  I wish that I could have just finished him up myself and gotten him out of there faster.  What's done is done.  I will make sure this patient gets taken care of by my peer pal.  She'll do a great job!

Well, here we are at the end of our university experience.  I am terrified and excited and can't wait to see what the future holds!  I hope for the best for all of my hygiene friends and me.  I hope that we each get what we want out of our careers!  Good luck to us all as we head out to our futures!  I love you guys and will miss you dearly!  Thank you for making my hygiene education so amazing!

Here's to signing off for the last time!  Here we go, Dental Hygiene Class of 2012!  Let's do this!