Requirements...

Are coming easier than I expected.  I am so grateful for this fact.  I thought that getting all of my requirements was going to be an absolute pain in the you know what!  So far I have been really lucky.  Despite having patients cancel the night before and one not show up, I have had a patient in my chair every morning and afternoon for the first 6 weeks.  I am up to 4 quadrants of a 1A, 6 of a 1B, 26- class II, 11 class III/IV, 6 sets of bitewing x-rays, 33 PAs, and 9 root debridements.  Most of my fellow students have met the 1B requirements, but I am not worried about getting 6 more quads during the last 9 weeks of the semester.  My 7 year old still needs to make it in for a cleaning. He will count as 4 quads of a 1A.  The VA has been a great place to get requirements as well.  Dr. Hanson has been great about helping me pass of PEs.  She is usually the one to suggest ones that I can pass off because she was watched me complete them through out the appointments.  She is also so complimentary on my skills.  She makes me feel so competent and like I actually know what I am doing.  Thanks Dr. Hanson!  You ROCK!

Some Good Experience

Last week I made a valiant attempt at seeing two patients in the morning.  One was my wonderful husband who needed a cleaning desperately and the other was my patient needing to get an a transplant list.  I got Trevor in and out of there within an hour and 20 minutes.  Feeling good!  My next patient shows up and still all is going well.  By 10:30 I was getting close to being done with him.  I called him a class III because of everything going on in his mouth.  Had my scale check.  All was well.  Polished, flossed, and added fluoride.  He was on his way to getting on the transplant list.  One unfortunate thing did happen during the appointment.  The amazing thing is that this very thing happened with a patient in the spring.  A composite filling came out of an anterior tooth!!!  I couldn't believe that this very thing would happen twice to me.

My afternoon patient was supposed to be a young woman.  When I called to confirm the appointment the night before, she told me she was expecting Medicaid to pay for this visit.  I had to inform her that we do not take medicaid and that she would be responsible for the visit.  She made it sound very bleak that she wouldn't be able to come up with the money.  I called my dad in a panic and informed him of the situation.  It is a little hard for him to take off on such short notice, but he was able to make it work for me.  I was able to get his cleaning down relatively quickly and then we did some laser therapy on one area.  I hope that it helps to rehabilitate his tissues and close up a pocket.  We will see him back in 2 weeks for a tissue evaluation and to laser the area again.

A Good VA Experience

I have to say that today went very well.  I saw a class V patient in the morning.  I took and pano and 4 bitewings on him as well.  He does an amazing job at keeping his teeth clean, so it really was very easy.

My patient in the afternoon was a little trickier.  First of all, he was hard of hearing.  I felt like I was shouting at him every time I said something.  Next, he couldn't be laid back very far.  I had to do a lot of the scaling standing up.  My back was already hurting me from the moment I woke up, so scaling unsupported was a little hard on me.  But I made it through.  His lower anterior teeth were horribly malpositioned and I didn't feel like I could adapt my instruments very well.  Next, I didn't probe because it had been done 2 months previously.  But there was one pocket that was a lot deeper than the person had recorded.  Unfortunately, I should have caught that by virtue of scaling down into the pocket.  Prof. M was really nice about helping me get to these areas.  We were able to clean off the stain for coffee.  This gentleman even said that it is enough to make him want to quit drinking it.  We'll see!