My first class III

Wow!  I had no idea how hard a class III was going to be.  I convinced my patient to have x-rays taken today since it had been a year.  He seemed reluctant at first, but I turned on the persuasion and he consented.  I am up to 9 sets of bitewing x-rays!  My patient had quite a bit of calculus that I was having a hard time maneuvering around while I was probing.  Most of my measurements were accurate, but there were some that were way off.  I just need to have an instructor show me how to get around it to get accurate readings.  Then I started with his cleaning.  I only did one quadrant of his mouth and he was even missing two molars in that area.  I couldn't believe how hard the calculus was to get off.  When I had my scale check, I had missed 5 areas!  I had started with my ultrasonic, which did a great job of getting stuff from inside the pocket.  My instructor advised me for next time to use the left/right ultrasonic tips.  She said those will help me a ton with his tenacious calculus.  I sure hope so, because that stuff was hard to get off!!!  My patient isn't coming in until my second to last clinic day.  I sure hope that I can get everything done in that amount of time.  Fortunately that is my longer day so I have more time to complete things.  I am looking forward to trying out the other ultrasonic tips.  I hope that that helps my instrumentation.  I really need to use more of a horizontal stroke while working on tenacious calculus.  I will get better, I know I will.  It is just a matter of time.