No Show!

Grrr I don't like it when patients don't show up! I am already loosing lots of sleep worrying about if it's even possible to get all my requirements in the time I have. I don't have time to waste! So I confirmed the apt. 2 days ago and still the patient forgot. So I called my wonderful back-up, I love my husband. He dropped everything and came. Not the most productive day when I have an hour of work time instead of 2 and 1/2 but at least I passed off some stuff and got some x-rays done. Next time I am calling my patient and bugging them 100 times the morning of so that they show up darn it!

Learning Day-

Today was rough but I learned so much. My patient was extremely sensitive and shaking the whole time because the scaling noise was hard for her. She was adorable and nice about it but I was way too timid and worried about how upset she was that I took way too long doing everything and missed a ton. I learned so much about which instruments to use where. I found that I love love gracey's. Wow it was a long day but I'm so glad it happened. My instructor was wonderful about everything and taught me a ton even though there were people calling her name in every corner. All in all hard but good learning experience.

Good Day

Today was a great day. My hand is sore though, apparently I need to do some hand muscle exercises. I am learning so much and it gets better every time. I still love teeth so that is a good sign. Today was a great learning experience with fulcruming and adapting. I need to always stay up on my fulcrum. I have been watching Prof. Hansen's instrumentation video each time before clinic and it helps me a lot. I keep repeating to the tooth to the toe in my head the whole time. Maybe we should make a song out of it so I can sing to the patient the whole time. That would be fun.

loops and headlamps here I come

I had the cutest patient ever today. Which was good cause I was nervous out of my mind. I finally got to scale, only one quad, but hey its a start. Before I finish this semester I plan on figuring out the difference between the feel of calculus and roughness. For some reason I always think there is a lot more than there really is and subsequently waste enormous amounts of time. I was excited to find in my first scaling appointment of the semester that I no longer think about the modified pen grasp. Unfortunately my ergonomics has flown right out the window. Looks like I will be out of a job quite soon after I strain my neck and back, maybe I should look into some loops. Growing up I had never actually seen a hygienist use them. In fact I didn't even know what they were until last semester. Also I have decided to start wearing a head lamp so I can still see when I forget to sit up straight and lean my head right through the path of the light. It's quite amusing when everything suddenly goes dark when you have a bladed instrument under the patients gingiva. It will be quite stylish and will catch on quickly I'm sure. I guess I could just get loops with a light on them but this seems a lot more amusing.

The family party cont...

Today went more smoothly than any other day. That is good. I have done a million OD's and still haven't started scaling. That could be a potential problem. Not really sure I know how to scale so if you come on Wednesday and I'm curled in the corner in the fetal position crying you will know why. Now I'm off to party, or do homework, probably will do homework, blast.

Today was good...

My Grandpa is so darn awesome. What a trooper. I went early to get him a parking pass and then he gave it to one of the other patients haha. I think I am getting the OD down, time to start having recall patients so I can learn how to scale...

I love my family

I'm so so glad I have family living close by. Today for our first patient of the semester I had my little sister come in. It was so fun to have her and took some of the pressure off. Feels a little crazy starting to see patients twice a week when I don't feel ready but hey thats the best way to learn right? Everything went as well as you could have hoped. It's amazing how much you forget when you aren't studying it every night. It was a good reminder of everything. Funny thing I was so careful to take a pano on my sister and made sure I read all of the instructions as a reminder before I took it. Then when I sent it through the scanx machine there was a huge huge radioopaque spot down the middle. Yep put the thyroid collar on oops. I'm way excited but so nervous for the semester. It will be a blast.

On a side note I still brush Guido's teeth every night....He loves his toothbrush and jumps in circles when he sees it.

WE ARE BACK!

1. Well folks thats the end of the break. Felt like it only lasted one weekend. I love this program so so much but I could have done one more week without it. So quick update on the last of last semester. The second mock patient day was much much less frustrating than the first. In fact it went great. Then for the real patient day I had my mom come. I wish all of my patients are as understanding and fasinated with everything as she was. It was a very encouraging ending to the semester and I am so glad we got to have one real patient. Everything finally made sense when it was put all together and flowed quite well. It was awesome and made me so excited for next semester. I love teeth.
2. So this semester has now started. Wow it was so hard to get up this morning. Today we went over taleval, our new grading system, which I think will be wonderful. Then we finally got our much needed practice with ultrasonic and graceys. All in all I learned so much today and feel much more prepared for wednesday. It was nice to not have a patient the first day back so that we had a little bit of a warmup before we are thrown back into the game.