a bit of stress makes everything more interesting

My goal for next time. Always warn the instructor when you have two patients. I don't know what was going on for me today. I sat down and looked in my patients mouth and had no idea what to do. Then I got her out late when my next patient was waiting. Then I couldn't find a chart and well to sum up the day it was positively long. Next time I will relax more and watch the instrumentation video before I come so I'm ready to run when I sit down. Above all I will calm down and not let myself get frazzed!

finally getting faster yeah!

CA duty went a lot more smoothly this time. I was quite happy about that.
Then clinic started. I talked to my patient less than 12 hours ago, and somehow our apt. escaped her memory in that amount of time. Another no show, fun. I love that my grade depends on very undependable people. The TA Stephanie saved me by passing me one of her backups. So after a late start I ended up with an great patient. I still finished one quad too. That was the fastest quad I have ever done. It was kindof awesome. Funny enough after doing a bunch of class V patients, I am actually short on 1B's.

Oh how I have missed thee lab days

Today was the most relaxing, wonderful day. Reason: clinic was a lab. Other than almost having a heart attack at the thought of a finger prick it went off beautifully. Dream come true. No worrying about calling and reminding the pt. to come, sweating bullets actually waiting for them to get there, and panicking when they do because I still don't know how to scale, no worries, no passing off PE's, no dental nightmares, no valentines day disasters, no homework due, you get the idea. We actually went over some fun stuff. I forgot just how much fun it is to chat with the other girls in clinic, they are so awesome. Everyone was so happy go lucky today it was just dandy. And then it ended with Candy. Yes I just rhymed because it was just that great of a day. If I wasn't so tired I would write a whole poem about the joys of the day. On a side note, it will be a wonder if I make it out of this program without weighing 400 pounds on account of all the goodies we have had lately. My complete and utter lack of self control at the sight of anything chocolate doesn't help.

Happy Valentines!

Today was valentines, and I had a "date" with a boy besides my husband. Well if you can call scraping someones teeth a date. It was actually not the best date I have ever been on for a couple reasons. #1 He was late #2 In the middle of our "date" I was informed that I was being ditched for a class that started in 15 min. Fastest OD check ever. Would have been a nice piece of information at the beginning of the apt.
Plan B-as always call my wonderful husband, I would get to see him for Valentines after all. He thought an OD check was the perfect beginning to a romantic dreamy date. Unfortunately I made the BIGGEST mistake. Forgot to review his HH cause I was so frazzled from my first date. That will never ever happen again. Not a great set-up for a long day. Luckily Todd knows just how to cheer me up, fried chicken for lunch at the park. Does the trick every time.
Next near disaster, CA duty. Kayla you saved my life. Autoclave broken, mixed up instruments, no idea what we are doing, Mr. Solomon absent. We survived, enough said. Bring on the next adventure.

class II/III finished!

Today's scenario=Finishing the cutest little old lady that has an extreme fear of the dentist. Even when she was completely numb, she shook uncontrollably with every scrape, and almost jumped out of the chair on several occasions. Also her first apt. was the first time I had actually scaled anyone so I don't think she had the best impression of me up to this point. Suprised she showed up to be finished actually.

Lessons learned....
#1 The barnhart is actually pretty neat. Previous hatred=gone. Found out I was just using it completely ineffectively, go figure. Prof. Allen introduced a whole new life to me when she showed me how to use it right. My world is forever changed.
#2 Eight O' Clock rules. NOT just for anteriors toward you. Also another thanks goes out to Prof. Allen. So glad I was lucky enough to have her today.
#3 Nothing is as bad if you are calm. Apparently when you get frazzled and start shaking with a sharp instrument in your hand, under people's gums, it only helps to spiral the frazzle into a frenzy.
#4 No matter how bad the patient is shaking and jumping, they will NOT hate you after if you care about them and do your best. I was absolutely sure that my sweet little patient was hating the sight of me for the last three apt. but then she told me thank you as she left and it made my day.
#5 Be more confident and daring. When you are more sure of your stroke it takes less of them and the patient is more grateful and thinks you actually know what you are doing. Just fake it, the patient doesn't know they are the first person you have ever scaled on.

All in all I am glad I had an extremely shaky, jumpy, adorable class II/III, with furcations in every 2nd molar for one of my first patients. Big Big learning experience that will help me greatly in the future. Even if it was the most terrifying way to learn and my pride is completely gone.

I Love This!

Wonderful patient, so excited to learn and asks tons of questions and has an English accent on top of it all=awesome. Scaling is getting better and better every time. Best part of my day, when my patient, who has been coming to the clinic for 11 years, comments, "it hurt less this time than it ever has." Yeah sweet, even if most of it is improved home OH. Calculus is so much fun to get off. I had to stop myself from making triumphant noises and confusing the patient when it was coming off, sometimes they just don't think its quite as good a time as I do. I was trying to force myself to only look in the mirror and it's getting better which made me happy. Still working on ergonomics, mirror, scaling, chair positions, ultrasonic, and well everything, but it gets better every time so it's all good. I love dental hygiene, it's so awesome, makes going to school for 6 years for a bachelors worth it.

Great Day

Today was great. I had the perfect patient. She was responsive and patient and awesome. And now she wants to bring her family in, seriously awesome. Can it always be like this please...

Movie Party!

Today we watched some cool movies about biofilm. Yeah that is the most awake I have ever stayed in class. Usually class movies are so so so dry (except for Moulin Rouge in radiology!). So either the movie was sweet or I am unusually odd and love biofilm. Or maybe it's the fact that the instructor brought tons of candy and popcorn so we could "work on creating our own biofilm while we learn about it" Awesome