Last day at clinic!

Woot Woot!  I saw a pt in the morning and I took a few pa's on max ant.  The x-rays showed a radiolucent area between 8 and 9.  Sound familiar?... We got Prof McConaughy into this picture.  We spent half of the morning figuring out if it was a cyst or not.  I took Pa's and an occl film.  Strange thing though, I remember in radiology that we would not be taking those pictures in practice.  I did.  It came to the conclusion that Prof. McConaughy would do a little bit more research.  My afternoon pt did not show up, which was my class 4 pt.  Thankfully Brook let me cleaned 2 quads of her class 3 pt.  I am so thankful for her!  It was amazing how fast this semester went!  It just reminds me that I have to clean 29 quad of class 3 next semester... which I am not looking forward to.  My luck this semester did no exist.  Most of my class 3 pt canceled or did not show up.  It is very discouraging.  My next goal for next semester will have a stress free clinic... if that is possible.  In a way, I hope next semester will be fast, so I can sleep during the summer.  Have a good winter break!

LAST VA

I had a pretty interesting morning.  Prof Bossenberger sub for Dixon today.  If you know instr. Dixon, she is known of giving only class 1B and 5.  My pt would have been in the class 1B, but Prof. Bossenberger gave me a class 2 instead.  No wonder why I'm struggling with getting class 3 requirements!  I also got a chance to have a 4 week evaluation of a class 3 pt.  She never had a cleaning for a long, long time.  Her probing depths were in the 5-7mm range, and her x-rays showed good horizontal bone loss with clicks on every tooth.  She got her whole mouth cleaned with arestin in a few appts, and I got to evaluate her 4 weeks after her last cleaning.  Her gingiva showed major improvement, but there was some areas of papillary and marginal redness by the molars.  I got to reprobe her and saw a general improvement.  There were a couple of spots that had some calculus right where the redness showed, so I cleaned up those areas. I also put arestin in those areas as well.  It is amazing how important that an re-evaluation is for the patient. It is an opportunity to see how good the pt OH is, and it is a way to educate the pt as well.  It is a great feeling that this pt is taking so much care of her teeth now, then compared a few months ago.

Lab Day!

It was a BUSY morning.  I had one class 5 pt and one class 2 pt.  Both of them needed LA, and one of them needed nitrous.  I was able to complete them in that morning, which is amazing.  You have to realize that nitrous and LA takes some time out of your schedule.  On top of that, I was able to pass of 4 pe's. On top of that, Sam and Brook did an amazing job of passing off their LA pe's off with my pt.  It is common to get nervous in giving an injection.  My hands shake until I poke my pt with the needle, just saying it in a nice way.  I can tell you this, the more you practice, the better you get.  Also, you get pretty excited to give injections after giving several of them.  It highlights your day.  Just remember to be confident and don't show that your nervous or mutter underneath your breath.  Your pts will notice, and they will get nervous too.   I was amazed of what I did that morning.  My pt were so nice and compliant to the oral hygiene instruction I gave them.  Lab was interesting.  I was the paralyzed pt, and boy was I good acting lifeless.  It is amazing how much you forget over the semester, even though some of it is repeated.

VA

I am getting a little tired of seeing class 1B's at the VA.  It's great that I can see 2 pts in the morning, but I would like a class 3 of one quad once in a while.  I saw 28 year old men who have not seen a hygienist in a while, and they were tender.  I offered LA or oralkick, but they wanted to man up.  Ha ha.. reminds me of my brothers and cousins at home.  I do however like their attention when I give them patient education to improve their oral hygiene.  It makes me feel like an important health care professional.  Oh, by the way, I am completely done with my bwx requirements... so if anyone needs bwxs... dont hesitate to stop me.  Next goal is to get pa's

Bad Luck!

For 3 weeks in a row... my afternoon pt have cancelled last minute... not only that... these are my down to earth class 3 pt's.  I have no ideas what to do at this situation.  I make my appts 3 weeks in advance, and give them weekly reminders and day before reminders.  Luckly, I have good mornings b/c I see 2 pts with a classificaton of 2 or 5.  I only have 5 quads total of class 3 and 4, and I am really worried!  Does anyone have advice for me??? My next goal is to see class 3 and 4's, but I really need help with that!

Good o'l Leigh

First of all, Leigh is just amazing!!!   We originally had a couple sch together, but they cancelled Halloween night.  Let me tell you how stressful that is to find 2 pt in the morning on a Holloween night.  Poor leigh went through some hard stress, but eventually got someone in the chair.  I had a little breakdown with my afternoon pt.  my Class 4 pt had car problems and canceled on the minute she was supposed to be seated in my chair.  I went through numbers to find someone else, but I couldn't find anyone.  So far, I only seen 3 quads of class 3 and 4, and I was worried... really worried!  Dr hanson came out of the clinic and found me all stressed out and we had a little chit chat.  Thank goodness for professors who understand and will do their best to help you.  I did see a midtown pt and only got 9 pas plus bitewings.  That was a tender mercy.  Next goal... don't be stressed that it wont affect how you work and act professionally.