Clinic day

I got done early both morning and afternoon.  Both my patients were either class 2 or class 5.  I think it is about time to double schedule pt.  It is amazing that I have not seen 1B's so far.  That would be great if I could see them towards the end when all of my requirements are filled.  Wouldn't that be nice. 
Sometimes I forget some little things like checking their bite.  I need to wake up a little bit more.

Big Helper!

I'm a lucky girl.  My morning patient was a who had pocket between 5 and 10, mostly  7 and 8 mm with mobility on 8 teeth and furcations on all molars.  I switched pt's with Tanya since I already seen a class 4 pt.  I was so happy that she could do LA as well.  My afternoon pt was a class 3 and needed LA.  I let Karlie do the LA on that pt.  Hopefully all this good karma will come around at boards.  I got to pass of the oraqix pe too.
I went over the OHI with the class 4 pt before handing him off to tanya.  He knew little english, but his wife was there to translate.  He never had a cleaning before, so I explained the 2 month recall, his perio disease, and ways to improve his OHI.  It's great to have his wife there, so he has no excuse to improve on his oral hygiene.  They were great listeners, and they were eager to get started.  I love how much influence I have in dental hygiene.  It's a good feeling.

VA 2

Both my patient had major recession.  I did a follow-up with an aggressive periodontitis pt, and I only got 2 quads done.  He only counted as a class 3, but I already have a class 4 pt.  It was my first pt with a bad stench... he smokes a cigar a day.  If you haven't smelled cigar smoke before, its worse than the cigarettes.  Does he want to quit.... no but I did tell him about the affects of cigar smoke and the oral health, which is not good.  He also needed LA, which I don't need, so I allowed Tori to do the injections.  I know Prof Hansen did not want us to do the lingual anesthesia, but she made Tori do it.
Another note, this patient was seen only by SLCC students.  When I took my instrument, I went all the way into the pocket.  He was surprised.  The SLCC people did not do that.  He had a SLCC girl do him as her first pt ever.  Poor girl, but it shows how WSU students are better when it comes to instrumentation and everything else.  I'm very grateful that I attend WSU. 

Mockboard

I was a lucky case.  My pt lost a tooth, so he had only 5 teeth.  Fortunately, there was 4 anterior clicks and 8 posterior clicks.  Even though I missed no spots, I stink at probing.  Seriously, after 5 mm, I cannot distinguish between a 6 and a 7.  So probing by itself and recession, I was docked 10 points.  I got a 90 which is passing, but for future notice, I need to borrow some loopes to be 100% successful. 
This mockboard went more smoothly and not stressful at all.  I had a good night's rest.  I am really feeling confident about my skills.  
The LA test was not so bad, I just need to review the generic names.  I lost my paper with questions I need to work on, but I got a 82. 

2nd day of clinic

Well, I was able to find another mockboard, so I gave it to tanya.  It was a busy day.  Both my morning and afternoon pt were class 3's.  I was able to finish the other side of my pt from last week.  He actually listened during the OHI.  He tried the sensodyne toothpaste b/c he is sensitive with exposed root surfaces.  He really like this toothpaste b/c it worked. He also has some open contacts that caused food impaction.  He had a tuna fish sandwich for lunch.  I was able to demonstrate the interporx brush to him.  He got so excited.  It made me feel like a pot of gold.
Professor Alexander taught me a simple thing like inserting and instrument the right way.  I was angling it rather having the terminal shank parallel to the tooth.  It makes a big difference, such as no tissue trauma.  Good luck on Mockboards next week ladies!!!

VA

So, both my patients had attitude problems, luckly one of them was a class 3.  Connie, Tori, Jamie, and Jodie could hear it, but they commented how I was professional about it.  My afternoon pt had a knee-joint replacement 10 months ago in which I caught from questioning about the health history.  ( Lesson #1... make sure you question about any changes to their health history b/c you can catch something major like this)  I explained to the patient that pre-med is required for every dental/dh visits from now on at the VA b/c bacteria from the mouth can affect his new knee joint.  I had a whole hour of just chit-chatting which Shera came to help.
I gave 11 injections that day.  It is such a great opportunity to have inst Dixon and Connie to watch me give those injections b/c they judge at boards for clinical and LA.  I had many wrong case scenarios, but I was able to recognize the problem for the most part and try it again.  For example, I had a positive aspiration, my syringe broke and could not inject, I touched my glove, I couldn't see the bevel (that would have been a fail).  I was grateful for these situations now and not at boards.  It is alright to make mistakes.  Just recognize your mistake and try again.

Hitting it with a BANG!

I can hardly believe its January.  Since I only carried 7 quads of class 3 and 4 last semester, I desperately need 29 quads of class 3 and 4.  It creates a lot of stress.  Fortunately, I had 2 midtown patients from Clearfield who sat in my chair. Surprisingly, my morning patient was a class 4, and my afternoon patient was a class 3.  I took every minute in clinic to get half their mouth cleaned.  On top of that, I did LA, and I am done with the LA requirement.
My morning patient had a tongue piercing and chews tobacco.  On top of that, he never had his teeth cleaned before and has poor OH.  You can see the effects on his mandibular anterior teeth and tissues from years of chewing and that piercing.  His dentist wanted his mand ant teeth cleaned, so he can extract them.  I was able to educate him of pre-canerous tissue if he continues to chew tobacco, and I showed him the leukoplakia areas of concern to him. He says he going to quit, since he won't have mand ant teeth to chew.  I hope that is true.  I also talked about the effects of tongue piercing and the teeth.  So in future reference, I had a patient who needs extractions because he got his tongue pierced and played with it on his mand ant.