Real Patient day!!

WOW! Today was the real thing! I had my younger sister Cami come in to be my patient. It all went smoothly, except one of the instructors kept telling me what to do and what to tell my patient and Cami (the patient) would say "char just told me that" or "she just did that." So, I had done what I was supposed to do, but I kept being "corrected." Lame! It was fun, I only got to scale Cami's LL quad,but she and I both had a good experience. I'm excited to see real patients all the time!

Mock Patient day

Today was our mock patient day. We had to work on someone that we were assigned (I had Jen D.) and go through everything. It was fun to put everything together and I actually got most of her mouth scaled! It was just too fun! I'm sure it will help me for our real patient day.

PE day!

Today we had TONS of PE's to pass off. I was working with Natalie and she did a great job getting everything done. I had a blast working with her. She's a riot! I finally passed off all of my PE's and if you can believe it, we only have 1 more! UNO MAS!!! Where did this semester go?!

Sealants and Air powder polisher

Today we did sealants and the air powdered polisher. I've done sealants before so that was no biggie, but using the air powder polisher was new and I HATED it!!!!! It was messy, it hurt, it was hard to control, and I couldn't see the use because none of us have staining. So, besides using that....today was a blast!!!

Mock patient day #1

Today was our first official mock patient day. I worked on Ashley Rasmussen. She was doll today! It was really neat to see the whole appointment from start to finish. I have realized that I HAVE to get better with probing. It felt ALL wrong and I was just getting frustrated. But my readings ended up being pretty accurate, except that I didn't have any bleeding spots recorded. I just really feel like I don't know what I'm doing still. And scaling....sheesh! When am I ever going to be good at scaling? I hope that someday it will come to me and feel natural.....but that day might not be super soon. All-in-all it was a great experience and I feel like I am able to connect the dots as to what we've been doing and do a full appointment. It was fun!

Patient day!!!

Oh man, I was counting my blessing SO much today!!! I was super sick over the weekend and I decided to come to school anyway and I was the patient today instead of the clinician so I just got to sit there and be worked on. I still don't feel amazing, but I'm super glad that I didn't have to do anything. Ashley worked on me today and did amazing! I'm excited to work on her on Wednesday.

Polishing day

Today was wonderful! We disclosed, then polished what prophy paste on half of the mouth, then brushed the other half with a toothbrush and then disclosed again. It was a blast! Sarah was my patient today we had so much fun!!!! It was kind of weird to brush someone else's teeth, but it was cool to prophy because I've done that before many times. It never ceases to amaze me how much dental assisting school has helped me as I've been working along.

When it was my turn to be Sarah's patient we had a blast! She polished away and as it came time to brush she brushed and brushed and brushed and brushed and brushed. Then she took a look and missed some spots on the lower linguals. So she brushed and brushed and brushed and brushed again. Well, all of that tenacious biofilm on those lower linguals were tricky and so she brushed again.....so......15 minutes later of brushing she got it. Then I disclosed again and there were many places that still had plaque on the side where she prophyed so......yep.....you guessed it......she brushed again. We laughed for like 5 minutes straight! I just love clinic sometimes. Sarah is a darling hygienist! Props to ya girl!

Scaling NIGHTMARE!

Oh man, Monday was like the biggest nightmare on earth! I was scaling on Staci and I SUCKED! I kept hurting her, then she kept getting chills, then I was hurting her more, and I kept having the wrong angles.....I HATED IT! I got so frustrated and Staci could totally tell that I just wanted to give up and NEVER COME BACK! So, I just stopped and told Staci it was her turn (it actually was time to switch....yay!) What it was Staci's turn, she needed some help from an instructor and it took 30 minutes for one to mosey on over to the "forgotten pod." She was SUPER frustrated and kept making me bleed everywhere. It wasn't hurting super bad, my gums were just a little tender I guess. Anyway, I am NOT a huge fan of scaling right now....I better get better soon!

Doing the "big-time-stuff".....posterior scaling!

On Wednesday I got to work with Abby today. We had a blast! We did posterior scaling. It was super scary because we are doing real stuff now. EEKS! I already know that it will take me FOREVER to be good at it, but that means that I'll appreciate it more when I know how right? Anyway, so we have a SUPER hilarious moment today in clinic. Abby had finished practicing posterior scaling on me and I asked her if she'd like to do some proby proby......Staci heard me and said "a probe probe here and a probe probe there...." and we were all giggling and laughing about that. Then Casey says "Old hygienist had a probe......... 32324." I almost peed my pants laughing about that! It was perfect how everyone just added on like we'd practiced that before. It was HILARIOUS!!! Professor Costley came over to see why we were all laughing so hard and told me that I have one of those laughs that should be recorded and played on movies and TV shows to get other people laughing. Oh, man, it was SO funny! I have a VERY loud laugh and it was bouncing off the walls of the entire clinic and even the students in radiology could hear me. How silly. But seriously, back on topic, scaling was good. Peace out!

Intraoral and practice day

Today was kind of a confusing day. Hailey and I were partners again today-love her! She had to do a complete OD-including extra/intra and a statment and all of that! SHEESH! It of course took forever because we kept being interrupted and told that we had to do more and more and more. She did great though! Then it was time for scaling and she did great again! What a stud! When it was my turn we went to my unit and the office manager was there with a computer guy installing the intraoral camera. He told us that we'd have to just work around him, but as I was going to set Hailey back they were RIGHT in the WAY! So I asked if he'd rather if we went over to her unit to work and he said that would be a great idea. The teachers told me to just use the disclosing tablet on her, get a PFI and scale. So I had TONS of time to scale and it was great! I felt SO comfy with it and she was falling asleep! I am excited that scaling is feeling so comfortable for me. The only downside was that my back was killing me!!!! All-in-all it was a good, but disorganized day. I appreciated the practice.

SCALING!!!!

We did it!!!! WE DID IT!!!!! We got to use our scalers on Wednesday! We used the Nebraska anterior scaler to clean our partner's front teeth. Hailey was my partner and was wonderful! She did SO well! She is a natural! As she was scaling me she was freaking out about how she was making me bleed and professor Costley was behind her and said that it was ok and that sometimes you should make them bleed. I looked up at her and said "you just want to see me bleed" and she said "you're right" with a smile. What a goof! Then she was checking Hailey's probing measurements (she was passing off her PE) and she found like six areas that had 4's! I about DIED!!!!! WHAT?!?!?! I asked her what I could do and she told me to floss! I DO EVERY DAY!!!!! Oh, the drama of hygiene school......
When it was my turn Julie (an instructor) was watching me and commented that I must have been one of those assistants that picked up a scaler or two when I wasn't supposed to because I should have been that comfortable or good yet. That was a confidence booster, but the rest of my pod had a hay-day making fun of me for always being the "perfect one" when they are just as good as me! Sheesh! But I love 'em all! We had a fun day in clinic!

Brown-noser?

LOL! I was called a brown-noser by my good friend Angie today. LOL! We were going to pass off our explorer PE today, and I had done mine like 3 weeks ago. LOL, I guess that may be true? Anyway, we learned more about our scalers today. It was interesting, but confusing because we have NO idea how to even use them right now. But you have to start somewhere.....

Practice, practice, practice.....

Wow, today was wonderful. Shalyce and I got to practice everything on eachother today. We both were super fast and super good! She is like the best prober in the world and just remembers to do everything! I got to be disclosed again so I was all purple in da mouth. Super fun! Shalyce got to have one of the disclosing tablets so she was pink everywhere! It was SO nice to practice today. I feel like I'm doing pretty well and have an ok grasp on life as a dental hygienist so far. I just LOVE being in the forgotten pod! We always have a BLAST!!!! Love my girls!

Disclosing Agent

Today my dear friend Staci was my partner. We had a super fun time working on each other. We used the disclosing agent to tell us where we have plaque deposits on our teeth. Staci had SUPER clean teeth! She's just the best brusher and flosser in the world! Then she let me practice probing on her aka torture her. I was WAY frustrated and had a little blow-up with myself and after taking a minute to realize that it's ok if I'm not perfect, I tried again after being shown again what to do and I did alright. Staci was too nice I think. But, anyway, then it was my turn for the disclosing agent. I had brushed that morning, but since eaten breakfast so my mouth was FULL of plaque! LOL! It was pretty funny. I'm super glad that wansn't my "real" PFI, I would have died. But I did learn a better way to floss thanks to Staci- I need to see-saw the floss down and up as I'm using it, then I'll get all the spaces I need to. It was a good day. Fun was had by all!

Um....what did we do today???

So, I don't really remember what we did in clinic....execpt that we looked in eacthothers mouths and charted what we saw like fillings and stuff. I worked on Tandem and she was super patient with me. I practiced probing on her and passed off my Intra-oral, and explorer PE's. I had a blast, as usual and wished with all my lil heart that we could bring in another op so that Hailey could be with us in the "forgotten pod." Love my girls!

Statement of gingiva

Today we had to formulate statments on the gingival status of our partners. I worked on Shalyce today. She is fantastic. It was blazin hot everywhere today so we all took off our lab coats and just sweat our little bum-bums off. I had NO idea what I was doing today and it was really frustrating because every instructor showed us something different and we were thoroughly confused. But we did get a chance to practice our probing. I feel like it's really coming along, like I know what I'm doing....kind of.....time will tell.

Perio-probing!

So, I am listening to Escape (the pina colada song) as I am writing this and I am just about the happiest person on the planet! I had a BLAST in school today, which I'm quite sure is from my severe lack of sleep the last week (esp last night, I was out with Rigby and Gill playing on the town---he just got back from the mish in Wisconsin baby!!!) Anyway, so today in clinic we did some probing and it was DANG HARD!!! After like 45 minutes, I was getting used to it....kind of. I am realizing that it is all about the angulaiton that doesn't hurt the patient. If it's off, then it KILLS! So, it was Staci's turn next and she did so good! She got a mucho long time to practice, and my cheek was raw from retraction, but all in all she did great! We are just getting used to all of this new stuff and I sure do hope that we can get better.....I don't want to hurt my patients. Staci was such a champ and didn't even complain when I poked her, but I need to practice more, so she'll know better than to be a good patient. Oh, and they found some weird stuff in my mouth, like some recession, and some weird ledge that is apparently bonding stuff from my braces 12 YEARS AGO!!!!! What the heck?!?! How is that still there? Why did nobody remove that from my mouth! GROSS!!!!!
Also, Staci and I realized that we laugh WAY too much! As we looked around the clinic today, everyone was all serious and we were laughing our bums off! I don't know why, we are just funny people I guess. We are always doing what we are supposed to.....but we just laugh all the time. I'm sure that people in the clinic are getting SO sick of hearing my loud laugh.....but....that's me I guess......
Ok, so this post is forever long, but we were having a blast in radiology (as usual....) and I heard something that reminded me of the song monster mash and I told everyone how excited I was for this time of year because they randomly play the moster mash on the radio and I love that song. So then, like 10 seconds later......IT CAME ON THE RADIO!!! I about died! LOL! I just love my life! I just love Staci and Abby and all my girls in DH. love and hugs to all ya all. Great times.......
ok, so I think I'm done now...... peace out!

Explorer

Today we practiced using the explorer to feel for calculus. It was pretty challenging. We practiced on Dexter first and then Tandem was my next victim. She practiced on me first and did a really great job! Then when it was my turn I kept making her bleed. Poor girl. I am having a hard time turning my instrument all the way in to the interproximal area as much as I need to. I thought I was doing pretty good with my indirect vision also, but as it turns out, I'm not. So pretty much today was a day where i found out just how much I really don't know what I'm doing or have a firm grasp on it. BAH! way frustrating!

Fulcrum

Today was fun in clinic. We got to actually get in our partners mouths and poke around a little bit and use our mirrors. It helped to actually sit there and practice our operator positions and use the mirror for indirect vision. There wasn't enough typodonts for everyone so staci didn't have one. So Prof. Costley taped a free-standing typodont to the headrest of her chair and it wasn't working out so well, so after I was done with my sad and very broken down typodont I let her practice on mine. We always have so much fun in clinic. Shaylce practiced on me and did a fantastic job. She just has a very natural touch.
I was able to pass off my mirror fulcrum and my extra-oral exam PE's. I love to pass off PE's, I feel so accomplished. I'm a little nervous about doing the Health History one.....but I will survive!

2nd year observation

This is a recording of the events that happened on Sept 16, 2008, Unit #6 in the Dental Hygiene clinic. Item #1: I got to unit 6 where Emily Stapp was anxiously awaiting my arrival. Ok, seriously.....Emily went to get her patient16 year-old patient Maria (name has been changed for protection) and the mom and lil brother came back also. After a 30 minute english to spanish translation it was decided that Emily was going to take 4 bwx and clean Maria (patient). As Emily took Maria back to get x-rays, Nick was talking to pt's mom about getting her teeth cleaned today. Well, what Nick didn't know is that Maria's mom was going to be Emily's patient in a few weeks and he had just given away one of her patients!!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?!?! So, she told Nick and he said to go tell the DH student that would be working on the mom. Well, Emily and her fellow student decided that they'd just swap patients and this student would owe Emily a patient (class II patient non-the-less!).
As time went on, Emily was deciding that Maria needed some serious OHI instructions. She cleaned and scraped and ultrasonic-ed (with the help of her lovely assistant at the saliva ejector) scraped, cleaned, scraped, polished and flossed. Maria now had the cleanest teeth she'd ever had and my time at unit 6 was over. What a experience this was. It was neat to see what goes on in the clinic for real. Emily was wonderful to observe and did an excellent job despite the many obstacles that were in her way. *applause*

Intra-oral PE

We were real today! We practiced inside the mouth! Staci and I were pod partners again (love that girl) and we got to practice doing extra oral exams on eachother. We both had some fun things that were different in each other's mouths. I had a leukoplaik (sp?) lesion inside the right cheek were I apparently have a cheek biting problem.....didn't know. Also, today Prof Costley had the idea to get the larger blood pressure cuff and VOILA I had normal blood pressure again! Great discovery. I also passed off my Vitals PE on Professor Costley and did great, except I forgot to have her uncross her ankles. Darn. But I know my stuff and I did good. So, that was clinic today! It's really fun to actually be practicing this stuff for real!

REAL Clinic

Today we actually got to do some REAL stuff! We were practicing with our fulcrums and actually in a patient's (fellow student) mouth! It was really a lot of fun. I am starting to really feel good about clinic. I feel like I am learning and progressing. I love to pass off my PE's. I feel such a sense of accomplishment. It's becoming a really fun class! I also practiced taking Vitals on some students and I am getting much better! It's fun to be doing stuff and actually be getting good. We also did an extra oral exam where we felt the nodes and sinus' of our fellow students head and neck area. It thought it was going to be kind of weird, but it wasn't too bad.

Taking Vitals

Today's clinic session was practicing taking Vital signs on our pod partners. It was very hard at first. I practiced first on Shalyce and I couldn't even find her pulse let alone do any other vital signs! But after practicing a few times on Staci and Tandem, I think that I am starting to figure it all out. Professor Costley came over to help us because we were clearly having problems trying to find out what to listen for. She did a BP reading on me and found out that my BP was high and told me that I'd have to get a physicians consult to be treated in the clinic. I've never had high BP before, but I'll just do the paperwork to cover all my bases. I think that after a little practice I'll be able to get better at taking vitals. I am also LOVING the girls in my pod. We have such a blast and are helping eachother to learn what we are to be doing. It's been fun!

Retrospect

At the end of this week in the Hygiene program I am feeling a lot more confident about what I'm supposed to be doing. I feel like I know my professors and they know who I am. I know a little more what each one expects and what things I should be doing/learning. It is still crazy to me that I am in the dental Hygiene program! I feel like I've been working toward this for so long...it's not possible that it's here. I look forward to new knowledge and information. I am on my way to a career!

We had clinic yesterday and it was a blast! I am really getting to know the other girls in my class and I feel like I am comfortable with the professors/instructors/ and TA's. We learned about how to conduce a Health History and it was fascinating to see what is supposed to be done and compare it to what has been done for me in dental offices in the past. I've never had anyone be so in-depth about a HH interview, but I can see the reasons that it would be helpful. I hope that I can get it down and become quick at it so I can use it in practice.

PE's

As we all filed into our pods to get started on a new clinic day last wednesday my pod was a little nervous. We had been practicing our PE's and were hoping to be able to pass one off that day. The first one is always hard because we don't know exactly what will be expected of us. But the 4 of us did our PE that day and luckily Prof. Costley said we did fine, so then we felt a little more excited and did another one that day. As I am going along so far in hygiene school, I'm realizing that I was more nervous that I needed to be. It hasn't been that hard yet and I am enjoying my instructors, professors, and classmates.

First clinic session

On Monday last week I had my first class in clinic. It was fun to get to know everyone. We did a get-to-know you game and the first question we had to answer was about your first kiss. Well, I've never had one and most of the girls couldn't believe that was even possible....oh well. Well, that lead to me telling them about Justin in Wisconsin....that opened a can of worms. Anyway, it was fun to get to know the instructors/professor better and to see them in action. I am glad that I have experience in the dental field, I think it will really help me as I am working in the clinic.
September 1, 2008 5:23 PM

Initial post

I did it! This is my first post!