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!