A Lesson on Splatter Control!

Today we did some suctioning along with our exposure control PE. I was a little bit nervous to work on an actual pt. (my trusty pod partner marilyn) just because I haven't worked in a dental office and cleaned someone's teeth in over a year. It came naturally though and was really fun. I realized just how much I miss getting to see patients. There's just something about cleaning teeth that gets me excited. Everything we've been learning so far is pretty easy and mostly common sense, but if you think about it too hard it can get a little confusing as far as when you wash your hands again and re-glove, what to barrier, what order to do each of the steps in, etc. We also went over instrumentation and equipment maintenance. It was interesting to me to see how much different the WSU dental clinic and the office that I worked in do things as far as exposure control and maintenance of the equipment. I'm sure that's why the equipment and everything else here stays in such good shape.
The highlight of my day though was definitely when Miss Marilyn and I were learning how to refill the solution to clean the lines and she turned on the faucet and it sprayed all over the sink, walls, drying instruments, and heaven forbid her labcoat! Now she has to take it home and give it a good cleaning...haha..good times.

Oh OSHA!

Today was my second day of clinic and it went pretty fantastic other than the fact that I secretly almost passed out listening to the exposure control PE because I was so unbelievably hot in my lab coat and the fact that when I finally got cooled down we began watching a ridiculously cheesy OSHA video made in the 80's, which made my eyelids feel like grated cheese. The outfits, hair-dos, and lets not forget the important lessons learned were top notch though! Everything else was mostly just a good review of stuff I already know and have done, with the exception of barriers. We never used them in my dental office, but it's a brilliant idea! It may take a little longer, but is totally worth it. I think many dental offices focus so much on cutting down on time for efficiency that they forget the more important and critical things like exposure control! Take a chill pill people and remember what dental healthcare is all about! Welp! Until next time!

First Day!

Today was officially the start of my dental hygiene adventure. It was my first clinic and wasn't too bad. We put all our instruments away, got settled into our ops, and familiarized ourselves with our them and the dental clinic. We also played a get to know you game and got some good laughs out of hearing everyone's most embarrassing moments. Overall, I feel like the day went really well and I'm excited to just dive in and start learning and doing everything! I'm sure I've developed some bad habits as I've assisted these last couple years so it'll be good for me to start fresh and re-learn everything so I can hopefully take those skills with me out into the real world when I actually begin my career as a dental hygienist.

Orientation Day!

So I never thought this day would come, but suprise...it's finally here! I can't believe I'm finally starting the Dental Hygiene program! It's exciting, overwhelming, and a whole bundle of other emotions at the same time! Yikes! This will definitely be my biggest adventure yet!