Done and Done!

Today was the last clinic day...tear! It's so exciting to have one semester down! I can't believe how fast the time has gone! We'll all be graduated before we know it! Craziness! Today we just passed off our last PE, went over CA duties with Mr. Salomon, and went over emergency preparedness. Pretty easy peezy lemon squeezy..nothing too intense. Hopefully next semester won't be too bad! I'm am nervous about actually having to find patients and making sure they're the right requirement and everything! See ya next semester! I'm out!

So i just finished seeing my first patient...my mommy! It was actually pretty fun and went really well. My mom said that I did a really good job and didn't hurt her at all, which I was super glad about. The only thing I don't like is that everything takes so much time because I'm not super fast at everything yet and the fact that an instructor has to come check everything! Awh well..i guess that's what school is for! I can't wait for the day when i can go zippity zip zipping along though! It'll be so nice! I'm glad that everything went well today though and that I didn't get too stressed or frustrated. I'm finally getting a hang of the whole clinic system and how everything seems to work so that's good. I'm also feeling pretty good about scaling and probing too. I just need to keep practicing so I can get faster. My indeirect vision is getting better too, which is super great. It's so cool to see the improvement I've made since the beginning of the semester! It's also nice to finally put everything we've learned together into an actual patient appt. It's amazing how everything makes so much more sense when put together! I'm finally starting to see why I like teeth so much again!

Today was my second day being the operator and Jenny was my patient. Everything went really smoothly and it was so nice not to have to probe this time! Woot! I scaled the rest of Jenny's teeth, polished, and applied a fluoride varnish. I also passed off my sealant PE, which was actually really easy even though it was one of the longest ones. It definitely helped having had previous experience doing sealants as a dental assistant. They were one of my favorite things to do in the office. I was able to do pretty well on both of my mock patients so I'm really excited for my mom to come and be my real patient! I can't believe it's already the end of the semester! My my how time flies! We'll all be graduated before we know it! One thing I'm working on now is being able to distinguish calculus from tooth structure! That gets a little tricky for me at times so I need more practice with that. I think seeing patients who actually have wads of calc. will help. Welp that's about it! Peace out!

Today I got to be Jenny's patient. She was able to scale the rest of my teeth, polish, apply fluoride, and even place a sealant. She did an awesome job and it was fun to be able to talk with her a little more, since we don't usually get that chance. Angelique had Jenny use some new instruments that she hadn't used yet and I could see that it took some getting used to. She kept forgetting which was the correct end to use haha i can totally sympathize because I do that all the time! It's so nice to see that I'm not the only one who struggles. I can tell that everything is getting a little bit easier each time though, which is a huge relief! Phewf! I was a little worried at the beginning of all of this that I'd never get it, but it's comin!

Go Ahead and Mock Me!

Today was the big mock patient day for me! I got to clinic really early to set up so that I wasn't stressed or rushed for time. Kathy was my patient today and can i just say...she is a sweetheart and too nice for words! She was so good to put up with all my torture! I think I was most nervous to do a full mouth probe because I haven't done it for a long time and am still really slow. I just bucked it up though, and was really surprised at how well I did. Everything else went really well too and I didn't get behind on time or anything! Yay! It's such a relief to be done for the day! Kirsten evaluated me and said I did really well so I'm super excited about that! One thing I noticed today that I really need to watch is my posture haha my neck is killing me! Shalie let me use her loupes for a little though to see if that would help. It definitely made my posture better, but I wasn't used to looking through them so it made me go slower. I'll have to practice more with them another day.

Day of the Mock: Part One!

Today i got to be a patient and it was so unbelievably nice to just sit back and relax for once in clinic. It was also nice to be able to see how it will be on Wed for me. I was paired with Kathy and she did an amazing job for having to go first. She kept up on time and did really well with everything, especially probing! I couldn't even feel a thing! It was beyond amazing! The only bad thing is I'm pretty sure I'm starting to get a cancre on the side of my tongue and it's killing me! Dah! I hope everything goes as smoothly on Wednesday when I'm the operator. Yikes!

Splatter Matter!

Today we basically only had time to pass off our air/powder polishing and fluoride application PE's. I'm pretty sure everyone violently dislikes the air/powder polisher no matter if they're the operator or patient. It's not the most comfy cozy thing ever, but it does work wonders on them extrinsic stains I tell ya. I still need to work on it, but I felt like I did pretty well for just learning how to do it a couple days ago. The fluoride one was really easy to pass off and we got to use the new varnish, which is basically amazing...just sayin'...none of that cakey crap! Now on to bigger and better things like mock patient week! Woot! Get excited! I can't believe how much we've learned in such a short time!

Sealin' it up yo!

Today we did sealants! It was glorious fun, especially since I've placed a lot of sealants from previously working in a dental office. The only difference was that in our office we always worked in pairs so it was a little weird working by myself. It went really well though so happy day! I got to work with Ashley N. and did an upper molar with indirect vision so I'm feelin' pretty sassy about my sealant skills right now. I also got to pass off my selective polish, which is another thing I feel really confident about, since I've done a lot of those on patients too. I love it when I know what I'm doing and don't feel like an idiot times ten. I do feel like I'm beginning to get the swing of things and becoming more comfortable with how everything works in clinic. I just hope I can pull it all off when we start seeing real patients.