What the what! This is a day I never thought would come! Last day of clinic ever and it feels too good! I had an easy cheesy lemon squeezy 1B patient this morning. It amazes how long I used to take on easy patients like that and how much I scraped away at their poor teeth haha whoops! It was all for a good cause I suppose. I can't believe it has finally come to the end and that I'm done with everything. I never thought I would make it through and now here I am getting ready to graduate in one week. It's the most amazing feeling ever. I've learned so much these past two years and have improved so unbelievably much. I feel so lucky to have been given the opportunity to be in the program and meet slash work with so many wonderful people. I will never forget the good times I had at Weber State.

I love children...but please bless that I don't end up working in a pediatric office someday. Pretty sure I cleaned the spawn of Satan this morning. She wouldn't be quiet and was saying the craziest, most off the wall things. She had to touch absolutely everything and was not cooperating at all. At least it gave me experience and fulfilled some more requirements right? I guess I will have to get used to dealing with patients like that in the real world so it was probably good for me. Haha anyways I was thrilled to be done with the morning. In the afternoon I finished up my board patient...and yes her calculus was still as ridiculous as ever. I had to take my jackhammer to it. I actually had professor perry check the quad that i cleaned for boards and lets just say that hopefully things are looking up. I still can't believe we haven't gotten our results yet though. It's absolutely killing me. I've passed all of my other boards though so hopefully that is a good sign. I'm so excited to finally be done with school.

Today was my last day at the VA. I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to come and volunteer here. It's been a wonderful experience and I've been able to meet and work with so many good people. It's has been fun to hear all of the veteran's stories. I really do feel like i've made a difference these past two years in the dental hygiene program. I can see that my communication skills have improved so much and I'm a lot more comfortable with patients and educating them on their oral health. I have become a lot more personable with people in general. I'm so grateful for all of the skills I've acquired while being in the dental hygiene program. They will help me not only in practice, but in everyday life as well.

This was my last clinic day before boards so hopefully i'm as good as i'm gonna get for the time being. I feel pretty comfortable with my instrumenting skills and effectively removing calculus. I only had class fives today though so that didn't give me much more practice for boards. I have an extremely hard patient, but I'm confident that I will somehow pull it off. I can't believe that they are already here. It's amazing to see how much I have learned and improved on over the past two years. I'm excited to get out into the real world and see what I can do with all the things i've learned.

Today was the dreaded LA mockboard. I was actually a lot more calm than I thought I would be. Overall, it went pretty well. I just needed to adjust one of my angles on the PSA a little bit but that was pretty much it. I've given quite a few injections so I'm feeling pretty good about the real thing. No more time to practice so all I can do at this point is cross my fingers and say lots and lots of prayers! I can't believe boards are already here! So completely beyond crazy! I can't even wait for them to be over! This afternoon patient my board patient came so that I could get a pano on her, clean a quad, and take one last look and the area that I'm going to clean. I sure hope she qualifies. Her calculus was a bugger to get off when I used her for one of my mockboards so I'm hoping that I've gotten a little better as a clinician. I'm glad I know how hard her calculus is though or I would be screwed. Please bless that the highlighter is nice to me!

My patient for the morning cancelled, but luckily KaDee scheduled a patient that she forgot about so she had an extra one for me. My patient ended up just being a class V so super easy. It's amazing to me how much faster cleanings go when you know how to use your explorer and can feel if calculus is there or not. It just boggles my mind that last year we were all spending two hours on 1Bs because we had no idea what calculus felt like and were basically just scraping away at nothing but tooth haha our poor friends and family! This afternoon I finished up my mockboard patient and also saw her fifteen year old son in the same appointment. Again, things went so much faster now that I know how to feel for calculus! Such a good feeling!

Last mockboards....and i passed! I have officially passed all of the mockboards..some were a little closer to the 75 mark than others, but alas I still would've gotten licensed if it were the real thing. I think the main thing I need to focus on is tissue trauma. Once the patient is numb and i get going i just get so focused on getting everything off that i forget to adapty as well. I have to remember that, since tissue trauma can knock off a lot of points. Other than that i think i'm golden! I just have to stay confident and focused. I can't believe board season is already here. I've already taken two of my boards and the last three are in about a month. Gah! Sure hope i'm ready!

Today was crazy rapist patient day. I had an extremely inappropriate patient at the VA today. He kept wanting to touch me and was making all of these sexual innuendo kind of comments. It made me pretty uncomfortable, but I think I was able to handle it pretty well. It was definitely an eye-opener though and made me realize that I won't always have good patients. I'm going to have to deal with people from all walks of life. This was a good experience for me to learn to be more assertive and realize that i am ultimately the one in charge and not the patient.

This morning I saw a class three. It was extremely challenging because he would not let me use the ultrasonic or give anesthesia. This tested my skills for sure. I had to really watch my adaptation and angulation so that the patient wouldn't be uncomfortable. This appointment made me realize how much I really don't watch those things when I am instrumenting. I guess that's a bad habit i've gotten into. I will definitely be looking out for that now and trying to improve on it.

Giggler alert! My patient was off the hizzy today haha it was great. She works graveyard and had just gotten off work so she was really tired and because of this, kept falling asleep slash giggling. Good thing she was a five or I would've had a rough time. I was able to finish her without missing any spots. The appointment went really well and I had a good time talking with and getting to know my patient. I can tell that I'm becoming more confident in communicating with my patients and that I'm becoming more efficient as a clinician. This afternoon I scored big with four quads of a class four! Boo yes! I've never been so excited to see such a dirty mouth. It was a beautiful moment indeed. I was able to get some good xrays on her and then went right to work. I finished one quad and missed a couple spots, but overall it was a good experience. I will finish her up next week so we will see if I'm able to rock it or not.

What up mockboards! Today was mockboards and it was quite an adventure. I passed with a 76...by one point...awesome. I like livin' on the edge though so it's cool. I'm still proud of myself though because my patient had a ridiculous amount of calculus on almost every surface with extremely tight tissue. Her calculus was also the most tenacious thing I've ever beheld! What the heck...not cool. It wasn't until I busted out the good ol' perio files and basically instrumented with them the rest of the time that I made any improvement. I knew she had some spots still left, but I completely ran out of time so I had no choice but to be done. I also had a couple of tissue trauma errors that reamed me, but all in all it was a really good experience for me. I think it's good for at least one mockboard to put us in our place. At least my probing was practically perfect in every way. I would really like to use this patient for the real boards, but I am just nervous because of how tenacious her deposit is. I think I would do a lot better though now that I know what her calculus is like and what it takes to get it off.

Can I just say how much I adore 1b's! So easy! That's what I had this morning and it was so nice! I actually enjoyed myself for once haha. In the afternoon I cleaned a patient that I saw last year in clinic. He is a class two and was really hard for me last time because he had a significant amount of calculus with really tight tissue. I missed a lot of spots last year, but this time I did really well, which is exciting because it shows that I am improving. I love that feeling.

This morning I had an easy 1a and then did the OD for my mockboard patient to make sure her probe depths were within 6mm and that everything looked ok. In the afternoon I finished up my class four and didn't miss any spots again. Boo yes! I rock haha at least until I miss fifty spots on a class two and get put right back in my place! I really do feel like class threes and fours are so much easier because they tissue to is fluctuant and the pockets are much easier to get into. That's why I'm worried about my mockboard because she has wicked calculus, but super tight tissue so we'll see what goes down with that. I might end up having a very humbling experience during the next mockboard. Anyways, I was able to pass off some PE's including LA injection, subgingival irrigation, and root debridement. I'm feeling pretty confident with my injections and only have a few left to give before I'm done with my LA requirements.

I'm baaacckkk! Last semester! Check! Today was the first day back in clinic and it wasn't too bad. I had may mockboard/ potential board patient come in for a full mouth of x-rays. We didn't start seeing patients until nine so that's pretty much all I got done on her. She was a hard patient to take x-rays on because she had such a small mouth. My patient in the afternoon ended up being two quads of a class four. Professor Wold told me I could either have 4 quads of a three or 2 quads of a four. I definitely took the class four quads! I'll take anything I can get man. It's gonna be tough to get eight whole quads of a four. Hopefully the professors will be generous. I did really well though and didn't miss a single spot so I am pretty proud of myself!