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.