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.