Probing... Dun... Dun... Dun...

We actually got to work in someone's mouth today and probe.  It was so exciting to actually work in someone's mouth.  Whitnee was my very patient patient.  We combined everything we've been learning with our light, mirror, and fulcrum to finally be able to probe.  We even practiced charting the probing depths.  I hope that I can get to a point where I can chart like 5 teeth at a time and remember all of my measurements.  I really like our probes (except for the wrong ones half of us had) because they are easy to read.  There is no guessing what the measurement is.  Actually, my biggest hope is that one day I'll actually be able to probe an entire mouth in 5 minutes because we practiced for 20 - 30 minutes and didn't even finish the whole mouth.  I decided that if patients didn't have posterior teeth probing would be so much nicer.  If patients also had super flexible cheeks that would be fabulous as well because then I could just shove a mirror in there and pull as hard as I would need to in order to see the teeth.  I also thought it was interesting being a patient and being able to watch Whitnee probe me.  I learned a lot just from watching her work.  I felt like I got a better understanding of how much pressure to use and that if the gums start blanching a lot you know you're pushing too hard.  Oh, before we started probing today we got to use marshmallows and corn candy to practice our touch and line angles.  It was a lot of fun, especially when some of the girls decided to eat their candy.  Ha ha.  Well, all in all today was a good day and hopefully next time we probe we will all have the correct probes!