Early Out

Early out for my patient, not for me unfortunately.  My patient had to leave at 9:15 today.  I got through an OD and probably could have gotten through OHI if we hadn't chatted so much.  Ha ha.  I think that the only problem with having friends come in is that we love to talk.  My patient was super cooperative and fun to work on.  My goal is to finish her up when she comes back in a couple weeks.  My patient's gums were pretty sensitive in her maxillary arch.  I asked my patient how often she flossed and she said maybe 1 time a week.  I encouraged her to start trying to floss 4 times a week (or if she really wants to achieve a great goal floss every day) until I see her again to see if the flossing helps her gums feel any better.  I really hope my patient achieves her goal so that we can both be excited about her gums feeling better.  :)  It really is so rewarding to watch patients take charge and want to improve their oral health, which improves their total body health.  I would really like to get a 1B in my chair and see if I could do them in one appointment (in all honesty I am probably going to need a very easy 1B to do this).  I think I will jump for joy the day I do one patient in one appointment.  Since my patient left early I for sure got my chart in on time.  Ha ha.  It's also nice knowing that I am all cleaned up and ready to go, so now I can help others when they get done to return the many clean up favors done for me.  I am even getting my blogging done before going home.  Wahoo!  I am now just waiting for Stephanie so that I can pass off my instrument sharpening PE.  Wish me luck!

Goal for next time: Be organized in my steps and finish my patient.

I Finished My Patient!

My patient yesterday was a returning patient from a few weeks ago.  My patient was half Class II and half Class V and I scaled one quad at the last appointment.  I was able to take my first (and only) PA on my patient yesterady and I finished scaling the other three quads.  I felt so good being able to finish her and to have done it all on time.  I really like using the ultrasonic to start and then going back and fine scaling after.  I really enjoyed having my patient leave, knowing I did all that I could to help her have a clean mouth (including OHI), and seeing how pleased she was with the work that I had done.  When she left her appointment she thanked me, which made me feel great.  I feel like I had such good success today because I had everything arranged and set up that I thought that I might use.  I also reviewed my patient's chart before my patient came in to help me know what I would need to do to best help my patient (things like reviewing where her restorations were so I did not ultrasonic them).  The more I work on people the more confident I feel and the more determined I get to do a better job than I did the time before.  I am excited to keep getting to see new people and figure out the best treatment options for my future patients.

Goal: Continue to have anything I could possibly need out and ready to use.

P.S. - I think that the majority of everyone got done on time today because we got out pretty early.  It was awesome!  (I'm pretty sure we finished pod wrap between 4:10 and 4:15).

I Must Remember to Blog

Blogging seems to take the back burner all of the time and then I forget to do it.  Almost every day after Clinic I have to write blog on my palm pilot (the back of my hand) so that I remember to actually blog.  In fact, I only remembered to blog today because I just noticed the word blog on the back of my hand.  I am starting to like blogging more because I will be able to have all of these wonderful, and some days not so wonderful memories all typed up for myself to reflect and enjoy. 

Now for what you really want to hear about... my patient yesterday and my experiences with it.  My patient came in with his wife yesterday (who Kristie treated).  Kristie was actually the one to line things up with this couple, which I was very grateful for.  My patient was such a nice man and I really enjoyed working on him and talking with him.  Kristie had explained to them over the phone that they were more than likely going to need to come in for 2 appointments and they said that was fine.  I got done with one quad today and will be finishing my patient up at his next appointment.  Yesterday was such a good day.  I passed off a PE, had a good patient experience, and did I mention that I didn't have any spots to go back and redo?!  Oh, yesterday was also such a great day because Instructor Allen (that sounds too formal since we all called her Jeanie in Radiology) was there and she was in my pod!  I miss seeing her and having her be one of our instructors.  It was such a fun day with her there.  I got to use my orange ultrasonic tip yesterday on my patient.  I have decided that I really like it, especially the swivel tip.  I felt like I had a good sequence for cleaning yesterday too.  My last happy moment of the day is when Jeanie was talking to me after my patient left and she told me that I had good patient skills.  I felt so good after talking to her.  :)

My goal for last time was to explain to my patients and make sure they totally understand that I will most likely not finish them in one appointment, but Kristie kind of made sure that they already knew that so I can't take credit for accomplishing my goal quite yet and my patients for the next few weeks are returning patients, so hopefully at the end of February I will be able to accomplish my goal. 

My new goal is to continue to work on my cleaning sequencing so that I can get a familiar routine down to be as efficient and effective as possible. 

It Was a Day

Wow, where to begin for today.  Today was definitely a new learning experience, in a good way.  My patient wanted to be numb for his cleaning, so Instructor Vining numbed him up and I went to work.  However, within 10 minutes my patient wanted more anesthesia because he said it was wearing off.  After Vining numbed him again the same situation happened.  So, with the patient's permission we put him on some nitrous, which worked like a charm.  I was able to do a much better job without being nervous that I was going to zing the hypersensitive spots on his teeth.  Vining kept coming over to make sure I was doing ok, which I surprisingly enough was doing ok.  I really found today to be a good learning experience because at some point during school and/or in my career I will have patients like my patient today, so I say bring it on... just not until next year.  I also passed off my anterior instrumentation PE today and that went well. 

My goal for this next week, well really for the rest of the semester, is to really make sure my patients understand that I am a first year student and that I do not have all of the skills necessary to finish them in one appointment.  I want to be fair to my patients so they know what to expect.

P.S. - My patient today really was such a nice person.  He shook my hand after I walked him out, told me I did a good job, and to keep it up because I will do great.  Since he was so nice I think that's a big reason why I did not feel totally stressed about today.  I did end up passing my patient to a second year so that he can get the other half of his mouth done quicker and more efficiently.

P.S.

P.S. - For those who care to know, I passed off my Exploring PE and I did quite well on it.  After the pointers from Instructors Hemsley and Hafen I really have a good feel for exploring, but I know practice, practice, practice.

Not Bad for a Wednesday

Most Wednesdays do not go well for me, whether it's because I woke up 3 times in the middle of the night afraid I was going to be late, having nightmares about me being late (actually just nightmares about dental hygiene stuff in general), or the fact that I am so tired and slow in Clinic because I got up so early.  However, today went pretty good.  I was pleased with what I was able to do.  My patient was such a nice person, making today much more enjoyable.  I had everything I needed where it needed to be and ready to go, which helped me be more efficient today.  I hope I can keep that up.  My patient needed to have some topical anesthetic in order for me to probe and I used a plastic probe to try to keep my patient as comfortable as possible.  Having a patient need some anesthetic was a new experience for me.  I also tried to be super careful with my probe. 
Goals: I am still having a hard time seeing when I'm probing those darn back teeth, so I think a new goal for me to work on is learning how to get the best vision I can when probing those back teeth.  I am getting better with looking in my mirror, but not where I would like to be so that is something that I want to work on as well.  So my patient next Wednesday better look out because I plan on practicing.