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.
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