Thursday Dec. 3,2009

Today is the last day of clinic. This was a good day. I was able to do 2 full mouths, that means that I'm half way done with my PA's. I feel great. I'm so glad that I've made it this far and only have 1 semester to go. I saw my brother today. Hopefully, I didn't hurt him to bad. It is so nice that all of my family supports me so much with meeting my requirements. I hop that next semester goes this well especially with boards.

Thursday November 19,2009

Today we had a lab in the morning. We learned about emergency preparedness, veloscope, and wheelchair transfer. I felt like I learned alot today. It was amazing how many people could move others from one chair to another. I feel like it is always good to refresh ourselves on emergency preparedness. In the afternoon I saw a girl that was referred from my sister in law. My sister in law said that she had not had a cleaning for a long time. I was glad that she was a class 1B for her,but I was hoping for a board patient or something that I could use for next semester. She was a nice girl and I was glad that I could help her.

Tuesday Novemeber 17,2009

On this day, I was at the VA hospital for my last day this semester. I was able to finish my periomedicament PE. It was nice to finally place Arestin. I have seen many hygienists place arestin. I felt like it was pretty easy. My patient at the VA was a Class three exam. I am glad that I finished my exams today. That takes a lot of stress off.

Thursday Nov. 12

Today was a good day. I finished my class three exam and saw my kids. I was a little nervous to give LA on my patient with trigeminal neuralgia, but all went well. I didn't have any errors on the exam. In the afternoon I saw my kids. It is always fun but hard to treat your own children. They did good and I was glad to get my 1A requirements finished.

Thursday Nov. 5 2009

Today in clinic, I saw to patients that were class five's. They were pretty easy patients to treat. I counted up my quads for the semester and I have 86 so far. I still have 3 clinic days at WSU and 1 day at the VA. Hopefully I will be able to finish all of my requirements before the semester ends. I just want to take a second and say how grateful I am to have this opportunity to be apart of the dental hygiene program even though it has been stressful at times. I also feel grateful for a wonderful family that has supported me through the program. I feel lucky to have such a wonderful husband and 3 beautiful girls that help me through these day's each week. I don't know if I could accomplish all of this without the support from everyone that I know and love. Thanks everyone for helping me stick with everything:) Almost only one semester to go. Yeah!

Thursday October 29,2009

Today in clinic I saw my class II patient back. I was able to finish him and had a lot of time to spare. It was nice to complete him. I also finished several PE'S like the accessory fulcrum and air powder polisher. It was nice to get these out of the way. My afternoon patient was a class 1B I really didn't need another patient in this category, but it is nice to just have a patient in the chair. Only 5 more weeks of the semester I still have a lot of requirements left. Hope all goes well in the next couple of weeks.

Thursday October 22,2009

Today in clinic, we had morning lab and saw a patient in the afternoon. It was a good day today. It was nice to learn all of the things that we did in the morning lab so that we can pass our p.e.'s off. We learned about CRE assessment, blood glucose testing, subgingival irrigation, medicaments and accessory fulcrums. I am excited to be able to treat my pt's with medicaments. My patient in the afternoon was so nice. She was 81 years old and was a class five. She was so gracious that I cleanied her teeth. I love treating patient's like her.

Today was our mockboard day. It was a better day than I thought it would be. My patient came on time and was very cooperative. I was a bit worried about the paper work but that went well. I am so glad that the day is over. I hope that the actual board day turns out as good as today. It seems like I stressed out more than I needed to.

Friday October 2 2009

What fun local anesthestia is. We gave each other injections the last two fridays. I thought it would be more scary than it is. All went well both days. Tomarrow we give injections on the left side both maxillary and mandibular. I like the LA class it has been really fun.

Thursday October 8, 2009

Today in clinic, my class III patient came back and I was able to finish 2 quads of the cleaning. I could have finished the rest of his mouth, but he is taking a new medication so I needed a physician consult. I ended up cleaning half of the right side with out LA. I sure hope that I didn't hurt my patient. My second patient for the day was a really nice lady that had really great homecare for being 75. I was amazed at how healthy her tissues are. I hope that my teeth and gums are that healthy when I'm her age. I had a good week in clinic. Next week is mockboards hopefully all goes well.

Thursday October 1,2009

Today in clinic, I got lucky and found my mockboard patient. Yeah! No more stress trying to find one. My patient seems like he will be dependable. The mockboard is only 2 weeks away. I hope that the day goes good for me. Tomarrow we will be giving each other injections on the mandibular (IA and LB). Last week I was pretty scared to give an injection, but it wasn't as hard as I thought. Hopefully tomarrow will be the same. It was actually pretty fun. Clinic has been going good I just need to get caught up on the P.E.'s and eaglesoft patient inputs.

1B clinic Day

Today was a 1B day for me. This is good for the quadrants, but not for mockboard. I'm feeling a little stressed because I don't have my mockboard patient yet. I'm sure it will all work out. At least hopefully. My morning patient cancelled at 7:30, luckily my friend could come today. Clinic is startingt to get easier in some ways. Hopefully, I will find my mockboard soon.

Today in clinic I saw my class III patient. It was a great experience for me. His mandibular anterior teeth are mobile and he has a lot of recession. It was a very good confidence builder. I had to hold on to his mobile teeth while I scaled them. I didn't receive any errors today on that quadrant. I felt like I was on a roll. Its to bad that my patient needed to leave at 10:10. I will be seeing him back in 2 weeks hopefully all will go well on that day too. My patient has been a very nice patient. I'm grateful for that.

Wow what a day. In clinic today, I saw a Class III patient for an OD. It took me a lot of time to probe and record gingival recession. It was frustrating when I found out that I charted it wrong. It was very time comsuming to go back and reprobe. My patient was very understanding. It will be nice to get 4 quads of a class III when I'm finished. I saw my dad this afternoon. It was nice to have him come. I declared him as an exam for my class V. I was excited because I didn't end up with any errors. I remember last semester I felt like he was kind of hard, but this semester he has gotten easier.

First patient day back in the clinic.

Today was our first day back in clinic seeing patients. I was really glad that every thing went smoothly today. I was kind of worried that I would forget the computer stuff, but it ended up being fine. I had my brother and sister in law come in so the day wouldn't be so stressful. We have so many requirements this year I wonder if I will be able to finish them all. I guess it will happen it just seems like a lot right now.

Monday April 20, 2009

Today in clinic I saw a friend of ours. The day went really smooth. My patient was a class 1B. There wasn't much calculus so I had him checked out by 10:00. It is nice to almost be done with this semester. Yeah summer is just around the corner.

Monday April 13,2009

My experience on Monday, was really good. I saw a class 1B patient and was able to do 12 sealants on my patient. It is nice to finally have all of my requirements completed. It is nice to see the rainbow at the end of the tunnel. I hope that next year goes smooth.

Monday April 6,2009

Today in clinic I saw my brother-in-law. He was a Class II. I felt like he had a lot of hard calculus to remove. It took me 70 minutes and I had about 4-5 errors. I feel like this is quite a lot of errors for me. I usually only have a couple of errors. It was kind of hard because my brother-in-laws teeth are very sensitive, but he didn't want to be numbed today. I also felt like he had woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. He was a little grumpy. I do feel like a did a good job cleaning his teeth. Hopefully in 6 months the job will be easier.

Dental Screening Friday April 3,2009

On Friday I came in special to find my class III patient. At first this was very discouraging because I had to turn my patient away due to uncontrolled diabetes. The appointment was very long for both the patient and I. We had to try to get a physician consult, but was unable to get it. I did learn a lot of things this day though. I had never faxed a physician consult or had a patient with uncontrolled diabetes. We also had to take the patients blood glucose in the clinic. I was able to watch a 2nd year student perform this on the patient. I feel that this is going to help me for next year having already seeing the process. After turning my patient away I was a little discouraged because I had come in on my day off from school and did not get my class III, but then one of the 2nd year students came and said that she had 4 quads of a class III. Both Candace and I needed 2 quads so we were able to split the quads to fill our requirement. I feel like the patient will be very reliable due to he is deporting in a couple of weeks. I hope all works well on Wednesday.

Wednesday March 30

Today was an interesting day in clinic. I had to rescedule my first patient due to her not having a premed or even knowing that she needed one. Luckily I was able to get a hold of my brother-in-law for him to come. It ended up being a stressful day but a good day. I ended up getting 4 quads of class two. I really needed this to meet my requirements. I am a little nervous for wednesday. I feel like I really need the requirements for wednesday, but it may be complicated.

Monday March 16,2009

Today was a really good day at clinic. My peer pal knew that my patient would be a class II or Class III. I am glad that he ended up being a class II. At first I was a little worried because I thought that there would be a language barrier, but he ended up speaking english. Yeah! My patient needed to leave early so I only got to the OD check. Next time I will be able to scale and finish OHI instructions. It seems that the days are moving quick and we don't have to much longer to finish all of our requirements. It will be nice to have our first year completed. I really need a class III. Hopefully that will happen soon.

Wednesday Feb. 25,2009

Today in clinic my goal was to finish my first Class II patient in one appt. I am so happy I finished my patient and two PE's. My day ran so smooth it was nice. I saw my dad today. It was nice because at his last appt. we went over OHI. I feel bad because I feel that part of the problem is lack of education on his dentists part. My dad didn't know that he needed to floss under a 6 unit bridge that can be pretty devastating for the gum tissue. He has been seeing the same dentist for 25 plus years. The good thing is that his PFI score and OHI has increased and I am his new hygienist and I will take great care of him.

Monday February 23,2009

Today in clinic I saw my mom. She was a Class Five but IB. My goal today was to complete my patient and the ultrasonic PE. I was able to complete both. My mom was difficult to scale because she had a lot of calculus on the lingual anteriors. Overall the day went well. It was fun to use my ultrasonic again. I really haven't used it much. I feel like I need practice to become better at this scale. The good news is that I passed the PE off.

Feb. 18,2009

Today in clinic my goal was to complete my Class 1B patient. The cleaning went well. My patient has been really fun to get to know. I feel like I learned that sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between tooth anatomy and calculus. This can sometimes be hard for the instructors also. At first my instructor was going to give me two errors and then she felt that it was the anatomy of the tooth. I was happy about this because I had spent a lot of time and thought I had done well on this patient. I am also glad that we are half way through the semster. The dental convention is the next two days. I think that it will be fun to go and see all of the products and other stuff.

Monday February 9,2009

My goal in clinic this day was to get a couple of PE'S passed off and finish my patient. I was able to get my patient finished this day, but not pass any PE'S off. The reason that I was unable to pass off any PE'S was that there was a snow storm and my patient came in 30 minutes late. It was nice because my patient did not need any radiographs this day so at least I was able to finish her. I feel like I need to get faster. I was glad because I only had 1 error at scale check, but it took me one hour for the cleaning. I need to get out of turtle speed.Hopefully this comes with time.

Monday February 2,2009

Clinic on this day was a lot of fun. I saw my first patient that I did not know in the clinic. She has very nice and I think sometimes that it is easier to work on someone that you don't know than someone that you do know. My goal for the day was to pass off some P.E's. I was glad because I was able to pass of the instrument sharpening and the denture prothesis PE's. I feel pretty good about the semester so far. The charting is getting easier and I feel like I'm finally starting to get the hang of things and get into some kind of routine. I am excited for tomarrow because I'm bringing my husband in. It will be nice to start radiographs and also give him a good cleaning.

Clinic January 21,2009

My goal this day was to complete an exam and finish my patient in one clinic session. I was really happy because I met my goal. I feel that declaring my patient as an exam helped me to become faster at scaling. I saw my brother-in-law on this clinic day. He was a Class 1B. The day went really smooth. I didn't need any retakes and at scale check I only had to rescale two areas. I felt like this was a good experience. I don't know if I passed the exam yet, but feel pretty optimistic about it. I feel like I am always anxious the night before and the day of clinic. I don't know how to relax before clinic and hope that the anxious feelings will slowly get better. It seems like I am normal because the other girls in my pod say that they feel the same. Most of my clinic days have been smooth so I don't know why I feel so stressed about clinic. Hooray the third week in the semester is over. Only 12 weeks to go. I am enjoying the program, but it is nice to have the weeks fly by.

Wednesday Clinic

On Wednesday my goal was to pass off a couple of PE's and take some radiographs using the phosphor plate system. The phosphor plate system is really nice to use and takes up less time to develop or run through to see your image. I brought my daughter to clinic on Wednesday. I feel that sometimes it is harder to work on your own children. It took me a while to probe her mouth. She is twelve and had probably about twelve to fourteen permanent teeth. She did not like the probing experience. I found that it isn't very comfortable for this age and it is hard for the patient to keep their mouth open for a long period of time. The cleaning went very well. I am glad to have two less PE's to pass off this semester.

Class 1A exam

My goal for today was to not be stressed out. I feel that I was a little stressed out, but tried really hard to not be stressed out. I felt like my day went pretty smooth. I am glad that I did the 1A exam. My daughter was my patient. She was a little uncomfortable a times but she was a good sport for being my patient. I feel pretty confident that I passed my first exam in clinic. I hope that clinic will become more comfortable each time.

First Day Back 2nd semester

My goal for the first day back in clinic was to learn how to use the ultrasonic and the gracey scalers. I have seen many hygienist's use these instruments. The hygienist's that I know seem to really enjoy using the ultrasonic and I feel that I will like it to. The day went pretty smooth for me. I feel that these instruments were fun to use and I'm excited to use these for treatment. I am nervous for this new semester. There are many requirements to meet and a lot to learn this semester. I hope that I don't have a heart attack at the moment I feel that I might. I hope that clinic tomorrow goes smooth for me. I don't feel so much intimidated with the actual treatment, I feel it is being able to remember all of the steps for the paper work and all of the rules of the clinic. I can't wait until things just feel natural for me and I don't have to feel as much stress. I guess my goal for tomorrow should be not to stress out.