I'm going to celebrate FAILING!!!

Yep, failed the mock board LA, and the sad part was when I was done I was confident in passing! How crazy is that! But I did practice later since my board patient didn't show today! CRAZY and SCARY! What if..... just keeps poping through my brain! I need to remeber the crazy 45* on the PSA and just to go deeper on the IA! Wow!

I think ice cream is needed!

I'm done with my class IV!!!

Im Finally done! My patient kept canceling on me but now she finally came and I got 3 quads done!!!

Oh what a relief!!!

So what I learned today was great, that when you take each tooth at a time you don't miss as much calculus and it is not to time consuming!!!

MockBoards are done for ever!!!

Next time I live through this experience it will be the real thing!!! Oh my gosh I am so excited! I had my board patient today and was able to scale one of her quads, and I think that this will be amazing!!! The calculus was crazy but I got it all off and she didn't need anesthesia so something was working for me. I just wish I could speak spanish... so goal of the day is to become amazingly fluent in spanish over night or just find a boyfriend who can....

I found my board patient!!!

I can't believe the luck of today... I found my board patient. My afternoon patient cancelled so I had Mr Solamon call her and she actually answered and said she can come in! No one has luck like this, especially me this last semester! Anyways long story short, she qualifies on both quads on the mandible. The only problem is that she only speaks spanish, and I only speak english. Good thing I have a friend that speaks both...

I learned how hard it is to take xrays with someone you can not explain it too, especially if they wont bite down all the way! Good thing Emily is amazing in her language abilities and she is so wonderful that she helped me!

Yep...

I agree with Camille... May will be here before we know it! And lets be honest, I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

Today I was able to see some eaiser patients and get those requirements done! Yeah! But what I want to write today of is my great expeirence in radiology (why is it if you screw it all up they say that it's a great experience, I say it sucked!) I did a full mouth with scan-x. She had a tiny mouth so we thought we could get them all on one film. And I was almost right except on a few the root just curved right out of the film. So after loading them, I did the others... and you have to load them all seperatly or else they get errased! yes, I lost all of those xrays... and she did not want to take them agian, who would! aghh! Oh well, I learned, hope you guys do to!

Another day, another no show!

Today my morning patient no showed on me, but luckly there was an extra patient that arrived without an appointment. On this patient I found the importance of using the montanna jack on the line angles with the pre-molars. I usually do this with most patients but I decided to try more of a posterior instrument... but I missed a spot on both sides. So moral of the story, use the yellow one when in doubt!

As for the afternoon I was able to pass off my N2O PE. I was nervous to do this since I had not done this ever before, but it was not too bad, just have to remember to have them turn on the main nitrous so that your patient is getting enough!

Crazy day, but I am glad the sun is shinning so that I can go get some great rays tonight before it's gone in another snow storm!!!

My last CA day of the year!!!

Today I did my CA day at the VA! Weird to think that I will never do another one of these agian!

The major delemma that I ran into today was patients showing up... like usual. Last week no one showed up, and no one did much about it, I didn't even get a patient. Funny how this week the VA staff is running frantic to get us patients... ironic! Oh well, Im glad they started to.

Another week....

Wow, what a week! Yesterday I was CA down at the VA. Word from the mistake... Don't let the dentists tell you that a patient has not checked in... because they might have... and then they wait for ever in the lobby because they tell you to stop coming up and checking... Yeah, just saying, not a good experience! If they do not show in the first 30 min call there name out in the lobby just for fun, you might actually find them there anyways.

As for clinic I had a great experience with lovely sheet calculus. I had a lady that I thought would be a 1B until I got closer in the mouth... humbling experience! The best thing that I found was the ultra sonic and just running over and over it. Then going the final pass over it with your H6/7 which has great surface area and the perfect angle for it!

Class IV!!!!

Today I had 2 returning patients, one to finish up who was calss II and the other was after a year when I cleaned her last. I was hoping that she would still be class IV and not V, and to my luck she has not done the best on her personal oral habbits so that she still had bleeding, supperation, and larger pocket depths (yes ladies, Im talking 9 and 10's!!!). Sadly it was a lovely sight to behold! I ran into some amazingly tough calculus!!! I just kept going over it, making short overlapping strokes and eventually it came off. I also really liked the extra mini gracey that Alexander let me try! It was great at accessing the pocket!

Hmm, well I blogged last week but then at looking at my profile somehow it did not post it...

For today I was able to do my preformance day. I was on my toes the entire time, but it went smoother then I thought! I was able to practice my pedo skills in making sure that the little kids don't go running from my chair right when I sat them down, especially when they don't speak english so they have no clue what I'm saying! The other light bulb that turned on for today had to do with calculus, I had a class III with wickedly tenashious calculus. I kept almost getting it all off but that little tiny piece which just happened to be on there with super glue! I was amazed by how much lateral pressure was needed inorder to get it off. So when in doubt, use more lateral pressure!

Last Day of the Year!!!!

Today was the last day of the semester!!! And my roommate canceled on me! Can you belive that! As for today I was able to see two hard patients. One was mentally chanlenging... she drove me off the wall, and sadly I have had so much problems at work with peope like this that I don't have much patience for them... but I managed. I realized that they are really watching everything that you do.... literally. She questioned every move and if it was sanitary. Good thing I get to see her again! Then in the afternoon I had a challenging class 4. I really was able to cement in my mind that with the ultrasonic just keep going over the chunk of calculus and eventually you are able to get it off!

Oh wow!

Today I had a great day! I found a mock board patient and totally had a great light bulb turn on for the ultra sonic! I just found that the addaption became clearer and easier. I felt that going over it a couple of times helped a lot and also turning it off and feeling around with it helped so much! I didn't miss any spots with this technique and you could see the calculus in the x-rays everywhere!

I think I'm on a streak of bad luck

Today my patient in the morning called after her appointment started 15min ago that she was sick and not coming in. At least now I won't get sick from her. I commenced on trying to find another paitient but to no luck! Then in the afternoon my patient didn't come even though I verified yestereday. I was in luck that a family did have an extra child so that I was able to see her, oh and boy was she fun! I learned a lot about controlling children today and not getting annoyed with them. It was a good experience!

?What type of fluoride?

Today we were able to do a lab in the morning and then see a patient in the afternoon. I really like lab days, it's nice being able to practice with others and just see how Im progressing with the others. I loved being able to try all the different types of fluoride, but after I got them all on my teeth I started getting sick to my stomach! Weird! Anyways, its all good now. I thougth it was great how each brand had so many different things about it to taste, to how it spread. That just made it solid in my mind to try many different brands and not be biased.

PE Day!!!

So it is 8:15 and my patient is still not here.... and he is my class 2 so I need his quads.... I call and he thought it was at 1! how in the heck did he get that from 8 or 12:30! We've never had a 1, well anyways, he says that he can come in in the afternoon and ironiclly my patient cancelled for the afternoon, so I was able to do 5 PE's today between my 3 patients! Oh I am so excited! This week has been a luck double cupon day for me!!! Hopefully my luck keeps going!

I finally had some relization when it comes to xrays today! Hopefully my bad luck is over with!

PE Day

Bring on the LA

So, what starts as a bad day, can really turn around at the VA. My patient in the morning was just a class 5, which I finished early so that maybe I could get some perio on my second patient... But there was not an extra one so I went to the dental and was able to do some injections... and to my great suprise there was a full mouth extraction that day for dentures!!! Oh yeah! I got to do 15 injections on one lady! It was awesome to be able to just go through everysingle injection in the mouth! I just have to remember that on the IA to really end over the premolars (even if they don't have them).

Oh Man!!!

So I sure hope that everyone else has those days that no matter how hard you try you completly screw up your x-rays! It didn't help that on one particullarly hard pre-molar shot I open the door and my patient says..."sorry, I moved"... therefore the biggest cone cut! so I probably failed those with my other horrible two! What a boosting self esteem moment! Anyone have any fool proff ways that you can get great bitewings? I need it right now! But he did end up being a class 2 and I think a very challenging one so I am excited for the challenge!

I did not like the sonic scaler today in lab, I felt that the tip did not access the pockets of the teeth very well, extremely loud, and not very effective all around. The Piezo I thought was comparible to the ultra sonic but it was harder to adapt those tips around the tooth for sure. I think I will just stick with the ultra sonic for now!

She Came!!!

I got to finish my class 3 today, but this time she was late an hour and a half, not the hour she was the appointment before! I was getting really scared, but then her son called and told me she was on her way. So I was able to get done a 1A before she arrived, that way not a waste of time! So today I finished my requirments for 1A's and sealants! Oh yeah!
I learned so much today about instrumenting from Prof Hanson, it was wonderful being able to have her sit right there with me and correct all by bad habbits that are becoming more permenent every day... I guess I was doing a lot of wrong fulcrums and strokes, but now it makes so much more sense, deposits are so much easier to get off, and so much less tissue trauma! With her watching me at the VA I just might be able to learn how to correctley scale and maybe not fail the boards! Amazing!

My goal for this session is to go home and review lateral pressure and fulcruming, or at least as much as I can on a typodant!

Just keep scaling!

Today was a stressful day but I can't put my finger on why it was... I did do 2 quads of a class 3 with the most tenacious calculus that I have ever seen! It was amazing that it could get such a great hold onto the tooth! her sister is my mock board so hopefully it's not genetic. I really liked how my instructor came and helped me and gave me some tips. I would really like to see more of that happening, I just don't feel confident in getting off all of the calculus all of the time. I'm sure that will come with more practice and guiding.