11/18/10

Today went pretty smoothly. My patient had an upper denture and a lower partial with 5 teeth:) So i got him done pretty quick. Luckily, he let me take a pano on him so I did something that was a little more productive. I was hoping that another patient I called was going to come in for a full mouth series of x-rays. I'm in desperate need of PA's. I'm not having the best of luck at finding patients that will get PA's and local anesthesi. I know I'm going to be stressed out next semester trying to meet those requirements. It all works out and I just need to keep that in mind. Also, we still have one more clinic day, so hopefully I will get the opportunity to do some of these requirements then!:)

11/16/10

Today I went to the VA and cleaned two patients this morning (seven quads of a class 5). I don't need anymore quads, I was hoping to get some class three's of four's today, but turns out I don't have the best of luck:) My patient this afternoon is probably another class 5. He had to leave at two to get a heart monitor and is going to try and come back on time! I did have one of my patients that wanted nitrous so I got to get that done. However, I forgot to pass it off as a PE. It is the last day at the VA this semester. I have really liked the VA, but have not had the best of luck. I hope I have better luck next semester with classification requirements!:)

11/11/10

This morning went smoothly, that is probably because I only had a patient with the classification of 1B and the OD was done:) She did have a lingual bar with sheets of calculus under, so that was a good experience to clean. It had been two years since she had a cleaning so she had moderate calculus, but no pocketing. The lingual bar was difficult for me to get right under. I found that the ultrasonic worked best right along the bar. I also passed off the caries risk assesment PE. I'm very glad to have that PE out of the way! My patient had low buffering so I recommended that she just use prevident 5000. My patient this afternoon is the patient I had my first day of clinic. He is a class three and was Megans mockboard patient. He has very tenacious calculus and lots of it. Wish me luck! :)

10/21/10

Wow today worked out perfectly for me. I scheduled a patient at the first of the semester and then I could not get ahold of him to confirm the apt. I knew he was going to miss, but I couldn't schedule anyone else just in case:) Turns out he didn't show up. My patient that was suppose to come in next week came in on accident! It worked out perfect. She was a class three and my mockboard patient. I was feeling a little discouraged from mockboards, so I was really motivated to do a good job today. I got two quads done with just a few calculus errors:) I used my periodontal file on her and placed arestin. I'm excited to see her in 3 months to see if the arestin worked. My patient this afternoon was a 1B and flew by. Overall, today went pretty well.

10/18/10

I think that the patient education projects have been very beneficial. I think it is important to go over the most frequent questions that our patients will ask so that we can be prepared to give an educational and complete answer. I really liked going into more detail on flouride. I think that some patients are very hesitant to the effects of topical and systemic flouride. I thought it was nice to go over this so that we have a better understanding and can educate our patients about the benefits and risk if it is not taken properly. Also, it was nice to review the aids that we could provide our patients with that have xerostomia. I think it is important to recognized that xerostomia is not a disease but a symptom. I feel much more prepared to help my patients that face problems with xerostomia and feel that I could recognize it much better after discussing how it looks.

9/30/10

Today was a crazy day, with class three patients all day. :) I found a mockboard patient that will be a little easier to get a good grade on! One of my patients had not been in for 20 years and had calculus overhanging on the gums and some crazy spurs. I finished two quads on him today and my hands are pretty soar. I need to make sure that i'm going along the linguals and buccals to get under the calculus. Also, I used my orange ultrasonic and loved it. I'm becoming more comfortable with using the ultrasonic and blue boa. I still have some major difficulties getting to the wisdom teeth! I took some PA's on my patient this morning to assess the bone levels. She had a hard time and had a bad gag reflex. I have the hardest time getting the second molar. I have heard it is a good idea to have the patient slightly open and push the x-ray back further to get that second molar. I'm going to practice getting the second molar and really going interproximally with the tip of my instrument this next week. As the instructors would say, "Today was a good experience.":)

9/16/10

Today went pretty good! I had a class 5 patient and a 1B patient. So it was not a very difficult day. My 1B patient had marginal gingivitis and the tissues were pretty inflamed along the linguals. I got to practice adaptation.:) I did miss one spot on the interproximal surface. I noticed that when the professors explore they tilt the explorer back and so it will angle more into the interproximal surface. My patient also had alot of psuedopockets, that had moderate plaque. I have been trying to keep my instruments more organized as i clean. Also, I have been trying to scale in a routine, so that I don't have to keep picking up and putting down instruments. My goal is to keep organized this semester and have a routine that I can use for calculus removal!:)