Time flies when you're scaling...

How was everyone's holiday? Mine was the perfectly needed break before we finish up this mother of a semester. Wow! I can't believe today was our last day to work on each other before patient treatment next Monday. Unless we end up getting some time on Wednesday but still I can't believe the semester is almost over. It really has flown by. I was thinking today when I was doing the PSR that I really can't believe how much I've learned this semester. I've gone from not being able to probe to being able to do an entire mouth (without recording numbers) in like 25 minutes. Plus I feel like I can look in someone's mouth and actually know what I'm looking at and why it looks the way it does. I feel like even though I've complained a lot about specific clinic days I have really learned everything I need to know to start working on patients and now I just need practice.

What to say...

Today I really don't know what to refelct upon. Clinic felt a little confusing at parts today. At some points I felt maybe a little overdirected. Like when we walked out physically and me and my lab partner weren't sure why we walked out but then we just walked back in...??? Overall, days like these are good because it is just what I need- to go through everything from beginning to end. I am pretty sure that most of my patients are going to be coming back for a third visit because I am slow but I am determined to try and get them done in 2 appts. I am sorry to my loved ones that are going to have to suffer from my inexperience. Okay, well that is enough for today... only 2 more days until Thanksgiving!!

Only one more Monday until Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving dinner and if you can't tell, am very excited for it! As for clinic, we did the air/powder polisher today. It was messy but my teeth felt clean. I can't imagine having to do that on a patient and not making them feel very uncomfortable. I think I prefer the regular selective polishing with a cup and paste as both the hygienist and the patient.

Week Eleven

This week in clinic was pretty good. I liked polishing and fluoride treatments because they are both simple. I need to work on getting the polishing cup right up under the gum line though. I'm glad that on Wednesday we didn't have to fill out our lab partner's charts. Personally, I've had it up to here with writing "HHX: No significant changes since..." It was a nice break to not have to worry about the chart anyway! Well, let's see here, what else to say? Oh yes, I did say to check back with me this week about posterior scaling and sure enough, I am so good at it! JK! ;) Really though, I have gotten A LOT better at it since I blogged last week saying that I had never scaled. Now I think over the last two days in clinic I've pretty much scaled all the surfaces of posterior teeth. One thing I noticed that makes a BIG difference in scaling is the patient position and chair position. If the patient is too high or too low or laid up or back too far it can make getting a good scaling position nearly impossible. So if you can't find a good position for a certain area of the mouth, try moving the patient a little.

Me and Eric 

community health wiki

I don't know how many people will read this but our wiki is officially up and running so feel free to visit it at www.seedwiki.com/wiki/get_chapped. The title is Get CHAPPed (how appro) but it is password protected so unless you can guess what it is, then I guess you'll just have to wait until class tomorrow. I'm really enjoying working with the wikis and I like that everyone in the group can see everyone else's comments, unlike the blog which is more individual. I was thinking that it might be a good idea for community if we posted our weekly comments in a special section on the wiki that everyone would have access to. That way we could respond to one another and read each other's comments all in one location. I think we would format it different than the ethics wiki where all comments were listed on one page which made it kinda confusing. We could seperate the comments by week. Also, if the wiki ever goes public, I believe that we have the capability to hide that page. Its just an idea!

Polish and shine

At first when I started typing this post I was only a little mad but now I am super angry. First of all, this is the third time I have typed this post because I have lost it twice and I have no idea why so if I lose it a fourth time you might just see a post that says "THIS SUCKS!!!" Okay but now for the real stuff... Today was a frustrating day in clinic for the following reasons: 1) We were supposed to learn and practice polishing and by the time I got to polishing I only had maybe 5 minutes. So that was lame. Part of this is because I spent an hour doing HHX, intra/extra exams, dental screening and probing a whole half mouth. I just feel like I need to learn the new stuff more than I need to keep practicing Blood pressure, extra and intra exams and dental screenings. I do need more practice probing but that is just because I am slow, not because I am not comfortable with it. Also, I hope we will get to practice polishing and using our universal curets more because I have never even used a universal curet on a posterior tooth except for the first time we practiced on a typodont. This PE is due next Wednesday so we best get some practice on this before then. 2) I am frustrated that I am in a pod with only one other person so we do not get the same amount of instruction as everyone else. This was especially apparent today. The only time I saw an instructor was when I would call them over to check me off or if I would ask for help specifically. But even then it was like, they'd check me off or answer my question and then go right back to whoever they were helping. Either I am perfect and just don't need help or I am being seriously neglected. I hate to complain and I know it seems like its all I ever do on here... I really do like clinic! I just had a terrible, horrible, no good very bad day today. Plus it seems like everytime I complain about something on my blog, within a week, I feel better about it so just check back next week to hear me talk about how awesome I am at polishing and scaling posterior teeth! :)