Probing with the first years

I have been dreading teaching probing since I became a TA but honestly, it wasn't bad at all. It is a lot better to teach probing than to actually probe anyway! The thing I really enjoyed about it was going over all the little technicalities because after a year, my grasp and fulcrum and all has gotten sloppy. Also, I passed off the afternoon sessions Explorer and Instrument Grasp PEs and they did awesome. It was also a food review for me because I honestly had forgotten that in the modified pen grasp your fingers are supposed to be in a "c" shape. As little as this seems, now that I am working on that habit I noticed my fingers aren't as sore today! :)

Whadda day!

Today in clinic I saw a class 3 in the am & my first class 4 in the pm. As tiring as it was, I actually really enjoyed the class 4 especially. It was really rewarding to be able to feel definite clicks with the explorer and then actually see the huge chuncks of calculus come out of the pocket after a successful stroke. Today I actually had the thought, "Yeah, I think I can do boards." Whereas, up to this point I've been like "I am never gonna pass boards!" Anyway, I am glad today is over but I felt really good about everything. I am anxiously awaiting my next class 4 patient... but not until next semester hopefully!

36 xrays later...

It's the lastest title of my new horror film. It's about me having to take xrays all day long on both of my patients and it was horrible. But what can you do? I finally get that thing that Prof. Alexander is always saying about how the xrays are like your bright lights when you're driving at night. My patient had some real issues and I really felt like I needed the xrays to see everything that was going on. It was difficult to tell whether his pockets were pseudo pockets or how much bone loss he actually had without seeing the xrays because he had a lot of gingival inflammation. Anyway, I got my xrays done and I hope to see some easy patients here pretty soon. The sad thing is, I've seen a few difficult patients so far, but no patients for mockboards yet.

Just like riding a bicycle

So hygiene is just like riding a bicycle... I was amazed at how it all came back to me on the first day of clinic. I thought I would forget a lot more than I did, however I did forget to probe the entire maxillary lingual quad of my patient. :) But really I think I did pretty dang well. I got a FMX done on a class V patient and I completed all 4 quads on that same patient. My class III was a little harder and I got a late start so I only got one quad done but still I am amazed at my progress from last semester. I'm not really sure what the difference is but I feel a lot more confident this semester than I did last semester too which makes a big difference. Hopefully it stays that way!

Instrument sharpening... I get it!

I am so so soo glad that we had that instrument sharpening review in our first clinic session on Thursday because I felt like I had no idea what I was doing beforehand and now I'm thinking, "Wow! Instrument sharpening really works!" I know its a very important skill to have and I honestly felt helpless last semester when I knew my instruments were dulling and I would make my best attempt at sharpening (which was TOTALLY wrong) but it didn't seem to work very well. :( Maybe it would've been good to actually check out that video last semester when Costley asked us to! Woops!

Orientation, CPR & Parking Pass Night!

Today was the "unofficial" first day of school. We had our orientation and CPR certification. (Hopefully someone finds that test that is lost! EEKS!) Anyway, it was fun to see everyone again. As you can see, we got some good experience in CPR!
I realized that there really were things that I've missed over the summer and today really helped calm me down about the next year. I guess it doesn't really count that one of the things I missed was hearing Jalene's "The Final Countdown" ringtone! :)
Oh yes, I am also posting some pictures of the good times some of us shared when we slept over for A6 parking passes a couple of weeks ago. I hope Aimee, my love, doesn't kill me for this next one! I just thought it was so cute that Eric was looking down at her. I know she's gonna be angry because I took this picture at like 1:00 a.m. And then Candance and Steph thought it was pretty funny that when their fingers and toes meshed together they were two very contrasting shades so we took a photo of that too. I think it might have been one of those "it's only funny at 2 a.m." type of moments.

Back to school

Wow! Summer of '06 flew by way too fast. Are all you ladies ready to start up hygiene again? I surely am...not! I have had a great summer though. I went to Chicago, saw a White Sox vs. Cubs game, went to some awesome concerts, had a delicious sno-asis snowcone, watched She's The Man about 10 times, finally got carpet in my newly remodeled bedroom, got a new bed, went hiking, running, fishing, river-rafting in MOAB, slept over night at Weber for a parking pass... and lots of other cool things. Alas, it is all over for the next 9 months of my life and I will learn to only care about teeth and gums once again! :0) But hopefully I will get lots of good pictures to post on here. P.S. I took this pic at the spectacular Indepence Day fireworks show in Chicago.

Andy Warhol

My favorite flower!

Have a great summer

Hey everyone, just wanted to say that really has been an awesome year getting to know all of you. I honestly never imagined I would have this much fun. The carpool has been awesome and I am totally looking forward to it next year. Carpool 4 life! Sitting on the back row of class with Aimee, Des and Jalene feels like a second home to me now. I can call same seats next year! So, I'll see you next year, or during summer classes, have a great summer, don't change. Have fun in the sun, get laid in the shade. Call me!

Class 3 done!

Its the last day of clinic and I finally got my class 3 patient finished! I enjoyed this time a lot more because I knew I only had 1 quad to get done and I really focused on my instrumentation. I don't feel like the ultra sonic did anything for me and part of that problem is maybe I wasn't going deep enough with it but its okay because I got to hand-scale some huge black chunks of calculus and that is pretty rewarding for me at this point. I hate class 3's because they are VERY hard work but it was a great experience for me to learn A LOT about calculus, instrumentation and clinician fatigue!

Pretty good day... for learning, not so much for me

My patient today was pretty difficult for 3 reasons: 1)she was a mouth breather so her max anterior tissues were swollen out to Texas and bled like a stuck pig 2)she had a lingual retainer that was covered with calculus and 3) she was EXTREMELY sensitive. I would just like to pat myself on the back and say I did okay. The only thing that is keeping me going at this point is knowing I only have one more day of clinic for the next four months!!

Busy Day!!

Holy cow! I saw two patients today and it was crazy! I had to set up my clinic area 2x plus set up/clean up radiology 2x. I saw my niece, a class 1A and my friend, a class 1B (I think) but I'm not sure because all I did was a FMX and BWX on her. I am now officially done with my PA requirements, my class 1A requirements and I only need 1 more set of BWX! 3 more clinic days left... good luck everyone!

Children's Health Fair

Last week we went to the children's health fair at the university and it was pretty fun. I had never done anything like it before so I just wanted to go and get a feel for it. I enjoyed watching how some of the second year girls interacted with the kids and I got a better idea of what to expect at something like that.

Done with class 2

I finally got my last two quads of class 2 done!!! I will be sure to pass any extra quads I come across on to someone else if I can though. I am very nervous about seeing my class 3 patient again though because the last time I saw her I had one heck of a time scaling her. I kept being told to go more apical but there was so much bleeding and I was just so nervous that I was gonna tear her gums right off. Wish me luck!

Back to school

How was everyone's Spring Break '06? Mine was great... I missed you girls in Vegas but I myself went to Wendover Friday night on the "fun bus" and who doesn't love Wendover? Today in clinic I got another Class 1B done with Bwx and I was happy that the BWX only took me about 5 minutes to actually expose... then there's developing, cleaning, etc. But I feel like I am getting better. I kept on schedule and the only thing I didn't keep my goal time was on scaling which was 30 minutes or less and I think I took about 45.

My first full-mouth

Holy crap! I got my first FMX of the semester done and it was HARD! It took me a whole hour to do the FMX and 4 BWX without any retakes. My patient had a really small mouth so I had to use size 1 films on all of the anteriors but it feels good to have one done. I can't believe I have to do another one of those. At least I have one under my belt so hopefully I will feel more confident with the second one.

Two quads of class 2

Well today I finished two more quads of a class 2 and got done early enough to have started a second patient but I didn't really have a patient that wanted to come in just to get started today. It was a pretty stress-free clinic day and I got three PE's done! I felt confident in my scaling today and I am getting more used to the Ultrasonic but I just don't feel like it gets rid of that much calculus and I am having a little trouble not causing a little bleeding.

Darn physician consults!

Well, today was pretty much a waste of a clinic day because my pt. had to have a physician consult and I couldn't get a hold of anyone so all I could do was the intra and extra oral screening. :( At least I know next time he comes back we are ready to scale. Hopefully Wednesday will be more successful.

Only one more appt. in Feb

We only have one more clinic day in February!! Yay! But also crappy at the same time because I feel so stressed about getting my requirements. Especially for radiology because it seems like most of my patients don't need xrays or some that do refuse to get them... ugggh! Anyway, today I did my class 1B exam and I think I failed it because I missed so many areas. I really feel like I can't do a decent job without taking a lot of time to do it. I tried to follow the instructors' advice and "risk" a few mistakes to speed up but then I just ended up missing what seemed like every single tooth in my patient's mouth. I just want to feel like I know what I am doing and be able to do it in a reasonable amount of time. One good thing is that I did get this patient done in one appointment (without xrays) and he did have a lot of stain from tobacco. So I feel pretty optimistic about that.

The day before Valentine's Day

I couldn't think of a title for this blog so... there you go! Today I saw my first class 2 patient but he was a light class 2 with a bit of recession. The hardest part of scaling today was distinguishing CEJ from calculus deposits. Professor Alexander helped me learn how to distinguish the two by sound because the deposits have a scratchier sound to them whereas CEJ is just more of a definite clicking noise. Everyday I am getting more and more comfortable with things. One thing I am worried about is xrays because I haven't taken any PA's or Panos, and I have only had like 4 BWX patients! I better start getting patients that need xrays. Happy Valentine's Day everybody!