exploring the mouth

I feel so uncoordinated when I'm looking in the mouths of my classmates. I'm sure it will get better but I just feel like I'm in weird positions. Also, my mouth may be worse off then my classmates and I feel so self conscious. But hey, that's why we're here!

Exploring

I'm so excited we've finally got to the point of working on each other! I'm scared to hurt my fellow hygiene classmates, but I think things will be funner once we start learning hands on better instead of just reading and imagining what we are supposed to be doing. This is also a good way to be gentle because they're going to be working on me as well and so I'll be able to see what hurts me to prevent me from doing it to them. HE HE :0)

Intra oral exams

The intraoral exams are harder only because we need to know the names of the certain structures. I think once we get our own habit and way of doing things then it will go by lots faster and be better. The extra oral exam I think is getting easier for me with practice and knowing what structures I am talking about exactly. Overall I think practice will make perfect.

fulcrum

Today we worked on fulcrums and it was sorta nerve racking. I was so nervous even though I've worked with patients alittle bit. Pinching the patient with my finger or mirror and any instrument is scary because it really hurts and that could lose a lot of respect form the patient if you keep causing them pain. Leaning over the patient instead of using my mirror is going to be a hard habit to break, but I think I'm doing pretty well at keeping myself from doing so. There's still so much to learn, but I believe it will get easier.

Vital Signs

The hardest part about vital signs for me is taking the blood pressure. It's hard for me to hear the tapping for the systolic pressure and getting it to an exact number. I'm hoping that I'll catch on pretty quick since we're going to need to be able to get an accurate count on each patient. The TA's are such a big help because they have their own personal experiences from only a year ago to reflect on to help us out with problems maybe they have had. I'm just glad that everyone wants to work together instead of competing against one another to be better. I'm really looking forward to 29 or more new friends.

Health History

Patient Health Histories are so time consuming but very important. To make sure all info is obtained an recorded correctly there must be patient-operator interaction to ask questions. This is vital to both a good grade and making sure there aren't going to be any severe complications with the procedure. Overall I think these clinic sessions are very successful in helping me to learn the proper things to do within a real practice. :)

Patients

These next couple of semesters are going to be a lot more stressful than this first one. I'm glad they told me in advance, but now I'm starting to worry about finding patients. I mean, I'm sure it will turn out fine. All the professors and students are super nice so I think it will be a great experience while preparing myself for the real world.