2 Patients

Today was a hectic day. I got my patient done within 45 minutes of being in clinic and then someone came in and just wanted to get their pano taken. I'm so excited I got one, but I was running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out how to do it since I've never done it on a real patient before. The patient I traded because I thought it was a class II ended up being a class III so now I'm kicking myself in the butt because I could've been done with class 3's, but hey at least I got an extra pano done and a girl who wants to be my patient next month. YAY

Today I saw my exam patient to clean the other half of her mouth. The other side was already built up so I really tried to stress her homecare so that her mouth wouldn't end up just as bad as it was before. I spent way too much time on her but I didn't miss any spots. I'm really nervous about the time issue for my patients because I don't wanna miss spots but I wanna do good on my exams. I think I'll just need more time to get faster. I learned how hard it is to give instructions to patients who don't speak english. She had her sister here to help her understand, but even she didn't speak the best english. My patient was pregnant and I tried make her more comfy by giving her a pillow and having her lay on her side, but she wanted to lay on her back and didn't know what to do with the pillow I gave her so, it was just a learning experience as to what specific patients like and understand.

exam

Today was my first 1B exam pt which I am excited to say I think I did pretty good on. Before I started they made the time requirements and stuff clearer to me so that I wouldn't lose lots of points for going over 25 minutes because I was almost sure to miss some spots. So I was better prepared for this exma that for my class II patient exam. It went well, but I still haven't passed off very many PE's so i hope I can do that later.

LAB

I thought today's lab was a really good experience. How to use the ultrasonic made more sense to me because I thought I could only apply the lateral surfaces to the tooth, when I can apply the front and back too they just aren't as comfortable for the patient I guess.
The diagnodent lab helped tons because I really had no idea how that little machine worked. It made more sense for me to use it on someone with them actually coaching me. The insurance was really boring and I think it will be helpful once we get into a real office, but I think I might forget it all by that time. I think labs are way helpful now that we are seeing real patients so we have someone to apply these sessions to.

class 3

My patient today was kinda frustrating. They showed up late and left early so I tried to do their UR and LR but I missed like eight spots because I only had 45 min to do her and so all of a sudden I look up at the clock and it's time for her to leave. The calculus was harder to feel on their teeth. Sometimes I don't really know how to feel the difference between a rough tooth and if their is really calculus there. I even tried to scale it off for awhile and the rough spot I missed wasn't a rough spot it was calculus. I think next time it will be easier because I explained to her that I won't be able to get done next time if she can't come on time and stay the entire appointment block, but we'll see.

Calculus

Today I am actually starting to be able to feel calculus. I didn't miss any spots on my class II patient because I was able to explore and go back and find those spots I missed again. I;m really excited because for the first month I would just guess if I got it all or not, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I think that it will make my next few patients easier to where I won't miss anything.

class II

Today I had another spanish speaking patient who turned out to be a class II so girls, they are great resources as scary as it seems at first to work on them there's people in clinic to help and alittle bit of slack if the patient doesn't understand what you are trying to tell them.