Real Patient Day!

Well, my real patient day didn't exactly go as planned. My patient, love him though I do, had high blood pressure... too high. I had to get prof. Costley's permission to work on him, and having her check his pressure and counsel him combined with getting back in the swing of things took up quite a bit of time. In radiology, we only have one size 2 sensor. Toggling that back and forth ate up a lot of my time as well. When all was said and done, I didn't even get to OHI!

Although it wasn't my smoothest clinic day, I did feel like what work I was able to do was good. I am really scared and nervous about doing radiology with the patient next semester, if today was any indication of how it will be!

All in all, I had fun and my patient was the best! I do know the things that I need to work on before next semester, and I know I can do it. I just have to keep thinking "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."

Mock Patient (operator) Day 2

Today seemed to go by smoother than last time. I finished up the remaining 3 quads and had an instructor help me clear up my confusion regarding Taleval. Even though my patient had very little calculus, I could feel my back and arm getting tired from the work. That's something that I can start working on, I think I need to start exersizing more. My muscles get tired way too easily, and I need to strengthen my core so that my posture is better.

Real patient day is on monday, it's finally here! Time to see what we are all made of :)

Mock Patient (operator) Day 1

I was super nervous for today, but it went really well! I really got the feel for how things are going to run next semester, which made me really happy! 3 hours or so in clinic feels like a really long time, but with your patient in the chair it absolutely FLIES by! It felt like I was working really fast, then I'd look at the clock and wonder where the last half hour went! I don't know how on earth I'm going to do this all in 40 min when I get out into the real world, it seems impossible! I scaled one quad on my patient, and was really proud of myself for getting that far.

Taleval is such a strange creature to me. I'm a little confused by it, but I know before long it will be second nature to me... I hope.

Mock Patient Day 2

Today, again, we checked in and were led to our seat by our student hygienists. Jennifer scaled 3 quads on me, and I was surprised by how quickly and efficient she was! She didn't miss a single area when she called for a scale check. I hope I can be that good on Monday!

I'm feeling a lot of anxiety about next semester. We are going to be seeing real patients, and I have a lot of worries associated with that. Will I be able to keep up seeing patients and still having to work my hiney off in my other classes? Will I be able to get enough patients to fullfill all of my requirements? What if I mess up? I guess I just need to relax and trust that everything we've learned will be enough. I'm sure I'll be really nervous for the first few patients, but the newness and anxiety will wear off (hopefully).

Mock Patient Day 1

Today I got to experience what patients feel like when they come in to see us, the process of it all. It was strange how much I actually felt like a patient coming in! We (the patients) first checked in at the front desk and filled out our registration slips. We then waited until our Hygienists came and got us :)

Jennifer was great and did a good job of scaling my teeth. It was really fun to watch everyone buzzing around like mad from the patient's perspective! It was also cool to get to be the patient first so that I could get a good feel for how everything is going to go for me on Monday when we switch! I'm going to bring my instruments home this weekend and go over exploring, scaling, and I'm going to review my charting! It feels like all of this takes so long, how are we every going to get everything done in just one or two little appointments!

I passed off my instrument sharpening PE (felt good to get that done with, only 1 more to go!)

Instrument Sharpening and Eaglesoft Walkout

Leanring instrument sharpening wasn't too bad. We already had a module on this concept in Professor Costley's class, so it was really more of a review. Eaglesoft walkout wasn't very time consuming either, which left a lot of time to pass off PEs and practice! This made me really happy! With the end of the semester approaching, anything I can gett off my plate is a huge relief!

Sealants!

Today we placed sealants on eachother! I was really nervous going into it, because I'd never placed a sealant before. My partner looked for teeth that could be sealed on me... none. I felt so bad, she had to go team up with someone else who's partner had some she could do. She was so sweet and patient while I worked on her and when I was done, I have to say .... it felt soooooo good! It was one of those "I feel like a hygienist" moments, and it was great :)

I scheduled my real patient that I will be seeing on November 21st, less than three weeks! When I start to look ahead like that, I start feeling overwhelmed. It's much easier to concentrate on the week at hand.

Wednesday I'll be passing off air/powder polishing and flouride. Flouride i'm not too worried about, but the air/powder polisher.... it's just so awkward!! I hope I can get everything done!

Selective Polishing, Air/Powder Polishing, Flouride Treatment

I thought today would be a really hard day, after all we learned 3 new PE's. None of it seemed too difficult to me, except for the air/powder polishing. That is something that is really difficult for me! First, your left hand is tied up holding the suction to keep your patient from drowning! This makes it impossible to use indirect vision. Second, since you can't use your mirror, you have to sit/stand in wierd positions to be able to see, making fulcruming difficult. Third, it sprays all over the place and is super messy! All that being said, I can see how I will probably use this quite a bit in the office. Although you can't use it on crowns and composits, it's really helpful for getting stain off (I can see that being a huge plus for smokers)

The selective polishing wasn't too bad, the main part to remember with that is to justify it (usually you are just using toothpaste unless there is staining) and to keep your polisher on a low setting.

Eaglesoft Treatment Planning

Today we learned how to enter a patient's treatment plan into Eaglesoft. It wasn't too difficult or time consuming, which left a lot of time to pass of PE's and practice on eachother. I passed off my Dental Screening and Intra Oral Camera PE's. That means.... I am all caught up on PE's. *Triumphant horn music* All I have in the way of PEs is the one that I learned today! That was my main goal going into this week because we are learning 3 new PEs on Wednesday. I wanted to spend all of my time practicing those instead of cutting my practice time short to pass of PEs.

That awful "I'm a noob, I don't understand what we're doing, I don't understand what I need to do, I'm completely overwhelmed!!!" feeling is starting to wear off... just in time for that "Are we seriously going to start seeing patients?! I'm not ready!" feeling to set in. I'm sure when the time comes, I will feel ready... I hope?

Practice Makes Perfect

Today in clinic we went through and did our HHX, OD, and OHI with new partners. I believe I was a little faster than last time, and at least felt oriented as to what needed to be done. I think each time I do these I get a bit quicker :)

I also passed off my curet PE, which was nice. Scaling posteriors is still very tricky for me, I think I just need more practice. Probing was tricky at first as well, but I think i've pretty much got it down now.

I can't wait to get my first real patient in the chair!

Amanda

All together, now!

Taking a patient through everything we've already learned sounded easy, but it certainly wasn't! Health history, extra and intra oral, probing, disclosing and OHI oh my goodness! I was soooo slow! It was great, however, to see all that we have learned all together. It also made me really excited, knowing that we are going to be seeing our own patients in just a little while! I was a little sad that we didn't have more practice time. I need lots of practice with scaling!

I feel like as a class, we have grown so much together in the past 9 weeks! So much information has been thrown at us at what has seemed like an insane pace, but we've all gotten through it. Yay us!

Dental Screenings

Today was really fun! I thought that Dental Screening would be easy, I've seen the dentists do it hundreds of times quickly and easily. For me, it was a little more difficult. Amalgam fillings are easy to chart, you can see the margins easily. Composit fillings are more difficult, because the color is so similar to tooth structure. Telling the difference between composit fillings, tooth structure, and sealants was difficult for me. That's when you have to whip out your explorer...

Once I could feel the difference with my explorer, it was a lot easier (though I still need more practice at it for sure!) I could feel the difference between filling material and tooth structure.

I was able to pass off 2 PE's, which was nice. I'm feeling a little less overwhelmed with the PE's, as I am trying to stay ahead a little bit. It's easier knowing that if I don't feel 100% comfortable or feel like i'd rather have extra practice time, I can have one clinic day where I don't pass any off.

Disclosure and OHI

Today we disclosed! It was crazy to see everyone walking around with blue mouths! It was also very interesting to see where I am missing when I'm brushing my teeth! We also learned about OHI and talking to our patients. I like that we have the patient show us what we are doing, praise them for their efforts and then give suggestions. I think that is so much more effective than just showing the patient how to do it!

I also was able to practice my scaling. I love the 204S sooo much! I'm going to buy a 135S soon and am really excited for that. :) I'm getting more confident in my scaling, but I feel find it hard to see. I want to purchase loupes, but it's not really an option until my student loan for spring semester comes through. Maybe I'll make my husband buy them for me for Christmas ;)

Scaling!

Today we learned scaling. I was really nervous going into it, for both myself and who I had to practice on! The hand movements are a little complex, especially when you are working on the linguals and having to use indirect vision. I had Sierra as a partner, and she did a really great job! I felt like I did well for my first time, but i'm definitely going to have to spend some quality time with my typodont this weekend!

I passed off my probing PE, which I was really excited about! These PE's are starting to stack and I need to get them all passed off.

Instruments

Today we learned about the different instruments that we will be using. I have a couple of them down, but it will take a while before i'm an expert. We practiced probing and exploring today as well. It feels like things are starting to come at us pretty fast now, I think it's going to continue to get harder to keep up.

I'm fairly confident in probling, though I need a lot more practice before I will be ready to pass it off. Exploring is still difficult for me so I know I'll be practcing that as well.

Adaptation, Activation, Angulation!

Today we practiced using the explorer. It's difficult trying to go from your use of sight to using tactile sensation. It's something that I'm not very good at yet. Something else that is difficult for me is keeping a light grasp on the instrument. It seems like if I relax my grasp, my fulcrum gets sloppy, if I try to keep a good fulcrum I'm using too much pressure on my patient!

Adaptation seemed easy enough when it was being demonstrated on the big tooth with the big instrument end... but is actually difficult. Adapting, maintaining the right pressure, and and trying to feel through tactile sensation all at the same time is going to take some practice for me!

Probing

Probing was more difficult than I would have though. You have to look at the probe, and subtract how many lines you see from total on the probe. There are quick ways of doing it, but it's still going to take some getting used to. The pressure is also something that I know will take practice. Probing takes a lot more pressure in the mouth of my typodont than in my patient's mouth. It's also a lot easier to fulcrum in the typodont mouth. Practice makes perfect, and I'm sure that's something we will get a lot of... practice.

I think the BFI varies greatly by who is probing. Someone who doesn't have much practice with probing is going to make the patient bleed a lot more than someone who has been doing it for 10 years.

Intra Oral Exams

We did intra-oral exams in clinic today. This is one of my favorite parts of dental hygiene! I love seeing the different anatomy that exists in people's mouths. It's interesting to see patients with palate tori, geographic tongues, fissured tongues, bifid uvula's and other interesting anomalies.

I passed off the Vitals and Health History PE's today. I'm trying my hardest to keep caught up.

I feel like I have a lot more studying to do before I can pass off the extra-oral and intra-oral PE's, though.

Extra Oral Examinations

Today in clinic we learned how to perform an Extra Oral Examination. The PE for it looked a little intimidating, but after getting help from our TA today it doesn't seem as bad. I am having a hard time feeling things and knowing the exact location where I should feel. I plan to spend a lot of time this weekend practicing on my husband/family. I'm really grateful for so many good people in my life who let me practice on them!

We have been doing a lot of PE's lately. It seems like even getting them passed off ahead of time, they start to stack up on me. The only way to keep up is to stay organized, stay on task, and use the time I have in clinic wisely. Dental Hygiene is one of the hardest things I've ever done, but I've surprised myself by how I've been able to rise to the challenge. It's like anything you do in life, what you get out of it is proportionate to the amount of effort you invest.

Vitals

Today we focused on taking and recording vital signs. This was definitely one of the easier days in terms of the quantity of information we had to learn. I took vitals on my partner, but had a very difficult time hearing when I was taking blood pressure readings. Her pulse was also a little difficult to feel. I am going to see if I can get a variety of family member to practice on, so that I can get proficient at this. I'll add it to the mounting to do list.

We used the extra time to get some of our upcoming PE's passed off. I'm quickly learning that with everything building on eachother, we need to have these PE's passed off as quickly as possible. If we wait until the due date, we can easily fall behind. It feels good to be feeling more comfortable in clinic, and I'm really enjoying what we are learning.

Health History

Today we learned how to chart a patient's health history. I've always looked at that as super easy watching the dentist do it, but it's not that easy at all! You have to know the codes and abbreviations, look up possible drug complications, note conditions and so much more! I kind of struggled with how to word things, so I am going to practice and review module 4 in PAT. I'm so excited to think that we will be using all of the skills we are learning in clinic on real patients before too long!

Sextants and fulcrums and instrument grip, oh my!

Clinic today was a little hectic, but awesome! Today we discussed positioning for both operator and patient, mirroring, fulcrum and instrument grip. A lot to go over in just one day, but it was really exciting because it made me actually start to feel like a dental hygienist! My fulcrums feel awkward, i'm not used to having to hands in the mouth! I'm glad we have a long weekend, i'm going to go home and practice all I learned today on my poor husband! My mirroring is something i'm definitely going to have to work on. I'm excited to be working on it though!

PPE PE, Set Up, and Tear Down

Today we went over our Set up and Tear down PE's. I also passed off my PPE PE today. I feel like I'm learning a lot every day, which is awesome. I practiced the water syringe and the three types of suction, which I thought went really well. I wonder when we will start feeling 100% comfortable in the clinic. I guess these things come with time.

Eagle Soft

Today we did our first clinic and went over our PE for Eagle Soft. I understand how to do the PE, but I feel like I'm slow with the software since i've never used it before. I've got some anxiety about passing off my first PE. I'm sure when everything is no longer so new, I will feel more comfortable with clinic.

Orientation Day

Today we had orientation. I'm feeling completely overwhelmed, but I think that's how I'm supposed to be feeling right now. I thought I was really organized and on top of things, but after talking to one of the second year students I'm realizing that I have a lot to do in that area. I think after the first week I think we will have our footing.