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.