we are adapting!!

Exploring has become a lot better since just this monday. I think we are more confident and have better understanding of the instruction. I really like our TA's and the other instructors because they are right there to help you to rememeber EVERYTHING. I need to practice taking Blood Pressure; i had a hard time hearing it on Jacki's arm. I got to feel the tiniest spinckle of calculus and I had some for Jacki to feel too!.. experience..

just exploring!

Jessica was such a good patient today. I was really impressed with her gentle hand-she only poked me a few times.. Good thing too, cuz then it was my turn to explore her mouth and around the gums and it got a little poky every once in a while. I saw some real life calculus and felt the 'calculus click'. I am really going to enjoy this as we learn more. I feel a bit behind on the PE's and my neck is a little tired-probably need to work on my posture.

mirrors in the mouth

I have to be totally honest. Today was not a good day for me. We were asked to use the mirror on one another and find the different anatomical parts of the inner mouth. I was super excited to find these on my partner and even felt pretty comfortable doing it... but when it was my turn to be in the chair, i felt my heart pounding in my chest and i had to refrain from fleeing!! I was scared and even had feelings of irritation. I understand that we are all learning, so i wouldn't have us do anything different.. but i noticed that i need more confidence in my partner and be more specific with her about what she can do to ease into my mouth. I think i also need to be exposed to more than just one partner.. that way i can see more than one mouth and i can feel more comfortable with others in my mouth..

open wide

We got to have our first look at the inside of a patient's mouth today. Of course, the mouths were those of our fellow classmates, but we had our mirror in hand and a Q-tip to focus our folcrum and scaling.. WE all enjoyed the, ever so popular, extra-oral head and neck exam. Everyone got to have their face and neck massaged at least 3 times.. at the end, we started from the very beginning with the patient's HHx, extra-oral exam, and then we motioned the mirror/scaler in the right directions with our folcrum. i loved it..

let me take your pulse

Taking each other's pulse, respirations and blood pressure proved to be the most exciting part of clinic today. I had only taken blood pressure once before on Amy Lou in Dr. B's office under the direction of Gail. I really had a hard time hearing the syonotic tap-tap. By the third 'patient', I had figured out a little better my equipment and where i wanted my hands and what i wanted to be paying attention to and i heard the tap-tap loud and clear. I took her blood pressure twice, just to make sure.

more hhx

With our dear Mrs. Costley we went over another health history and gained a better understanding for the DIHD. Looking up medications and their effects on dentistry takes a high level attention. My "patient" spoke only spanish and i was asked to review his HHx. It was super awesome to read and understand and interpret spanish with my portuguese skills. I passed off my PE for setting up the oportory for a Patient and Mrs. Costley was my patient. I had her swish with listorine and everything.. it made me miss being an assistant.

do you take any medications?

While most of the clinic was spent receiving instruction on someday being a CA, we did get to learn about taking a health history. i love the little abbreviations like HHx, Tx, Rx ect. I think it makes the HHx look so official and yet is so simple to write and understand. I find myself concerned about passing off PE's and feel a rush to get them out of my way. So i did one today right at the end. I do think that time would be used more effectively if there was more preparation of TA's and their presentations and if the demonstration instruction papers were updated. Other than that I am seeing great amounts of learning and we are all becoming more aware of our responsibilities as future Dental hygienists of America.