easier than before

Goal: class 1b pt 4bwx
accomplished: exactly that. I was so grateful for my pt today. My first pt canceled and I frantically called all my upcoming pts to see if anyone could come in. I was so happy when he called and said he could make it.. He was even early!! For me, digital xrays are SO much easier. He had large mand. tori and the xrays still came out perfectly. His cleaning went so smooth and i only missed one little spot that my professor didn't even count. I was so happy..

super patient

Goal: at seeing the pt chart, take fmx, 4bwx and od
accomplished.. Just that! we decided to do the xrays in digital and it went so smoothly, i loved it. my pt was awesome and had been to this office for many years and really enjoys the work he gets done here. my probe depths were basically right on. seems i got a little deeper than my instructor on a few. we classified him as a class 5 perio maintained because he didn't seem to have lots of bleeding.

lab day

it was a refreshing experience to be the student again today in clinic. It was good not to be totally paranoid about having my patient show up. I am grateful that i haven't had too much difficulty with that yet. I am also excited about what we learned today. I didn't know that we would ever use the diagnodent. I saw my dentist use it several times but never my hygienist. that was my favorite lesson of the day. I also was exctied (again) to see how well the ultrasonic works.. I like using it, but i can see that at times it would just be so much faster to hand scale and get it off. .. I have never found any satisfaction in insurance anything and today was no different. It is so frustrating to think that stupid money bla bla makes the call on what you are doing in the patient's mouth.. i'll have to deal it seems.

unpleasant pano

goal: assess my new pt., take necessary radiographs, finish od,
Ok so today started great. My pt showed up RIGHT on time and i am so grateful and we started looking into his HHx. He had a few things to be careful of-like a latex allergy! and then I talked to him about taking a panorex x-ray. First of all he has never had one, second-he has some broken teeth and we were looking for abcesses and such.. we also took one pa and some bwx. I felt really awesome about the 4bwx until processing. I turned the light on after loading them in and realized (in horror) that i had left 2 out!! they were ruined. I then took the pano and guess what? I messed that up too. I totally checked to make sure that the film was on the L1 part.. but when it went around the head somehow something got shifted and it wasn't on the L1 and the xrays went all over except on the film.. bad.. so we retook the bwx and left it.. so much for my efforts in helping my pt be updated on his xrays.
Probing is getting faster and faster for me (which is rewarding) and we were able to find that he is a class 2 pt. I am soo grateful!! He will be a great pt because he is kind and understanding and he will be a great exam pt too. I just have to calm down and take each thing as it comes.

returning pt

Goal: to blog correctly
Goal #2: one quad class 2 and two quads class 1. Use ultra sonic FM and hand scale in good time.
Oh wow!! I am so happy about how smooth today went. It was amazing to see the calculus come off the lower anteriors. I loved it. I even saw a dark calculus come out of the gingiva at 15mb. My instructor showed me a couple tricks with the lower anteriors.. to use the montana jack at the very vertex and then flip it (on the "incorrect" side) and come up through the contact area.. the instrument adapts much better to the tooth.

my first 1a

Today my Pt was a cute little 9 year old who was super intelligent. I was excited to have a little guy because kids tend to be so much more forgiving. In taking xrays, I noticed that I cone cut both and I needed to move more mesially. It was hard to remember that kids don't have as big of mouths as adults. It really worked to tell the kid a joke-go out and push the button-and then come back in with the punch line- the time went by faster.. I need to learn more jokes. The scaling went pretty smooth, I am still pretty slow and too thorough. I did have enough time to have the DDS come and do a sealent check.. that will help me later.