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.

I didn't know..

so i had a class 1b patient today. We have been told and instructed that we would only be able to accomplish to the od on the first appt and then do the quads on the next appt. I was going along and noticed that because everything was going so smoothly that I had a lot more time left. My prof told me that i would be able to finish and i didn't believe her. she came around 2x to hurry me along and when we had the scale check she was curious as to why i was taking so long. I didn't understand that I really was being too picky about what i was scaling. after i finished and the pt had left, she sat me down and explained that there is no reason to be scaling where there isn't calculus. we should just explore and when we find some we then remove it.. I really had no idea that this soon in the semester we would be able to sit a new patient and finish in the same day. I will be better prepared for my next patient and that is exciting!!

First 4 quads!!

I got to finally get my scaler and gracey out today. I have been doing OD's this whole semester and it really felt good to get that calculus off. My patient was awesome. He was really patient with me and seemed to tolerate the treatment well. I am grateful for good people like that. I learned that after every HHx we need to note the date of the last xrays. I think that will help to see whether or not we need to do them at the current appt. I used the ultrasonic scaler because the pt had sheet calculus and it really helped. I was hand scaling at first and it really took a lot to get every bit off. My prof. checked on me and suggested that I get more practice on hand scaling so afterward the ultra sonic, i went around each quad to get adaptation, angulation and activation right.

ok to go!

oh, boy.. I had no idea how tough today was going to be. I had a 14yr old boy and I didn't forsee any problem. I got him seated and then gathered some paperwork to have his mom sign it and by the time I got out to the foyer she had left!! We had him call her and she had gone to run errands. I couldn't do anything until she came back.. what a mess. She finally came and I got it all signed and we got started one hour later than planned.. oh well.. i learned a lot. We did 4bwx and I really just don't know what I could have done to speed that up. I took one retake and then worked on probing and documenting.. it only took me about half an hour because I had an assistant.. lucky! I know that when I am out in the practicing world, i will have an assistant.. life is just that much better!!

almost snowed out!

Today I was really grateful when my patient showed up inspite of all the snow. I was nervous and felt a bit of a rush as I took his vitals and began to fill the HHx. I felt pretty good about the extra/intra oral exam but I know that I need to do it more thorough and yet faster. I also noticed that as in the OD check my probe depth were off more than usual. I need to slow down and make sure I have the right angle in there.. there is a lot to remember to check for and I think I need to make a mental check list so that I don't have to get in the mouth so many times and I can move to the next part quicker. My main goal now is to get an order/check list to follow mentally and be complete in my evaluations..