3.5 hr patient day and didn't clean teeth

First real patient day and it was definitely a long day. I really thought that I was prepared and that it was going to be a smooth day. I also thought that I could get to scaling and cleaning Adam's teeth but I barely got to disclosing Adam and telling him that he needs to floss more. I got slowed down with probing and also with x-rays. Unfortunately, I was not able to open up Adam's premolar and canine and had to take two supplementals. During the Christmas break I am going to work on probing on my typodont because my biggest problem with probing is my indirect vision. The nice thing is that when Adam comes back I don't have to take his vitals, probe, and do his health history again. I should be able to scale all of his teeth in 3 hours....hopefully. It was definitely a long difficult day but hopefully i can remember everything that I did and just try to make it better. I need to really remember to educate my patient. I didn't do a very good job on OHI but I will try and go over that with Adam when he comes back. It was really nice to show Adam why it was going to be a 3 hour visit. Now it is going to be a 6 hour visit, but I don't know if I am going to find 12 people who are going to want to go through that. I need a miracle to help me find more patients.

Last day of mock patients bring on the real ones

I have to say that today was rough in the sense that I hate working on the left side and in my mirror, but it was a great day. It made me more excited about Monday but makes me again realize how bad I am with indirect vision. I got told several times today to work on my posture but I feel like I can't because I am too far away from my patient and cannot see what I am doing. I am also really slow at everything. Setting up, tearing down, working in the chart, cleaning teeth, polishing, etc. I am just slow and how to get faster or my patients are going to get really annoyed at me. I feel like all of the patients that I have had so far have helped me out so much so it is going to be weird having someone in the chair who can't answer my questions. I guess I will see how everything goes on Monday with the first patient. I will work on making sure that use my mirror properly and really focus making sure that I don't stress my self out because I just start making mistakes and making the patient feel uncomfortable.

1 wk till real patient day

Yesterday was mock patient day and I was the patient. I was able to be a patient for two different people now and I have to say that they are really good at being he clinician. I hope that I can be just as good as Jen Reese and Karlie. Tomorrow I am the clinician and we will see if I can do it just as well as them.

More like a Hurricane instead of a breeze

One day I hope that everything will start making sense. I have to say that I am the most scattered brain person in clinic. I need to work on making sure that everything is ready and that I really pay attention to what I have to do next. For some reason I would put my gloves on and realize that I have to put the patient's glasses on. I went through so many gloves that I didn't need to and because I would just forget certain things. The other thing that I need to work on is the computer. I did not know how to do my treatment plan. I now know how to do it but I think that was my biggest downfall and it shouldn't have been. Scaling should have been the worst thing for me. I really need to work on indirect vision. It is going to be the hardest thing for me to do but I really need to make sure that I get it down. It would help me be faster at probing and cleaning once I got it down. My goals for next week are to not have mistakes with the computer and to really work on he ultrasonic. I don't know how hygienist like the ultrasonic. I really don't know how to use it on the linguals. I am really happy to have today over with and I am grateful to have such an awesome patient as Karlie. She can be my patient anytime but I am sure that she wished that she wasn't my patient. Just one more week of mock patients and then on to the real patients. I hope that I can be ready.

What a breeze

Yesterday was the first day of mock patient day and it was a great day. I didn't poke anyone in the gums and didn't make anyone cry. I had a really stress free day but then again I can't really do that when I am the patient. I have to say that Karlie did a really good job. She wasn't 100% confident in herself but she didn't stress herself out. She was gentle and amazingly fast. I was feeling completely jealous at her skills. Tomorrow is my first experience with mock patient day and I hope that I can do as good of a job as Karlie. I need to remember to pay attention to my instruments so that I don't stab her lips, cheeks, and other body parts. I need to also remember that I am not perfect at it yet and that I will make mistakes but I need to grow from those mistakes. I really hope that I don't get lost with everything and that I can get things done quickly and proficiently. It is really difficult to follow after Karlie but I really tried to grasp what she did and hopefully I can be as good. My goal for tomorrow is to really get more comfortable with scaling and with the ultrasonic. These are two skills that I really don't know what I am doing and hope that I will be able to ask questions so that I can get better at them. We'll see what will happen. Hopefully Karlie will talk to me after tomorrow.

Starting to feel like crunch time

Clinic today was really good. We first learned how to sharpen our tools and I have to say that it would be nice to find someone that wanted to do it for me so that I don't screw my tools up. I would love to keep my tools functional and sharp. We then had time to pass off our air-powder polishing PE and the key to it is making sure the water and the salt are as low as possible. It didn't hurt as bad today as it did before and making sure the HVac was as close to the tooth as possible was pretty nice so that the patient didn't have salt all over their face. It was really nice today because I had enough time to practice a little probing and some anterior scaling. It still isn't comfortable to me but it was nice to try and remember how to do all of that. I am really scared to have patient mock day. I don't feel ready for it but in less than three weeks I have a real patient that will be sitting in my chair so I better get comfortable with it quickly. I best start saying my prayers now.

Mondays stress me out

So, today was a very relaxing day except for the fact that it doesn't seem like there is enough time on Monday to get through everything. We learned how to apply sealants and was able to experience the fluoride tray. It was kind of a good day for me. However, I may have to work on flossing teeth that are extremely tight some more. I thought that I was going to fail the PE because I couldn't get the floss between the teeth. I really hope that doesn't happen with a patient. I would be really embarrassed. I am really nervous because next Monday is mock patient day and I don't feel prepared enough to work on someone. I know that it takes time but I am still extremely nervous that I am not going to catch on as fast as everyone else. I just need to make sure that I am always pushing myself and trying to challenge myself so that I can learn from it.