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.