LAST DAY OF CLINIC!!!

Today was the last day of clinic!!! We learned all about how to be CA's for next semester. We also had the chance to write evaluations on how we felt our first patient day went! At the end we had to take a clinic manual test, and I hope I did well :) YAY! Next semseter here we come...

Step Two....Work On Real People

Today I was an actual hygienist working on an actual pt :) My dad was nice enough to drive up from Salt Lake to see me. Things went smooth for the most part, the only catastrophe was when i went to take x-rays! I had to retake my two premolar shots and when i went to put my retakes into the scan-x machine, i put them in at the same time :( It took one of my retakes but wiped the other one clean, and I couldn't re expose my pt so i was just short one good x-ray. Oh well, you live and learn right? Other than that I LOVED it, I want to do it all over again :)

Patient Day #2

Today was great! I didn't really have a ton of yuck on my teeth and Michelle is such an awesome clinician that we were done about 2 in the afternoon. Michelle was so nice to let me have more practice time on her that she let me work for a few min. on her mouth :) it was a great day!

LAST PE PASSOFF!!!!

Today i passed of my last PE! It was sharpening and it was supper easy :) I am so excited for this semester school work to be over, but i wish we could continue to go to clinic through the break. Im nervous that i will be rusty when i return and I still want a ton more practice! Im sure it will be fine but im just getting a little anxious :) I realized that next time I have a pt in my chair it will be my first pt. YAY!

Mock Pt. Day #2....(I'm So Sorry Michelle)

Today was kinda a wreck for me! On one hand I was so grateful for this mock pt day, but on the other hand, I felt like it was more of a learning day. I wanted so badly and I thought I was prepared to just have instructors help me in a few areas, but instead I was needing help on almost everywhere in the mouth. I was a little disappointed in myself. I am truly grateful that I was able to practice on a peer, but I'm more nervous than i was before to work on an actual patient and I'm double guessing myself if im even ready.

Mock Pt. Day #1....(Good Luck Michelle)

Today was the first real run through for how to do everything! I read in my clinic manual last night so that I could review everything and I felt ready for today! I felt it went ok, there were silly little things I forgot but it was mainly because I was a little nervous, but overall, my pt. survived and so did I :)

Sharp...Sharper...Sharpest!

Today we learned how to sharpen our instruments! It was helpful that we had little sheets showing us the angles that we needed to hold our instrument and the angle we needed to move the stone. It was not as hard as I thought it would be because I felt that I understood how to check for dullness and use light to see if I had sharpened it enough :)

Seal em up ;)

Today we did sealants on each other and I was working with both Brooke and Kelsey! They both did a sealant on me and I got to do one on Brooke! It was a ton of fun and I wished I had more time to practice sealants.

Air Powder Polisher- OUCH!

Today we polished each others teeth using two methods. The first was the selective polishing which felt like a nice little massage, then came the air powder polisher! It felt really bad on the tongue and cheek and the flavor taste awful! But I'm glad that we learned how to use it because i want to try it on future tough stains!

No Time For Practice :/

Today was cut short because we had a presentation to attend. So I had about 45min to work on my patient and by the time that I finished disclosing and passing off two P.E.'s, it was time to switch! So I was a little bummed because I was hoping for time to practice. Hopefully on Wednesday we will have a little more time.

Be An Operator Day!

Today I was able to practice the whole clinic on Maren! It was great! For the first time in clinic i didnt feel rushed. I was able to go through the whole rundown with her including the OHI and probing one quad. I felt like today was a great runthrough of what I will really be doing with patients in just a few months :)

Be A Patient Day!

Today was so relaxing in clinic! I was the patient first and so I sat in Maren's chair and she ran through the whole sha-bang with me! When it came close to switch time, Prof. Costley decided to have those who were pt. stay pt. and those who were practicing could continue practicing. It was helpful for me because I have never been a pt. first so this time I will know what to do when its my turn!

Off the Chart!

Today we charted eachothers mouths. It wasn't too bad because we went over it in class yesterday. Also the girl that i charted didnt have many fillings so it there was a lot of time to practice. I practiced sclaing anterior and posteriorly!

Purple Teeth and Explore PE- Check :)

Today was a lot of fun in clinic! We used disclosing agents on each other to do a PFI and it was such an eye opening experience to see the areas we all need to work on. It was fun to see everyone with purple mouth and teeth ;) I also was able to pass of my exploring PE which I was kinda nervous for. But I did great and am ready for more practice!

Maren- The Good Sport ;)

Today in clinic we used our curets to scale the posterior teeth! I felt like I get the hang of scaling much better than I did when I first started probing or exploring! Maren was my pt today and I was so grateful that she was such a good sport because I felt like I made her bleed on almost every tooth. But she was a grate and let me continue anyway :) It was a lot of fun and I love being a pre-hygienist!

First day of Scaling :)

Scaling was SO MUCH FUN! I was supper nervous to scale at first because I felt like i didnt know what i was doing, so I made Michelle scale me first :) When it was my turn to scale, I felt way too nervous to go subgingivally but then as i got the adaption and angulation down, i did it! Michelle said it didnt even hurt :) The 30 min. of practice went by so fast that I wished I could stay and practice just a little more. It was a fun day in clinic!

Practice, Practice, Practice...

Today in clinic was a LOT better than on Monday! I felt like practicing exploring today came a lot easier than on Monday. I understood the concept a lot better and I felt so much more comfortable going subgingivally :)

Explore Away!

Today in clinic we learned how to use our explores! I thought this concept was harder to learn than probing. I feel confused on which working end to use when working on the posterior teeth. I brought my typodont home so that i will hopefully be able to get it down by next clinic :)

Probe that col!

Today in clinic was a lot of fun! I was nervous coming to clinic because i knew i had to pass of my Health History sometime today and I was very nervous to do that! First, we learned how to probe on candy before i had the chance to practice on Jamie :/ She said i did ok and that she couldn't feel anything too bad, but i felt like i was going to hurt her the whole time! Kim came over to help remind me to keep the angles and to not be so chicken to reach into that col! That was my hardest part, was trying to get into those cols at the surfaces away from me. But after that i passed off my HH PE and was extremely nervous but did ok. Then Jamie practiced on me :) She did AWESOME! It was a fun day!

Freaking Fulcrum

Today was interesting in clinic. We had the chance to practice our fulcrums using our instruments. It was very hard for me to use the fulcrum when i was working on the Maxillary buccal posterior teeth! But i hope with practice i can get it down :)

Mirror, Mirror, In My Hand....

Today in clinic we practiced using our mouth mirror. I had a ton of fun because I was able to work on Brook from another pod! I felt like a got more practice being able to work on her as well as Julie :) I love clinic days!

Vital Signs

Today was fun! We had the chance to learn the vital signs PE which we kind of went over last time. I felt confident when taking Julies blood pressure, pulse, and respiration because i took my cuff home and practiced on my roommates over the weekend :) We also passed off the patient/operator positioning PE that i was a little nervous for. After that was done and i passed, clinic was great! We also learned that Instructor Chaffe had her baby three months pre-mature so i will definitely keep her in my prayers.

Too Much...or Not Enough

Today was really fun in Radiology! We took bisecting and paralleling on Dexter as well as Digital bitewings. I had a lot of fun! In clinic, we went over Health Histories and I have never felt so overwhelmed. I know the gest of what we are to put on the records but I never know if I'm putting too much or not enough. I also felt nervous that i would forget something that is vital to the records. I want more practice and i wish i had someone to look over my shoulder and correct me so that i know for certain.

When in Doubt....Disinfect!

Today in clinic was a little bit harder for me than the past clinics. I really liked working with the typodant but I felt like I could have used a little more practice. I found that the more I stressed about positioning my typodant, the more I forgot to focus on my posture. I had fun practicing passing off my set-up PE with Jamie because everytime I would forget anything, I would always say, "I 'm going to then disinfect!" We laughed about it because I said it more times than it needed to be done :)

Practice Makes Perfect

Today in clinic we had a lot of fun! We had the opportunity of practicing on one of our lab partners. I practiced on Julie :) and she was so great! She was patient and helped me with any suggestions that she had. It felt a little awkward at first because I'm not used to everything just yet, but after about ten min. or so, I felt a little more comfortable. I hope the phrase "Practice Makes Perfect" will manifest itself as the semester continues :)

Blue Boa :)

Today was really fun in clinic. We had the chance to work on a model and learned to use our blue boas. I really liked the curly suction tip, it seemed to suck up more of the water. It was also really interesting to have the chance to meet the inventor of this amazing invention. It got me thinking about my future as a hygienist. I wonder if I will ever have the chance to invent something to make hygiene more effective. I hope so, that would be quite an accomplishment!

I Survived!

I made it through my first day of clinic! It was a lot of fun getting to know the other hygienist and hearing all about their embarrassing moments. I'm all set up in my unit and I have a little drawer full of instruments:) One day closer to being a registered Dental Hygienist!!!

First Post

All Done! I made my first post!