Fulcrums I Wished I Knew

Today was a good day in clinic. My pt came on time and ready for the cleaning but because I didn’t look at the health history before his ride left, I ended up waiting for the bottom signature before I could even start. So it did take me an hour and a half before I got the signature and could finally start. He was a really cool kid and was totally patient about the whole situation. Anyways, I learned that I really need to consciously start using extra oral fulcrums. We learned about them that one day in clinic but I have yet to incorporate all of them into my cleaning routine and today it would have helped.  I am super excited to go to the VA on Thursday to get to practice what I have learned today! Lab was also very fun and I learned to use Oraqix and Arestin!

At Least He Didn't Pee In The Cup!

So my morning pt was the sweetest little old Spanish speaking man. He has been to the clinic multiple times before and when I brought him back he was responding to everything i was saying in his broken English. After the extra oral exam, i handed him a cup of Listerine and told him to rinse with it for 30 sec. and he said ok and seamed to understand. Thirty seconds later when i go to collect the cup, the Listerine is not in the cup or in his mouth. He totally swallowed it all! I asked Dr. Naylor who was in my pod if he was going to be ok because i was kinda freaking out. Ha ha, at least he didnt take it to the bathroom and bring it back with a urine sample like that story of the other Spanish speaking pt. Overall it was a wonderful day in clinic! I do think that i need to step up my scaling times because i am still very slow. Goal for next week is to make sure i have a translator if needed, and to speed up my time.

Patient Hug Day!

Today was a good day, I got a lot done and I did well :) I saw a returning pt this morning and she is just the cutest thing ever, when I walked her out she gave me a hug :) It made me feel like i had accomplished making the patient feel happy and loved! I really do wish i had more time to get to know my patients because most of them are amazing people! Then this afternoon i saw my cousin and did the spit PE on him. He has nice spit, and was at a very low risk for caries so that was good for him to know. Anyway, I learned today that i want to try and get to know my patients a little bit more even if its just an extra five min at the beginning of the appt.

Exploring-Hansen Style

Today was a HUGE eye-opening experience for me! I learned how to explore the back molars a different way today and that has helped me so so much! I LOVE having Dr. Hansen as my instructor because she has taught me so many things I didn’t know I was doing wrong. I try to remember them by writing them down when I leave clinic, so hopefully I can remember the exploring technique she taught me today!!!

Apparently My Neck Is Beautiful…

Tuesday clinic was so bad im going to pretend like it never happened. Thursday at the VA went a little better :) I had a really nice pt in the morning, and then in the afternoon I was assigned a pt who had the note that said the following:

“Pt suffers from short term memory loss and will continue to repeat inappropriate comments in a sexual tone.”

So when Prof. McConaughy saw that I had this pt she told me to keep my distance and when he said anything inappropriate to just try to get him back on track and return to his cleaning. He didn’t say anything too bad at first, just repeating to me that my hair was beautiful and speaking French over and over to me. When I started the ultrasonic on him he asked me what I was doing later that night and I just pretended to not hear him. Then when I was done with the ultrasonic he told me I had a very beautiful neck in a very sensual tone. EWWW! CREEPY! But I made it through the apt with no real issues and although it was slightly uncomfortable, at least it was due to his brain damage and at least he wasn’t grumpy and creepy!

Happy Hygienist Indeed!

Mockboards went SO much better than I thought it would ever go! I am so pleased with how it went, and I am so happy that all the girls pts showed up! I felt like we all did good and I think that I learned a lot about how I need to really pay attention when feeling for calculus. I like what Prof. Alexander said in pod wrap about taking a few minutes break after scaling and then going back to the pt to feel for calculus. I will for sure do this from now on :) GOOD JOB to all the girls in Tuesday clinic, and GOOD LUCK to all Thursdays clinic (I will be praying for you all)!

What An Experiance!

Children's Health Connection was pretty cool! We had some really good kids and some not so really good kids. I was in radiology on Friday and that was a treat, but me and MeChelle make a great team and did awesome together! Julie also taught me some cool new tricks to help make my contacts a little more open :) Today I was in Hygiene! First pt of the day was DEFINITELY Mock Board Material, and was the sweetest thing ever! Then the rest of the day I saw pt that were teenagers and above! It didn't feel like a children's clinic very much cuz i only saw about three real 1A's. All and all it was a GREAT experience and i feel so much better about cleanings and x-rays and i even got to use the tricks that were taught to us in lab this past week!