11/29

Today was our first real patient day in clinic! It was an adventure! We each had a family member or friend come to be our patient. We were all nervous, at least my pod was, and excited at the same time. Everything went well but it all seemed to take such a long time! I didn't even get to the scaling! It took me like an hour to probe because my patient had braces! Maybe I should have thought of that before I asked him to come! Oh well, its all over now. It was fun and exciting though. It will be interesting to see how much I remember next semester!

11/27

Today it was my turn to see my mock patient. I was so nervous! I wasn't sure I could remember everything and scaling seemed almost impossible. To my surprise it wasn't as bad as I thought. Everything went smoothly and I even got done scaling. Bad thing was it took me a whole hour to scale. Oops! I guess I am just learning so I have an excuse. It was a pretty good day. Now I just have to see my first real patient on Wednesday! Hope all goes well.

11/22

Today I was the patient. It was fun. I am not as nervous to work on a patient next time as I was before. I am still a little nervous about seeing real patients that aren't as good at oral hygiene as we are. It will be an adventure!

11/20

Today in clinic we went over emergency procedures. It was a very worth while clinic. It is kind of scary to think about having a medical emergency. I hope nothing ever happens but at least we are prepared if something does. I made the goal to pass off my sealant PE and I did it. It was kind of interesting because I have done like a million sealants in my life but everything went wrong! The tips weren't working, then there were bubbles in the sealant and then it was too high! It was frustrating but it finally worked! Soon I will see my mock patient and it will be fun!

11/15

Today in clinic my goal was to pass off more PE's. I really like to get ahead with my PE's. It just makes it easier to focus on the skills we are learning. I accomplished my goal, I am now a week ahead in PE's by passing off two today. Today was sealant day. I like doing sealants and it was fun. Its a whole heck of a lot easier when you do sealants on older people who know that they have to hold still and that the tooth can't get wet. I got four sealants done and it was nice to get my wisdom teeth sealed.

11/13

Today we learned how to air powder polish! It was interesting. It wasn't hard to do but it was yucky to have done on you! The taste was incredibly disgusting. It was an interesting procedure and really messy. I'm not sure if I will use it on any patients. The best part though was the cool outfits we got to wear!

11/8

Today was a relaxed and layed back day. We learned how to polish our instruments and it was kinda scary. I was nervous that I would ruin my perfectly sharp and new instruments. I wish they had given us a gleason guide in our instrument issue. Oh well, I guess I'll just need to get one at the dental convention. It was a good day for passing off PE's though. I was able to get a whole week ahead by passing off the polishing and fluoride PE's. I can't beleive it is almost time to see patients!

11/6

My goal for today was to improve my posterior scaling. I have been having a hard time getting used to the angulation and positions that I was really frustrated. We had enough time to practice and I am feeling more confident now. I even passed off the PE for posterior scaling! I also did the Intra oral camera PE. We learned fluoride application today and it will be interesting to see how patients react to the four minutes they have to leave it on their teeth.

11/1

Today in clinic we learned about selective polishing. We selectively polished eachother and then brushed eachothers teeth. I also passed off the anterior instrumentation PE. I feel like I am grasping instrumentation a little better but it is still a little awkward. I hope it continues to get easier.