VA #5

Today was a great VA day! I was able to get more quads of a class two and I feel like my scaling times and skills are deffinitely improving. I feel like at the VA I can really work on increasing my scale time because I am not so focused on getting the paper work and things exactly right because it is all computerized and I complete it after the appointment. I am really picking up the pace of my scaling but I still have a lot of room to improve. I also took some more digital x-rays today and I am loving digital. It is so nice to have the x-rays up on the screen seconds after the picture is taken. It is also easier to be able to do retakes immediately after rather than having to wait.

Wk #5

I had a goal to find my mockboard patient this week and I did!! I cannot beleive that I actually found one. I have been pretty lucky this semester. When I thought my patient would be a mockboard, Prof. Alexander had me sit down and feel for the calculus myself and then chart it on a calculus sheet. This was such a great learning experience for me! I hadn't ever really felt that in depth for calculus before starting to clean a patient. It was so helpful. I then took some PA's of the quad and teeth I was submitting. I only had time to scale one quad because her calculus was a little more tenacious than I am used too. I feel like I was able to learn a lot from feeling for the calculus first and then scaling it off. I had another goal this week to complete a class 5 exam. I found a class 5 patient and was able to get her OD'd and scaled in one appointment. I really am getting faster at this clinic stuff! It is pretty exciting. I also needed to find more quads of a class 2 patient which I also found this week. I got my class 2 completed in about one appointment. I am so proud of how I am picking up my pace and am able to complete patients faster each time. My ultimate clinic goal is to continue to be a quicker but just as thorough clinician. I feel like I get closer to this goal each clinic time.

VA #4

There was no VA this week. Secretly it was nice to have a little break in the middle of the week. Except, it will be crappy to make-up the day on december 5th.

Wk #4

Clinic was very successful this week! I did OD's on Tuesday and found 4 quads of a 3 and 4 Quads of a 2. I did learn a very valuable lesson on tuesday afternoon. I OD'd the four quads of a 2 and decided I had enough time to scale all four quads in the remaining hour of clinic. BIG mistake!! I got in and ultrasonic'd the whole mouth and then once I started hand scaling there was a lot more calculus than I had thought. When I had my scale check I had missed about a million spots! It was so frustrating! I learned that I need to take my patients that are harder 1 or 2 quads at a time and not try to hurry myself. I was trying to push myself and get a lot done and improve my scaling time. My time improved but my skills turned to crap!! Oh well, lesson learned. I will only scale as fast as my skills let me so I can still do a good and thorough job. I will work on improving me scale time but I won't try to push it too far. On thursday I had a patient that was 3 quads of a 3 and I was able to clean 2 quads today. I was so proud of myself because I took the appointment one step at a time and was able to do a good job and do it in a reasonable time frame. I completed my afternoon patient that was 3 quads of a 3 and I didn't miss any spots! I was nervous after tuesdays mishap because I really wanted to complete her, but I took it slow and I got done!! Over all I learned a lot this week!