{Good, but crazy!}

I seem to be having a lot of crazy days lately!  This morning I had to be CA.  Can I just say how long your day is when you have to be the dang CA.  Talk about worst thing ever!  Today was really good though.  I felt productive, and I really enjoyed it.  That might be because I saw my cute little nephew, and my sweet hubby.  This was my nephew's first dental visit, so of course he was a little nervous and apprehensive.  Well, he did great!  He is such a cutie!  I was able to do bwx on him even.  He struggled a little bit with it, but was such a champ!  His cleaning went great.  Towards the end he said, "I'm tired of holding my mouth open".  Haha!  SO funny!  I'm sure all of our patients want to say that to us!  After I finished up on him, I moved onto my hubby, and it went great.  I was able to do my last sealant, pass of my removable appliance PE (he has a nightguard), and do my selective polishing PE.  I scaled his last two quads, and had him out the door.  It was a great day!  I really don't like doubling up my appointments that much though, because I feel so rushed.  I will only have to do that one more time.  Monday I am seeing my sister to pass of the BG PE, and take a pano.  Then, I will be finishing my pt. from last Monday and getting a couple more PEs passed off on him.  I will NOT put off PEs next year like I did this year.  It sucks!!  I think I found my Class 3!  She came in when I was CA, and was a 3 two years ago.  I'm praying she still is.  If not, I really don't know what I'm going to do!

{Crazy day!}

What a day!  I brought my sister up to let me do a sealant and a pano. on her, but didn't have anybody else scheduled.  So, at about 8:30, the CA asked if I wanted to see a pt. that just walked in wanting an appt.  Of course I did!  I was kicking myself for not scheduling anybody else with her.  He ended up being a Class V who has been coming for a long time.  He was so nice and very complimentary.  I think he was just happy that somebody was going to see him.  The last time he was in, he had a cold sore so they had to turn him away.  He just decided that he was going to come up to the school and check if anybody could just fit him in.  I started his OD at about 9:30, didn't do any xrays, and scaled two quads by 10:30.  I really wanted to finish him up, but you can only do so much in an hour!  I was worried he would be annoyed that he would have to come to back to finish, but he was so nice about it.  He didn't mind at all, and kept telling me that I did a great job!  It feels good to hear that every once in awhile!  On my sister, I was able to pass off the diagnodent, air/powder polish, and sealant PEs, but no pano., because the room was just booked up all morning, and my sister had to get to class by 9:30.  So, she is just going to come back next Monday, which is when I'm having my pt. today come back also.  So, now I just need to get a Class III!  I'm really really nervous!!!

{Class II}

Today I finished my Class II!  Yay!  It feels good to have that one out of the way when I feel like everyone else has already seen one if not two!  I passed off my Ant./Univ. #2 on him also.  I felt like today was a good experience for me.  I set a goal to finish his last three quads in an hour and a half.  Well, it ended up taking me about an hour and 45 minutes, but I tried to be really thorough in my exploring, and the dude has wisdom teeth.  Those things are murder!  I missed about 4 spots, which isn't great, but I always learn so much when I miss spots.  The poor guy was bleeding SO much!  I had a pile of bloody gauze, and I had to rinse him out every couple of minutes because I couldn't see what I was doing at all.  He was a great patient, and started falling asleep on me towards the end.  haha!   I'd rather have a pt. fall asleep and have to put in a bite block, than jumping all over the place!  Now I just need to get all the rest of my PEs busted out and get that Class III!  Our first year will be over SO soon, and I honestly can't believe how fast it has gone by.  Pretty soon it will be us all stressed out for boards and on our way to graduating.  Crazy!

{1B, 1A}

I was not excited to start school up again after a nice, long, relaxing spring break.  Not excited at ALL...to say the least.  I do enjoy clinic though, so it was nice to not have a long, boring day of lecture to start the week off.  Today I brought in the 1B that I saw two weeks ago, finished him up, passed off two PEs and missed zero spots.  Yahoo!  Then, my friend brought in her little boy who is 4.  He was the CUTEST little thing ever.  He just sat there like a little angel, mouth wide open, and sat still.  How did I get so lucky?!  I got him all finished and out of clinic by 10:20.  It was a great day in clinic, and I felt like I got a lot accomplished.  I can't believe there are only 7 more clinic days.  I still haven't found a Class III, and I'm getting extremely nervous about that...but what can I do?!  Just pray and hope I guess!  I'm excited to see my Class II on Wednesday, and hopefully finish up his last 3 quads.  I'm really starting to enjoy hygiene now that I feel like I'm getting better.  I feel like I learn something new at each clinic session, and it makes me so excited to know that what I am doing is helping to improve somebody's health.  But, I'm still REALLY excited for a nice, long break here in about 4 weeks!  I just hope that all of my skills don't go completely down the drain by the time August rolls around!

{Class II}

Today I saw a really nice man who was screened by a senior recently as a Class II.  It was crazy how it worked out...one of the girls was CA and was saying how she was worried because a pt. called the clinic to confirm his son's and wife's appt, but also said he had an appt.  So, I told her that I needed a pt., so if nobody else had him scheduled, I would see him.  I got lucky, because he was a Class II!  I was pretty stressed because I didn't think he would be able to speak any English.  Well, we were able to communicate just fine.  His English was broken, but he could understand most of what I was telling him.  He was so sweet, and was falling asleep while I was probing!  Most people with perio. are jumping all over the place! So, I was able to get through his OD, but was waiting for my turn in radiology, because it was way backed up.  Inst. Hafen just told me to start scaling because we had an hour, and I could just stop and go get xrays when it was available.  So, I pulled out the Ultrasonic (which I'm now in love with) and started on his LR quad.  Then, I hand scaled the really sub areas.  When they came to get me for radiology, I was in a zone and couldn't stop.  So, as soon as I was done scaling, I hurried and got those xrays going.  When I had my scale check, I did miss a few spots, but I was kind of expecting that.  He was the first pt. that I had to go really sub. on.  It was such a good learning experience for me, and even though I missed spots, I really enjoyed the experience.  I got a lot of good tips from Inst. Hafen and felt like I was actually doing some good for this patient!  I'm finally starting to really love clinic and not dread it!  It seems silly to dread something that I've wanted to do forever, but it's because I haven't felt really comfortable this whole semester.  I kind of felt like I didn't really know what I was doing.  I still have a long way to go, but I think it's amazing how much improvement I've made since seeing my first pt.  Yay for Spring Break!!!

{1B, and FMX}

What a day!  So, I had a little emergency on Saturday night.  I had my Class 2 pt. sched. this morning, so I called to confirm on Saturday night.  He gave me some story about how he needs to have his whole mouth cleaned this week so that he can get his lingual bar cemented.  He then told me that he won't be able to come back to see me.  Aaaaah!  So, long story short, I was able to find somebody on Saturday night.  He came in this morning, and was a 1B.  I couldn't do any x-rays though because his last set was in June.  Well, my goal coming into clinic was to finish the pt. if he ended up being a 1B.  I only got 2 quads done.  I got pretty down on myself, but even my instructor told me he was a tricky 1B because of his subgingival, interproximal calculus.  I missed a few spots, but it was a good experience for me to be able to remove that sub calculus.  Then, right at the end of clinic, Mr. Salomon came in wondering if somebody needed an FMX because a lady had just called wanted to get in.  So, I volunteered!  I called her and she said she would be here by 1:30.  By 1:45 she still wasn't here, but said she was just getting onto Hwy. 89.  By 2:45, she was finally here.  Phew!  I was getting really frustrated, because I have a TON of tests to study for.  She had a lot of teeth missing, so I only got to do 10 PAs, and 2 BWX.  So, now I only have to do 3 more PAs, and I'm done!  Yahoo!  At least I'm almost done with one of my requirements!