What a wreck!

Well, Today I wasn't all there because on my way to clinic I got a call saying that Colby had been in an accident and was in the hospital but that I should still go to class since he'd probably be released soon. If I didn't have my prized class 3 patient that I found during the screening last Friday, I would have bailed out and gone to the hospital but I didn't have a choice. I only got 1 quad done because I had to probe her whole mouth again and I was nervous because I wanted to pass off my area specific instrumentation PE and instructor Vining said that if I missed three spots he wouldn't pass me on the PE. I worked really hard, did a lot of alternating between the ultrasonic and hand scaling instruments. Finally, I finished and he only found 1 missed spot on the hardest quad of my class 3 patient! I was so excited but still freaked out because in the middle of clinic Colby's brother Jason sent me a text saying they'll be keeping colby in the hospital for a day or two to keep an eye on some things... and that was literally all the detail I had heard all day long. I kept thinking back on my sister's experience in high school with her friend Jean Holmes. The hospital first said she'd be just fine and that they could take their time so Hailey and her friends went to the store to get cookies and flowers. When they arrived, everyone was crying because she had some complications and had passed away just before they got there...

170 degree turnaround!

Well, I finally finished up my great aunt whom I saw back in January. I knew she'd be easy and she only had three quads left so I passed off intraoral camera and took a pano on her while she was in. Of course, it wasn't 180 degrees because I had to do one hugely stupid mistake... I left my patients gorgeous dangling earrings on for the pano so now they have been recorded very nicely in a slightly more artistic than usual panoramic radiograph. Nonetheless, I finally don't need anymore! I also finished by 2:45 so I did the peer review of calculus removal and watched Hailey doing a fantastic job with her cute old man patient. While watching Hailey scale, Tandem came over and asked if I needed sealants I told her I already had mine done last semester until I realized that she was asking if I wanted to do sealants instead of if I wanted them done to me! hehe, I went over and was able to do one sealant on the little boy in her chair while she sacrificed her fingers to keep his mouth open. We each did one sealant and then she figured his patience was completely expired so she let him go. The good news is... those sealants still need to be done so maybe she'll be able to do them again next semester! Either way, thank you Hailey and Tandem for helping me out today! I was also glad to be able to help everyone else clean their units to make up for all the times I run overtime and have them help me at the end of the day. Good work team!!!

Class 2 exam... BAD DAY

Well, I should have gotten the hint yesterday when my patient tried to cancel on me but somehow I managed to talk him into coming by guilt tripping him about how he is my exam and a lot of my grade is riding on him coming in for his apointment. Today just didn't go well, I was so ready for a nice day of scaling, so of course I jumped right on it. Nothing was changed on his HHX so I went straight to x-rays ...skipping my signature first! I could have failed the experience for that but luckily, Instructor Vining was feeling merciful so he gave me a chance anyway. I only took posterior PA's last time, so this time I took six anterior PA's which was a very good thing because he had a very nice sized periapical abscess on #25. Scaling went well but I was already so frazzled with my huge mistake earlier that I felt like I was messing up and just not doing well. Luckily I didn't do so bad on my patient, I didn't miss too many spots but it definitely wasn't my bery best clinic day ever. Thank goodness I'm done with class 2 patients! I just wish today could have been a better experience. Now I've got to go study for DH exam 2 I'm very nervous because I haven't had enough time to adequately study for it... oh well, here goes I guess... :(

Yay... Another Dang Class 5

So on Monday I kind of figured my patient would be a class 5 but there was still the hope that she had let her teeth go since her last appt. here in 05 but no... her teeth were very clean. She was a very sweet older woman and at least I got another set of bitewings and 4 quads of a 1B done but I really am needing to find that elusive class 3!!! Hopefully, today I will have better luck... that is as long as my patient actually shows up. Once again, I haven't been able to get ahold of this woman who is the same woman who brought her 16 year old son in a few weeks ago when I had a back up patient coming because I hadn't heard from her yet. I'm praying that she remembers on her own and comes anyway. PLEASE!!!!!!!

Busy Busy Busy!!!

Well, I had quite the day, I slept in a bit because I stayed out late dancing last night so I got to wake up at 8:00AM and it was so nice! Then I checked some school stuff, studied a bit, scheduled a few patients for April, got an appointment to get my oil changed, and got my dog a rabies shot. Yes, I was quite productive today.
Then, to continue, I was able to clean, finish, and walk out my 1B patient by 2:50. She was the first braces patient I've ever seen and it went so well! I scaled her in 30 minutes with 0 errors! I was also able to pass off ultrasonic PE, do some sealants, and pass off the sealant PE.
After my awesome little 14 year old patient left, Charlotte was awesome enough to give me the denture from her patient so I was finally able to pass of that PE as well!!! I never thought I'd get a denture patient, I was seriously considering asking if it would be alright for me to bring in my own retainer and clean it, but Char totally saved my semester! It seems like everyone today was super busy, I believe Casey saw three patients, and Abby saw an extra one that walked in accidentally due to a scheduling confusion. Good job Debriders!!! We've definitely earned a very nice spring break next week!!! Have fun!!

Change of plans...

Yesterday, I had a very stressful time before my patient was seated in the chair. I had tried to call and confirm the appointment for the entire weekend before but I never got an answer so on Sunday night I called a bunch of my other patients and no one was available! Then I talked to Colby's sister and she said she could come in for some x-rays and to let me pass off some PE's. Yesterday morning, when I arrived, I was feeling pretty calm because of the easy day I had ahead of me, I wouldn't have to do OD or scale! At 8:19AM my patient texted me to say she would be leaving shortly and then at 8:20 Katee called on the intercom to tell my my patient was there and to ask if HE would need a new health history. HIM???? Yes, that meant that my original patient showed up out of the blue without calling or making any attempt to confirm the appointment beforehand! I called Colby's sister and told her she didn't need to come in and rapidly changed my set up to be ready for a real appointment! Somehow I was able to finish (thanks to Instructor Carter giving me a time extension so I wouldn't have to bring him back. I also had a lot of fun with my patient yesterday, he's sixteen and even though I'm out of high school, I'm still young enough to relate well especially with the whole musical theater scene so I had fun joking with him about school and keeping his teeth clean and whatever else came up. He was also pretty clean so I was able to scale his whole mouth in only 30 minutes with 3 errors! I was way excited! It started out pretty rough but at the end of the day it all worked out perfectly.