Late... Again???

Late patients make my world stressful!!! My morning patient showed up at about 8:45AM instead of 8 so I had to wait and wait and then when she came she was a II/III who needed a full mouth! It was great to get a full mouth series in but oh my gosh I had so much to do and this morning FLEW by! I got two quads and the x-rays done as wall as the root debridement PE. Yes!!!

This afternoon my patient of course showed up at 1:00ish and at first Alexander and I thought she was a class II but as soon as I sat down and started scaling I realized that she was no II. That was III-type calculus there baby! Yes!!! However, I also needed to get some BWX and do some LA on her which of course takes a lot of time on top of the lateness plus you have to factor in the fact that all the professors seemed to have their hands full when I needed them! Also for some reason my nerves were really getting to me, I was shaking pretty bad on the injections and they still didn't allow me to use the ultrasonic so I had to handscale the whole thing which just made me even more frustrated and got to me bad. My patient made a comment to me: "you seemed nervous, I could feel you shaking. How long have you been practicing?" (i said 1 year) and then she said: "you need to not let your nerves get to you, you're a very nice girl, don't get so nervous, you do very well." WHat a cute freakin patient! I really enjoyed working on her reguardless. I only got one quad completed on her and another one started but I did get 4BWX, 5 injections and 1 quad of a III!

Overall, it was quite a productive day! I got a lot done and it literally flew by, however, thank goodness it's over! I can't wait to go home and watch Transformers with Ben tonight. (thanks baby!)

You're Under Arrest!

This morning, I got a class V pt, typical. I would really like some 1A's but of course among the veterans, children are pretty rare:) Extra quads are always good! I got my patient finished in an hour with everything (he really only had plaque and maybe two spots of calculus even though he only brushes occasionally...) seriously, where do I get these people????

I had another patient at 9:30 and it went very smoothly, he brushes 2x/day and flosses everyday so he had literally no calculus. Probe depths were generally normal with two sixes and an eight! With no calculus I figured some nasty bacteria had to be the culprit. I got to use the arrestin! It was so much fun and I used it in three spots that was actually kind of hard. The applicator tip doesn't really fit into the pocket but when you inject it, the medicament is pushed into the pocket. I really enjoyed it and that means that there is one more PE done.

The STRESS is Hitting the Fan

Okay, so I really shouldn't be freaking out until tomorrow when I have my counselor session because chances are I'll talk to Professor Alexander and everything will be okay, but that's just not how I work. I can't stand waiting and in the waiting phase things just seem to build up and build up in my mind until they become the only thing I have time to think about. It's actually kind of bad, I don't really get stressed out easily but when I do get stressed like this (in the way that I have so much to do i probably won't get done with it all but there's not a single thing I can do about it now) I, of course, shut down completely and decide I can't do anything! Yeah, I'm trying my best to not worry and I decided before clinic today that if my patient was a class II it would be an exam and then I'd have one less big scary thing to do this semester and I'd have no reason to stress. Well, my pt. was a class II and I did use her as an exam and it went well but I'm still stressing way too much! To help me (hopefully) calm down I'm going to write out all that I have left:

6 PE's:

1. Medicaments

2. Blood Glucose

3. Diagnodent

4. LA

5. Periodontal File

6. Root Surface Debridement

Along With:

8 quads 1A

8 quads III (exam)

(even though I've already done 9 quads this semester)

All that has to be done in the next 8 clinic sessions (three of which are at the VA and only one of which isn't scheduled yet... I have no 1A's scheduled thus far).

I know it'll be okay but still I'm stressing, hopefully Professor Alexander will be able to help me. (please!!!)

Mockboard #1: FAILURE!

My mockboard patient was barely qualified and didn't have very deep pockets at all, I thought it'd be super easy with her. She told me she had to leave by 3:00 even though clinic didn't end until 4:00. My scaling time was supposed to end at 3:00 but I knew that wouldn't work so after being more diligent than I have ever been with one of my patients, I turned her over to the examiners at 2:15. I was feeling pretty confidents since I was really quite careful exploring and probing and scaling. It took me 1hr and 15 minutes to scale two quads of an easy class II! I was feeling pretty confident but got nervous when the instructors were taking a lot of time checking her. Of course, she comes back and that which I had feared became true: I FAILED! I missed a ton of spots and apparently even two of my probe depths were off!!! I seriously don't get it, I took more time than I usually do with my patient's whole mouths just to do two quads and I still failed? I'm sure I deserved it it's just pretty humbling for me and it puts even more pressure on me for the later mockboards and WREB in March. For now, all I can say is: Thank Goodness I'm Done Until MONDAY!!! (I love fall break!) OH well, life goes on...

Have You Been Probed?

This morning, I had a younger patient who happened to be 2 quads of a class II and 2 quads of a 1B. He was pretty interesting he was way excited about the cool technology we use at the clinic but he doesn't really like the dentist. He had some super sensitive gums so i had to hand scale his full mouth while he was wincing and bleeding a bunch! I still finished early and just hung out waiting for my fellow students to finish so we could all go to lunch. Of course, my 1:00 patient showed up at 11:00AM instead so Diane walked me through the umpteenth pano because apparently I still don't know how to do them... Her walking me through it actually caused more problems because she was trying to do so much that the machine was starting to malfunction. It was 11:30 by the time he sat in the chair to be cleaned so Kami Hanson did it for me so that we could get out for lunch.

When I got back from lunch, I discovered that nobody cared enough to reset up my unit for the afternoon and Diane decided I should do the note and charting for this patient that I didn't even see so I was working on setting up my unit and making the note when my patient showed up. Kami wasn't going to give me another patient but then Staci volunteered to not take the patient so I ended up with the 33 year old patient that was half german, half venezuelan and even though it doesn't matter to me since i am very happily taken, I must say he wasn't ugly. Staci helped me chart and of course, being as awkward and dorky as I am, I said the most awkward, stupid question I could have possibly asked a patient that close to my age. When getting ready to perio chart, I picked up my instruments, turned to my patient and said flat out: "have you been probed before?" (seriously??? it sounds like some kind of creepy dental pick-up line! Yuck!!!) The three of us all started laughing our heads off and my clever patient, having picked up on my sarcastic demeanor today said "you mean by aliens? ...well there was this one time..." I was seriously dying it was so funny! He was an easy 1B and I finished him pretty early but on my way back to my unit from walking him out to the front desk, the assistant Sharrah asked me if I gave him my number. (yes, everyone was talking about him because it's not very often that we see patients under the age of 40). I teased Sharrah back claiming I gave him hers and then I proceeded to tell Staci she should definitly go for him since he's a lot closer to her age bracket and she is single... Yeah, probably not going to happen because I didn't exactly see her running out to the parking lot after him. You missed out Staci! hehe.

Weird day...

This morning, my patient showed up late and it was my patient that has a difficult time getting numb... Of course, who would be my instructor? None other than the very slow, instructor snow who doesn't seem to enjoy giving ample anesthetic! Woo hoo! ...yeah, I was worried, but she actually was a lot faster this time and she used more LA this time than she did last appt. however it still wasn't enough so I took it into my own hands and decided to use some Oraqix that helped out a lot, but not quite enough. Oh well, I still didn't do too bad despite my patient's sensitivity.

In the afternoon, it was most interesting because I remembered that I had accidentally told my pt that her appt was at 1:00 instead of 12:30 and when my original patient who had cancelled the night before showed up saying he had until 2:30 if I still wanted him but I just said I'd reschedule because my afternoon patient was a hopeful mockboard. She was! I found a mockboard to replace the one I found last week that was a class three who had never been cleaned. Instead she was a class II who hadn't been cleaned in 2 years so she had calculus but it shouldn't be overly tenacious... yes!

Injection Day #2

The second day of local anesthesia was a lot easier and less nerve racking. Mandibular injections to me seemed a little more difficult but they were still way fun and Julie was once again a great partner.

The IA injection is super weird, if you angle it wrong you hit the bone but once you get in that space with the perfect angle then you watch how the needle just sinks in! 3/4 of a long needle!!! Whoa! SOOO COOOL!!!

Dr. Naylor showing Shaylee "proper technique."

Kelsie Showing off her pteropalatine rugae.