PE'S baby!!

So today was my day of pes...I guess.  You see, there are days where you get quads (good criteria quads 2, 3,'s) and then there are those days where you get easy confidence booster, make you feel amazing quads (1b's).  Today was one of those days.  My cute brother came in for his 6 month cleaning, I saw him in march and he is back before the mission!! Love him!! He hardly had any calculus, which is surprising because he does not like to brush haha.  He was so cute and let myself and April pass off air/powder polish pe.  We also did diagnodent and then I did Blood glucose testing on him!!  It was super productive, and I scaled him in less than 20 minutes!! Holla!!  I always give myself 20 minutes.  I look at that clock and hurry my fingers!!  It feels so good to stop scaling at that point and then just explore and floss.  Check out any areas and then go back and get those areas if you missed them!!  Good morning!! P.s. It snowed like crazy and it was insane.  Patients were cancelling left and right!! RIDICULOUS!!
In the afternoon I saw a family friend who had not been to the dentist for 3 years.  I was able to take BWX on her and then scale.  She had lots of restorations and som recurrent decay.  We talked about prevadent and were able to get her some!!  Overall, it was a good day.  I guess I felt like I needed that since my last week (mockboard) was a downer for me!! Haha ....hey sometimes you need something to bring your spirits up!!!

VA and Mockboards...duh duh DUH!!

So this week at the VA we got to see a total of 3 patients.  It was crazy hectic, but it was good to see how fast you had to be in order to get your other patient back in your chair.  It was a long day, and to be honest, it will be super nice not having to drive to Salt Lake every single week.  Save me alot on gas thats for sure!!
Now on to mockboards....lets just say I was happy to not pass.  I mean of course I was disappointed in myself, but I honestly needed to see where I was missing.  This was one of the MOST stressful days I have EVER had in this program.  And it was only worth 10 points!!!  But I think I was upset about the fact that I felt like a horrible hygienist!  I did not know why I had missed the spots I did and I was doubting myself.  Lets be honest, it was not a fun day.  How will I ever pass BOARDS?!!  This program has been the hardest, most stressful thing I have ever done in my entire life.  Seriously, I think that if I only knew how hard it was going to be IN the program, I dont know if I would have ever continued applying to this program!!  Haha Seriously, like they say, its getting out of this program that is the toughest!!  Anyways, I just need to get better and improve on those areas that I missed.  Wish me luck....I will need all of it to make it through the rest of this semester and next!!

Close your eyes and just feel...feel your way....

So today was one of those days I have been needing.  Last week was horrible with all the cancellations and no shows, and now because of all of that I could not sleep last night!! It was horrible!!  Relying on other people to determine your grade is ridiculous!!  Its sad it has come to that!! We rely solely on these patients who cant even keep an appointment, to determine our grade in school!! Sounds ridiculous!!  Anyways...enough venting..

Today I saw my sweet lady who is 2 quads a 2 and 2 quads a 3.  She was SO close to cancelling on me last night, but I made her pull through!!  She came in (a half hour late, might I add...) and I began scaling.  She was bleeding...SO SO BAD!!  I had her start rinsing with Chlorohexidine last week and so you could tell it was helping!!  I finished her first quad really quick, and only missed one spot!!  I was so happy!!  Then I saw that I had 40 minutes to finish, and I did not want this poor lady coming back, so I hustled my butt and kicked it into gear and guess what....I got this woman FINISHED!!!  And the best part, I missed that one spot out of all 4 quads!!  It was so great!!  I ultrasoniced the whole mouth and then went around and handscaled.  I have NEVER used my explorer more than I did with her!!  I remember we were taught to close our eyes and with light pressure feel around the tooth!!  I did that today and oh my heavens, why have I not been utilizing it that way!!  I felt SO MUCH calculus that I supposedly thought I got off!!  Nope I didnt, so I went around and got all those areas and then asked for a scale check!!  Alexander even was impressed at how well it was all cleaned!!!  I felt proud...that one moment I never get...I cherished!! 

Now for this afternoon, I was worried, because this patient no showed on me last week!! And I need him for my mockboards, so I needed him to show up!!  Low and behold, he showed up!! Thank heavens!!  He is super nice and the calculus is definitely there!!  I did my screening on him and I actually felt the calculus!!  He works 100%.  I wish I would have waited until April to clean him, so then I wont have to worry about a board pt.  But unfortunately he wants to be cleaned!!! 
He qualifies for mockboards, so I am super excited!!  Thats all I need, and I wanted a real mockboard patient so I can get the full experience!! 

Today was a good day for me, I guess its the makeup for last week!!

Worst day EVER!

Well lets just say I am starting to feel like a horrible hygienist....is it me or my patients?!
First thing first, I had the VA yesterday and guess what...yep you guessed it....CANCELLATIONS!!  Oh but it gets better than that!!!  To top it off....I had NUMERO DOSE CANCELLATIONS!!!  To put it nicely....I had cancellations up the yang!!  Seriously people!!  I cant catch a break!!! This is ridiculous!!  Honestly!! 
Well then today in clinic, I saw my sweet patient, who turned out to be 2 quads of a 2 and 2 quads of a 3!! Wahoo!! Holla!! Thats what I like to hear!! Unfortunately she is not board material...she had not alot of calculus!!  Gosh dang it!! So I was bankin on my afternoon patient.....WELLLLLLL...that didn't turn out so well!! I called him and confirmed 2 this week, and both times he said he was coming!!! Guess what...THE KID BAILS!! NO SHOW! NADA!!  I wanted to bawl my eyes out!! Seriously!! What is with this?!  I wanted to just roll over and DIE! 
Obviously, you can not make it out of this program without a cancellation!! They suck!! Nobody should ever have to go through with that!! I mean seriously...how hard is it to call me up and tell me you are not going to make it or sorry I dont want to come anymore?!! Seriously how hard is it?!! This is ridiculous! 
Soooo....atleast I got my wonderful darling sister on SPEED DIAL!!  I called her and had her get her booty up to the clinic!! I was not going to waste a clinic day on something ridiculous, so I made the best of it and did 3 pes on her!!  She didnt want a cleaning so we just did sealants!!  It was relaxed and wonderful...atleast I feel a little bit accomplished!!
Pray for me that next week I will find my mockboard patient...and that I wont have anymore cancellations!!!

C.A.N.C.E.L.L.A.T.I.O.N.S.

YEP....exactly what my title says. I had cancellations ALL day long at the VA today.  But luckily I was able to see two patients still.  I had two sweet patients today. My morning patient was my age and super sweet.  We had alot to talk about and were able to have a really good appointment!! 
At the end of the appointment, he asked for my number haha.  It was hilarious, and I kind of figured it was coming.  Too bad he wasn't my type!
This afternoon, I saw a lady who was on a one month prophy program, which meant she always came in once a month and had her teeth cleaned!  She was nice, and we got along super well.  Nothing too much happened, but it was a good day.  I needed it!

Clinic and Lab

Thursday I ended up having a lady I work with come in and get her teeth cleaned.  My class III patient cancelled and so I needed my back up patient!!  Lets just say you never know what kind of a mouth you will have until you start working on them!!  I thought she would have been a 1B, just actually is Perio maintenance!! What?! Can you believe it?! Seriously, this is out of control haha!  It was interesting to see that her pockets were a little deep in some areas, and then no bleeding, but then there is definitely bone loss.  Alexander helped me put it all together and it was cool to look at xrays, bleeding and pfi to determine what classification she was!!  See....Im still learning!!
In the afternoon we had lab, and it was so fun!  We got to use the ultrasonics, and the sonic.  Then we learned more about graceys and then we were able to learn about blood glucose and all of that jazz!!  Clinic is going good...minus the stressed out part of mockboards and everything!!

VA adventures

So obviously I had the VA today, who would have thought, right?!  Anyways, I had a new patient this morning, and guess what.  Turns out the man is perfectly healthy.  He could not remember the last time he had been to the dentist, and look at his mouth....completely normal.  Geez louise. I guess i shouldn't be "hoping" for disease.  How SICK and WRONG are we?!! Seriously! The Dental Hygiene program makes us this way!!!
    My afternoon patient was a little bit rough, he was kind of a diva, but hey everyone has their moments.  I just let him be the diva and relax.  It went well!!  I got some pes done today and it was super nice!!  Still, I have WAY more PE'S to go, but hey I made a dent, its fine!!  Well clinic is tomorrow and then a lab in the PM!  I have heard they are going to freak us out for boards....HEAVEN HELP ME!!  That is the last thing and the first thing on my mind EVERY SINGLE WAKING MOMENT!!  How will I ever pass?!!!  It can happen, it WILL happen...we will be fine!!  Until next time!!