2ND CA EXPERIENCE

I was CA for the second time by myself last wednesday. It was a long day since I had a patient in the afternoon. The overall CA experience was good. I felt comfortable with most the stuff I was required and expected to do. I must confess I read the heck out of the students manual sections IV & V and almost memorized the duties list I had to do while being CA. I am just glad I didn't have to feel unsecure about the whole thing. I like not to be told what I am doing wrong or avoid that as much as possible. The secret? Be prepared, be prepared and be prepared. That was actually our slogan in the teaching program; if we were prepared nothing that we coldn't handle in the classroom should ever happen. Anyhow, I am counting the days to have spring brake and relax and cautch up at home. Does anybody even read my posts? Oh well, if not at least I am writing them in case someone would like to feel my dental hygiene experience.
Peace out sistars and 2 brodas!

MY FATHER-IN-LAW-MY GUINNY PIG!

Today it was a very productive day for me. My father-in-law comes all the way to Heber to help me meet my requirements and support me as a greeny hygienist. Anyhow, I was able to concentrate enough to get his cleaning done in 1 hour 30 min (used the green tip ultrasonics) and the coolest thing I liked while ultrasonicing is that the stain wiped off and his teeth looked pretty/yellow. Well, I believe that he is now more excited about getting whiter teeth than he has ever been before. But, back to business, I was able to pass my ultrasonics PE, my Glucose PE and be my caries control assignment patient. How awesome! Thank you Mell! You sure are helping more than you would ever know!

Miriam

MY PATIENT IS NOW FLOSSING

Hello people! I was visiting my patient that is pregnant who wasn't flossing. and guess what! she told me that she now flossing and that her gums looks a lot better. I just about cried because I never thought she would be complaint for flossing but you know? the fact that I told her that jer baby could be affected by her no flossing if bacteria became uncontrooled in her gums must have done a difference in her. I was happy that I could not only influence her but that I could explain the imprtance of flossing and how to properly floss. I think that explaining the rationale to our patients in more important that telling our patients that it needs to be done or negative consequences will follow. Anyhow, I am proud of my patient!

INTERVIEWING THE NEW DH PROGRAM CANDIDATES

WHat a good idea! U wish I would have had a chance to interview, I think I would have sold myself better and who knows? maybe I wold have gotten into the program a year earlier. I believe I do really well with interviews and I am able to "sell" my abilites and education a lot better than just reflecting those into a resume etc. I think that giving the candidates an opportunity to see the facility is a great idea since I didn't know where I was going or where the different classrooms where my first week in the proram. I think that having acreditation come and visit may have given our DH faculty a few new iedas (or maybe not). Anyhow, I hope the 1candidates do their best in interviewing and that it helps them in the selection process instead of terring them down.

Best wishes to the candidates!

DENTAL MED CLASS

So...I am not sure what happened on this last second test but I got stuck into the low 80s when I was a 90 on my first test. I am afraid I really needed that test review for this last test which the teacher decided not to have due to lack of time. Somedays, I think this class is super hard to follow, maybe because there are so many different drug names I am not acquanted with and so many different concepts that I have never heard of. I come from a healthy family and it has been hard to relate to come of the medications that are taken for systemic and acquired conditions/illness. Oh well, I just need to do better in the next two tests and hopefully I can even out my slip in this second test. I also hope we can make up the one class we couldn't have since our teacher was sick with pneumonia. I really hope she feels better.

P.S. Can't wait for SPring Break!!!!!!!

MY 1A PT TODAY

I was soo lucky to have had my regular patient have her son come in and be seen first instead of her. I really needed a 1A exam and a few more sealants on a patient that I have done OD on. Well, it ends up being the perfect patient! He was 12 years old, still unerupted teeth, a few suscipious lesions, sealants to be done...anyhow, I accomplish a lot of my requirements today and I was also able to help Megan G. since I had her do one of the sealants. The coolest thing of it all is that the mother (which will be my patient soon) hast 3 quads of a class II and 1 quead of a class III. Soon I will no longer have 0 quads done in my class II spread sheet which somehow makes me feel lots better! I still need three more quads and will have the rest of my requirements done by the time I need to. Hopefully everyone will show up to their appoitments. Also, I am hoping I can still finish 2 1As and 1Bs in 1 appoitment.
There is hope for clinic's grade.

VOLUNTEERING FOR GKAS

Give Kids a Smile event is a great way to ensure preventitive and oral health within ourchildren in our community. I was able to volunteer in the radiology dept. and believe it or not I think after taking lots of x-rays without my kuik-bites i detached from them! I had wide open contacts by the last hour I was volunteering. I loved Casey, a second year student, she helped me master the angulation on my patient's head (parallel to the floor) and also the PID to ensure good contacts in the x-rays. I was proud of my self specially when one of the second year students asked who had taken such perfect x-rays...and it happened to be me! How exciting! I thought once that Professor McCOnahay and Vining could give up on my lack of x-ray taking skills but I wish they could see how far I have come now! Overall, I was impressed in how many times paretns were thanking us with our volunteering hours and dedication to helping their children. I was just happy to help and feel such grateful parents. Something really interesting I noticed is how most of the children were american and not hispanics. I really anticipated to be the opposite but that caught my attention. Overall, it was a good experience to help and feel accomplished.

EDUCATING MADE A DIFFERENCE!

I am so proud to let everyone know that educating really paid off!
My father-in-law came in to be my patient and we classified him as a class V. He had a couple furcations and lots of recession. After taking his x-rays we noticed that he had a few problems going on: a loose filing, a couple suspicious lecions, a root abcess, a root fracture on tooth #31, and 3 over hangs (where the suspicious lesions developed because of these overhangs). Well, after educating him in how to brush with a Modified Stillman technique and c-shape flossing, and other proxy brushes I gave him and taught him how to use he becase really interested in his oral health. He admitted that anyone before has taken the time to educate him and help him understand how important it is oral homecare. I was able to answer most of his questions. He really liked that he was able to consult with one of our midtown dentists and ask other questions I wasn't able to. Overall, he has kept the interest in taking care of his teeth. Unfortunately, he will loose tooth #31 but I was able to hoock him up (with Jenns R. Help) with a great ontodontist. He will spend the money to get an implant put on and he is going to replace his crown on #8 which is really old and looks now yellowish. He will also bleech his teeth with the latest in laser and is excited to make sure his perio doesn't go any further. I am sure glad I instigated within him the willingness and desire to take care of his oral cavity in general better.
SOoo worth it!

TABLE CLINIC

After Professor Hansen came and helped us further understand what the clinic tables are all about and how many different opportunities we have to present at a state level, at UDHA...etc I was able to obtained a broarder idea of what they table clinic is all about. I believe research is really important in order to became more literate and educated into the dental hygiene world oral health condition, technologies...I was excited to find out that our topic (perio-pregnancy) was still a good topic she recomended on researching and presenting in our table clinic. For some reason me and my group members felt like maybe pregnancy/perio was pretty much a dead topic but I guess not! I think it is important that we educate and instigate awareness inour prenant population so that they know how to best take care of their oral health and their growing baby.

Amen!

MID SEMESTER CONFERENCE

tomorrow I have my mid-semester conference with Professor Costely. I like the idea of having a mid-semester conference because it has help me plan the rest of the semster (clinic wise) and re-cap what I have done and what I still need to do. I have many goals this semesters such as get an A in clinic. I also want and intend to meet all my clinic x-rays requirements (which I am somehow far from taking all the x-rays I need to). The one thing I really need to work on is on posting the learning experiences in this blog more often and gathering more OHI kit aids. overall, I hope I am able to recap and set up a few more goals so that I am organized and finish up early so that I can more on to my Spain trip!

CRAZY CANCELLATIONS TODAY

The thing that we all fear most (having a patient cancel last minute) has happened to me today! I thought I was missing out on my breaths when my patient told me she wasn't going to be able to come. Luckily she called and just didn't show up. I was able though (with my husband's help) to find a 1B that I very much needed. The pateint showed just in time, and I was able to take x-rays, and finish the whole prophylaxis by 3:30...what a good clinic day! So...the moral in this whole post is: if your patient cancel it doens't mean you won't find someone or be successful. I was, and to be honest with my followers/readers I had no idea it would all turn out okay. The secret...attitude. I (somehow) kept a good attitude about the whole canceling thing and it paid off at the end.
I passed my anterior intrumentation PE. I used my Nebraska instrument to pass it off and I got really good feedback form my instructor. And, to top it off, my x-rays were sharp with wide open contacts and nore-takes! But...wait! The best thing of it all is that I only missed one spot in the whole prophylaxis.

Good day.

UDHA CONVENTION

Lots of good information for sure! I really enjoyed the seminar that taught me much about effective communication. I was able to see how communication can be broken and at the same time effectively done. I appreciated that our seminar speakers scripted some of the good "communication pattersn" that we need to practice (especially when tension is present). Also, I enjoyed going through the different exhibits and vendors. I like the Surgitel exhibit because I liked the profesionality, product and good price offered. I think I might actually but the loupes because I really need them. Overall, I was able to feel more emerged into de dental field in general. I was able to feel a loittle more warmed up with the information presented in the table clinics. I definately liked how our school seniors presented best beause you can just tell the quality and profesionality in general that our school carries with anything we do. But, that is just my opinion. Tomorrow I will be seeing my friend again as my patient. I am excited to be able to start clinic the 3 quads she has left. Hope my day goes a little more smooth than usual since she is not a new patient (less paper work, no x-rays...good deal!)

DENTAL HYGIENE CLASS

Yes, I have learnt on this class today sooo much about how to best take care of my baby. TObe honest with any of my readers, I had a hard time getting myself through some parts of the lecture that had to do with child abuse and neglet. My heart breaks to know that such horrible things are part of our worl today. I think being able to get good knowledge of how to best care for your cild's health is extremely valuable in oral health prevention. I have instigated not so good habits in my 10 month old baby. I.e. let her have her bottle at night in her crib while she falls asleep. I knew this was bad so as soon as she would get done I would take it away. It has been today where I have gotten the courage to give her the night bottle, brush her teeth (which she likes very much :D) and put her to bed with a zippi cut with a little warm water. She didn't seem to like it as much but I m all for the good habits! Also, I have been able to learn what are some signs in the oral cavity that looks like neglet and abuse.
I belive each day that our role, as dental hygienists, is to help our patients not to just prevent oral heath but to prevent them for higher life threatening diseases, abuse and neglet. This role and responsability gets bigger and bigger each day. And, I like feeling more and mor prepared to become a professional dental hygienist.
On to the next one!

NOT CONSTANT CLINIC PROCEDURES

Could instructors, teachers and clinic manager make up their minds all together? It is extremely frustrating that everyone seems to be in a different page and that different procedures or new procedures aren't communicated to the students fast enough soon after things/procedures change. As a consequence much confusion among students is felt and frustration as well. I am sure I am not the only one that feels this way. Well, it seems that it doesn't matter how I feel, I am just a little grain of salt in a big beach anyways, right? I will just plug along and enjoy the ride as much as possible. Hope my patient today feels comfortable in my chair. She is pregnant and I brought her some pillows to feel comfortable and have a good experience today. I am excited to keep practising scaling and hope that I am able to sharpen up all those scaling skills.

A GOOD CLINIC DAY

Wednesday I was able to see a new patient (my husband's friend) and I noticed a bit more confident with my intrumentation in general, my ergonomics habits have improved, and I missed less sots than I did the previous clinic day. The appoitment went smooth and I was able to take a good set of x-rays. Really, the x-ray holders save me everytime! Also, I was able to finish my patient being more detail oriented this time, which means that I was able to have the treatment plan already printed out and ready to go by the time I had to get my OD check. I didn't have to use the ultrasonics and it was kind of nice. I need all the intrumentation practice I can get! Lastly, I was able to use my patient as an exam patient and it went well! I just need to remember that Class I classification in normal, class II teeth go back and class III teeth go forward!

The adventure continues monday with my first pedo patient! Here we go!

RE-SEALANT PE

Today I had my husband come back to get his selanats done. Everything went really smooth and calm. I was able to seal all the teeth planned but one. When I had one of the modtown denists check on his tooth #4 he said that there was a little shadow and that he might have an incipient cavity. I am referring my husband then to our regular dentist just to make sure that it is or not ok to seal. I also got aquanted today in how to do the insurance reimbursement. It will be a little time cinsuming but I think I can get it done and send it off this week to our insurance offices. I learnt today that before cleaning the area with a prohy brush I need to put some water in the tooth area or prophy brush before cleaning the tooth surface area. No idea! I also learnt that I am lucky to be booked till mid february already! Hope I can keep my patients.

Keep on going...