DARN COLDSORE!!

I love it when my class 3 pt comes in and has a huge coldsore on her lower lip. I felt so bad because she thought I gave it to her when I cleaned half her mouth last time. I tried to explain to her that she probably had the virus laying dormant and has never presented with signs until now, but of course she speaks spanish and she most likely didn't understand me. Luckily Kailene had 2 patients come in, so I was able to do the OD on her other patient. I guess it wasn't a total waste of a day.

Crazy, Crazy Day!!

This morning I saw a way easy class 5. She had so many bridges and crowns, that I really didn't have to scale any calculus. She did have the smallest mandibular linguals though. I had the hardest time adapting my instruments because her teeth were so tinny!! I ended up finishing my patient an hour early, so I saw Kailene's extra patient. I only had about 40 minutes, so I only did the OD and of course she's ANOTHER class 5! No more class 5's please :)
My afternoon patient hasn't had her teeth cleaned for about 15 years!! Her teeth actually looked pretty good considering it's been so long. She ended up being a class 3, which I'm so excited about!! She was seriously the best patient! She let me take an FMX, which was my first one all semester. I was hoping I could scale 2 quads, but apparently I was thinking too big. I was only able to get one quad done.

Pretty easy day!

This morning I finished my class 2 patient. I realized I really need to work on using a more forceful lateral working stroke, especially where the calculus was tenacious. I used my mini graceys for the first time and I actually really liked them because my patient had tenacious calculus, but her tissues were pretty tight. This afternoon I saw a 1B, but she was a pretty hard patient for just being a 1B. I felt like it took me so long to clean her teeth and all I could think about was it shouldn't take so long to clean a 1B. Ugh!!

Day 2 at VA

I had two great experiences today. My first patient was a class 3 on his lowers. I found that I need to go more subgingival when scaling. And my second patient was on periomaintenance. I love it when I get classification that are anything but 1B's!!

Womans health connection

I was able to go to the Woman's Health Connection on Friday. It was a really humbling experience to see so many women who have never had a cleaning in their life because they don't have the resources or they can't afford it. I was able to get a few names, so I can get them into the clinic and CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN their teeth!! :)

First day back in the clinic

This morning I was a little disappointed because I thought for sure my patient was going to be a class 3, but she was a class 2. Not a big deal I was just hoping for the class 3. Even though she was a class 3 doesn't mean she was easy. She had really tenacious subgingival calculus, so I was only able to finish 2 quads.
This afternoon was really relaxing. My Dad came in and he's just a 1B, so we were done way early!!

First day at the VA

Wow I think I'm still so lost on EVERYTHING!! Actually I would have to say for being my first day, it went pretty well. I was able to get one quad of a class 3 done. Which is not too shabby! But I felt like a complete idiot when the doctor couldn't pull up my patients perio chart! He was kind a jerk to me!! But all in all it was a pretty good day.