Crazy Day

Today I had two patients scheduled and my 8:00 said she would be here yesterday and guess what, she did not show up!! I was so mad, she was probably a classification I did not need and I made time for her and she did not show. So while I was looking for someone to come in like right now, Mr. Saloman called my afternoon patient and she said she was sick so she didn't want to come in. So all of the sudden I am looking not only for a morning patient but an afternoon patient as well. I was frantically searching, people and I finally found someone for the afternoon and could not find someone for the morning. Well luckily there was someone in the waiting area for Midtown that came in for me. He was only a class 2 but I was able to pass off three Pe's on him so it turned out to be a good day, a crazy but good day.

Another class 3

Today in the morning we had a lab, I wish we would have done the lab during class time or something so we didn't have to waste precious clinic time. Oh well, in the lab we went over subgingival irrigation, accessory fulcrums, curved ultrasonics, peizo ultrasonics, caries risk assessment and blood glucose testing. It wasnice to relax and learn for a change. For the caries risk assessment I go to be the one who chewed on wax and got to spit in a cup for 5 minutes. It was interesting. Then no one else in my group wanted their finger pricked for the blood glucose testing, so I did that too. I am glad to report that my saliva was at a great pH and the flow was also in the normal range. My blood glucose was an amazing 100. In the afternoon I had another spanish speaking patient, and I'm pretty sure she was illiterate. It was very sad, she needed help filling out her health history form ,she could not read it or write on it. Luckily one of the first year students, Karina, was there to observe me that day. She was sent from heaven, she spoke spanish and was able to help translate everything on the HHx and fill it out. She help me throughout the entire appointment, she was amazing. Anyway, so it turned out that this patient was also a class 3!! I was so excited and I was able to get one quad scaled and I did anesthetic on a real live patient for the first time! I did and IA and a mental on the lower right! The IA was a little difficult because first of all her anatomy was not very definite so it was hard to see, then I hit bone twice before getting to the proper depostion site! It was a great experience though. I got one quad of a 3 done she will come back and I'll do the other 3.

MOCKBOARDS!!!

Today was our first mockboard day. I was not very nervous until I got to clinic in the morning and started setting up my stuff and trying to figure out all the paperwork. My brother-in-la called my patient (Cesar) last night and he said he would for sure be there, so I was really confident that he would show up. Cesar was told to be there 10 minutes early so we could get going right at 8:00. Well, 8:05, 8:10, 8:15 and no Cesar. I was starting to panic. We only had until 8:30 to check our patient in until we would get minutes taken off our scale time. So I called him and he said he was almost there and that he lost his keys so he had to borrow someone else's car. Anyway, at 8:20 he finally showed up, we got his parking pass and I told him to run to put it in his car and we finally got started. Luckily I had all the paperwork ready all I needed to do was have him sign them and take his blood pressure. I did all that and I got him checked in at 8:25! So then it was sit and wait until the examiners exam him and record calculus. He finally came back to me and I was able to start scaling. I thought I had plenty of time and I was going to do 2 quads so I would not have to bring him back for a 3rd apppointment. Anyway, I scaled for about and hour and 45 minutes on the two quads, then did the probing and recession. I got him checked out with 5 minutes to spare. Then I had to play the waitng game again, which was torture. it took about 30 minutes for them to bring him back to me and tell me that I missed 2 spots, I was okay with that. I scaled those spots, polished and gave him fluoride and then he was finally done. So, it turned out that I passed my first mockboard with an 87. I missed a few other points on small dumb things like occlusion and the boards dumb classificaiton of perio. I felt like this was a great experience and with every following mockboard I know I will be more confident.
Being a student examiner was also really helpful. I really liked feeling for calculus and then feeling if it got removed. It was an awesome experience and I now know what they are feeling for and what I need to feel for.

I Found a Class 3!!!!!!

Today was a pretty good day. My first patient was the lady that was there the day the power went out, so I didn't even have an OD check to see what she was. So I got her back and I had to take a PA of an area to see if there was an abcess, but there was not. I really need to get cracking on my PA's I think I only have 7, only 63 more to go! Anyway, she ended up being a class 2 which was alright. She was very sesitive to even probing so she definitly needed to be numb. So, I had Prf. Alexander come do the anesthesia and I started. I guess when you do anesthesia you only do one quad at a time. So this process took a lot longer than I thought it would so I was in a tiem crunch but I had just enough time to finish the last quad but Prof Alexander would not let me have her entire mouth(and entire tongue) so I had to reschedule her back for one measly quad. Oh well, I totally can see why we don't want our patients entire mouth numb. It was just frusrating to have to bring her back for a third time. She was very nice though and I think she really appreciated it.
So my afternoon paient came and I took x-rays and did the OD and he was a class 3!! I was so excited. but then he told me he didn't want me to start on the cleaning today because he had a meeting to go to and he was going to speak at it so he did not want to be numb and/or bloody. I was really upset because I had plenty of time to get at least a quad done. So now I am bringing him back for 2 more appointments. Oh well, I found a three and I am not complaining.

I Found My MOCKBOARD!!!!

Today I finally found a mockboard patient. I have been worried sick that I would not find one and today I did. His name is Cesar he is a class 2 and he couldn't be a better patient. He is spanish speaking but is learning how to speak english and speaks it quite well. He was very patient and his schedule is very flexible and he said he could come in anytime. I was able to get the OD done and 2 quads of scaling with zero mistakes!! I was on cloud nine after clinic today. I still have not seen any class 3's so I am still worried about that but I guess I should be happy I have a mockboard. I cannot believe that we are almost halfway through the semester already. It is kind of bitter sweet because I want this all to be over with so I can quit worrying, but I feel like I need more time to get all my requirements done. I just need to take it one day at a time and take deep breaths.