sooooo close I can taste it......

This semester is flying by! Today was our last mockboard before the real deal. I felt like I hadn't scaled forever. Last week was national boards, which was the longest day ever, and then I only did two quads at the VA las week. Anyways, I couldn't get a hold of my pt. for today and couldn't find anyone else to come in, so I wasn't really sure if I even had a pt. until they called me when I was at lunch. Luckly they came and were even early and he qualified. I wasn't very nervous, but for some reason I acted like I hadn't ever seen the paperwork before....I ended up filling it out ok. I missed some point for x-rays, again, and missed one little spot. I didn't want to miss the points for x-rays, but like I said I couldn't get a hold of them so what can you do? I don't remember if I wrote about the other mockboards or not, but the whole experience has been quite a rollercoaster for me. The first one I did better than I was expecting, the second I did a lot worse than I was expecting, and this one I did okay. I would have liked to not miss any spots, but overall I feel good about today.

I have mixed feelings about wreb. I feel like it is important to make sure that they are putting out quality hygienists, but there are so many things that are out of our control and so many restrictions for pt selection and then it only tests our skills on one quad of one pt. for that day. I guess I shouldn't complain about things that I know will probably never change, cause lets face it, it is a huge money maker I am sure.

As far as clinic goes, I have been done with my requirements except for my nitrous pe and one set of scanx x-rays for a while now. Alyse and I are going to be each others pts. and do nitrous on each other. It will be kind of cool since we were each others pts the first semester. Three more weeks of clinic....It really has gone by fast. :)

Clinic wore me out today

I haven't sleep well the last couple of nights and feel like I am getting sick, so that might be why I felt so tired after clinic today.
Today was a pretty productive for me today. I had two 1a's this morning and was able to get them complete and do 4 sealants. I tried to take some x-rays on the little girl, and when I asked her if she has had pictures of her teeth before, she said yes, but I always gag. I'm thinking, great! Needless to say, we didn't get any x-rays today. I couldn't even get close to her without her without her gagging. This is the first time that I have actually liked working on kids. These are the youngest kids that I have seen and it is pretty easy when they don't have more calculus than most 1b's. The mom has 4 kids and seems to be pretty involved and interested in how they are doing. I really appreciate the parents that are willing to put sealants on their kids teeth, it saves them a lot of money in the long run and most importantly the kids teeth.
In the afternoon, I had a new pt. that had quite the hhx and I had to take some PA's, so now I am done with them, and turned out to be a class III. I was able to finish him up today, but it helped that he only had 6 maxillary teeth. The crazy thing is, the first thing that he asked me is about whitening, but who really cares about whitening your mandibular teeth, when you only have two maxillary anterior teeth that aren't even touching. Ofcourse I was polite and said that he could try the white strips..... After I had finished cleaning his teeth he asked if they were any whiter and I showed him and he says "not really". Seriously! How could they not be whiter, when you can actually see the enamel instead of all the cal and plaque all over them. Don't get me wrong, he was really nice and he was interested in everything that I had to say about perio and home care but his priorities might me off a little. What's a hygienist to do? Oh yeah, When I asked him about flossing, he said I cant get the floss inbetween my teeth. Again, what? I could see between every tooth except a couple on the mandible.

Wow this semester is flying by. Next week is national boards and I am still not really that stressed out. I am so glad that I didn't start studying too soon though because I am already getting sick of reviewing stuff and I have only been studying for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I will pass. I think that I feel pretty good about everything. I think it will just be really long.

All I have left is:
2 sets of scanx bwx
nitrous pe
Finding a mockboard and a back up board pt.

If you are still reading this, sorry it is so long!

VA

You never know what to expect at the VA! This morning I had a pt. that would have been 2 quads of IV, but he didn't want anesthesia and he didn't want to have his teeth cleaned without it, so he decided not to have his teeth cleaned at all. I ended up cleaning one of Dianes pts. that was a class II, and then seen another pt. and was only able to get through the od and x-rays. So basically I did a lot of work for very little credit. My afternoon pt. didn't show, so I am waiting to see if I can do anesthesia for the drs. I hope so, if not I will just help everyone chart and then study for boards.

Gotta love family..............

I should have known better, but against my better judgement I decided to schedule my stepmoms husband (long story). When I talked to her yesterday she said that he wasn't comming in, but that she would be there. If you were to read my posts from last year, she didn't show up then either. She hasn't had her teeth cleaned forever and really hates going to the dentist and has to have nitrous whenever she has an appt, so mostly I am just mad that I didn't get to pass off that PE, my last one, Yeah. So, luckly for me, Emily has a family that actually supports what she is doing and had a spare pt. and they agreed to let me see them. Thanks Emily! In the afternoon I had a 1b and did some scanx bwx and used the APP on him because he is a smoker. I am not ver good at using that. Even though my pts were pretty easy, I feel like I was atleast able to pass off some of my requirements. Sorry if this post doesn't make any sense because of all the rambling on and on. I have the VA on thursday and then we are off for spring break and to study for boards.

man......Are we done yet?

I really haven't wanted to come to clinic lately. Today was a crappy day. I should have just stayed home. In the morning I had a class V pt. that I had done the OD on last time. I really think that he should have been more than a class V. He took me forever to scale and it didn't help that he had to get up to go to the bathroom 3 times during the appt. Then he tells me that his wife is going to be mad that he isn't done yet. All the talking didn't really help with the time. I had another pt. scheduled for 09:30 to start, but ofcourse when I am running late they come early. Claire didn't have a pt, so I let her have her, but told her that if she ended up being a class IV then I needed her, but she could have the rest. The pt. ended up being 3 quads of a III and one quad of a IV, so it worked out perfectly for both of us.
In the afternoon I had one of the easiest pts. that I have ever seen. I was able to do some scanx pa's on her. I was a little worried about doing a full mouth with them since I haven't used them yet, but luckly for me Mr. Solomen was in there and he helped us (there were 3 of us trying to use them). It went really well and I think that I am going to use them for the rest of the semester. The x-rays turned out really well and I think they are a lot clearer than the digital. I don't think they are as fast as digital because you have to go get them and get everything ready and then you have to wait if someone is scanning theirs in, but it is still better than conventional and digital in my opinion.
Since I have a bad attitude, I'll try to focus on the positive........ I only need one more quad of a class IV, 4 quads of a class V, 8 quads of 1a, 4 quads 1b, 5 more PA's, 3 sets of scanx x-rays, 2 more pe's and ofcourse I have to do my clinic simulation day and my eaglesoft pt. It is going to be so nice to have everything done.

snow snow and more snow...........

It was snowing when I woke up this morning and it hasn't stopped all day! At 8:10 there was one person in the waiting room. I was really worried that my pt. wouldn't show up, but he got here at around 8:20. I only had 2 quads of a class IV to do, so it still worked out ok. In the afternoon I had a recall pt. that was a pretty hard class II. I don't really need any more class II's and I was actually hoping that she was a class V since I still need to do one more exam, but I am sure I will get some class V's at the VA. Most of the time I think that a lot of pts. are pretty inconsiderate when they don't show up or cancel at the last minute, but this semester we have had 3 really bad snow storms on Monday night/Tuesday morning and I have only had one no-show and one cancelation the day of, so even though my pts. probably aren't reading this, I am really grateful that people have been showing up for me this semester. I feel bad for the people that keep having pts. no-show. I wish that I had extra pts. to share. I have been having spring fever really bad. I am sooooo ready to graduate. The good thing is this semester is flying by.:)

Oh yeah, by the time I left, there was atleast 6 inches of snow on my car and I got stuck trying to back out of the parking lot. I tried several times and finally someone helped push my car out of the snow. They cancelled tonights classes. It seems like they never cancel the day classes no matter how bad it snows. What's up with that. I guess it would be hard to get to make up all our time, but it really isn't safe for us or our pts. to have to drive in this weather. Luckly, we got to leave as soon as we were done, so no pod rap today.

Done with class III exams

This morning I had a pt that was a board pt. last year and still had 2 quads that weren't cleaned yet. I thought that He might qualify again, but he didn't have big enough deposits. They said that he qould qualify for mockboards. I scheduled him and am gave him to someone cause I already have one. Knock on wood! He was a class III and tells me that he dosn't have any money to pay for his cleaning. I did 2 quads and paid for it. I know that there is still time, but I didn't want to just sit there doing nothing when I could have a class III in my chair. Hopefully, I don't have to pay for much more tx. cause I am broke myself. I really just want to have everything done.
In the afternoon, I had a returning class III pt. I finished the 2 quads that I had left. It was done by around 2. It is kind of nice to just get to scale. Now I am done with my class III exams, I have 2 more pe's to do. I traded nicole some quads of a class II pt. for 2 kids. Pretty fair trade if you ask me. I was starting to get worried about finding kids to do since there aren't any names on the recall list. What happened to all the pts. that want to come in? All of the kids that I have had so far wouldn't be a IA if they came in now and I don't know where to find any.
We went over the scanX system at pod rap, so I think that I will try that next time. It doesn't seem that hard, but I don't want to mess them up.