real patient day

Real patient day was so fabulous. I feel like a real hygienist. I didn't do x-rays so I was able to get to one quad of scaling. It was awesome because of all the cool things in her mouth which I can't tell you due to confidentiallity. But I gave her OHI and stressed the importance of flossing and all that jazz. It was brilliant and i told her to come back and be my first patient next semester so that I can finish the other three quads.

Almost to an end

We are so close to the end of the semester it is unbelieveable! On monday I see a patient and I am so excited. I just want to get to scaling that is my favorite part! I don't think I will though we barely got to it in mock patient day and we didn't do things like x-rays and OHI, but I will try my hardest, it is my goal to get to one quad. I do need to write out for my self an outline of times though and buy a stop watch clock to keep on my desk.

Mock pt day

Mock patient day on mOnday felt like the first day of class all over again. The frustration I felt and the inadequacey was overwhelming and made me cry. I am going to be so slow and get so much stuff wrong at first with my patients, they will never come back to me. My husband told me though that anything worth doing will be hard. It is very true and at the end of all of this I will have such an accomplishment. I am happy I am in the program but I am up to my ears in stress right now! Luckily today I am the patient and don't have to do anything!

Sealents

Sealants are so much fun. Everyone had a good time doing them the other day in clinic. Everyone else had kind of done them before, but for me It was new and exciting. The only down side is the diagodent found 4 cavities on me so I can't have those teeth sealed, and need to go into the dentist...booo. I don't have dental insurance so that kind of sucks I don't know what I am going to do!

Today was awesome

I took a half a full mouth series in 12 minutes and did great. NO retakes needed!!! Whoo HhOO! All the contacts open and occlusal planes great. Then x-rays were taken on me and I learned that it is painful! Always use the blue edgies! and be fast so that the patient doesn't have to keep in their mouth for ever. Then I was the operator in clinic and it went well I learned alot. I learned just to count in your head the plaque in stead of use the chart cuz it takes to long. Go along each tooth so not to double count proximals. Also adapt so much! Always a new blue sheet! And a new green sheet if the three dates have been taken up! Make sure to use the right line in probing(there are three for three different dates!) This day was so helpful and learning was going on left and right, awesome!

Mock Patient Day

I am nervous and excited for mock patient day today in clinic. I hope everything goes smoothly and that I don't hurt Jessica too much. She was so soft on me I didn't feel a thing. Also we get our x-rays taken today in Radiology. I haven't had mine taken in 6 years , let alone a full mouth I don't know that I've ever had one done that I can remember. My mouth will be crazy awesome and I will love to see if I have cavities.

Back on the down slope

I swear every day is a roller coaster in this program. One day I felt so condident in my scaling skills and the next time in clinic I felt totally incompetant! One day is up and another is down and I'm getting dizzy. I did well on my rad and dental hygiene test so that's a posative thing. Today is fun cuz we are having mock patient day and I just get to sit in a chair and learn the sequence of things which is awesome. I like seeing everything put together in it's correct order.

scaling

The last clinic went so well! I felt so comfortable with what we were doing and was so happy that I was a dental hygienist at that time. I'm really scared to do polishing though cuz I don't want to hurt my bridge or crown, or take off my enamel. my rad test is coming today, the practical one, and i am really scared. I don't know if I will do well or not.

BA Degree

I am very excited. We had our first Community Health Class today and it was good, I was worried about it. The best part about it though is that we all learned our status for getting our BA degree. I only need the four classes that are required and no electives! Ha, I feel like it is in my reach and I am going to go for it! It will be so nice to have my BA degree instead of an AS degree (or compared to the nothing that I have right now). I hope that I can achieve this goal!

Scaling

Scaling is harder for me. The clinic was way messed up today too. I only had 10 minutes to scale which is nothing and my partner got an hour. I'm a little frustrated right now.
That's ok though I just have to chill, and realize that there are up and down days and that I will have plenty of time to learn this skill. I need to gear up for the test that is coming up this weekend. Already!!! AHHHHHHHHH that's how I feel.

I think I got it!

I believe I finally understand the positioning of the explorer. One of my goals before was to take my explorer home along with my typodont and practice with my neild book in my lap. The Neild book wasn't as helpful as I thought it was going to be, but it did offer a few little tips that I put into practice. Like for the posterier teeth you want the terminal shank parallel with the long axis of the tooth, not to wrap around the tooth. But for the anteriers I take out the explorer and look at the working end and see which way the tip is pointing (up or down and use) accordingly. Anyway I think I got it and am so happy and want to practice on a real person right now!

My husband and Exploring

For anyone who wants to know what my husband looks like here he is. His name is Paul and this is when we took a trip to the sand dunes with some friends. He made me get on the back of this thing while he rode it as fast as he could around these huge bowls of sand, scaring me to death(which was his goal)!

Onto matters of Dental Hygiene. I still don't understand all the areas of exploring. And I feel like I can't practice on my own because I will be practicing it wrong! I think I just need to take my typodont home and practice. That's what Casey did and she says she feels better about it. We will see, I think it's one of those things that comes to you in time. My goal is to practice on my typodont at home over the weekend before the PE is due on monday, I think!

My observation was a disaster!

I am so stupid. My observation turned into a disaster because of the situation and my stupid decision. My Second years appointment didn't show up so she was asking around to see if anyone wanted a cleaning that was just sitting there. There was one lady with two little kids in the sitting area who she asked. The lady said she did, and I instantly said I would watch the kids. Five seconds later I was kicking myself because I was not observing. I asked my Nanny to stay late another day (after my long day on Wens) and I was away from my kids to watch some other ladies kids!! I was so mad at myself because I was not getting to see what I wanted to see. It was not my Peer Pals fault though (she is the best and is soooo helpful in every way, I couldn't let her be patient-less). But luckily Shalyce and Mckenna saved me and watched the kid so I got some observation time in, Thanks Guys!!!!!!!!

The tests are over

I am so happy that all of the first tests are over! Now I know I'm on the right track as far as book work is concerned. I feel the practical is lagging though. I haven't had an oppertunity to practice exploring since we learned it! I feel so behind at this point because other have done charting and such before, but I'm catching up. My goal is to practice exploring today in clinic when I have the ta's there to help me.

Just took first test

I just took the very first test of my Dental Hygiene career and I passed! I am so excited right now! It's achievable, this is wonderful. Now I have to gear up for the other two tests to come in the next few days. I really like this set up though of no Radiology class so that we can take the test, but still have Hygiene class for the review. I think it works great.

The PEs are getting harder

I have found that the Pe's are slowly getting harder. The HHX was definantly more difficult, I don't even know if I've passed yet! Although it was time consuming I did learn a few things from it. I think the next step in driving home the concept of Health Histories is to give us the Health History form already filled out (just like the PE) and then in class, do a timed thing for 5 or 10 minutes and say go as fast as you can trying to be as accurate as you can and fill in the Patient record right there. That does need to be critiqued by Instructors too so that we can again learn from our mistakes, but it should not be graded so that we don't stress.

The HHXRX

I think I am the only one having trouble with this portion of the Health History. I breeze right through the HHX, But I sit and stare at the HHXrx for hours wondering where I begin, and have all these questions. I know I will probably fail the Health History PE beacause of it that is due on Monday. I wish we got back our Case Studies so that I could kind of look over it and see where to go. I guess I'll just chalk one up to fail. I sad part is it's my husbands birthday and all I am doing is studying.

Why do Tuesdays always overwhelm me?

Every Tuesday I get a new wave of panick because I feel like I have too much to do and not enough time. Between group projects and everything else I'm a little overwhelmed again! I am doing a really good job about spreading the word about needing patients, but I need my business card to had out. I hope that people pull through for me so that I am not left begging patients off of other people. I decided I do need a watch too so that I can take pulse and respiration well.

UDHA

Wow, the guy that looked like Al Gore was totally boring. Everyone was falling asleep! The first part of his speech totally conviced me NOT to join UDHA. The our Katie came over and sat at our table and in the 2 minutes she was there gave convincing reasons to join. Although the speech was not cool, the rest of the convention was alot of fun to be with everyone.
P.S. I really loved doing the extra oral exam. It was like a little facial massage. My husband won't let me practice on him though so one of my neighbors will have to be my guinee pig.

Vital Signs

I feel so smart now, like a real medical personel. I can take blood pressure and pulse, and I can also take respiration and pretend like I'm not staring at their boobs! He, He, He- that was for you Sarah! I went home and practiced on my husband and neighbors, not because I feel like I needed the practice, but because I was so excited that I finally learned how to do it!

I know this is how it is with every subject, but when a new idea has been breifly taught to me, I get scared like it will be so hard to learn or to master. Like how we have Dental Hygiene one day, but don't have lab till the next day or more to really drive home that idea and master it. The inbetween time intimidates me. But once we do get in lab and physically go over techniques with a TA looking over your shoulder correcting us, then I really learn the idea and feel much better about it. I'm actually really enjoying learning everything at this point.

PE's

The PE's are going so much better than I thought that they would. I imagined them to be so hard and that I wouldn't pass them the first time. But they are going O.K., that's not to say that I'm not totally nervous when I 'm doing them. They will for sure get harder though and then maybe I'll have to redo some. The patient charting kind of has me stresses out to. But I think this is a learning process and I won't be able to get them right all the time. My goal is to get the charting system down so that I can do it really fast, and it won't eat up my whole time if I have a pt. in the chair.

big wave

I feel like a big wave of work and study and projects and meetings is coming at me. I can see it coming and i can feel the begging of it and I'm really scared that I might drowned. With all the different classes and all the different little and big things we have to keep straight, it's hard. There is too much stuff that I have to read, so I have to pick and choose what I feel is most important to read and study. I think I will be ok, just not the top of the class. This coming Lab we will be learning about charting dental history and such. My Goal is to be able to know all the little abbreviations to put on the chart like BID (twice per day) and BIN(twice per night). Also my other goal for the further out future is to have all the medical history done before the patient comes into my chair. I can achieve this by finding a patient way early, and mailing them the patient history to fill out early, then I can fill out what I need to before the actuall exam and call their doctor if I need to.

Much better

I'm all better now, no more crying bouts. I guess that was just my first day nerves, YESSSS!
I am starting to get really excited because I am starting to pick up terms and numbering and and radiology stuff that most of you other students know. But for me its all new and coming so fast, but I think I'm absorbing most of it and that makes me happy. I guess we will see when it comes to the first test. One of the things I don't like and I know all my fellow students feel this way too, is how much stuff we have to print off and in so many different places. It's just adding to the first week chaos and frustration, we would almost like to pay more at the bookstore to just get the modules and powerpoints in one place. Other than that I think the first week went really well. My goal for next week is to have everything printed out and feel prepared for class, which I'm sure will happen!

First Day of Class

O.K. I don't know who of you were in Monday morning clinic with me, but if you were you saw me crying. Sorry about that, I was just so overwhelmed and some of the PE's were a little over my head (like the filter changing one). But Tuesday came around and all of my aprehension melted away in Anatomy and Dent. Hygiene I when it was book work and lecture time (that I can handle). It was a lot of fun for me on Tuesday. My goal for tomarrow (wednesday), when I have my clinic again is to NOT CRY. Who knows if it will happen, but if I start will someone throw something hard at me! Thanks :^)

Orientation is awesome

I'm so hungry! No one told us to bring a lunch, and the ten minute breaks don't let us go and buy some food! Ok I'm done venting because I'm really happy to be here meeting all of you!