Almost There!

Stay on target! I am almost finished with school! I have finally finished all my requirements so I just have to hang in there! I can hardly wait to be finished! If feels pretty unreal! In just a little time I will be expected to be the expert! I hope I can live up to the expectation and continue to learn and help my patients. Today my patient gave me a great compliment. She told me that I was very gentle during cleanings. I love that because that has always been a goal of mine to be gentle, so for her to say that means a lot.

Mock board!!!

Another mock board down, no more to go! That means that the next one is the final exam!!!! Yikes! Things went pretty well, I did have some difficulty with 2 spots, but I passed. I even forgot to put in recession! OOPS! The best part of today was the fact that my patient showed up to her appointment and she is willing to come on the real day. I wish I had cleaned her other lower quad however because she had more in the quad I cleaned today and I will probably have to add teeth to make her qualify for the real thing. But that's okay. I think it will all work out okay.

My first No Show!

If you believe it, I haven't had any no shows this semester until today. I finally had one. I'm not too upset about it, I was able to get some homework completed and other things, so it isn't like last year when I had so many cancellations and problems with my schedule! I remember how big of a nightmare that was! And this afternoon I saw my class IV patient to finish him. Things went a lot smoother this time. That is comforting! So, yeah, I am getting colser to getting all of my requirements finished.

Fun Days!

Today I saw Jason, and it was great to catch up. I was thinking this whole time that he would be a class 1B, and what do you think, he was a 2. It turned out great for me! So I am getting closer! I also finished my class 3 today, and that was fun! Looks like I will get all my requirements after all!

Thanks to last minute cancellations

Well a great thing happened this week. My class 4 called in to schedule an appointment and luckily I was able to see him this week. However, I only finished one quad because he couldn't stay the entire time. So, I did what I could and scaled one quad. It was rough, but we made it through! I also saw a class 5 this morning and that went very well. So, getting closer to finishing my requirements! Yeah!

Boards

YEAH!!!!! I passed! Halelujah! What a relief to be finished with two boards! I am so happy that I passed that I just can hardly believe it! Shandee, Shaniel and I all studied last week together and it is a good thing that we did cuz I don't know if I would have passed if we hadn't studied together. The test was pretty difficult. I was quite surprised when I opened my packet and read the first question. I knew it was going to be difficult. I combed through my answers carefully and reread them twice before I turned in my exam. While we were waiting for the results, I was so nervous. I counted up the questions I didn't know and there were 12. Borderline for how many you can miss. Then the examiners put the envelopes out and let us check our results. I opened mine fast and lo and behold it said I passed! Amazing! Only Heavenly Father knows how I passed! I know I had help in there.
Well after that I had until 4 til I did the clinical. So Jim and I went home and relaxed. Luckily I was able to take the exam around 2, so we went in and set up, and the examiners were so relaxed. It was great. I did the injections and I had my window up, my angles correct and my rate was ok. I passed! I started to cry I was so excited. I called mom and dad and they took us out to dinner to celebrate. It was great! And I'm so glad it's over!

Finally some Perio

I got three quads of a 3 today, and 4 quads of a 2. Yeah! How exciting! I hope I can find everything else I need. So far I am in desperate need of class 4's. I really don't want to call my good friend, 'Mr. Cancellation' if I don't have to, but it doesn't look very promising that I will find another patient with that much bone loss and calculus. So, I'll keep praying. Whatever happens, happens.

Mock board

Three things to remember, this means WAR. W: window, A: angles, R: rate of deposition. All I have to remember is that it means war!! So, mockboard didn't go very well in terms of performance, however, as far as the learning experience, it was enlightening. I really need some practice so I can feel more confident and just get in there and do what I need to. One good thing did come of it, I do have a patient with an amazing mouth and anatomy! (my husband!) Sorry Nicole, you're totally awesome, but you are just too hard! I can't handle extra stress! I don't know, maybe I could. It seems that I am completely stressed to the max. Pile it on, the tears have got to dry out sooner or later!

Finally some perio!

Yeah! Today I finally saw my first perio patient for the semester! How exciting! However, I was unable to get very far, I did x-rays and perio probing but that's it. So, I'll be seeing him in a few weeks to get some treatment going. The only drawback is that he refuses local anesthetic. So unfortunately I will be scaling another perio patient without the luxury of them being numb. Bummer! Hopefully I will get some practice in before boards!

Um, yeah

So today we had a mockboard exam and things went pretty, well, terrible! I saw my favorite patient Raphael, who has the most tenacious calculus I have come across! When I had scheduled him he told me he could only come on a Tuesday and that he had to leave by 10:00 a.m. Ok, no problem, well, slight problem, but whatever. I was happy to have a patient. Well, he got here and informed me this morning that he needed to leave around 9:30!!! Um, now there is a problem! I decided I would do my best and get him out of here as soon as I could. So I scaled in a fury and got him out of here at 9:45, the catch is, I missed 9 spots of calculus, 7 of which are graded! So yeah, not great. I feel like I should've done better, but also that I did my best with what I had. I will see him in a month to finish and screen him for his other quads.

Aargh!

Today I had another cancellation from Bryan, my class 4 patient. So I called and convinced mom to come and be my patient. It was a very frustrating experience. I had a hard time getting anything done she has the most sensitive teeth I have ever worked on. And to top it off, she wouldn't let me get her numb! So I was frustrated cause I didn't get anything done. Then in the afternoon, I was seeing a 1B and a 3, and I hurried through the 1B, but not fast enough. The class 3 had to leave at 2:30, something he had failed to mention. So, I just feel like I didn't get anything done today! I cannot see any more class 1B's I really need some perio patients!

clinic simulation

So things didn't go exactly as planned today. I was supposed to see two 1A patients this morning but only one showed up. Things went really great on him. And then in the afternoon I was supposed to see two more 1A patients and a 1B. Well when mom found out that one student was planning on cleaning both kids teeth she was pretty upset, so needless to say, Kathleen saw the other child and I saw one child. But it turned out okay, I got some sealants on him also. Then I saw my 1B and got through OD. It was a pretty uneventful day.

perio

So today my patient didn't show this morning. Luckily a lady called in and wanted to get in right away. So I was able to get her done, she was a class V so it was nice to get things moving in the perio direction. Then this afternoon I saw a class II patient and finished her up, actually I already had her OD finished so it was nice to just jump in there and scale!

Almost There!

We are back and in the full swing of things! I had two 1b patients today and I realized that I really need to start using my explorer. I just have to stop missing spots, so I need to master this skill this semester. I missed too many today so it is time for an intervention!Q

I didn't say it was easy

Ok, so comparatively speaking this was a rather easy semester. We rarely had class and the most exciting part of this semester was giving each other injections. Happily things went really well and I met all of my requirements and I wasn't scrambling at the last second to finish my quads. So, three semesters down and 1 to go! I can hardly believe it! I just want to focus on really understanding what I am doing and what I will be doing for the rest of my career so I can be great in this field. I definitely don't feel ready to graduate at this moment, but hopefully I will be ready for it by the end of next semester.

Looking Back

Well, as I look back over the last semester I realize that the beginning was a lot smoother than the end. The last two weeks of clinic I was really scrambling to fill my schedule cause people just kept canceling or not showing up. I tried to call my mom for the last day of clinic and she absolutely would not come. I begged her to come and let me practice injections on her and she wouldn't even do that! Can you believe it! But thankfully things went rather well and I did finish all of my requirements. All in all things turned out very well.

One week to go!

So today was pretty uneventful, Raphael cancelled again so I had a child this morning and a tissue check on Manny. I was very pleasantly surprised because we placed Arestin in his 10mm pocket and today when I probed it had improved to a 6mm pocket. It was really neat that he ended up healing that well, I was very pleased with the result. This afternoon I finished Rosemary and she was tough. I had a hard time with her! She had the biggest chunks of calculus I have ever seen! It was fun to get them off. Anyway I am excited that we only have one more clinic session left before the end of the semester.

I'm having a little trouble

Ok, so I scheduled my patients for today Amal in the morning and Adam in the afternoon. However, I saw Raphael, and he only needs one quad scaled and he is done and he could only come this morning - so I cancelled Amal. This afternoon I had scheduled Adam and Bryan needed to get in - so... I cancelled Adam. Well, when I called to confirm Raphael- he said he couldn't come today and I couldn't get a hold of Amal so I had no one this morning. Luckily Jim needed a caries risk assessment so I got something done. However, after jim left I got a call from Mrs. Campbell saying that Bryan had called to cancel. :( Not good, he promised me he would be here so I was basically screwed out of a day. As I was searching for a patient however, a miracle happened. I got a call from one of my flyers from a patient who wanted to get in right away. SO... I got one quad of a class 1B scaled and that was it. I did my best and said my prayers and payed my tithing and things worked out.

mock board

Well, this was an experience. I had so many mixed feelings coming in today that it is hard to even describe what I was feeling. I was nervous about getting x-rays done cuz I had to take 9 PA's before I even got started. So I barely finished those and then I had to rush checking my patient in, which I was 3 minutes late, luckily no more! After that I was concerned that he might not qualify in the single quad and that I would have to do more teeth, luckily he qualified and things went well there. So I got out my heavy duty ultrasonic and started blasting the heck out of this guys calculus because it is some of the most tenacious stuff I have ever encountered. It was amazing, I just saw chunks of it flying off. So then I went back in with my graceys and fine tuned. I thought that I could feel this massive chunk between 30 and 31 so I was just going to town there. Finally I pulled out my probe to check probe depths and I felt a few more clicks so I went back in for those and then I felt confident enough to send him for the final check. Luckily I passed, I only missed one spot so I felt pretty good about what I had done. I didn't know what to do with all the paperwork however, so I'll have to fine tune the little things and get more signatures, but it sure was a confidence booster to pass the first mock board. I just need to focus on honing my skills.

Down to the wire!

Ack! It is getting close to mock board! I had been calling my patient nonstop for a week, with no success, and so have been a little stressed. But a miracle happened yesterday. A patient of mine that qualified as a mock board, couldn't come on the day of mock boards so I had him scheduled to clean this morning. Well, yesterday when I called to confirm him, he said that he thought we had scheduled him for a mock board and he could come on that day! What a miracle! I had been racking my brain about who to get for mock board, and here was my answer! So today I cleaned a woman who was a 1B and my grandma who was a class V. It was a great day!