Signing Off!

Well today was my last official day of class and tomorrow I just have to finish the Radiology practical exam and meet with Prof Costley to review everything and then...dare I say....I AM DONE FOR THE YEAR!!!! YAY!! It seriously has FLOWN by! I will be graduating before I know it! YAY! I am thankful that I decided to go back to school and I am thankful I was accepted into WSU's dental hygiene program! I love learning hygiene and it will definetely help provide for my family! :0) See ya next year!

CA

I am excited to be a CA next semester! I like doing the reception duties. And since I have done stuff like that for the last 10 years, I hope I will catch on quick and not make too many mistakes! I am a little scared for testing the x-ray solution and running all the instruments! There are a lot of things to do, hopefully I don't get yelled at! :0)

Final CLINIC Day!

Yesterday was our final clinic day for the semester! YAY! It will be nice to take a break before all the scary actually working on real patient days begin! We went over our last PE! WAHOO! And we went over CA duties and Emergency prepardness. Lets just say I hope none of my patients ever have an emergency!

Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving break was wonderful! It was so nice to have time off and not worry about anything! But when I came back to clinic after a week off, my brain pretty much shut off! It was so hard for me to remember everything! I am now scared of coming back after a month off for Christmas break! Hopefully it will all come back to me!

First Real Patient...Part 2

Once I had time to do my x-rays, I took my dad in and did 4 BWX, I didn't get distal enough on the molars so I had to do one retake. They turned out pretty good, but I am having a really hard time seeing pathology on the x-rays. I thought they looked fine but after the instructor evaluated them they found cavities and bone loss that I couldn't really see. I guess I give them the benefit of the doubt and think their mouth is fine! :0( Once x-rays were over I finally got back and could start scaling, but we were pretty much out of time, so I quickly scaled one quad and got all the very prominant calculus off the lower anteriors and then it was time to walk the patient out. It was a good experience, but I don't feel ready to start seeing patients next semester!

First Real Patient...Part 1

I had my first real patient last Monday. I was scared, but not too bad. I had my dad come in so it was good! I learned that it takes FOREVER to do everything that we have to do! Holy Cow! After I finished HHX & HHXRX & INTRA & EXTRA & OD it had been like 2 hours! Then came x-rays and waiting for an instructor check...oh my!

I Do Like the Ultrasonic!

At first I was scared of the ultrasonic because I have had it used on me and I didn't like it because it hurt! But I got to use it the other day on some heavy calculus and that stuff was FLYING off! It was the coolest thing ever! I think I do like the ultrasonic now! :0)

Scaling will be my downfall...

Right now I am pretty comfortable with everything and do most of it in an timely manner, except scaling. I have a hard time knowing the difference between calculus and tooth and so I spend forever on one quad. Eeeek!

The End Is Almost HERE!!!

Holy cow! This semester seemed to fly by! At times it was super slow, but once we got going it cruised! I can't believe I am 1/4 done with school! YAY!!! I know this next semester will fly by too and then I will be in my 2nd year and almost done! Crazy! I have learned lots! But I am excited for next semester to work on real people, I am a little scared to find patients, but hopefully once I find a few it will be easy to find the rest!

Mock Pt Day - Being the Patient

Well it's now my turn to be the patient again, but after dental hygiene class yesterday and learning about cold sores and that we can't see a patient with a cold sore, I will not be seen today! I guess the stress has finally gotten to me, with two weeks in the semester left, and I got a cold sore. So I brought my camera and will be the clinic photographer today I suppose. And it will give me a chance to get things organized and caught up. Real patient...here I come!

Mock Pt. Day 2nd Week

Well I was the DH again today and things went a lot faster since we didn't have to probe. I am still slow at my scaling. I guess that will come with time! We did a sealant today, I like those! They remind me of working at the Ortho and preparing the teeth for the brackets, the process is very similar. Love the blue etch! That was my favorite part! So I see my first REAL patient on Monday. It's my dad so it should be good, but I am still kinda nervous! I hope I survive! I know I will look back on this in a year and laugh about being so nervous to see my first patient!

Mock Patient Day...Being The DH

Well I made it! It was kinda stressful getting everything ready and putting all my learned skills into action! But I am so glad we did this so I can kinda feel like I know what is going on! I worked on Jenn today and I did really well with probing! I did a full mouth probe in 25 minutes! WAHOO! But scaling was another issue! It took a lot longer to scale than I imagined. I will need to step it up! The appointment went pretty well and I feel a little better about having confidence in my skills.

Mock Patient Day - Being the Patient...

Today was the first day of Mock Patient Day, and I was Jenn's patient. I am so glad we are doing this so that I can know all the steps to do when I have my first patient in 2 weeks! She did a great job and it is good to be the patient also so you know what they have to go through sitting there for 3 hours. It's kinda rough but I made it! Wednesday I will be the DH so we will see if I can remember all the steps and put them together for a quality cleaning!

Intraoral Camera

I like the intraoral camera, but it's confusing! I am so used to my camera and this is completely backwards! It's like using the mirror, everything is reversed and hard to control. Once I get used to it, I will like it and think use it quite a bit to show patients problem areas that they can't see.

Ultrasonic

Today we learned the ultrasonic scaler. Suprisingly I liked it. I do not like having it done to my teeth, but I like using it. A good tip that Kim told me was to not use it on healthy 1B patients, which makes sense. It should be used for harder, periodontal patients to clean down in the pockets. I need to practice with it more, but overall I like it!

Disclosing...

Today we did PFI and disclosing...it was pretty fun I must say! Everyone had bright purple mouths and tongues and pink teeth! It is very interesting to see where I am missing during brushing and flossing! I like the PFI, I understand it and it's an easy indices to figure out!

Exploring...

If I can ever figure out which end of the instrument to use...then I might like exploring! That is the most confusing part, but I think I am understanding it more. I did exploring today and I liked it. I just have a fear of going into the sulcus! I'll get there!

Perio Probing

I don't like probing...it scares me! I am sure it will get easier as the time goes on, but right now it terrifies me! I keep asking Megan after every tooth, "Did that hurt??" I just have been to so many Hygienists that HURT that I do not want to be one of them! So I am concerned with every poke and every prod, oh well. Better to be safe then sorry! I passed of the probing PE today, but I still don't feel very comfortable. Hopefully I will soon!

Fulcruming...

So I am having some difficulty with the fulcrum and holding the mirror and the instrument, and trying not to lean over and comprimise my posture. It's hard to remember all those things and still try and be confident in what you are doing. I feel very awkward when I am working in the mouth and I know that I will get better as time goes on but for now it is hard! I passed off the HHPE today, and passed thankfully! It is hard to remember all the stuff that you have to make sure and include in the evaluation, but hopefully I will remember when the time comes!

Jen

UDHA

Friday was the UDHA meeting in Park City. It was fun to go down with all the girls and see a few of the things that our profession is involved in. They had some great speakers, some good food, and lots of good free samples at the vendor booths! We all tried on the loops and I could not believe how magnified those things make the teeth! It was awesome! I think I will be investing in some of those for next year!

Well they don't waste any time...do they??

It is now the end of week 4 and pretty much every class I have, I have a test in! So much for thinking this was going ok! I took the Radiology test on Thursday, and passed! Thank Heaven! Then I took the DH test on Saturday, and passed, YIPPEE! Now I have the anatomy quiz and test on Tuesday and my stats test and hopefully I will be done for a while! I seem to be doing ok, it gets kinda stressful at times but I seem to be trekking along! Tomorrow I have to pass of my Health History PE and that one kinda stresses me out a little, so off to study!

Jen

Hygiene Week 3

Heath Histories, HHX, HHXRX, Medications, Dental Drug Reference, HOLY COW! There is a lot to remember when it comes to health histories! I really hope I don't get a patient that is taking 700 different medications! Thing are going good, staying busy and still learning a lot. There are a lot of different WSU guidelines to remember and follow, but I think I am getting the hang of it!

Jen

Clinic...the 2nd Week

So today starts the second week of Hygiene training and clinic...I am still alive! We are chugging right along learning a bunch of PE's. Today I passed off my EagleSoft PE and learned unit set up and break down procedures. I got to be Megan's patient for a rinse, which I needed after the mouthwash burned, what felt like, a giant hole in my mouth and made my tongue go numb! That was fun! I am having fun so far, my only complaint is these hot lab coats. But since that is part of our PPE PE, I have to wear it! Hopefully I will survive! Till next time!!

Jen

First Clinic Days...

I am through with my first week of clinic and it was pretty fun. I am excited to start learning all the different techniques and skills. I want to start removing calculus NOW! Monday we organized our instruments and got everything put away and learned Eaglesoft and today we used the air/water syringe and suction on our typodonts and learned the unit set up and break down. I am feeling a little better about the schedule and being where I need to be when I need to be. I think by next week I will be in full swing....hopefully!!

Orientation

Today was orientation and I my head is spinning! I am excited to start but I need to get everything in order! We have a TON of instruments and I am really wondering if we are going to use them all! Should be fun! Here we go!!