Trauma Again

I got docked for tissue trauma again today. I thought I was doing better but apparently I'm not. This is very frustrating. Every time I get docked for Tissue trauma the instructor gives me a reason of what they think I did but thier answers are never consistent. SOme think I'm applying too much pressure, some say it might be my instrument selection, some say that I am probably not adapting to the tooth enough. This is so frustrating to me. I wish I could just have one of them watch me the whole time to help me figure it out. How am I supposed to correct the problem if I'm not positive what is causing it.

Getting Better

Everything went alot smoother this week. I felt like I was back in my groove. One of my patients didn't show up on time so I called someone else and got them in but other than that it went great. The good news it the person that I used instead of my original patient was a class III.

Rough Day

Today was our first day of clinic this spring semester. I felt like I was disorganized and everything was taking me so much time. I was so frustrated. I can't believe how mush being off for Christmas break thew me out of my groove. On an up note however I found my patient for the first mockboard. That's always a plus! I hope I get back in the swing of things fast. Also today we had to start entering patients into the tal eval system. I is a website that is supposed to make it easier for the instructors to grade us for clinic. I will be glad when I am finally graduated in four months.

LAST DAY OF CLINIC

Today was my very last day of clinic for the semester. Things went very smooth. This morning I saw a 17 yr old girl with no major complications. This afternoon I had a patient who was 22 I was planning on cleaning her completely but ended up pretty much only screening her. This is because when I was taking x-rays on her she asked my how long the appointment was goin to take and then told me she had to get to class. I really wish whe would have mentioned something when I schedueld her. I guess that was a lesson for me to remember and tell my patients to plan on 2-3 hrs for their appointments when I schedule them. It looke like she might be a possible canidate for mockboards though. I would maybe think real boards but she had a couple of teeth with some very bad decay. Overall though today was a smooth end to the semester.

Warm Fuzzies

Yesterday Claudia, one of the assistants from midtown dental clinic, came up to me and told me that they had seen one of my patients and that she was just bragging about how godd I was and how gentel I was. Then today Dr. Bingham from midtown told me the same thing along with how well the tissue had reponded, it made me feel really good and made me feel that what we do makes a difference.

Toddler Tornado

So this morning I finished up two patients one of which was the last quad of my mockboard patient. This afternoon my patient cancelled so I had my wife come up last minute. She had no one to watch my kids so she brought Aiden my 2.5 yr old and Ellie who was born last week. Ellie slept in the carseat most of the time and was very well behaved except for a breif stent when I had to take a break because she was crying and wanted to eat. Aiden however was very mischevious. He had a hard time sitting still even with a coloring book and a glove filled with water that I gave him to play with. He kept trying to push buttons on the dental chair and stepping on my rheostat and ultrasonic foot pedals. He even somhow managed to unscrew the top of the faucet on the sink (which is motion activated), so all of the sudden the motion sensor went off and the faucet went off like a giser. It was very hard for me to keep my composure. Somehow though I made it through the day and even got all four quads done on my wife Yeah!!! Jenny commented to me on how much better she felt I was then when I brought her in last semester. That made me feel really good, and gave me hope that I am getting better.

Special Needs

My patient this morning was a special needs patient that Eric had seen yesterday and refered to me because my patient canceled. She was somewhat mentally handicapped and had a caretaker. I found it to be a very different appointment because of her mental state. When she first opened her mouth she had plaque caked all over the quad that Eric had cleaned the day before. I asked her if she had brushed and she told me yes. I'm pretty sure she was lying. I've heard alot of mentally handicapped people will do that just like little kids do sometimes to avoid being in trouble. Anyway I used some dislosing agent on her and showed her all of the plaque. I then went over toothbrushing with her and taught her some ways to better access the areas she was missing. She was a very nice lady overall tihngs went well. This afternoon I saw my mockboard patient again and got two more quads done on her. It was a good day.