LA Board Exams

Today we took local anesthetic board exams. As far as I know everyone passed except for Eric. He failed the written protion of the exam and so he was not able to take clinical. To day we also found out some devestating news about Pam, one of the girls in our class fighting cancer. Lauren recieved a message saying that Pam was only given a few days to live. It was sort of like an emotional rollercoaster because I was so happy that I had just passed my anesthesia exams and not too long later heard about Pam and felt so bad for her. I don't know wether to be happy or sad.

NO2

So today I had one of my patients from last week come back. She told me that she wasnted nitrous for comfort and I needed to do a nitrous PE so I got out all of the stuff. Unfourtunately her mask would not fit our nitrous machine. So I had to get her a new one. For a minute or two there was nitrous leaking into the air around us but we eventually got it stopped with Dr. Hansen and Mr. Solomons help. Overall everthing went well. But man was it a pain in the butt to try and instrument with that huge nitrous mask in the way. I really felt like it made my job harder.

LA Mockboard

THis week we had our local anesthetic mockboard. I passed the practice written and the PSA but I guess I was not parallel enough witht the occlusal plane on the IA. My peer pal who was my patient told me that she didn't even feel it. That made me feel good. I am going to rock on boards!

Uncontrolled Diabetes

Today I had a patient who had a history of diabetes but had quit taking he diabetic meds years ago and was not being monitored by a doctor. So I thought I should probably check her blood sugar. I did and it was at 450. I couldn't believe it. That is like your going to the emergency room high! We immediately sent her to go see one of the midtown doctors to be treated and I was left with bno patient. I guess that is better than having her go into a coma in my chair though. I'm glad I checked and learned the value of the health history.

Mockboared III

Today was our third mockboard. I couldn't find a patient so I had the guy witht the tenacious calculus come in and luckily he qualified. I only missed one spot and passed my board exam with like a 94% I was so excited. It made me feel more confident for clinical boards.

Tenacious Stuff

So I saw the same patient that I had last week today. His perio abcess looks alot better and his tissue is responding well. I had sharpened all my instruments last Wed but I was still having the hardest time getting his calculus off. I used everything: ultrasonic, graceys, perio files, universal currets, etc... and I still missed like four areas. It will just not come off. I can't belive how concrete that stuff is.

1 Quad Class IV

So today I had a patient that I couln not take x-rays on because he had had them in a dental office recently but had never gone back for perio therapy. He had a perio abcess on #31 with deep pockets surrounding the entire tooth. Professor Alexander gave me one quad of a class IV which made me very excited. Sadly all I got done today was 1 quad and I missed a few spots. His calculus was so tenacious and would not come off. He said it had been like 10 yrs since he had a cleaning. Prof. Alexander suggested sharpening my instruments, so I am going to come in tomorrow and sharpen. I placed some arestin in the abcess pocket. I'm interested to see his tissue response in the future.