Again Seriously!

So today I had a patient cancel for the third straight clinic session in a row. Kim was supposed to come in so I could finish her and also bring her son for me to clean. She called me this morning and said that one of her kids was sick and that she could not come in. I went to campus early and tried calling a bunch of people to try to get a patient. No Luck! Then I walked around campus and asked a few people, still no luck. So I ended up having my wife bring my two year old son Aiden up. He was really good at first but toward the end he got board and non cooperative. That made things really rough. After she was done crossguarding I had Jenny come in too. I got through the Oral Diagnosis (full mouth probe and extra and intra oral exams)on her so all I have to do is clean her the next time I can get her in. I am so sick of people canceling on me. I cannot believe that it has happened three times in a row. I am about ready to go crazy. On a positive note I did pass off an explorer PE today and Charolette the senior student that passed me off said that I was the best one that she had seen at using the explorer all day or something like that.

Another Stressful Day In Clinic

So this morning I was supposed to have a previous patient come back so that I could actually clean his teeth. I only got through the Oral Diagnosis and x-rays before we ran out of time last time that he was in. Anyway 8:00 came and he wasn't there so I called his mom about 8:10 and she said that he had had a siezure that morning (he has epilepsy and he gets them all the time) and that they wouldn't be comming. Luckily I had called Vaden a guy I work with the night before and scheduled him to come in partway through clinic because I figured that it would not take me the whole time to clean my first patient. So I called Vaden and asked him to come early but he still wasn't able to make it before 9:00 which was only like 30 min earlier than he originally planned. So I lost an hour of clinic time and was not able to complete Vaden which is fine I wasn't planning on completing him today but it sucks that I had to waste an hour of clinic time and that I still have to bring my first patient back on anouther day and hope that this doesn't happen again. I really wish I didn't have to schedule all my own patients. It is too stressful.

Stressed/Relieved

Last night my patient for today canceled on me. It was about 10:00 PM so it was too late to really call anyone. I was so stressed. I called a few people this morning and was not able to get anyone to come in. Then I remembered that Stephanie said yesterday that she had more patients than she was going to be able to see this semester, so I gave her a call. Stephanie got the idea that since she was seeing a patinet with dentures today and would probably finish early that maybe she could call a patient with a child and she could see the child and I could see the parent. She found a lady for me named Kim. I was so grateful. Kim was not able to come in until a half hour after clinic time started today so I was not able to scale her at all ,but I probed her full mouth and took her x-rays. She is comming back next week with her other son so that I can finish her cleaning and clean her other son too. I was excited because I ended up with an extra patient out of this stressful situation.

1st Patient Finished

Today I finished cleaning my patient from last Wednesday, Adam's Teeth. I was a fairly easy day and my cleaning went well. I only had one spot that I missed on the two quads that I did. I wish that I would have taken the extra time and passed off some PE's but I didn't. Maybe I can pass some off on my next patient.

Interesting Day

Today I had a special needs patient named Chad. He was a little mentally disabled and had epilepsy, so he was on a lot of medications. It took me a little a few minutes to look them all up. Also when I was taking x-rays he kept biting so hard that he would rip through the bite tabs and the film would move out of place. I ended up only taking one retake but I had to put new bitetabs on the films a couple times. For the most part he was compliant and would move where I needed him to as I was probing and doing the extra and intra oral exams but occasionally it was hard for me to get him to open his mouth far enough for me to get in there. It was a very stressfull day for me. I did not even get to cleaning his teeth. But his mom was very nice and helpful and she is going to bring him back for another appointment so that I can finish cleaning him. On a good note he had enough calculus that they are going to let me count him as a class II patient.

First Patient Day/ First CA Day

So this morining I was assigned to be the clinic assistant which meant that I had to check people in and make charts, fill the ultrasonic baths, sterilize instruments and put them away, and cash people out and take payments when they were done with treatment. It was crazy. We had had like a fifteen minute orientation on it at the end of last semester but I had forgotten tons of stuff. Also this afternoon I had my first real patient that I was able to scale on. A guy I work with named Adam came in. I only scaled two of his four quads because the health history, extra and intra oral exams, x-rays, and oral diagnosis take so stinking long to do. But he was cool about it and is comming back next Wednesday so that I can finish his cleaning. I was stressed to whole day and my shoulders were still tense even after I got home. I am glad that it is over. I wish however that I did not have to find patients for the rest of the semester.

Ultrasonic Scalers

Today in clinic we learned more about the ultrasonic scalers and how they work, it was quite interesting, then we practiced on our typodonts a little. Nothing amazing.