Gracey's and Ultrasonics

Well today we talked about Gracey's and Ultrasonics. I love that ultrasonic. And I feel really good with my Gracey's. However...the big stress for me is finding patients. I have been calling a lot of people from the call list and none of them will call me back. I don't have much family or many friends who can take the time off from school and work to come in. Luckily I'm not the only one with this stress...but still...I'd rather not have it. I'm also pretty worried about my time management. I don't really feel like I can get much done in the time that we have which sounds ridiculous because we have 3 hours!!! but I am worried that I won't be able to feel the calculus and get it off.

Patient

So today I was Jessica's patient for mock patient day. She did really well. She didn't hurt me at all! She scaled my lower right quad and we got finished pretty early (well on time...but compared to everyone else it was early.) ha ha She's so fantastic! I love Jess.

I forgot

I forgot to blog last Monday so here it goes. It was another mock patient day and Jessica was my patient. She was really, really patient with me. I was trying to be brave and go subgingivally but I accidentally hurt her a couple of times. I was able to get through all the scaling but I missed about 6 clicks the first time....not very efficient. ha ha. It was good though to be able to manage my time and see how fast I actually needed to go to get it done.

4 PEs

Sealants
Air Powder Polish
Walkout
Instrument Sharpening
Long clinic with lots to do. Hails was my partner. She was awesome as usual. I got about 2.46 seconds to practice my subgingival exploring and it was good. I'm feeling more comfortable it.

I'm the enemy of the cavity...!

Before reading this post you must check out this link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU4iWJNkD68

That is an old-school clip that Lisa Simpson had to watch when she went to the dental office one day! ha ha LOVED IT!!

Anyways...today we air-powder polished and placed sealants. I have to say...I'm not sold on the APP yet...maybe its because I didn't get to see any stain get taken off cuz Natalie's teeth didn't really need it, or maybe its because the APP stings my mouth...I dunno...I'll definitely have to use it some more if it wants to win me over.
Oh...today I knocked Natalie's chart into the sink and the sink turned on...soaked her file! ha ha Whoops. Luckily everything was salvaged...even her X-rays were ok. :) just Casey being Casey (OH MY GOSH! I can't believe I just used a phrase coined by the Red Sox!!!) shh...don't tell a soul.
I'm excited that we're doing sealants. Mine definitely need to be redone. I haven't had new ones since about 7 years ago.

I got to be the operator today!

Today Candace was my patient. She is awesome! We basically did everything like last time. I'm still really, really uncomfortable with my wrist movements with my posterior scaling. I don't know why I have such a hard time with it. I'm also way too tentative with getting under the papilla in the proximal surfaces of the teeth to scale. I don't want to hurt them, and even though its not hurting them as long as I'm adapted, I'm still really nervous to go there. ha ha I'm sure in another year I'll read this and laugh at how scared and unsure I am. (at least I hope I'll laugh at it) he he It was a great day!

First Mock Patient Day

Today I was the patient all day! Candace was my hygienist and we did almost everything (besides exploring). Candace was way good! It was a fun break. We practiced applying fluoride. I had a tray for 4 minutes on one half of my mouth and then the varnish on the other half and holy cow...I don't like the varnish. It feels way weird in my mouth. I'm going home and taking it off...I know thats bad but I'll bet most of the pts that get varnish take it off so its not doing any good anyway. I think I'll always stick to foam unless I have a small child that needs the varnish.