Christmas Is Coming!

It's December which means Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat; therefore, I'm back on fit for life because, as it turns out, I'm the goose. It's time for me to slim down for the holidays. Dave and I started a bet as of today to see who can be the most strict when it comes to eating healthy. I can gaurantee right now that I will win. Dave's too weak to stick to it 100%. JK honey, I love you, but I'm still going to win that massage!
Today we just mostly shared our complaints about clinic this semester. My list included: lack of computer instruction, and lack of common grading between instructors. The worst thing about hygiene school is that every instructor will tell you something different about the same thing, then they mark it wrong. It sucks. Other than that I have loved this semester. Meeting new friends and learning how to scale has been awesome.

Are you Real??

I saw my first pt today. My mom. She's great. I only finished one quad which was very disappointing. My goal for next time I see a patient is to not waist so much time thinking about what comes next and not spend so much time with OHI. I didn't miss any calculus so that was good, but it was weird cleaning around crowns, it was a good experience for me. Sorry mom!

My what nice teeth I have

Today Laura cleaned my teeth. She did a really good job, it was not bad at all. I passed off my PSR PE. That means no more PE's this semester!! Yeah for us. I can't believe the end is in sight. My goal for next time is to do a good job on my mom. Most of all I plan to get her physician's consult done with so I can actually work on her.

My 1st patient

Today I saw my 1st patient, but due to HIPPA requirements I can't release her name. She was the best patient ever! It was fun to go through and do everything we would do with a real patient. It went much smoother than expected. I was the first one done, yeah for me!! Now we are going to go over the PSR PE. I'm loving dental hygiene. I'm glad I chose this for my career. Instructor Vining wanted me to slow down, but I'm usually pretty fast at everything. Yesterday Professor McConaughy told me and Celeste to slow down while doing xrays. I'm not quite sure why though, because I thought we were supposed to be fast as a hygienist, not that 2 1/2 hours to see one patient is fast. My goal for next time is to be a good patient for Laura Green ;)

We have a STAT emergency!!

Today we prepared ourselves for an emergency situation. Our group was the best group according to Dr. Anderton, but really, are you surprised? Just kidding. I passed off my sealant PE on Celeste. We won't get much time for lunch today which sucks because I am starving. Oh well. Celeste and I need to choose a topic for our table clinic. My goal for next time is to get out on time.

My Hot Hus-A-Band!

Halloween 2006!

Blogging Fools!!

Let's just say we are blogging fools. I accomplished my goal for the day. I brought my wedding ring in and used the air powder polisher to clean it really good. It is so shiny, I love it. I signed up to take x-rays on my mom on the 29th. I got sealants today on #12 and the Mesial of #14. They tasted bad, but they are ok now. I passed off my instrument sharpening and air powder polisher PE's. Sorry my blog is boring today, but it's like I say, "only boring people have boring blogs." P.S. While using the air powder polisher on Celeste I accidentally sprayed water straight up her nose. It was so funny!! She laughed with me, I laughed at her. Bless her heart.

Ode to Celeste!!

I have a friend named Celeste,
She is the best.
I once said she was sharp as a curet toe,
but know I realize she is the smartest girl I know.
She is sharp as a scaler,
but she swears like a sailor.
I tease her about having bad breath,
but really...I love her to death!

Love, Joni
BFF

Air Powder What??

Today we used the air powder polisher. Wow!! What an experience. It was like swimming in the pacific ocean good, it was seeing Old Faithful good, it was bitter sweet. While polishing Celestial, I had her swish and then when she closed her lips around the saliva ejector water went everywhere. It was seriously so funny! We laughed our heads off for a good minute. Then we cleaned our pennies off with the air powder polisher. It worked like a dream. Then I cleaned my ring, it's Bling Bling now, I love it. It's so shiny...I can't take my eyes off it. My goal for next time is to bring my wedding ring and polish it up! I can't wait. When Celestial was polishing my teeth it was so salty and when it got to the back of my throat it made me want to do anything to get it out of my mouth. She had me gargle, but of course, being the funny gal she is, she made me laugh and my mouth full of salt water went everywhere, but I didn't care because I just wanted the salt out! We had so much fun today. Celeste is the best and I love her to death and she doesn't really have halitosis, I was just bitter that day:) We get to develop my camera finally, yeah!!
This just in from our good friend Holly Spencer...Next time we should wrap gauze around the pt's tongue to avoid tasting the salt and to avoid tongue abrasion. I bet Celeste wishes we would have known that trick before I got rid of the first few layer of tongue epithelium. She said her tongue tingles a bit, but that's to be expected after having your tongue air powder polished. Sorry Celestial!

Fluoride For 4

Today I achieved my goal of passing off my fluoride PE, but that is all I did today. What a waste. Dave is home sick, I wish I was with him. I plan to trick him today by sneaking disclosing agent into his juice. I can't wait. He deserves it after the ambesol incident. I have time to practice some skills, but I don't have sterile instruments or desire, so here I am. I'll probably study up for my radiology test. Boo!! I really don't like to study, so I don't. Oh well.
My goal for next time is to pass off sharpening. That shouldn't be a problem. Sharpening was easier than I expected, thank goodness. P.S. Celeste has halitosis and she's sharp as a curet toe!!

Passed off PE's!!

Today we ran late because we actually worked until 11:00. I passed off the universal instruments and selective polishing PE's. I feel good about scaling. My goal for next time is to get here earlier and practice interproximal scaling. I did pretty good interproximally and I like to clean there because it rarely gets cleaned.

Celeste and her sound effects:)

Today was fun. We got to learn how to coronal polish, which I've been doing for over 3 years so, needless to say, i came pretty easily. I got to scrape cement off my pt which made my hand tired, but it was good to make some progress. My favorite quote of the day was Celeste describing how intense Listerine is (See Celeste's Bog for her description.) Love you Celeste!! My goal for next time is to have a pt to enter as my first pt.

It's Halloween...almost.

We're having our party today!! But as far as actual clinic goes, today was good. We practiced full mouth scaling and I passed off 2 PE's. I'm sick of getting my teeth cleaned, but Laurie did good.

I need a Cure-et!!

We learned how to scale posterior teeth today. It was good, I liked it a lot. It's nice to work with a toe instrument instead of a tip, less chance of hurting my patient. Emily helped me out a whole bunch! She's great. Next week I plan to pass off the adaptation and anterior scaling PE's.

Can I Take Your Picture?

We worked with the intraoral camera today and we practiced scaling. I'm feeling a little better about indirect vision. With practice I know I will get better. I passed off my dental screening PE, thank goodness. I need to make sure to remember to use the red or the blue pencil at the right time. I'm hungry, but I need to detoxify this week so I'm sticking to fit for life so that I'll feel better. It will be tough, but I can do it. My goal for next week is to pass off my next PE.
P.S. This is my cute niece Bailey. We had to trick her into wearing the mullet wig on Halloween. She had no idea.

Indirect Vision, Boo!!

I was pretty frustrated by clinic today, because I am not good at indirect vision. I for some reason can't figure out how to keep the scaler adapted while using indirect vision. I'm going to practice of Dave over the next few days, then I will hopefully have it down for Monday, that is my goal atleast.
This was last year's friend halloween party. I just thought I'd share something fun because I'm kind of frustrated right now.

Scale

We finally scaled for the first time today, it was awesome. I'd like to thank Holly for the fun learning experience I had on her. I made her bleed a bit, but she was nice and didn't care. It feels good to finally be able to do what we came to school to do. I'm glad we worked up to this slowly, so we were ready and kinda knew what we were doing. My goal for next time is to pass of dental screening. So i am going to study up.

tODAY hAS bEEn fUn!! i PAssEd Off PrOBiNg!! yEAh foR mE! mY BaCk HuRtS. pRObINg iS gOoD anD i FeeL prEtTy ComPetEnT doInG iT. My GoAL fOr thE fUtuRe iS To GEt ATLeAst 95% PFI. hA Ha, wE'LL sEE aBouT THaT. hYgIEnE Is fUn!! i LOvE it.

Disclose Everything!!

I don't feel like today deserves a larger font because we didn't do very much, yet we were busy the whole time. I brushed this morning like I usually do and then we put disclosing agent on our teeth. I had a PFI of about 37%. Looks like I need to brush better. I enjoyed today, but I wish I could have had time to pass of probing PE, that is my goal for next time.

Today we did charting, which is pretty easy. It's hard to tell composite fillings unless you dry the teeth off really good. I need to pass off probing on Monday. I'm ready, but we ran out of time today. I love having Emily as our TA, she's a better hygienist than most real hygienists. She taught us some great technique which includes: when exploring the the lingual of the UL you can fulcrum on the buccal. It makes it so much easier to keep the explorer parallel to the long axis of the tooth. I went to Subway for lunch today, of course, and I met Meredith and Jamey there so we ate together. It was fun. We discussed whether it is right or wrong for a woman to work outside the home. We all believe it is ok and people that tell you otherwise are insecure of their own homemaker status. I'm sure this issue will be discussed further in the future.
Joni

Cavity Free is the Way To Be!!

Today we did charting, which is pretty easy. It's hard to tell composite fillings unless you dry the teeth off really good. I need to pass off probing on Monday. I'm ready, but we ran out of time today. I love having Emily as our TA, she's a better hygienist than most real hygienists. She taught us some great technique which includes: when exploring the the lingual of the UL you can fulcrum on the buccal. It makes it so much easier to keep the explorer parallel to the long axis of the tooth. I went to Subway for lunch today, of course, and I met Meredith and Jamey there so we ate together. It was fun. We discussed whether it is right or wrong for a woman to work outside the home. We all believe it is ok and people that tell you otherwise are insecure of their own homemaker status. I'm sure this issue will be discussed further in the future.
Joni

Sweet Relief!!

My probe and I made up today! I feel so much better about life now that I've figured out how to probe and I feel way more comfortable with it. My goal for today was to figure out probing, so goal accomplished! Gina was a very good pt and unless she was being nice, I only hurt her a few times:) Today was a complete success. We finished early and when Kim checked my depths I was never more than one off, which is good. My OD for Gina was: Generally healthy with discrete papillary on the D of #4 and the M of #14 with a 99% BFI. Good job Gina!! Well, I will pass off probing on Wednesday and there are no other PE's to pass off today so I'm spent.

My Probe Is My Enemy!!

Well we probed today for the first time. I'm not very good at it. I have a very hard time not pushing too hard, but I have an even harder time trying to see what I'm doing on the molars. My goal for next week is to figure out how to maintain good posture and see what I'm doing. I was so tense while I was working that I was sore and tired by the end. I'm hungry and I need a nap.
Love, Joni

Intra Oral Check

Today I passed off 2 PE's for extra and intra oral exams. I achieved my goal!! Yeah! My next goal is to pass off exploring and instrument grasp, that should be easy. I don't want to be probed on Wed, but that's how it goes!

I only like it when it rains

Well today was a very productive day in clinic. We learned how to use the explorer subginigivally to detect calculus. I'm going to take my instruments home to work on Dave this weekend. He is a lucky hubby!! I'm also going to practice the extra-oral and review the intra-oral so that I can pass them both off on Monday. This hygiene thing takes more skill than I could have ever imagined.

I'm tired.

Well, today we learned how to do intra-oral exams. I like having the exams done on me, but I don't like doing the exams. I feel like I will never pass off the PE's because there is a lot to remember. I'm really going to work on the exams at home on Dave until I have them both memorized.
Joni

Vitals passed off

I passed of 2 PE's today. One for vitals and one for HHX. I need to really work hard on the fulcrum rest because I can't figure out how to fulcrum on the 2nd molars and keep my instrument parallel to the long axis of the tooth. My goal for the next clinic session is to get that skill down.

JONI

Positioning

My goal for today in clinic was to figure out operator and pt postitioning to pass off the PE. Fortunately, Gina was able to practice on me first and she taught me how to remember what position I should be in. I feel very confident in my pt positioning skills. I will pass off the PE in just a few minutes. I need to work on doing my 9 o'clock splits because as of now I like the modified 9 position better with my legs in the 8 o'clock position.

3 PE's down

Today in clinic we were able to pass off three PE's. Sweet relief! I finally feel ok about the medical history. Our TA's taught us how to properly feel out the medical history and look up drugs. I need to go home and redo my case study. I achieved my goal of figuring out what is going on with the medical history so I am happy and relieved.

My first PE!

Clinic was good today. Celeste practiced chair positioning and light positioning on me, and then I practiced on her. It was good. My goal is to study the Nield book again and remember where I should be sitting when working in different areas of the mouth. I passed off my first PE on PPE!!

1st day of clinic

Today was the first day in clinic. It was pretty easy today, so that was nice. We practiced putting on barriers and washing our hands. We had a race and I was one of the first people done. Yeah for me!

Orientation Day

Today's orientation day. We received all our instruments and paid for them. I'm poor now!