My List Of Things That Must Go

1. Patients who steal my safety glasses, Boo!!
2. Time deadlines (3 hours just isn't long enough sometimes)
3. Digital PA's :(
4. Stress
5. Late patients

Now that I've made my list, I can expound on those ideas. My first patient was 30 minutes late, what a great start to the year. She then forgot a parking pass and had to go get one, that made me even happier. She was really nice and really talkative which helped me relax, but wasted a lot of time. She loved our safety glasses and couldn't stop talking about them. Surprise, she took them with her and I didn't realize until she was gone, what a sweet angel. She'll probably be getting a call from me about that. The good news is she was a class 2 and I did finish her whole mouth.
On to patient number 2 for the day. She needed a FMX, so sticking with my "Fake it 'til you make it" motto, I decided I might as well do digital x-rays, even though I've never taken digital PA's nor do I know how. Normally my motto works just fine because confidence is key and if I think I can do it, I can. Well, digital x-rays pretty much kicked my butt! The sensor was too big for the pt's mouth and I couldn't get the sensor parallel to the tooth, it was so impossible and so frustrating. Fortunately, Prof. Alexander was able to give me some really good pointers. I couldn't have done it without her, but I guess that's why I'm still in school. Sometimes I forget that I'm here to learn so I get discouraged when I don't know how to do something, silly me. Part of me regrets going digital, but part of me is thankful for the experience because now I'll know how to handle future situations.
Good digital tips to remember:
1. When trying to place the film as far posterior as possible for pa's, have the pt close slowly as you push the sensor further posteriorly. This relaxes the palate and allows the sensor to be positioned correctly. This tip also works when taking mandibular pa's because as the pt closes, the floor of the mouth relaxes allowing better sensor placement.
2. Use sensor #1 when taking anterior pa's. #2 is far too big making foreshortening inevitable and the pt can't really close completely.
3. Have pt lift their chin slightly in order to have their occlusal plane horizontal to the floor.
4. Never do a FMX digitally!!

I did pretty well with calculus removal. My first pt went very smoothly with just hand scaling, I was loving dental hygiene. My 2nd pt wasn't such a breeze, possibly because I used the ultrasonic which I apparently suck at. The main problem was probably that I was already stressed and tired from the x-rays, so the tenacious calculus and time restraint really killed me. I wish I wasn't always working against the clock, I know that's how it is in a real practice, but it makes me not do as good of a job as I think I could.
Professor Alexander gave me a good scaling tip to remove the calculus that is almost always found on the ML line angle of the 1st premolar. She uses the H6/7 and from the 12 o'clock position with her fulcrum on the tooth next to it, she scrapes all the way across into the contact with a horizontal stroke. Brilliant. The good news is that I finally fell in love with the H6/7 sickle scaler today. I used to find it too big and bulky to be useful, but today it wiped the calculus off like it was nothing. I'm glad I gave it a try.
It was weird today, I felt like I had better technique today then I've ever had, even though it was the first time I've picked up a scaler in 4 months. I should stick with hand scaling until we learn the ultrasonic.
Well Instructor Perry, you wanted a blog, here's a blog.