Lab day

Today was hilarious. We had a lab in the afternoon and it was a lot of fun. We learned about desensitizing agents, local antimicrobial agents, medical emergencies, cancer screening techniques and how to transfer wheelchair patients. The wheelchair part was a lot of fun. We pushed each other around the school and Michelle almost crashed! We had a challenge that whoever could transfer Mr. Solamon from the wheelchair to the dental chair got credit for 5 PA's and I did it! HOORAY 5 conventional PA's down! That rocked. 

VA day

I got to give some injections for the Doctors at the VA today. It was a little nerve racking, but also a lot of fun! I hope I get to do that more often. It was a really good experience. I gave 6 injections all together. Two for Dr. Brown, two for another Dr. and two on my afternoon patient. I passed off my injection PE, which is quite a relief! I didn't know if I was going to get it done before the semester ended! I did 6 quads of a class V today. I had a patient that was a class III, but I gave him to Julie, because she is short on that classification. I also got a set of bitewings and a PANO, so today rocked! I wish everyday was like today. 

What a day.

Today I got a lot of stuff done! On my first patient, I got a set of bitewings, 2 PA's, the blood glucose PE, and 4 quads of a class II. This patient had some severe bone loss on two of her anterior teeth. It was kind of unusual. Dr. Naylor came and evaluated her and ended up referring her to a Periodontist for an evaluation.  I hope that she goes and gets everything taken care of. My second patient was my class IV patient. The last time she came in I got half of her mouth done. Jenn had to give her the injections, because I was not able to yet. My patient was crying very loudly when Jenn administered the anesthetic. Today, I am able to give anesthetic to my patient and I am horrified!! I have only given Michelle injections, this will be my first patient.  I am working on the left side of my patient's mouth today and am terrified to give the left PSA. I have been fretting about it all day. I decided to put my patient on Nitrous to calm her down from the anxiety of getting the shots. Luckily, I got to pass off my Nitrous PE, hooray! Dr. Hanson watched me give my injections. I did the lower ones first.  I passed off my periodontal files with Dr. Hanson and finished the lower quadrant. Then I was on to the maxillary quadrant where I needed to give the dreaded left PSA.  I PUT the topical anesthetic ON, where I was going to give the injections. Then I realized I had a problem, my patient did not have any upper molars, which are my landmark for the injection. I went over and told Dr. Hanson this and she looked and me and said, "then you don't need to give a PSA." DUH!!! Biggest blonde moment of my life people!! I can't believe I almost gave an injection that would be completely useless for me! It would be necessary if I was doing oral surgery! Hahaha. But luckily I was not performing any surgeries today.  The good thing about it is I don't think that I will ever make that mistake again!

To x-ray or not to x-ray...that is the question.

Today was the first time that I have ever had a patient refuse x-rays. It kind of caught me off guard for a minute. X-rays are so beneficial and are a standard of care that I am not used to people turning them down. I gave my patient the "run-down" on why x-rays are important. Telling her the benefits was like second nature to me. Radiographs are so important in what we as hygienists do, that I was probably a little over-bearing to my patient about the importance of them. She ended up changing her mind and consenting to get the x-rays taken, and I kind of felt bad about talking her into them, which is crazy!! I should be glad that I informed her about the importance of regular x-rays. I may have potentially saved her life! (not that that is very likely at all, but you never know) She was a very interesting lady, to say the least. I am glad I got this experience. I remember in first year clinic passing off a PE to Prof Costley where she had refused x-rays and I informed her of their importance and she ended up changing her mind so quickly. I thought, "well that was easy." But, today it took a little more convincing to persuade my patient away from the "dark side." hahaha. I hope that I don't feel bad about it next time.