Follow-Up on Hardest Pt Ever

So I had my class 3, hardest patient ever back today. I still only cleaned one quad but I did a million times better and felt a million times better about it too. So my instrumenting and exploring was a lot better. I did great at getting the calculus off, which there was a ton. I only missed two spots. Which for a person that has so much calculus that it's on her occlusal surface I think I did pretty good. It feels great to actually feel like I'm progressing. I also did really good with the LA and Arestin. Today was just a great day.

If at first you don't succeed...try, try again...and again.

So that hardest patient of my life came in today. I used all my instruments. The doctor even said to me, "Gosh, how many instruments do you guys have?" It was nuts. I cleaned one quad in the appointment. That's it. The biggest thing I learned was to utilized every instrument you have and keep on going. That's all. And just do your best.

Faster

Today I realized that I need to be faster at everything that I do. I think that I need to keep my eye on the clock and think to myselft faster, faster, faster. I feel like I'm the slowest student here and I don't want to be. I want to be the most efficient. My goal is to be faster by looking at the time more often to be aware how long I'm taking.

First Mock Board

Today was a crazy day. First mockboards...what do you expect! So I missed 6 spots but I felt like I ran out of time for many, many, many reasons. Also I was frantic. I really need to take a chill pill and calm down and do better. It was a really good learning experience, one I am glad for. One thing that I learned was that I need to spend shorter intervals ultrasonicing and scaling with more intermitent exploring checks. So that I'm not going over and going over unnecesary spots. That's the big lesson of the day.

Pre-Mockboard

Well today I saw my mock board. I cleaned her left quads and boy do I have my work cut out for me on mockboards. For mockboards I definately need to be more aggressive. I also need to be more confident. I feel like my instrumenting skills and exploring skills are improving so I just need to keep that up. I just really hope she comes. I think she's pretty reliable though. Today was also the first day that I gave a pt LA. I did five injections today and it was so exhilarating. I need to remember to wait a few seconds for a positive aspiration. I had two positive aspirations so that was a good experience for me.

Frustrating

Today I basically on did an OD on a class 3. Don't get me wrong, it's exciting to know you have a class 3 but I felt like most of the day was wasted. I only did 2 vert bw and didn't even do a FM probe because of the extensive calculus deposits. So in all reality I only did hhx, OD (partial), 2 bw and OHI!!! I really don't want to have my patient have three appt's, even though my instructor thinks that I will need 2 more appt's to complete her. So my goal until Nov 4, my pt's next appt, is to really practice my exploring, ultrasonic, and hand scaling skills so that I can move through the appointment quickly. I'm really excited for her to come back. She'll probably want LA and by then we can administer it ourselves, under supervision of course. I'm looking forward to that. I just hope she comes and comes on time. Today she was 45 minutes late.

Day of Class 2's.

I've decided that I need to change the way I instrument. I currently ultrasonic, hand scale, and then explor if I have time. I think it would save me time and make me more proficient to ultrasonic, explor, and hand scale where needed. So that's what I'm going to work on today. I hope it makes me faster and helps me assess areas better.