First Day With Actual Instruments on Each Other!!

This was intimidating - wait, I write that everytime huh? I must say I am much more confident with a q-tip - sharp things scare me. The angles were a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I think that practicing longer on the typodont would help a lot. I have to feel like I know what I am doing before I use my friends gumline. I am going to practice this with my typodont so that I am better at it on Wednesday. My goal is to do this without making DeNae's gums bleed!

INTRAORAL EXAMS

Cool!! This was so interesting. I was able to view all the different structures inside the mouth, gingiva, tongue, papilla, ducts - you name it I saw it! I am going to try to get an order down so that I know that I've examined everything I am supposed to!

FIRST DAY IN THE CHAIR

Today we worked with our mirror, proper technique and the uses. We also did our extraoral examinations. I have never had a hygienist do this to me before but I think that this is an important part of an exam, especially examining the lymph nodes, TMJ, etc. It was very interesting today and I feel like I learned a lot. I am practicing the things I learn outside of the class in hopes that when it comes time to take my test, everything will be like second nature.....PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Vital Signs

Today we worked on vitals, this is interesting. It's not really hard but it does take some practice which is what I am going home to do. I still am completely overwhelmed but things are getting a little better. I just try to keep going over steps and concepts mentally until they make more sense. What helps the most is to actually physically keep going through the steps.

HEALTH HISTORY TIME

I feel like everytime I blog I am overwhelmed and wondering how I am ever going to learn and REMEMBER everything. Information overload. I never thought it would be as involved as it is. I am learning a ton though. I think the health history is so interesting. It is good to be detailed and write down everything in order to cover yourself in a real dental setting. This is an area where if you are fast and sloppy it could end up in an emergency. The dental drug book is very interesting!!

Clinical Assistant Duties --

okay, this is our theme for the day. We reviewed all the sterilization techniques, and making charts as well as talking about health history charts. I think it will all be so much easier once we actually start performing clinic duties. It's hard to remember things when everyone just tells you how to do it. I need to solidify these steps by actually physically going through them. I am going to reread the information we covered today to help make sense of everything.