ME & MY BOYFRIEND!

MY FAMILY!!

This is my cute little family on vacation in Las Vegas!! I have an awesome husband, who is also my best friend! Two teenagers that keep me on an emotional rollercoaster :). Just kidding they are great kids! My daughter Kennedy is getting ready to turn 16, and my son, Zach is 14. My baby Jennessa is 9 -I can't believe it.

This is why I never assume!

Okay, MY MISTAKE. I had a little 4 year old boy today, cute as ever. I had totally thought this day would be a piece of cake and I would have extra time...I had 3 PE's set up to pass off, xrays planned and I would even finish clinic early. HA! First of all, he spoke only some English, liked biting his teeth together (unannounced) and LOVED sticking his tongue out continuously..... Secondly, X-rays were impossible and I spent forever in the x-ray lab trying to take digitals, conventional, anything but no! That little tongue pushed everything out! I even had Prof. Costley try to help and she couldn't get him to keep the film in either. So I moved on to trying to clean his teeth. That tongue again - it was so curious and everytime I put an instrument in his mouth he had to check it out and follow it everywhere with his tongue. So I did some OHI with him and I was trying to teach him how to brush his whole tooth and not just the surfaces that were lucky enough to get caught in the fast sweep of the bristles on 2 swipes. I tried to explain "small circles". He preceded to put the toothbrush in the center of his mouth and make big circles with it (it didn't connect with any tooth surfaces).. Finally, while trying to pass off my diagnodent PE he fell asleep in my chair. I GIVE UP!! I feel like I totally wasted a clinic and we all know every day really counts!

Yes!! I had a class 3 today. Exciting but VERY intimidating. I basically only had enough time to debride the remaining mandibular teeth. I have never seen a mouth so diseased. I felt bad for the lady but at least I was able to clean a lot of calculus and plaque subgingivally. The plaque that is beneath the gingiva was black. Yes, I know we read about it, it's just a lot different seeing it. I hope she comes back so I can finish her. It was a very different experience from a 1B and it was interesting to see how the calculus comes off the teeth when there is so much of it.

I finished my 1B patient from last month and made an interesting finding. During her extraoral exam I noticed a small bruise on the back of her neck, which I thought might be a hickey :) (she's 18 years old) I asked her about it. I said there's a bruise on the back of your neck did you fall? And she kind of hesitated and then said "yah". I didn't think anything more of it other than that is a weird place to fall and leave a mark. So then, she was getting ready to walk out and as I stepped out behind her I saw another bruise on the other side of her neck. The bruise was the size of the middle fingertip and not as heavily bruised as the smaller mark on the left side. I said Hey, you have another bruise on the other side of your neck did you know that? She said no, so I said do you know how it might have happened and she said no I can't think of anything but it doesn't really hurt. To me it looked like she had been grabbed by the back of the neck. The size of the bruises were fingertip size and the spacing would have been appropriate as well. I wished that I would have noticed the other bruise earlier on because maybe I could have questioned her a little further. Just a note to everyone else, remember that we need to be aware of the other areas besides just the oral cavity. You never know what you might see.....

Today we had a lab for clinic and it was so nice not to be stressed out on a Wed. morning. I feel like I learned a lot, especially watching the use of the ultrasonic again now that I have been using it on patients. I also found out that our perio models actually have calculus we can pick off! I am going to take home instruments and practice. I feel okay with the anterior teeth it's the posterior that I am not sure which instrument I want to use so I could use some help on that....

Today I finished my 1B, passed off my ultrasonic and explorer PE. It was an easy day and I finished early. I feel like a klutz though when I am trying to use the ultrasonic. There has to be a better way. The good thing is that I didn't miss anything on my scale check. That is a positive!

Today I feel like I learned a little more about scaling. Costley told me to keep my middle and ring finger together and use both as fulcrums. My problem is I am not placing enough pressure on my fulcrum finger so this really helped! I have to remember to do this. My patient today was 7 years old and already had brown stain on his permanent teeth that I was able to get off!! It went well.

My patient today was so patient - thank goodness!! His teeth weren't in the best shape but I'm not sure what class he will be- selfishly enough I'm hoping for at least a 2! We did full mouth xrays one of my big fears -plus four bitewings . I got through it (it took me about 45 minutes :) but I got through it!!! Onward and upward he has a lot of scaling whoowee!!! I hope he doesn't cancel. I did work on trying to stay focused while I was probing and doing the intraoral check and I explored the occlusal surfaces at the same time I charted restorations (probably what your supposed to do but I have always done it as 2 separate steps. I think it saved time.....