Today was a great day. I had a class IV. I finished 3 quads and gave her 8 different injections. I am so glad I finished her. She had a lot of supragingival calculus too. It was so fun that I put down my ultrasonic and just handscaled for fun :) Sick huh?

My "AHA" Moment

Today was the best day!!! My Class 3 came in and I got to do my own injections -MSA, ASA, IA & a mental. It was scary but I'm glad I did it. My pt was a big guy, missing his molars -and had excessive hyperlipidemia of the buccal mucosa and a wide tongue. Everytime I located my landmark and went to put the needle in his cheek would seep back over the landmark and his tongue was covering it from the other side. I looked at Jen with pleading eyes and I was ready to give up but she wouldn't offer to take over. When I was finished I went into the instructor's pod and I said "couldn't you tell I was about to give up?" and Jen said "Yes, couldn't you tell that I wasn't going to let you.." (Her sense of humor kills me!) I scaled 3 quads and only missed one tiny spot!! I felt like for the first time I was looking for specific instruments to use and I actually saw the black calculus coming off with my hand scaling!! Yay!! It's coming... I really might be able to do this someday :)

Yeah a mock board patient

Just the word mock and board have struck fear in me since the moment I began dental hygiene. I wouldn't even read the qualifications that were sent out in my summer packet because it seemed like the impossible!

However, it happened, and oh yes - I too have a mock board patient!! I feel SO LUCKY! Other than the fact that I had to spend my whole clinic time screening and didn't get any credit for tx since I couldn't scale anywhere in his mouth. It was worth the trade though :)

Overall, it was a very unproductive day. My afternoon patient ended up being a class IV, only counting as a class III and I only finished 1 quad. Her calculus was so deep that on the lingual of #8, Instructor Wold completely buried a Gracey. HOLY &^%$!! It made me nauseous just watching.

I feel better about patient tx and yet I know my downfall is that I need to go deeper with both my ultrasonic and hand instrumenting. I worry so much about damaging root surfaces or tissue trauma that I think it holds me back. This is what I really need to work on.