IT'S OVER

Oh heaven's...
The last day of my first semester of clinic...
No more wondering what's going on... no more clueless about what to do when your patient has a blood pressure of 140/90!
...
NOT!

But I'm glad that it's over. Now I know that if I don't know how to take care of my patient, that it's my own darn fault and I should refer to the BIBLE or the clinic manual.

... Am I destined to become a dental hygienist? Have I made it this far to find out that this is what I'm not supposed to do?
Am I just afraid of getting out of school and going out into the real world?!

I love my daddy

What a great patient. He was such a trooper.
I wish that I could have been a little but more prepared. I mean... I got as far as I expected to but it was a little more rushed than I would have liked it to be.
Probing took me a coon's age to complete! Other than that I think I'll slowly get the hang of it and hopefully my first few patients will be patient with me.

It was way cool today as well because my dad unfortunately had a few more deep pockets than I've been able to see before. So that was fun.
Hopefully we can fix him nice and good though.

Hygiene is a little frustrating right now. I feel like I work so hard but am getting nowhere.
All in all the first semester was pretty good. More stress than anything else but was still bearable.

YAY!

Okay so I'm feeling okay now. Today was pretty good. I feel like I am a little bit better at everything. STill need some work and REALLY don't know how REAL patients are going to tollerate me but I'm on my way. I CAN be a hygienist!

Marilyn is great. When I'm in private practice, I might just have to give her a call and ask counsel on how to specific things but she said that would be okay.

Marylin I love you

So today I was the patient again. What a wonderful thing. EXCEPT that I have so many cavities it's not funny....
I hate my face! haha j/k

I like watching Mar because she seems to be a pro at everything and I s trive to be like her.
We'll see how it goes on Wednesday!!!

DID YOU FORGET TO PUT BARRIERS ON?!

Today was amazing... pretty much the best clinic ever... haha
I was the patient so I'm lame.
Marilyn did astounding. I will just have to follow her wherever she goes in the world so that she can clean my teeth for the rest of my life.
I have four REAL suspicious lesions! AH!
Makes me so mad. I get fillings done all the time. And dI'm not exaggerating. At least once a year.

I am feeling alittle more confident. I am going to work really hard and do my appointment really good next week so that I will be ready for when my parents come in.

POOR MARILYN

Man...
What a struggle today. That's all I have to say.
Poor Marilyn had to endure so much! AH!
She did fall asleep though so I guess I'm supposed to take that as a compliment... until she jerks awake after a nice poke in the gums. hahahaha

I struggle most with probing and scaling. go figure.
I just really hope it gets better by the time my parents come. They will make fun of my so bad if I do as many things wrong as I did today.

patients soon to suffer!

Heya
so... we're going to have patients in a couple weeks. AH! I'm not ready at all.
I can't probe worth beans! Hopefully my mommy will be nice to me. haha.
MAybe I can get her back for all the pain she caused me as a child... it should be the other way around, I know.
Muahahahah it will be so fun.
you are all goign to love her. She's craziest woman on this earth and I'm proud that she is my maja.

Today I got to be Marylian's (sorry Mer, I can't spell.)

SALIVA

So today was super duper great. We did stuff! AH!
Sealants were awesome... well actually not... I am ashamed to say that I had to do my sealants THREE times! haha. Poor Kim. I really don't know what I was doing wrong but 3rd times the charm.
It was probably cuz Kim was salivating so much. haha. She's going to hate me for saying that.
I'm glad that I know how to prophy... that's happy.
And I've gotten enough fluoride this week to last me my whole life.
I wanted the chocolate kind but we couldn't find it. :-(

Fun times. I like the program. Cherry Cheesecake!

Air Powder saltiness

So I've never even heard of an air powder brush before and now I know why.
First I'll explain what it is. Instead of doing a prophy, you would air powder brush someone who maybe has braces or who has extremely bad staining. What it is is a mixture of water and sodium bicarbonate and it blasts off the stain on the teeth. Yes, it sounds painful and it is painful!
Okay, so maybe not painful but just not fun. Salt gets everywhere and it bounces off the tooth and hits your tongue or lips. It just stings a little bit.
I worked with Ashley Nelson and she did a stupendous job! I felt bad because when I worked on her she had water and salt all over her face. Then she worked on me without any problems.
There is a difference between the feeling of being airpowder brushed and prophy brushed. Air powder is a lot smoother and gets stain and plaque off so much easier.

Ultrasonic!

Today we got to ultrasonic scale! I was so excited.
It's the thing that spits a lot of water into your mouth and tickles you at the same time.
It was fun to do because I really felt like I was doing something that I'll be doing everyday in the real world.
I worked with Ashley Nelson today. She's such a sweetheart. She kept saying, "Did I hurt you?" I never did feel anything but she didn't believe me.

I didn't do so hot on my OHI PE. I don't really know how I could have done better though. Sadly...
Man, I don't know what I need to do... I feel like I study all the time but I'm still missing a lot of stuff. Obviously, because I'm jsut not doing that great in everything. I'm passing.... but not amazing.

Last week

So last week was not the greatest week ever.
Pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong!
My test scores definitely showed that. I am going to work extra hard and do a lot better on my tests from now on. I don't know if my scores are salvagable!

But last wednesday we did the whole appointment up to what we know right now.
It was awesome because it really put things in perspective of what needs to be done and how long it will take.
I loved doing OHI. It was a good experience to work on Jenny and get it down as best as I could.
I had a problem with her gum situation. I couldn't really see that anything was red or anything.

I really hope I get good at ecerything before I graduate! I want to be pretty much perfect when I go out into the world.

intraoral Camera

I loved taking pictures of our mouths. It was great fun.
Jenny had all sorts of fun things to take pictures of.
I think the intraoral camera PE is going to be easy to pass off.

So I found out about the instrument classification and why we use the different instruments for posterior and anterior scaling!
So you pick an anterior instrument when you do the anterior teeth and then depending on how bad their calculus is, you choose a rigid or non-rigid instrument! It's as simple as that.
So some instruments we will need to take off the really heavy calculus and some we will just need to take off light calculus.

Great fun for everyone.

Dental Screening

Wow... what a confusing day today.
I really thought I knew how to chart!
I've always charted for the hygienists that I work for and it's been good.
All of a sudden there are a trillion things that we need to be able to chart and it's SO overwhelming.
I have some teeth that are retroverted... I actually don't know the difference between retrovert and torsovert and mesiovert and distovert....
I know how to chart it though! haha

I was gone to Lake Powell for an entire week so I missed a wholel lot.
But I am catching up slowly but surely. I was a little discouraged today because there is so much that I need to learn! I feel like when I finally get a patient to come in here I am going to do everything wrong!
They are going to think that I'm retarded.

Universal Scaling

So we did anterior scaling, or scaling the front teeth.
Today we learned how to scale the back teeth. It seems pretty straight forward and just like the anterior scaling.
The only problem that I may have is that I still don't know the instruments!
I can tell a posterior from an anterior but I don't know which anterior instrument to use!

Maybe I'll let yous know what I find out in a later posting concerning this subject.

Treatment Planning

When a patient comes in and has a lot of work that needs to be done, we do a treatment plan.
This is a way for the patient to see everything that needs to be done and how many visits it will take to get it done. This is also a way for the patient to see how much they will be spending.

I'm glad that I was able to work in an office that had eaglesoft. It makes it a lot easier to navigate around the program.

Not up to scale

Today we did some scaling...
I pretty much suck. Well I guess I'm okay but I went after Marilyn who is, I don't know if you've heard, the genius of the group! She knows how to do everything and she's perfect at it. Today Kim came over and was like, "You were a hygienist in the pre-existence" HAHA!
It's true though.... She's a natural.

I had the most problem with pivoting on my fulcrum instead of moving my fingers up and down. Well, after the indirect vision thing but that's a given.

I passed off my Probing PE. I feel stupid because none of them were more than 1 off but pretty much every reading WAS 1 off. I don't know if that is considered accurate.

I just read the thing on the bottom of this that says if you push ctrl + B then you get bold text. Sweet! I don't even have to touch my mouse.
I love being lazy!!!!

Instruments - not musical

I was royally confused today. I thought I knew the difference between long and short and thick versus thin instruments. But... Apparently not.
I need to go back to elementary school.
Hopefully I will get used to all the instruments and be able to use them for their proper purposes.
We are getting ready to have a race to see who can set up their units first. I'm so nervous!
Who will win?!

So I won. haha. I got sweet glasses/nose/eyebrows

I'm going to go pass off my PEs now.
Thanks!

Explore a new frontier!

So today we did exploring. It was a new experience... Hence... exploring.
We learned how to adapt our instrument to the teeth and feel for calculus that we can scrape off. What fun!
Not going to lie... I fell asleep a few times again. And I would jerk away and Kailene would think that she was hurting me! haha! I love it. But so bad KaDee! Don't fall asleep!

I'm trying to pass off a bunch of my PEs because I am going to Lake Powell and want to get all the ones done that I will miss.

Hygiene is going well. I love the girls - they're my favorite.

I'll Probe you!

Yeah, so today was probing.
Yikes.
I REALLY hope I get better. Poor Kailene flinched every time I stuck the probe in her mouth.
As I would move towards the anterior teeth I would start to push harder and harder because I was only get a one reading. Heaven forbid! haha.

I was happy to find out that I didn't have many deep areas. Course... It was our first day and we didn't get to all the teeth.
My teeth are messed up. They have so many problems. It kind of sucks.

I was excited today though because this is REAL stuff!

Dental Hygienists Unite!

So this weekend we went to convention and I got all excited about UDHA.
They had a forum where we learned about what was going on in the dental hygiene world and I'm so happy I went because I now know that I need to work hard for my profession. It is in risk of being handed off to assistants because they are less qualified and can be paid less. I learned that there are more things we can learn to do such as fillings and extractions and was thinking that since I don't really want to work for a private dentists that this might the way I need to go. Not saying that's what I'll do for sure but I talked to lady who owned her own hygiene practice and she said it would be beneficial to be able to do your own fillings.

I really want to let other hygienists know what's going on and try to get them to rise up against these problems because together we are a bigger voice that will make changes happen, or prevent them from happening.

Today in clinic we worked in each other's mouths to do oral health screenings. It scares me because I don't quite know yet what I'm looking for but I'm sure that Jen doesn't have some kind of oral cancer....

NEED MORE SLEEP!

Today we actually got to look into each others mouths using a mouth mirror. We learned not to slip and hit them in the face with the mirror and we learned how to look at all areas of the mouth and to illuminate that which is dark... so poetic.

I totally have a confession... I fell asleep while Kailene was working on me! haha! I was just sitting there and I started thinking about when I will be doing this for patients and all of a sudden the patient was yelling at me and telling me to wake up... Julie, my supervisor at the time and Kailene had to basically shake me awake. It was great.

We also gave each other extra oral exams. I made a slip and instead of saying Abnomality, I told Kailene that I was going to check for IMMORALLITIES. We laughed about it and I swear I'll never hear the end of it. And no, she had no immoralities nor did she have abnomalities.
It was nice to get three different massages today though... I don't think we will usually give our patients massages. I need to find out if they have a tumor dangit!

So Vital!

Today we learned how to take and record vitals on each other. For some reason I am nearly dead or something because people were having a hard time finding my blood pressure and pulse. Hey, there's nothing I can do about that!
I am glad that I have been a CNA because I have quite a bit of experience with taking vitals. Still, it's a little sketchy at times. I need to learn my 4 times tables.... I'm bad at multiplying so fast.

We also continued our adventure through the world of health history. Can I be blatantly honest?! I really don't think that I've ever seen a hygienist do everything that we are learning right now. I don't know why that is... and do I follow in their paths or continue to take up three pages of recording sheets just for health history? AH!

Hygiene school is very tiring but I hope that it will all be worth it. I hope that I can graduate, work for a year or so and then have a baby. babies!

Health History Hysterics

When the patient comes to the dentist office for the first time they are to fill out a health history. AKA this is when I get to find out all the dirty details on my patient. haha jk. But really, I had to admit to Kailene some things that I really don't want anyone to know about. :-)
So health history is important. It's also the thing that can be messed up the most! I hope I can remember everything that we will need to put on the chart as we're filling it out. It scares me to think that we might have to defend our license with just what we have written in our chart.

We have to know every slimey detail of drugs so if you're going to go to the doctor please have the type, dosage and effects of the drugs you are taking.
It took one whole page to write everything we needed to write on one person's drugs they are taking. AH! I don't know how I feel about these pill popper people!

So we are going to Park City next weekend for the ADHA meeting. I'm actually pretty excited because we will get a look at the dental hygiene world and what it has to offer outside of our little haven we call weber state. A few of us are going to stay at a condo and go both days. I'm pretty excited about that as well. We'll get to know each other (I'm sure Kim will have some great stories for us) and shop and watch movies. It will just be a grand old time.

Yesterday, on the car ride of our lives, I learned about health insurance! OMG! America is retarded when it comes to health insurance! If I am poor and don't have a job, then I can have a baby for free and be fed and feed the baby for free for a year. But if I'm paying 200 dollars a month for insurance with a job then I have to pay 18,000 just to have the baby and then all the food and supplies that goes with it. How rediculous is that? How does that motivate me to go out and get a good paying job? Why not just stay poor and ride on the backs of the rich? Of course I don't want to be that way but I'm sure many many Americans feel that way.

Sigh. Life is so stressful.

Please don't be unhealthy!

Today we learned about health history. I think I need to know what some of these diseases are before I can tell whether or not it is a problem!
We are supposed to ask the pt. about anything that they circled yes and we don't work on them if they have high blood pressure.
Take care of your bodies people!

That's all I have to say...

Oh, and that if you want to make a donation to the students of Weber (aka me) to go to China that would be awesome. Just let me know!

-KaDee

Week 2 - The Basics

So I made it past the first week. The first week went by pretty slow so I hope things pick up a little.
Today in clinic we actually worked on each other! It was pretty hilarious. Kailene kept sucking my lip and tongue. We laughed pretty hard each time that it happened. Prof Costly asked us if we were having fun giving each other hickies. AH!
I'm hoping that I've got the basics of PPE down... Just don't touch dirty things with your dirty hands right? If only it was that easy.

Today on the carride from Logan Ashlee and I talked about CHINA!
If you are reading this, you SHOULD go to China! The more people, the more fun it will be!
I hope that I will be able to raise enough money to go. It will be an experience of a lifetime.

Water Water everywhere

So today we played around with the air-water and suction. I'll just tell you right now that I gave myself a nice shower. (Which is good cuz when you have to leave at 6:30 you don't have much time for a shower(yuck, I know))
Someday I will learn how to not spray water all over my patient. I worry that my patients won't want to come back just because they leave as though they just went to Splash Mountain.

We also learned how to wash our hands and barrier. You think that you don't need to learn this time and time again but it's something I always do wrong. Can we just decide on when gloves should be worn and not? I'm so confused!

I passed my Eaglesoft PE with flying colors so that makes me happy. I hope the rest are like that one but I'm sure they won't.

My car ride to Logan could quite possibly by turned into a soap opera.
Today on The car ride of our lives
We shared our stories of how we hated our proposals. haha. I'm not the only one! YAY!
Stay tuned for more

1st day... Am I a freshman again?

So I feel like a freshman once again. After being in college for 3 years I am now a first timer at Weber State.
Ashlee and I walked up to the hygiene building with our arms full of instruments and books and I had to take a breather... So much stuff! (Or I'm just a pansie)
Today in lab we learned about eaglesoft. I feel lucky that I was able to learn this system and hope that I can help those around me when they need it.
I also got to share my most embarrassing moment... Although I'm SURE everyone will forget it.

My outlook on hygiene school so far... Looks good. Looks easy? haha... I'm sure it will get worst. I'll keep ya up to date.

Well, off to the hour drive to the place I call home.

Orientation = Brain overload?!

So here I am finally! I've worked for three years to get here and I can't believe that I've finally arrived. There has been a lot of info shoved into our heads and some of it just won't fit!
I'm so happy to be here and excited to get involved and educated!
Hello Professional World! Here I come!

P.S. BRUSH YOUR TEETH!

-Kuh-Dee Stoker-Hoffer