My first patient!!!

Okay, so yesterday is over. I'm slightly relieved. There's just so much you've got to remember. The day started out crazy! I had the send a physicians consult for my patient, MyGREAT DAD!!! I sent one last Thursday and when I got in we hadn't heard anything, so we called and sent it again, and after a while still hadn't heard anything, so called again and still nothing. Finally we realized the fax we listed was for the clinic fax, not ours. So, needless to say, it came in Friday and I had a lot of unnecesary stress! When my dad came in I was really nervous. Luckily I had done his HHX before hand at home and so I didn't have to do it. We jumped right into x-rays. I only had to do one retake so I was glad. I did extra/intra oral, then probed. He ended up being a class 2, so that's good I guess. I was able to get to OHI but wasn't able to scale any. My dad kept telling me to relax, and I'm glad it was him so I could say "I'm not quite sure what to do next" Also, because I don't mind making him wait as much as I would a stranger who was helping me out. So to sum it all up, I survived. That in itself is a great accomplishment! So now, he'll come back on Jan 11 for me to finish up.

Community Health-Public Health

When I started this program the only place I had ever thought of working was in a private practice. I never knew that I had so many options available to me. I remember sitting in class sometime in the first three weeks of class (it was all pretty much a blur to me now) and Prof. Bossenberger told us that we had many options with a bachelors degree to be employed in different areas in the dental hygiene profession. With our community plan and trying to increase awareness in the our profession, I have more and more entertained the idea of working for the state in some way to increase awareness of our profession amongst ourselves. There are so many hygienists who don't know what is happening and they don't feel that if will affect them. I think I would really like to help create some type of media that we could send out with some type of graph or something that would clearly show hygienist what will happen and how it will affect their jobs.

Back into the swing of things!

Whew, after a nice long break it's hard to come back and get back into the swing of things. I seriously can't wait for the semester to be over...only like one more week! I can hear the angels singing now....
Today in clinic we went over emergency scenarios. Very good to know what we should be doing. I was a little tardy to class due to the lack of snow plows in the north. That wasn't so good, none the less, I was there by 8. Yet, I still got in a bit of trouble. I've really got to do my best to be there by no later than 7:30. I think I'm going to start leaving at 6:45. Holy cow! Anyhow, we also did a PSR screening to pass of our LAST PE OF THE SEMESTER! Wow, time sure does fly!

Bye!

Lunch Ladies?

So today was a good day. We did fake HHX on pretend patients. It's really good practice. I learned that in the HHX the things we underline in RED are the drugs the patient is taking and the abnormal conditions ie xeristomia (dry mouth), sensitive teeth, etc. So that was a good thing to remember. Also, I have to do the HHXRX after the HHX before I go get the instructor's signature.
After all that we passed of the Air-Powder polishing PE. So, we got to dress up like those hot looking lunch ladies again; hair nets, apron and all! We were seriously styling!

That's all for today. I'm definately ready for THANKSGIVING BREAK!!!!! Gobble, Gobble!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!
Goodbye!

Mock day

So today we had a mock patient day. It was good. We all took turns so it wasn't a full day, but we went through getting a new patient and I got as far as probing the maxilla. It was a good day. I also took my first x-rays on a real patient today. That was fun, and not as bad as I thought it would be! Thank goodness!

YAY!
That is all...good bye!

Community Health-Research

There is so much research I never really thought would actually be relevant for me to have a knowledge base about. Research is done on all types of dental proceedures, instruments, x-ray film, dental supplies, etc. For example, if I have a patient who wants to know if an electric toothbrush is more effective than a manual one, and if so, which electric toothbrush is best. I need to know the research on the effect of and electric brush over manual, and then I need to know all the research on each electric toothbrush and then compare them. I need to be able to inturpret graphs, understand methods for measurement, consider time periods that the study was applied. It's good that I have the great resource of the internet and published data to refer to.

Seal those babies up!

So today in clinic we did sealants, unfortunately, my teeth no longer have pits and fissures, so no one could do any one me. But I was able to do two, and they were really fun! Des was a GREAT patient and so there was no flying saliva. It was really a lot of fun. I just wish I would've had sealants when I was younger. It's really cool how much I'm learning about the importance of all this stuff, and the benifits of doing sealants.

So that's the story of the day!
Bye!

It must be something in the air...

So today in clinic we used the air/powder polisher for the first time. What can I say, we got to wear hair nets due to all the powder in the air. I didn't like it so much. I guess the purpose is good; it polishes between teeth as well as the facial/buccal and lingual surfaces. Also, it's a plus for those teens who have braces. There's no other way to get the job done. So, it does have it's benifits. However, it is basically sodium bicarbonate (Baking soda) so, it's composed of a lot of salt (imagine that!). It left my lips even drier than they were before and caused them to sting and burn because of the salt getting in my already open wounds (that's another story, but it was worth it!). Anyhow, the hair nets did make us look hot! In fact I had a hard time deciding if we were hygienists or lunch ladies.
I also worked on posterior scaling and it's coming along okay I guess. I need more practice and there was no educated feedback to be found. I did get a shock in radiology today though. We treat our first patient in clinic on Jan 11. WHAT THE HECK! I don't know if I'm ready for that! I was thinking we'd have a week or two to get back into it from the break (which I can't wait for). Oh well, I'm sure it won't phase me, I'll be getting married two days later, so...I wish my patient luck!

Bye!

Community Health- Indicies

Holy cow! There are so many indicies in the dental field that I was so totally unaware of. It's so hard to remember each of them and what they mean as well as what they measure. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it someday. I found it very interesting to know that we can measure so many things in adults and children. It's hard to figure out sometimes, I just hope that if I have to do this I will have a very specific breakdown of each step I need to take.

NO PAPERWORK!!!

I think somehow Prof. Costley tapped into my previous post because today was abesolutley fabulous, and why you might ask? Because we didn't have to fill out paperwork!!!! We just worked on each other and our skills today. It was amazing how quickly things went. So much smoother too! It was such a good day! I passed off three PE's which was great too! Universial Scaling, Fluoride Treatment and another one that has slipped my memory temporarily... how convenient! Well, that's all!

Bye!

Community Health-Program Planning

It's so nice to know that I have somewhere to go when I need to know how to form a community plan, a lesson plan or how to carry out a program plan in dental hygiene. My mom is a 2nd grade teacher and she has asked me in the past to come and teach her kids about dental hygiene, however, there was no way I was going, cause I didn't eve know where to begin. It's also really helpful to have the program plan because of our class project to increase awareness. We've gone over the plan in our other classes too, so it's nice that we have the opportunity to implement it.

Who needs paperwork?

So today in clinic we went through a whole patient. We tried to be on a time limit of one hour to get done with everything up to polishing (we learned how to do that today too). Needless to say I went over. BUT I really think that we should just throw the paperwork OUT THE WINDOW! I mean, really, why do we need it? :) It's just so time consuming and I never know if I'm doing half the stuff right anyhow. *sigh* Oh well, I guess I'll just keep hoping that one day it will just click, and until that moment, I will press forward with a bitterness towards the blasted paperwork!

Scalling

So today we scaled on a real person. As usual, my nervousness came out causing me to have a major laugh attack before I finally contained myself, took a deep breath and just did it. I don't know why I do that. I laugh when I get nervous and I honestly can't stop. Whatev.
None the less, I really enjoyed it. We only did the anterior teeth. That was pretty good. I got in and scraped some calculus. I don't really know, but I'm sure it was pretty much sheet calculus, or whatever people who keep their teeth clean get.
OH! And, it was Halloween today. We had a costume party all day. I was a lumberjack. It was pretty fun. There were some good costumes. It was really fun. I won a tube of toothpaste for my costume. It was great!
Now I'm so super tired...yet, I must do my Dental Hygiene homework. It's really thrown me off to have to do that homework two days early. I had my schedule down. Oh well, it's all fabulous!

Until next time....

Community Oct. 27

Okay, so insurance is something I totally don't understand, at least all the techincal stuff. I do however understand that there are a lot of people in our country who are not getting the health care that they need because they can't afford it so it is not available to them. I know of an older woman who is not getting the adequate medication that she needs because her insurance will only cover so much causing her to reduce her pills from 3/day to 1/2 per day. So it will last her twice as long. It's a hard thing to see them have pain but they try to deal with it the best they can.

Engagement Pics

Hey Everyone! This is just a sampling of our pictures. You can view more at www.overturephotovideo.com/clientgalleries/petersen-riley However, they are the proof's so there's quite a few.

Scalers!!!!

So....today in clinic we practiced with our scalers. We learned the differnce between supra and subgingival scalers, gracys and bernhards. It was AMAZING let me tell you! (did you catch the sarcasim?) Truthfully it was good to practice, but it got a little boring...scaling for two hours...I hope that never happens in real life. I'm still feeling...not awkward, but I'm not 100% sure where to position the instrument and if I'm using the right end. I just don't want to scrape someone's gums off. Yikes that would be painful. I think I just really want it to be Friday so I can go to Logan! I'll be so glad when my weekend affair will be over and I can see Rob everyday!
Today we also did the intraoral camera. Now that was cool. I think I would really have some fun with that! I'm excited to use that! I'll keep you posted. bye.

Light grasp!

So today in clinic we just pretended to go through a real appointment as far as we could get in an hour...I got to probing. I feel like I'm getting better, and I do feel comfortable, but there were some parts that felt so awkward. So, I'm going to take my instruments home and practice on my brother... :). Lucky boy! We've mostly just done that the last couple days in clinic and it's really helped! That way we can get down what we know with out continuously adding things on to our knowledge when we don't have the previous stuff down. Anyhow, it's great! Bye!

Now I'm all fired up!

So today in Community health (it was our first day) we talked about our class project for this year. There's this school that started up for Dental Hygiene. Needless to say, it's a little crazy! They aren't accredited yet and are making it seem as though they are...YIKES! Poor gals! But that's not really our problem. What bothers us with this little situation, is that 50 more people per year will be competing for our jobs out in the real world. That just frosts our cookies! Utah already has a super saturated job market for dental hygiene, there are so many of us! So the truth is...we don't really need another school in Utah. I know this sounds bad, but our class project is going to be doing research to help the Utah Dental Hygiene Association (UDHA) find stuff that hasn't been done to show the ADA that this program and others like it are not needed and shouldn't be allowed to continue. We are going to do it in a very professional way of course. I'm just very interested because out of all the hygienists in Utah only 20 are actively involved in UDHA. There just aren't enough of them to do all they need to. So here we come to the rescue. What's even better about it is I'm planning to work with Prof. Hansen and do even more of it for my Bachelors thesis. Yay!

Paperwork

Okay, today in clinic all we did was paperwork! Lots and lots of paperwork. Granted we had a really hard patient, it kept us busy for 3 hours...and I didn't even finish. At that rate, I won't have time for a patient. So...I've got to get the stuff down so I don't have to ask so many questions. Otherwise...I might have to do more than one appointment per patient, and I don't know if they'll want to come back! Yikes!

Disclosing...

So today in Clinic we used disclosing agent to find those dirty little plaque monsters in our partner's teeth. It made our mouth all blue and then purple and then pink! Wow, three colors! Then I passed off my intra-oral examination...not as hard as I thought it would be. I'm super tired though! I was falling asleep in the chair while Desiree was disclosing my teeth...yikes! I know one thing is for sure...I'm taking a nap before I go study tonight. I've got a lot of studying to do. Not to excited for that, I've got to finish reading anatomy, gather my thoughts about my ethics paper to present tomorrow, and do my Dental Hygiene homework because we are switching class from Thursday to Tuesday. And to top it all off, I really miss Rob already! I'm so happy for this weekend affair to end! January 13th, we can totally make it!
BYE BYE!

Charting

So today we charted, that was fun! I have quite a few cavaties....But I Brush Brush Brush to keep the bugs away! Some of the teeth I looked at were so perfectly matched I couldn't even tell if they were there. Crazy! I wish mine looked like that!

Engaged!

Now we are engaged! YAY!
(This is just a reinactment)

Probing

Okay, so I slacked off last week, APOLOGIES! But today was good. We worked on probing. Just one quadrant thank goodness! OH, interuption on some personal news....I got engagged over the weekend! Okay back to business! So probing was good. I think I'm starting to feel the sulcus, so that's good. Desiree and me worked on telling each other when they felt the probe and I think that helped me. I'll try to get more familiar with it. bye!

CALCULUS

Okay, so today we explored subgingivally on a DXTR....YIKES! My fulcrum and that is goood, and I feel okay on the anterior teeth, but the posterior were so hard! It's hard to get the distal surface. And then when you add doing it with indirect vision with the mirror...I need more practice. Plus I'm so scared I'm totally going to catch or go through their gums. I've got to remember I'm not getting the calculus off, I'm just FINDING it so that I know where to scale it off. None the less, I'm nervous to do it on a real patient. Also, it really hurt my neck and trap muscles. Instructor Skeen said it would get better though, we're just not used to using those muscles. She also said that eventually we will get a callus on our fulcrum finger, so that will be good. We were supposed to switch and do it on each other today....I'm sure glad that ended up being a negative. I don't know if I'd be able to do it. I want to get more comfortable on the DXTR. However, they said that we will be doing it on each other on Monday! So I'm taking my instruments home to practice on my typodont. I really hope that I can get the hang of it. I think my DXTR had quite a bit of calculus on it that I was trying to get off with the explorer too, so I've got to remember to just find it and have a soft grip. My thumb is getting better at staying in position. So if I can just remember to not have a killer death grip on the explorer, and just be soft and "explorer" I think I'll be ok. Hopefully I'll catch on! Until next time....

Frosted Peacock

Hey Guys! I just thought I'd give an update on my stethescope....the color is "FROSTED PEACOCK". Those of you who are lucky enough will get to see the color...it's hot! And those of you who are not so lucky, it's the color of this font. You're jealous aren't you! I know all of you wish your stethescope was FROSTED PEACOCK.

Explorer Day

Hey Hey Hey! Today was Explorer day! So today we did our first Intra-Oral Exam...AWKWARD! I feel so weird! It's nothing like extra oral. Extra is easy, you do it in like a pattern, but intra you have to notice all these structures. It just feels so weird and at the same time you're trying to not to get their saliva all over their face. CRAZY!
So anyways, after that we worked on finding calculus on the teeth with an explorer. That was kinda fun. My thumb position is getting better. I'm really starting to feel a little bit more comfortable with the instrument. I was kinda scared though because I was afraid I'd go under the gums and poke Desiree really hard. But all in all, it was a good day.
On the way home today I've got to stop and get a stethescope so I can do my vitals...Yipee!

SADHA

So today I went to the SADHA meeting. It was good. It feels good to be involved on some type of committee again. I really miss being in Student Activities...I never see anyone anymore. However, it all sounds really fun! I've been checking on prices for sweatshirts to make for a fundraiser. I'm the Jr. C0-Chair for Activities and am kinda excited about that. I was happy that I knew quite a bit about who people are and what goes on here on campus so that I could help them know what to do and who to talk to. At first when I said I'd be the activites position I thought "oh nuts, what was I thinking" but now, I hope that it won't be too bad. I just have so many other things to do. Oh well, upward and onward to VICTORY!

Rob

This is my cute boy Rob and I just relaxing on a Sunday afternoon.

Catching on

So today clinic was a good experience. I'm really begining to catch on and really enjoy the program. Things are starting to slow down from that first initial rush...either that or I've caught on to the pace from when we hit the ground running.
In clinic we learned how to do an extra-oral exam. That's where we feel the outside surfaces of the face and neck to see if there are any lumps or bumps or places of tenderness. It was neat to learn something we're actaully going to be doing. Also we started to work on our partners with an explorer and a mirror, just tracing along the gumline. We were getting used to using an instrument while using a fulcrum, which is your finger as a resting place on the teeth. It was good to get the explorer in my hand and actaully do the stuff.
So far this week has been really good. I've really had a better attitude and I'm not so worried all the time. That is a HUGE relief. I was wondering how I was going to do it for the next two years if that's how it was going to go. But I'm really enjoying it now!

Dental Hygiene Clinic

Today is my 4th day of clinic in the Weber State University Dental Hygiene program. I am feeling slightly overwhelmed with the whole program, but am getting the hang of things day by day. I'm starting to get to know the girls in my class a little better and it's been fun, especially today because we've had a little down time to think about things other than homework and studying. :) We've been working on patients health history charts, using a partner here in the class as an example. Today we did blood pressure and pulse rate. It was so fun because we worked on it last week and I wasn't able to hear the beat through the stethescope, but today I DID! It was an amazing experience. :) I'm really beginning to like it and feel a little bit more comfortable....until I do homework tonight. :) Also, in Radiology lab this morning, we started taking x-rays. That was fun, but a little frusterating. Out of 10 x-rays, only 1 tunred out to be diagnostic. NUTS! I've got to line them up a little bit better.

Are you ready???

This was a test that I think I passed succesfully! Yay! I'm on my way into the blogghood.