Yesterday was the first day I...

Well, I'm here to update.

I was correct in the fact that my mockboard patient was the hardest pt I've ever seen. But luckily he's really great. He's patient and he jokes around the whole time. That's the best part. He knows it's been a 10+ years since he's had a cleaning, so he's understanding that it's going to take some time to get everything off.

We started by giving him some anesthesia; an IA and a bit in the long buccal. That started to numb him up, but when I started to ultrasonic, he kept flinching, so I asked if he could feel that and he said he was sensitive. So we gave him a bit more in the long buccal and that did the trick, until we got to the premolars where we had to do a mental injection.
I was really excited at the fact that I only saw him like three weeks ago and he had 2 carious lesions on #31 and 32, and he said he went in the next day and got them restored. Great job!
So the title of this post is "the first day I ..." It's the first time I did a few things:

1. The first time I've had a pt w/ radiographic calculus.
2. The first time I haven't gotten everything off of the lingual posteriors with the ultrasonic
3. The first time I've had to really hand scale the lingual posteriors
4. The first time I really learned how to instrument back on the lingual posteriors.
5. The first time I've realized that sometimes it DOES take about two hours to clean 1 QUAD!

So I had a lot of first yesterday. It was truthfully a very good learning experience. Instructor Wold came over and helped me a lot to get the instrumentation on those lingual posteriors.

Some tips from her were:
1. Use your non dominant hand to help give you leverage on tenactious calc, especially on the lingual molars and premolars.
2. Use a horizonal stroke w/ the toe pointed apically (of course w/ small controlled strokes) to clean facial anteriors.
3. Use montana jack anywhere! Most distal surfaces to remove calc, or on the lingual anteriors.

I passed off three PE's; acessory fulcrum, unltrasonic and calc removal. I really liked the built up fulcrum on the anteriors, it helps give stability and it can also help give leverage.

I also tried doing the posterior teeth from an 11 o'clock postion to get the lateral pressure on them and I really liked it.

So all in all, it was a very good day. I hope I can remember them. I'm just glad my patient was numb so he couldn't feel. I'm sure I poked him a few times. :) Oops!

One funny thing was that after we finished, he asked if I could give him some of that topical to rub on him gums after the anesthsia wore off, He was serious. Unfortunately, I told him no and sent him on his way with the recomendation of rinsing with warm salt water.