VA

First and foremost I have this chant running through my head and I totally want to use it for a blog post...I just don't know when/how. It comes from the movie Bridge to Terabithia (fabulous movie, tear jerker) and I just died laughing! The bully of the school, Janice Avery, is guarding the bathroom door and a little kids have to go, Leslie states "It should be free to pee" then they all start chaniting "Free to Pee, Free to Pee". Classic!

Anyhow, VA yesterday was good. My morning pt ended up raising my tally 4 quads of a class III! Sweet! And I passed off 3 PE's. Good thing too, I've kinda been a wee bit lax with those. Oopsy! So anyways, I didn't get an afternoon pt b/c we had two no shows. (Brookie gave me two quads of a class V) I actually took one guy and looked up his past appt, and he actually wanted/preffered having N2O. SNAP! N2O PE...Check! But alas, Megs got to him before I did (she didn't know I was taking him) and so she got to do hers instead. Oh well, I informed Rob he's coming in on Thursday so I can do one on him. He got a little nervous...seriously, my poor boyfriend!

Anyhow, more exciting news. I found this absolutely hillarious review on "The Bachelor". I especailly like their nickname for Stephanie T. (Can't stand her!) which is "BBBD"! You'll have to read it! http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=bachelor/review1 Seriously funny! It actually has reviews for both episodes. Here are some of my faves

*"Once we met all 25 girls -- Bill counted three "hot" ones, two with crazy eyes, one with "super-duper-crazy eyes" and 20 who were dressed like rejected prom dates"

*"Back at the mansion, BBBD was trying on dresses for her one-on-one date and threw on one brown cocktail dress that ABC almost had to blur in three places. The other girls in the house convinced her to wear a less provocative dress -- I thought this was a bad strategy by them, it's a competition, what were they thinking? I would have convinced her to wear the brown cocktail dress with no underwear and a fake heart tattoo that said "Andy" on her arm."

So there you have it. Click on the link to read more. Anyhow,

... Let's hear it for crazy random posts from Tatiana!

The Bachelor 2007

Ok, if you haven't seen it, you need to, if for nothing else, to see the funniest part at the end! Oh Snap! This guy is seriously one of the best they've had! Very educated and the girls are educated quite a bit too. So being that he's extremley educated, he'd need someone who is similar, and if not that, at the least mature. However, this one girl Linsey is a super big brat from the beginning and absolutely unsure of herself and immature. But here's the kicker; at the end she has an absolutle 5 yr old temper tantrum! Hillarious! I was seriously laughing everytime she came on! Honestly, she's 22, but she acts like she's still in HS! Hillarious! Now that's what I call drama. I could never picture him with a girl like that! For sure! It would've been funny to see how he would have interacted w/ her! If you missed it on Monday, no worries, you can see it online at www.abc.com just click to view the shows online! Classic!

Mockboard

Yesterday was mockboards. Our last one! Holy cow, or as Michelle says Santa Vaca! Only three more weeks of school! Yikes!

Anyhow, my board went well. I had my board pt come in so I could clean another quad of her mouth, but when she opened to take x-rays I noticed all her post. teeth had amalgam MODs. Oopsy! Oh well, I didn't really care. Nardy said on a few she couldn't tell if it was amalgam or calculus, so so only gave me 9 or 10 clicks. The sad thing... I didn't even think about submitting extra teeth. Well, I did, but I had no clue which ones, so I opted out.

So she didn't qualify technically, but she did have a lot of calculus and so it was just good to clean her. Besides from not qualifying, they didn't send her back for me to get anything else off, so I got it all. NICE!

It was a really good experience though b/c I watched my time. Took 1/2 hr to ultrasonic, 1/2 hr to hand scale, some more ultrasonic, some hand scale, ultrasonic a couple areas one more time, hand scale, took a break for a couple minutes, sat down explored, removed one more piece and called it good. And I was even done 10 minutes early! I sure hope that's how it goes on boards. My day is Friday, May 11 @ 12:00. Luckily my pt is understanding and really nice! And she's on time! That's like the best ever!

I'll blog later and put up pictures. I feel like all I've been doing is studing. I did however take my written. Waiting to see how that turns out!

I passed for real!

Well, I know that the mockboards weren't a good reflection, but the real boards were! I totally passed my written and then my clinical Local Anesthesia exam. I don't even think I was that nervous when I did it. I went running after though, and I was so drained I had to walk home! At first I was just so excited, but then I just crashed!

My morning pt was good. Another freaking 1B! I have way to many of those! I need class 5 pts. I only have one. Actually Michelle asked me if I wanted to take hers, b'c mine no showed, but I kinda wanted to study this afternoon. I have written boards on Tuesday! Yikes! I don't feel ready, but then I kinda do, but then I don't and I just don't know how I can retain so much knowledge. CRAZY! I hope I can remember everything! Wishful thinking, but I do think I remember a lot. I'm just going to be happy when it's over!

I passed for real!

Well, I know that the mockboards weren't a good reflection, but the real boards were! I totally passed my written and then my clinical Local Anesthesia exam. I don't even think I was that nervous when I did it. I went running after though, and I was so drained I had to walk home! At first I was just so excited, but then I just crashed!

My morning pt was good. Another freaking 1B! I have way to many of those! I need class 5 pts. I only have one. Actually Michelle asked me if I wanted to take hers, b'c mine no showed, but I kinda wanted to study this afternoon. I have written boards on Tuesday! Yikes! I don't feel ready, but then I kinda do, but then I don't and I just don't know how I can retain so much knowledge. CRAZY! I hope I can remember everything! Wishful thinking, but I do think I remember a lot. I'm just going to be happy when it's over!

LA Mockeboards

Well...I failed. Ha! Yet still an educational experience. I'm truthfully, not trying to make myself feel better, kinda happy with the outcome. Yes, I went in hoping to pass, but when I didn't, the instructors were able to let me know about things I did that would fail me in the real thing. So now I know what to watch for! The sad thing about not passing the IA the second time around was that I totally grabbed the front of the card! What a bad mistake to make in the real board. You don't want to fail for something like that.

So now I feel ready.

My afternoon pt came and then dissappeared...so, I started a guy who was out in the lobby waiting for his wife, who Kelly cleaned. He was really nice, but the best thing was that he needed LA, so I was able to do the IA again. Big tip of the day! Just move the syringe to the corner of their mouth. Just rest it on the corner. That way you'll be sure to be over the premolars!

So that was a good day, one thing that made it good after clinic was I stopped by Wal-mart to buy scooby snacks (Grhams that look like dog bones), but they didn't have any, so I got bugs instead. Although they look different, they taste the same, and at my age, that's all that really matters! :)

X-rays

Well, Wednesday night my patient's mother called and cancelled for him, so I was out a monring pt. When I got in I called around and was able to find a girl to come in, but she couldn't come in until 10. So...I waited around for her. I passed off my blood glucose PE in the meantime and by the time my pt got there I was able to finish her OD. We'll take x-rays on her next time to make and accurate classification.

In the afternoon my pt was such a sweet lady. She spoke spanish and I was trying to speak to her in my super spanish! It was kinda funny, but I think I did ok for the most part. Lilly helped me a few times. The crazy thing was that she had a lot of work done and a ton of active caries, but she really had like no boneloss. She said she had some pain while we were doing the extra oral exam. It was hurting her on the R side of her nose. I felt it and it felt a tiny bit more swollen when compared to the other side. Prof. Alexander came over and we checked it out. She had a remaning root tip on #4 that we saw in the BWX, but other than that we couldn't see anything. However, we felt that in order for us to treat her better, it would be nice to have an FMX, so we did that and decided to call it a day. Her gums were very tender and I wouldn't have been able to clean her at all with out doing an injection, and I don't know if she was ready for that. I don't think I was ready to clean around all the active caries either. Anyhow, she's coming back another day, so we'll get her taken care of.

Some ideas I liked...

Okay, so whoever knows how I can add something to my blog that will allow me to just add a ton of pictures so that I can have for ideas...let me know. Seriously. I see so many pictures that have ideas that I love...but I need some way to keep them (just the picture) so I can refer back to them...maybe I'll have to ask Prof. Hanson. But if anyone knows, share the knowledge! Until then, these are some cute ideas that I really liked.

I would LOVE a craft room like this one day! Does this not just say FUN!

These were some cute ideas from the same site.

A super cute valentine...to bad I didn't see these last week.

Valentine's Day cont.

Here's a few from V-day. We keep it simple and Rob wouldn't really tell me what he wanted, so I got him some treats and put corny saying with it. At least he liked it!

And these are the cookies I made last week to take to some of the neighbors...but we weren't home all weekend and sadly ended up throwing about 1/2 the batch away....they were super good too!

Yummy! Looks good!

And due to a request from my dad...The 2007 5A Utah State Wrestling Champs! After a few years in 2nd place, the Warriors stepped up to dominate the tourney and won by a landslide!

Way to go Warriors!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope that everyone had a great day! This holiday is one of my favorites! I think I just love the Red and Pink. But I also really love all the love! I made sugar cookies last week to give, however, was gone all weekend, and by the time we got around to it, I figured the cookies tasted a little to old...but it was fun while it lasted!

Guess What I Found!

I was as giddy as a school girl! I found a mockboard patient! I guess all the searching paid off. Actually, midtown gave me her number, but I hadn't been able to get a hold of her until Thursday, so I set up a screening for yesterday and she had calculus that had calculus! Sweet mother of Pearl! I'm so happy! It was such a relief! I screened her and took one quad of x-rays. It's like the best!

Where can I find some teeth like this?

Serioulsy! How come I can't find anyone who slacks on brushing! I know, I should be really happy when people brush, and usually I am, however, that's not what I need right now!

Out of all the people I found yesterday, I got two to come in for a screening. The first one was practically as clean as a whistle. The other one came in this morning. He was from Saudi Arabia and he had restorations, which means he's had access to care. We found 12 clicks of calculus (tartar) on his entire mandible, which is what I need in one quadrant! Seriously! Where are the dirty teeth hidding?

*I know, I know *sigh* under the 24th st bridge*
Sorry for the picture, but this is what I'm looking for...send anyone my way!

I'm desperate!

I am so looking forward to the day that I don't need to find my own patients! The majority of my morning was spent wandering campus asking nearly EVERYONE I passed by if I could take a peek in their mouth! Seriously! I went up to many, many people asking them when the last time they had their teeth clean, asking what their brushing habits were, and if I was lucky enough, asking if I could take a peek in their mouth.

Some were willing, some not so much. One guy asked me where the camera was. ha ha, acutally not so funny! If they looked at me weird I told them I was DESPERATE! Why am I so desperate you might ask? Well, I have one week to find a mock board patient and we have UDA this thrusday, so I have no clinic days to find anyone. So I have to resort to find someone and bring them up to do a screening. Out of everyone I asked, I found 2 who might work. One more so than the other b/c he had a lot of plaque on his teeth. Yippee!

To anyone who reads this blog, I sure they think I'm off my rocker, and the truth is, I probably am. But at least I haven't resorted to driving under the 24th st. bridge! I swear, I'm not going that far!

3 more months until I never ever have to do this again. Mary Ann, do you miss this?

Another mockboard unhopeful

Okay,

So I seriously need a mockboard pt! And worst of all, I thought I had it! I finished cleaning 2 Quads of a class 3 in the morning, but I didn't want to use her for a mockboard b/c she had more food on her teeth than calculus! Canasta! So needless to say, the biggest reason she classified as a 3 were her pocket depths.

But here (was supposed to be) is the good news: Tuesday I was CA and this girl just showed up to get her teeth cleaned, but at the time, everyone had a pt, so I took her name and made her my Thursday afternoon pt. I was pretty excited b/c she had an African accent and I was kinda hoping that she didn't have acces to care (how bad it that?) so that her teeth would be bad enough for me to use.

So she comes in on Thursday and says she hasn't been to a DDS for like 20 years and that was to have a cavity restored. *In my head I'm doing a little dance! Sweet, here's my board pt!* So I start by taking her back to x-ray-oh yeah, she's from Kenya and just came to the US this year to go to school. So we get her to x-ray and I take the first BWX on the digital....it comes up....not only is the lamina dura intact, it's like the best lamina dura I've ever seen. *In my head I'm thinking "How can this be"* So I take one more, The same, seriously, the most radiopaque lamina dura ever! After 4 BWX, I was qute discouraged! So I figure, she's never had a FMX, and she was really concerned about these gaps btwn her mand. canines and premolars, so lets do a full mouth. We START to do that, but she couldn't handle the pain of the uncomfortable XCP's for PA's. So I got all the anteriors and 1/2 the posteriors. So with that said, I was like, okay, hopefully she'll at least have a little calc under the gums, although none was radiographic. So I get started, all pockets were 1-3, with 2-3 4's, but that was uncomfortable for her too...I seriously wanted to inject her! I think a big set back is that she hasn't been to a DDS for so long, she doesn't know what to expect...not saying that is should hurt, but saying that yes, you are going to feel something.

So we get done probing and I go to explore where I find after 20 years, she has the CLEANEST teeth I've ever cleaned! Seriously, people who come every 6 months have dirtier teeth than she did! Craziness! So I finished her in like a half hour. So as we're getting her stuff to go, she asks if we would recommend any othodontists and my instructor proceeds to tell her a few and that she'll need a pano. So we decided to do the pano here b/c it's cheaper than it would be at an office. So I get the pano ready and we take one...but don't worry, I only put ONE film in the pocket, so it turned out a lot darker than it should've. So we take another one, but as I step out of the room to push the botton, the machine won't move, so I step in and press reset. The pano machine resets, and starts to take the pano (while I'm in the room) and then stops right in the middle. WHAT THE HECK! By this time it's 3:00pm, you have got to be kidding me! Seriously! So I go get Prof. Alexander to come and watch (after I've reloaded the pano sleeve for a thrid time!). We set everything and step out to take the x-ray when it doesn't move...we step in and press reset and the machine resets and then starts to go WHILE WE'RE IN THE ROOM! Seriously...my poor patient! At this time she says "can I just come back another time?" To this we both say "Yes". I apologize profusely and send her one her way...whew. And that was it...so much for my mockboard hopeful!

I switched to Beta

Okay, I wasn't going to do it, but I was helping a girl at my work with her blog and she was a Beta Blogger. I got a good look at some of the new things that are available with Beta and I was SOLD! So here it is, my new revised Blog-Beta style! So if any of the Dental Hygiene girls read this and are still on the old blogger, I would suggest changing! It's a lot easier to use!

My boots

I love shoes! And I've been trying to get this super cute pair of boots by Nine West off of eBay.

However, I've been trying to bid on them for the last two weeks and keep gettting beat at the last second! Nuts! So the other dayI decided I might as well just place a bid on these pretties by Steve Madden

I don't like them as much as the other ones, and in all honesty thought I'd be outbid again, but no...I won them. So now I'm awaiting my boots! I'm excited, but probably not as excited as if I won the other ones, I really like the worn look of the Nine west ones, but I guess I'll just have to break the ones I got in! I've been tracking them, and in two days, they've only made it to New Jersey! Seriously! Oh well, their expected arrival date is Feb 1...that's in two days. I gues I can wait that long.

Dental Hygiene

Okay,

So we've had two weeks of clinic and I thought it would be best to start blogging about it. Last week I cleaned two people and one was a 1b who was super healthy and the other was a class 2 that was sensitive to the Ultrasonic. So I thought, hey, what a good time to practice my skills with out the ultrasonic. One reason for this was that with the 1b, people don't really use the Ultrasonic, but I have been, so I thought I'd try it to cut back on my time....so didn't happen.

My 2 was bleeding a lot, and Instructor Allen, who is amazing, said I had a couple tissue tags. Yikes. But the one that really got me was my 1b. She had healthy tissue, and was a flossing queen. But she was bleeding a lot too. After the appt, I asked Instructor Allen why she was blleding so much and she said sometimes it happens w/ people (my pt was on her period) However, she noticed some tissue tags on her too, and we know that isn't good.

So after being super discouraged, she told me she'd watch me next time and she what I was doing so she could help me out.

So yesterday I had a 1b in the morning and she noticed a couple tags, but she watched me and gave me some pointers on how I can better adapt. She also recommended doing long controlled strokes, compared to little ones. That really helped! In the afternoon I had an elderly woman who had lost most of her posterior teeth, so we counted it for two quads of a three! Yes! But I tried the long strokes and that worked well. Her daughter brought her in b/c she is her main care giver and I went over OHI with her a lot. I told her she's got to make sure that her mother is getting back to her two molars on mand. L. There was a lot of plaque build up and her bone levels are REALLY low back there, although there is no mobility yet. I also tole her that her mom has a lot of debris in her mouth and that she would need to help her to make sure she was rinsing all of her mouth out.

All in all it was a good day. I need to remember to do long strokes and keep my whole blade adapted to the tooth until the very end of the stroke. I really like Instructor Allen. She's so way awesome! I'm so glad that she's willing to spend the time with me that I need in order to improve my skills while I'm still in school b/c if I don't learn it here, I don't know where I will.

Bored?

Rob gets creative when he gets bored in the car on the way home. He kept complaining that people were looking at him. I wonder why?

A year ago today..

So I understand that over the Christmas break this blog has become more of a personal blog for me, rather than a dental hygiene journal, but now that we're back in, I'll get going on my DH posts. But not on this one.

Today was our 1 year anniversary. I can't believe it. It's been a whole year, but it doesn't really seem like it's been that long, or maybe that short. It just seems like it's been like this forever. We've been talking a lot today about how we are now. We've both given a little and taken a little, and we both agreed that the giving and taking will continue. I'm think we both bring out the good in each other, and our goals have become unified (is that a word?). I love Rob more today then I did a year ago, and even more than I did yesterday. We're learning how to understand each other more and more. I think my favorite thing about being married is that I get to see Rob every day. Some other highlights are
1. He starts my car in the morning
2. He helps me with the dishes when he has time
3. He helps me work on being on time
4. He's a lot happier when I make dinner for him
5. He loves to talk about his mission
6. He loves to go out to eat as much as I do
7. He works really hard to make sure we (I) have the things we need/want
8. He is a really good Primary teacher
9. He helps me tidy the house
10. He's really good at budgeting-something I'm really happy I learned to do this year

These are the roses Rob surprised me with on Thursday night for an early anniversary present.

Christmas 2006

Santa was very good to us this year. We were extremely blessed! Some very good news for you who frequent this blog is that I got a digital camera, so hopefully I'll be able to post more pictures. Saturday night we all went to my family Christmas party and it was so fantastic. My whole family-cousins, aunts and uncles, neices and nephews, grandparents (minus my dad's twin and family from Michigan)-was all there. It was fabulous! It's been a while since we've all been together like that. Unfortunately I didn't get my camera until Monday morning, so I don't have any pictures of that. However, I wish I could've gotten a picture of my cousin's little boy. He loves Superman and was wearing some zip up pajamas w/ the footies. He kept unzipping them and saying "I'm supaman" So we snuck back to my grandparent's den and printed off the Superman logo, cut it out and tapped it onto his chest. It was classic, after that when he unzipped, he had something to show, as well as his muscles.

Here are some pictures that Rob snapped of our apartment on our first Christmas together.

Sunday was great. In YW all the leaders read their favorite Christmas story. I barely made it through mine. However, I had to stop a few times and gather myself. I swear! It's just so touching though. If you're interested, it's titled "Trouble at the Inn" by Dina Donahue. So precious! I'm sure you can Google it. Anyhow, it was so fabulous to be at church and think of our Saviour's birth.

After church we went to my parent's to meet my mother's cousins and their families who came to visit us from Florida and Honduras. Karen, who still lives in Honduras came on Thursday night, but Kathryn who lives in Florida, got to SLC Saturday night. It was so good to meet them. Kathryn is a memeber of the church and has been for a while, and her daughter Ashley just joined. She wants her son Robert Henry to come to school out here, so they are planning to do that while their here too. It's so great to have them here to spend the holidays with us!

After visiting with them shortly we went to Rob's parent's house and went on their traditional "Christmas Hike" with real latterns up to the canal (It's about 1 mile there and 1 back). It sounds kinda crazy to be hiking in the freezing cold, but it was actually quite fun! We sung Christmas carols and laughed the whole way and it's a tradition that I think I'll grow quite fond of.

Sunday night we were able to talk to my brother Tyson who's serving his mission in the Mexico, Cuernavaca mission. He's been there three weeks and sound so great! I love him so much! It's crazy to talk to him, but he says he's absoluely loving it and we know that's where he's supposed to be.

After the call we went back to Rob's parents to stay and wait for Santa to come. It's tradition in Rob's family as well that they all sleep together, so Rob, Will, and I all bunked in Mark's bedroom. We watched "How the Grinch stole Christmas" and fell asleep. In the morning we woke up about 6:20 and watched Taxi until 7:00am when Will felt it was okay for us to go down. Santa definately found us. The first thing I opened was our digital camera from my parents. I totally LOVE it! So excited! So we snapped a few pictures w/o a memory card and I can't figure out how to get them on the computer to post them yet, but I will.

I did however get some on the memory card of Rob and his new paintball gun. Him and his 3 brothers got one. Our brother in law already has one so, on New Years day, they are planning a war.
Yesterday Will, Rob and Matt got them out to break them in on each other and it was quite entertaining for us all to watch.

A night in Bethlehem

Rob and I dressed up for our ward party that was "Night in Bethlehem". It was pretty fun. Each organization was in charge of a booth, my YW were in charge of the bakery...forgive me for bragging, but ours looked the best! I wish I would've gotten a picture of it. It was so fun! We went around to each station to get a part of our meal. Each person recieved a sack of beans for money and paid that way. The activity person did an awesome job! As did the rest of the organizations.

ABC's of Me!

A - Available or single: nope, I have a very cute husband
B - Best friend: Rob
C - Cake or pie: I would probably say pie
D - Drink of choice: Water, although I should drink more
E - Essential item you use everyday: My cell phone
F - Favorite color: GREEN
G - Gummy bears or worms: I don't like gummy candy
H - Hometown: Brigham City, UT
I - Indulgence: chocolate
J - January or February: I think it would have to be January, it's still really winter time then, by February, it just needs to move to Spring
K - Kids & names: I don't know yet
L - Life is incomplete without? Christ, the gopspel, and my family
M - Marriage date: January 2006
N - Number of siblings: Three; two sisters and a brother
O - Oranges or apples: I like both; Golden delicious apples, and oranges that are sweet and juciy
P - Phobias or fears: That I'm not all that I should be.
Q - Fave quote: "You are the only one who determines how your day goes." -my mom
R - Reason to smile: My husband, he makes me really happy!
S - Season: I love fall and winter b/c the holidays mean family!
U - Unknown fact about me: I've performed on an international TV broadcast
V- Vegetable you don't like: Bressel sprouts
W - Worst habit: Wanting things done my way
X - Xrays: Dental
Y - Your fave food: Ice Cream
Z - Zodiac sign: Leo

....Now you know my ABC, next time won't you sing with me!

So way DONE!

I'm done! I kinda cut it close. I had 4 more quads of a class 3 and I had 2 scheduled to come back at the VA on thrusday. Luckily I got them! I got a total of 5 quads of class 3. Yeah! My first pt was a class 4! His pockets were seriously so deep everywhere! His anteriors even had 8's! The crazy thing was that it wasn't all the way around the tooth, just in random areas. It was like 568, 486, etc. but it wasn't an 8 all along the (ie) facial surface, that was just the deepest spot. Anyhow, I did get to do injections, so that was fun! My 10:00 pt was my returning class 3 and we were able to finish his R side and I got to do injections on him too. His mandibular anataomy was crazy though, and it was hard to find the penetration site on the IA.
My afternoon pt had an upper partial denture. My first denture pt! Crazy! He was pretty healthy though, he kept pretty good care of his remaining teeth and his tissues under the partial were healthy.
Anyhow, the best thing of the whole entire day was that it was the last thing I had to do to finish this semester up. Yippie! One more to go baby! Then I'm so way DONE!

No talky talky!

So today was good. However, my patient this afternoon is so chatty! She's way nice, but she talks non stop with too much information. I just need to know basics for a HHX, unless I inquire, but when I do, she gives me the whole shebang!
Anyhow, needless to say I only got done w/ the HHX where we found she might have to pre-med for a heart murmur, so we sent a physicians consult, and rather than waiting for who knows how long to get a response and then an hour if she had to, I decided to take x-rays and send her on her way. I'm not hurt by this. I'm ok. However, she did have a crown come off, and she's keeping it in a plastic baggie with her meds until she can get into the dentist....whatev!
My pt this morning was a 5, he's an avid waterpick user, so he didn't have much plaque or calc even, but he did have a few 6-7 pockets and even an 8 that had some stuff deep down. All around though, his tissue was really healthy which is great! It just took me a long time in those areas and I seriously felt like I'm getting so slow!

Until next time, I want everyone to have a happy turkey day!

Picture update

I just got these pictures from my mom. My cute cousins dressed up so festively for the special occasion of Halloween.

Mattias is Jack Sparrow-he's obsesed with Pirates of the Carabian, as well as Spiderman, Batman, Fatastic Four, and we always tease him that his girlfriend is Dora the Explorer, though I don't know why. I think he was talking a lot about her once. Santiago, San as we call him, was a bat, he's not looking at the camera, but he's such a cutie! They are pictured here at their ward Halloween party with their friends, who also seems to have a love for Spiderman. I love these two little guys. We don't get to see them as often as I would like, but they sure are fun! Here's a better picture of San in the act of flapping his arms. I wish I could've seen them.

I wanted to put some of my awesome brother Tyson at the MTC, but, that's the end. I'll try later b/c my computer isn't letting me upload anymore pics.

Why can't I get a class II!?

Okay...so today was great. Truthfully an ideal day...unless you have requirements! I swear! I did a child again today and two last week in the afternoon b/c my patients cancelled/no showed. My morning pt last week no showed as well, so I got my husband in last minute to finish up my 1B requirements. So I'm done with everything but class 2 and 3...which I only have like 6 quads of each in. I need 2s and 3s!!! To top it all off, I've got another kid next week. I feel bad, but I might pass her on to a 1st year next semester. Or I could even do her next semester. I just don't know if I can get her in this one. Snap! I hope I can make it! I've also got to make up two days at the VA, so hopefully that will work out.

Mockboard #1

Well, I survived it! It was a really good experience. I was able to get a feel for how things will go on one of the most important days of my life!! I got my patient checked in early (due to the fact that I wasn't sure what we were supposed to do with them other than the HHX, so I hurry and did everything after b/c I didn't know we were supposed to do all the extra/intra. Guess I should've read more of the candidate guide rather than the first half.) So he was accepted and I got started. The calculus was really tenacious, but luckily I had the chance to work on him the week before. Finished and got him checked out a couple minutes early. I really felt like there were still a couple spots left, but I just wasn't sure if that's how his anatomy is. I swear, those two patients I had last year with rough anatomy killed me. Now I'm so paranoid that I'm just scraping teeth and I'm going to keep trying to get it off, but it won't come.
Anyhow, although I missed 4 spots, only 2 of them were test sites, so, I only got docked 12 pts. and I didn't mess up on anything else, luckily. So...I passed.

Let's just hope that's what happens in the real thing! For some reason, I think the fact that this is it and the fee of $750 will be weighing on my mind heavily that day. Oh well, amazingly enough, I was actually kinda nervous yesterday... not like me.

I did use some of my tips from my previous post. The montana jack almost everywhere. I used the American Eagle and my Barnhart on most of the areas in the posterior, even pulled out my mini gracys (but I think they were still to big for his pockets). However, after they came back with the spots I missed, I pulled out my McCall, which got them. I'm nervous to use it b/c it's a sickle and when I get deep into those pockets, I'm still a little afriad. I'm glad I did though, b/c it gave me confidence and I think I'll pull it out more often.

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.

It's been a while

Well, I'm back. Surgery went well in case anyone is wondering. Today is my first day back at clinic. This morning we had a lab, so that kind helped ease me back in. We worked on accesory fulcrums and instrumentation with the L and R ultrasonics. It really helped, I felt a little wierd at first, but it got better. The hardest thing is that my Left eye is still kinda blurry, and on top of that I haven't been wearing my contacts in my R eye, and today I did. My eye is used to the slightly blurred vision in my R eye and of course the blurred vision in my Left. But now, my right eye is really clear and my L is still blurry. I swear, it will be so great when I can see regularly again.

My mock board patient is supposed to come in today so we can work on some other quads. That's who I'm waiting for now. I really hope he comes, I think he'll be the hardest pt I've had yet. He's got radiographic calculus. Yes!

Anyhow, I'll update later.

Requirements, a new term and some scary news

Well, yesterday in clinic was kinda crazy. At least me first patient. I pulled him off the resource list and when I called and asked if he was there he said "It depends..." I told him who I was and he agreed to come in. While I was explaining where to come he's yelling in the background "we need more vodka." I was thinking great, it's 10 in the morning and my patient needs more vodka. Well I spent most of the time while setting up thinking he probably has a hangover and he'll no-show. But he came. Actually quite a nice quy. He manages a bar, which would explain the vodka, but I didn't really believe him when he said he only drinks 4-5 beers/wk. Oh well, not my problem, exactly. He hadn't been to the DDS for 10+ years so we decided to do a FMX, which revealed he had radiographic calc. and the best part...NO RESTORATIONS!!!!!

So, I pose the question, how ethical is it to keep him for boards?

Anyhow, while we were waiting for an x-ray room, I started an OD and got to probe a little bit. While so doing, he asked me how his "dental forskin" was? It took me by surprise. I thought I heard him say forskin, so I asked again, and he said, my dental forskin, you know, by gums. Hello...WHO SAYS THAT, OR BETTER YET, WHO THINKS OF THEIR GUMS IN SUCH A WAY? None the less, I was able to get 14 PA's and 4 BW done. He'll be back next week, hopefully he'll leave his creative terms at home.

In the afternoon my grandpa came in. He's so great! I love him tons! He was a class 5, pretty healthy, but did have some boneloss, but mostly a lot of recession. I spaced that we needed a class 5 exam, otherwise I totally would've used him, because truthfully, it couldn't have gone better. I didn't think I'd get done in one appointment, but I did, and early too.

So now for some scary news...I went to the eye dr the other day to get an exam and get contacts. He found that I had a tear in my retina and wanted me to see a retinologist. So on Monday and went and saw him and he told me I needed to have surgery. They think the cause was trauma, but I don't know what I did. It's fairly recent in nature, but they are worried that if I trip and fall, or get in an accident or hit my head or anything that it will tear more and that is a risk they don't want to take because if it's bad enough I could loose my eyesight. SCARY!

So next Thursday I'm going in...I've never had surgery before, so I'm kinda scared. It's out-patient, so I won't be staying over night. The only thing is that it will make my vision blurry for 2wks-a month. That makes cleaning teeth a little hard, so I'll have to miss clinic for 2 weeks. I had to talk to Prof. Bossenberger before scheduling the surgery, and she was so great. I will admit I was a bit nervous, but she made me feel a lot better. I'll just need to make up maybe on some Wednesdays, or some time during Christmas break.

So that's the news thats happening in my life now...

Today wasa good day.

Today was a pretty good day. I started the day off with a patient with heavy calculus. I convinced Instructor Jones to classify her as a class II. I guess I didn't really have to talk her into it, but I took a look at that calculus and I said to myself "there is no way I'm doing that for only a 1B requirement." She did have some 4's in the posteriers, so that classifies as a II.
My afternoon pt. was great. She was a 5 last time, but even though she has quite a few crowns in the back and she's 70+, she has super healthy gums and her teeth looked great! We classified her as a 1B today. Great huh! So I finished with that pretty quick.

On another note, I'm slightly concerned with the fact that we have UDHA this Friday. I have to present a table clinic and to say the least, I don't know what the heck I'm going to say. The truth is, I feel so unintellegent because I can't understand Kami for the life of me! I wanted to look over the girls' thesis from the last year to hopefully understand it in a lanuage that's more on my level. Well, next time I blog, I'll let you know how it goes...hopefully we'll survive the rigirous judges questions, I just hope we don't look like idiots. Pray hard!

Back to the grind...

Well, Here I am back at school. Today was my first offical day back at clinic. I went last Tuesday, but arrived two hours late, due to the fact that I thought I had it on Thursdays, but that's not until next sememster.

Anyhow, today was a good day. I worked on my brother who's leaving on a mission in 4 weeks. He was a class 2 last time, but we classified him as a 1b today. I guess he's been doing a little better. He didn't have a lot of deposit , but he did have quite a bit of demineralization on his straight facials due to his braces. He had a spot on 12 that I think should be fixed before he leaves. He was great and we finished early even, so that wasn't too bad.

In the afternoon my Grandpa came in. I wish I could say that was a breeze too, but it wasn't. I felt so bad because we ended up having to do a physician's consult that we never got back. Apparently he went to a Dr who told him he had a heart murmur, but no other doctor had mentioned it to him, and he'd been to two since. Regaurdless, we had already turned the paperwork in, so we couldn't change the verdict of having to do a consult. We rescheduled him and in the meantime he will get a consult from the Dr who told him he had the murmur.

Although we weren't able to do anything, it was a good learning experience and it was good for me to explain why a heart murmur would require antibiotic treatment.

My goals for next clinic are to finish both patients and get some requirements completed.

Until then...

Good times must come to an end...

My cousins from Cali have been here for the last 3 weeks and we've been having a lot of fun with them. They come every summer for 2 weeks, but extended to 3 weeks this time. We ended their trip here with a bang on Monday the 24th at Willard bay.
Rob took the day off and we all went boating at Willard Bay. We had a blast, but are all really sore from some muscles we didn't even know we had in some places. I tried water skiing and I finally got up...after much work, and went about 20yrds which I call an accomplishment!
My cousin's who have the boat have this huge tube "Great Big Mable" that can hold 4 people....so 4 of us would get on and hold on for dear life! The best thing about it is that it doesn't tip over because it's so huge (see photos). We all had a blast with that! My fingers even hurt from holding on so tight, but to no avail I still got thrown quite a few times, mostly because my cousin Lauren was flopping all around and knocking everyone off. But we definately had a good time and were plum tuckered out at the end of the day! My cousin Brooks would ask if we had a good time every time we got back in the boat and of course we did. At the end of the day Lauren said, "all good times must come to an end" thus being the title of this post.
Until next time...

It really meant a lot!

Last week Rob and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary. YAY! We're half way through a year together, and we're loving it! Our anniversary was Thursday and so I made steak on the grill at my parents and we had a little candle lit dinner on their patio. I think I did pretty good, if I do say so myself. :)
On Saturday we were planning to go to dinner and do something else, we decided to go to the drive-in, but by the time Rob got of work and we got done visiting with family, it was too late to get ready and to the drive-in. This summer I feel like all we do is run, and by the weekend we're so pooped we just want to relax. Needless to say, I feel so frumpy a lot because I don't ever have anything to get all dressed up for. I hate getting all cute to sit at home, so I usually bypass the makeup and jewlery, all the things that make you feel pretty.
With that said, I was really looking forward to saturday so that I could get all cleaned up and go do something fun with Rob and some good friends! When we left Rob's parents I decided that we should just go play tennis because I didn't want to go anywhere without showering and all that jazz and we didn't have time. I told him that I felt gross and I had been looking forward to it, but we could do it another time. (It was a super hot day and I was sweating like a pig!) Rob, as cute as he is said, "how about this, you go get showered and cleaned up and then we'll go out to dinner." I was so excited...I know it's so pathetic, but it seriously meant to much to me! We left our house about 9:30 and got to Chili's (open late) at 10:00 and got dinner and dessert! It was like the best night! It felt like we were dating again! But now...we come home together. We haven't done that in a really long time! It's crazy how busy you get when you're married that you forget to do stuff like that. I had a blast and I'm glad I have such a great husband to do fun stuff like that with!
(Sorry my stories are so long! I don't know why I feel like I need to add all the details, but I guess it's just more for you to enjoy!)

Bet your bottom dollar

Well, with summer and not having to do homework, I've taken to the opportunity to get caught up with some much needed lesiure reading. I'm reading a very funny book called "Bet your bottom dollar" by Karin Gillespie. It is hillarious and really good. It takes place in Georgia and so it's got tons of southern humor. I highly recommend it for a great laugh and a good read.

Oh Beautiful for Spacious sky....

Well, we've celebrated our country's freedom for this year! I was a very fun time. Perry always has a really big small town celebration that I just love! They have a big softball tournament the couple days proceeding in the evening and then they have the games going all day on the 4th.

Rob and I decided to be spontaneous and set up the tent in my parent's backyard (we don't have any grass at our house) on Monday night. That was fun. We woke up to the loud speaker at the park announcing the flag ceremony. We participated while still in bed. ha ha! They have a big breakfast for a killer deal! Tons of food for #3.50. So we did that, then my brother had a softball game we watched. After, we watched the parade, they had a lifeflight helecopter from the U come fly over us a whole bunch of times then landed in the church parking lot across the street for all to see. We went over, but not until after the car show. It was fun, there were only about 20 cars there, but there were some nice ones. This was the first time they've done it too, so I'll assume it will grow in the upcoming years.

After those festivities we settled down and watched Nanny McPhee and took a tiny nap until we were off and running again. We went to Rob's parents house for the "Riley firework show" They had a few other families come over and we had enough fireworks to have chaos and keep everyone entertained for a good hour and a half.

So that's the story of my 4th of July. We had a really good time and it was exciting to see Rob for the whole day. Him and my brother had a good time together too. I think Tyson, my brother, is just really excited to have another boy in the house! I'm glad they had fun!

People never cease to amaze...

Today I got an e-mail from my "long lost" cousin. Let me begin with a little background, might I add that this will probably make me look like someone who has a totally one track mind, but anyhow, here I go...
Back in the days of high school when homework was a heck of a lot easier, I had a super awesome friendship w/ my cuz. She was more like a sister! It was like the bff type. :) Anyway, she was just fun to be with cause we were both super outgoing and had a good time, but we never had to worry about being put in a scetchy situation with each other, we knew what was right and we did it...most the time :). Anyhow, she seriously was a great example to me. She had a strong will to do what we've been taught we should. So when she graduated and moved to school, I really missed her a lot. We would talk often and she would update me on the boys she was dating and so on.
Once while she was updating me she informed me that she had two prospectives, yet one wasn't someone who would be able to give her the things she's always wanted and desired. So it was with great shock that I got a letter one day after not talking to her for a couple of months telling me that she had moved in with him!!!
Now, me being the niave child I was wrote her back and told her that I couldn't imagine she was living with him and not giving of herself...completely. I never heard back, so we'll just "assume" (Hello! Red lights started flashing a little to late for me, but I caught on).
So she's living with this guy who hates, along with his family, everything our family has ever lived for. Somehow things just weren't clicking in my head.
Truth be told, I was very dissapointed in her. I guess maybe I just haven't forgiven her and I need to, I'm sure. It's just hard when you look up to someone so much and they have so much potential, yet they make stupid irrational mistakes. So I yes, I struggle with her. Truly I do, I think it is SO sad! Yet we all have our agency.
So because of this I do better to just keep my distance, probably not the best think I can do on my part. She did marry this guy recently and I did show my support, and with all my heart, I truthfully wish her the best and I really hope she IS happy.
The thing that amazes me is when I think I know all the suprises with the choices she's made, she gets in contact with me via e-mail, or phone and lets me know just one more. Come on! Give me peace!

Sorry for the vent, but I just had to do it! I think one of the hardest things for me to see is someone with such potential, such determination to fulfill their dreams, just loose sight of what they've been doing and give it all up. That's something I struggle with. It's really hard for me to understand.

Moab was fun!

This past week has been great. I got a 96 on my stats final! Giving me an A in the class. Then on Thursday I started a Gerontology class. "Elderly care in rural areas" or something to that effect. The class entailed us going around the state of Utah to rural areas so that we could see the options for the elderly in those areas. The professor started the trip to give WSU students to opportunity to see what is availible in rural areas and possibly spark and intrest so they would consider a career in a rural area. (Very smooth considering the last day of class...) Thursday we started in BC! My dear old home town! We stopped my the Senior center and learned some stuff about the serives offered there, then we went to Tremonton, Rob's home town. (More than likely, I'll be working in a "rural" area, that's where we're from) The senior center there is a bit behind BC, but it stinks that there in a condemed building, they should hopefully get that fixed soon.
Later we went to Logan and toured the Sunshine Terrace, a nursing home that has a foundation that includes an assited living facility as well as an adult day care. By far, they were the most impressive. Very organized, and had a lot to offer their residents.
We met in Price on Friday morning at their Senior Center, and I have to say, I was most impressed with theirs. Very organized and had a lot of opportunities for their community. Later we met at the Moab community center and that was way nice, they just built it and they added a hall for the seniors. Ceramics was big in all the senior centers, except Tremonton.
Anyhow, the focus of the trip in my opinion was the river rafting experience we got on Saturday.
As Dr. VO says "You can't go to Moab and not go down the river." So we had to throw that in.

Summary, 3 credits in 3 days, resulting in my completion of all elective courses for my Bachelors in Dental Hygiene next year! Yippie!

And the summer continues on...

So, this week has been quite busy. Luckily it was a three day weekend so I was able to see my hubby for one extra day, that was nice!

Saturday:
Okay, I haven't been able to remember all week, but it just clicked, on Saturday morning I went shopping all morning w/ my sister in-law Marie. That was fun! Got quite a few fun things! We stopped by Don's Furniture and used up the last of our wedding $ to buy a sofa table that we don't have room for now, but liked and plan to use in the future. Then we went to SLC with Rob's brother and his date. Ate at the Blue Iguana and went to see the Joseph Smith movie @ the JS Memorial Building. It was really good!

Sunday:
We have church @ 9:00 (too early!) so we went and taught our Primary lesson on Moses and the plagues. Then we skipped our sacrament mtg and went home to prepare our talks for my parents sacrament mtg. (My dad couldn't find anyone else b/c of the long weekend everyone was going to be gone.) We gave our talks to quite a small crowd and then went up to my G&G Pete's for a BBQ with my whole family. It was good to see aunts and uncles and cousins! It's crazy how big we're getting, yet small at the same time b/c everyone is growning up and moving out of state with their families, and we're just all busy.

Monday:
It was finally somewhat sunny on Monday, which was really nice! In the morning we went over to my parent's and went running w/ my sister. Then we went home and got ready to go to Rob's parent's for Walker's (0ut nephew) B-day party. It was fun. We went over to their property that has a fire pit and some trails behind it where we went 4-wheeling.

All in all, it was a really busy, but quite enjoyable weekend!

Ah Summer

So, it's May, and almost the end of it! Time is kinda flying by. I'm taking a summer class. Statistics! I was a little scared, I haven't taken a math class since high school. Crazy! But it's turned out ok so far, I had to dig deep a few times to pull out my old skills, like how to square something without a square button! But don't worry, I remembered, you just times the number by itself... it took a whole afternoon of stuggling with my husband's TI-89, but when it clicked, I got rid of that sucker and now I'm just sticking to the basics!
I must admit summer has been treating me well. Yesterday I found out I got a job in Tremonton managing a grill/concession stand for the city recreation department. I finally had to give up the pool, after 5 years with the kids just getting younger and younger than me every year, I had to get out of there. With much sadness, I will not now be getting my dark tan I've had summer after summer for the past 5 years.
Last thing, I'm listening to the new Dixie Chicks album, and I must say, it is quite good....I think I might have to go buy it...we'll see, I've been looking forward to my shopping spree this weekend, so I don't know if I want to get a CD instead of a new shirt. Well, that's all for today. Have fun in the sun!

What a day!

Well, today was the last day of clinic, and it sure was a busy one for me! I did morning and afternoon clinic to get all my patients in. A total of 3! I did two in the morning and one in the afternoon. I was able to pass of the rest of my PE's and all my patients were 1b's that I just had to finish scaling. I started with my sister, then my friend Windsor, then my friend Jimmy came in the afternoon. He almost no-showed on me, and that would've been the worst! But I called him and he diecided to come. It was such a relief! So now...I'm done, met all my requirements and it's such a nice feeling to go on summer break! After two more tests that is...

Two more sessions of clinic

Okay,

So today I was able to clean a 1a. She was only 5 1/2 and had sheet calculus on her lower linguals! 5! She only brushed at night and I don't think it was daily. I disclosed her and showed her mom the areas she is missing. All of her other teeth looked pretty good though. She was super cute. I also took 4 PA's on one of my classmates to fulfill my radiology requirements. Now all I have left are 3 1b patients that I've just got to finish scaling on. I've got a few PE's however, that I really hope I can get done. I hope all goes well!

Crunch Time

So yesterday I worked on my niece, Sydnee. She was way awesome. A 1a patient who I was hoping to do a sealant on her, but her 6 yr molars are just starting to erupt. Instructor Carter showed me to drag my 204 along the posterior teeth keeping the toe adapted and it gets quite a bit of plaque off, so that was a good tip. None the less, Sydnee was benificial because I was able to do a pano as well as get two PE's passed off. I felt bad having her mom bring her all the way up on short notice however, so I bit the bullet and paid for her. $42. Ouch! Oh well, I guess it's it's worth the grade. I'm getting a little nervous however because I've still got to finish my class 2 exam (scale) 4 1b pts (scale) and a new 1A all in only 4 more clinic days! Yikes! I'm double scheduling all of them, but I hope I can finish. I still need to get 4 more PA's somewhere. I don't know where though. Hopefully I can do them for someone. I really hope that I get through this.

CA

Today I was CA, and it was killing me! I would've liked to be working on a patient. I don't know if I'm going to get them all done! It's worrying me! Megan had an elderly patient from a nursing home who needed a lot of help, so Prof Cartr asked me if I would be her assistant, so that's what I did most of the time, not really CA stuff, but it was a good day, I just wish I could've done a patient. Oh well, Monday I've got a patient that I switched with Michaelene, so hopefully she's a good one.

My first 1a

Today I did a child for the first time. It was a good experience. THey are a lot easier because you don't have to probe, only around permanent teeth, and she only had her two mandibular 1st molars, however, one was still coming through. I was able to do a sealant on her however, so it was a good day. She was a cute girl off the resource list and like I said, a good experience.

My brother

So today my awesome brother came in for a cleaning. It went well, however...Let me first mention my Wednesday patient from March 15. I was very frusterated because all I had to do was scale, polish and fluoride. Not to hard, I figured 2 hours AT THE MOST. Well, I kept going around her teeth and they felt rough, and nothing was coming off. I didn't want to ask for a scale check and have like 20 missed areas (not good) so I just kept scaling well, 2:30 came and went and I was still trying to get stuff off. The linguals had a lot of build up and I was able to get that off with the ultrasonic scaler, really cool. But I couldn't get the posteriors smooth. Finally I just gave in and asked for a scale check and you want to know what the diagnosis was...Rough Anatomy! It was her teeth. They're just like that. So I scaled for an extra hour for nothing.

Now back to my brother, you would think I would learn from my first experience, but I didn't. I didn't scale for an entire hour longer than I needed to this time, just a half hour. Hopefully next time I'll just stop and ask if that's how the anatomy is. Anyhow, I did finish him, being that he was only a class 1B. So that was good. Now all I really need are 1A patients. Oh, I was able to do a sealant on Monday as well, so only 2 more of those.

Bye

Didn't finish again!

Okay, so today I had a patient that I've seen before, however, I feel bad because she talks quite a bit and so I feel like I can't just ignore her, so I don't move as quickly and effeciently. Needless to say, she has to come back for me to scale and polish and do fluoride. I feel like I'm never going to get anything done. One good thing however is that she passed for a class 2, so she'll be my exam patient.

I finished a 1B!!!!!

So today was a super awesome day!
I was a little scared because my patient called me last night at 10:00pm and cancelled for this morning. So I begged my husband to come in because he had a meeting in Ogden this afternoon anyways. He had x-rays a few months ago so I was able to bypass that proceedure and was able to finish him in one appointment! I was so excited. I used him as an exam and I think the best part about it was that I wasn't nervous at all! I was able to think clearly and not stop and ask myself what comes next. It went so super smooth! My patient on Wednesday is a lady I work with and I think she's going to be a class 2, so I'll probably use her as an exam as well.

Yay!

Cancellation...almost

My patient cancelled on me late last night, so this morning I was struggling to find a patient. Luckily one of my friends was coming up to Ogden from SLC and he said he would come in. He was a 1b and I used him as an exam, however, I wasn't able to scale him. So he will be coming back. I did a set of BWX, and that was good to get a requirement done. I swear, I don't know if I'll ever be able to finish a patient in one appointment. I haven't done any kids yet either. I'm kinda worried. My goal is to be able to think clearly and know what I'm doing.

Update

I'm not sure why, but blogging is somewhat of a struggle for me this semester. Here is the update on my week.

Monday morning I had an older gentleman from the resource list. Very nice funny guy. He was a class 3! Plus he had a 9mm pocket between 2&3! Cool! So, it's going to be my first time using graceys! Kinda excited. I started to scale just a little bit, but I find that I'm constantly feeling like my angulation isn't right in the posterior teeth.

I need to review Neild! Holy cow! That idea just came to me. Homefully that will help me know what I'm doing, or at least supposed to be doing. Other than that I think it's pretty good. He's coming back so I can scale and finish the appointment. One good thing will be...I will now have the power of an ultrasonic scaler! We learned how to do that on Wednesday, so that will be helpful!

That's all for now!

bye

I finished someone today...

So today was a good day! I finished 4 quads of a class 2! Unfortunately, it was my second appointment for her. But still, I finished with time to spare, so I felt good about that. Now my grand total is 8 quads of Class 2. That's all. So, I've got to get more. I have a lot of pts who need to come back to finish so I hope I'll get them back. I also was able to get my anterior and universal instrumentation PEs done today. So I made some progress. I feel pretty good about today.

My goal for today is to practice scaling on my typodont over the weekend. Keeping the toe in position. That way when I get in a mouth I can know what to do. I stuggled with positions today too, so I need to review that too.

Monday my pt. is off the resource list. I really want to finish him, because Joelle is doing his wife and she'll be done in one appointment and I don't want him to have to come back if she doesn't. It just depends on what class he is. He's older, so he might be more difficult.

Please please please let me finish....

Am I going to get my requirements?

Okay, So today was kinda not so good. My patient came in late. While waiting I was able to evaluate my x-rays from last week. She told me she'd be in at 8:30 and didn't get in until 9 because she thought we were still in building 3. That was a long time ago. None the less, she was really nice and liked to talk a lot, which kinda slowed things down even more. She had a plethura of medications and I think she was taking even more than she put down. Anyhow, by the time we got that all done it was 10:00 and I only had 45 min to get anything done. So, I did 4 BWX and called it a day. I don't even know what class she is. I didn't do extra or intra, nothing. I'm really worried that I won't be able to get my quads done for my requirements if I'm having to bring them back every time. She is rescheduled for March 6, so luckily I'll have the HHX out of the way and hopefully I can finish! At least I learned a valuable lesson that I will implement into my future appointments.

*If I don't know the patient, Call and do their HHX over the phone!

So that's my goal. No matter what; if I know the patient or not, I WILL get the HHX done before they come into the clinic.
Also, today I copied a sequence for appintments from Loni, I think it will be really helpful. I just feel extremly unefficient (is that a word?) in my appointments. When I did my friend last wednesday I felt a lot better and things went very smooth. But today, not so much. I want to be organized and transition smoothly and quickly onto the next step of the tx. Oh, that will be the day!

I've got to get faster!

Today was the first day I worked on a patient that I didn't know. I don't know if I liked doing that so much. First of all, luckily she had pretty good teeth. She flossed daily and brushed at least once a day, so her gums were relatively tight. A couple 4's but mostly 1-3mm upon probing and not to much bleeding. She was a smoker, so that affects how her tissues heal, but the teeth weren't nasty. She said she didn't think she'd ever had a cleaning in her life, which I could belive because she had quite a bit of calculus. She ended up as a class 2 with Generalized marginal gingivitis with localized perio. I still need to review her x--rays.
Second, she was extremely patient, or at least was trying to be. I hate that I'm so slow. Joelle got her patient done from start to finish today. I struggle to get to the OD. Especially with x-rays. I guess it's better because last week I didn't do x-rays and only got the the OD, but today I did them and did got to the OD as well. None the less, it's frusterating. I want things to be clear in my head as to what I do next. I always have to stop and say, okay, now what comes next. I just want everything to flow. I guess it will only come with time and practice.
One good thing about today was I did an explorer PE, so I got one of those out of the way. Until next time...

Another day down

Today I worked on my sister. She was a class 1B. I only got to OHI. Except I forgot what I was doing and disclosed before I did anything so I moved OHI up in the appointment to first thing and then had her brush and finished with OD. If was good. She has some calc that I'm going to reschedule her for to come get cleaned off. I just really feel like I'm so slow and I still don't know what all the terms mean when I'm supposed to record them in the chart. I always forget and then I'm asked well whats the difference between this and that term and I just go blank...I hate when that happens. I need to do better at vocabulary.

Such is life, I'm married now, so who the heck cares right? :) Pretty sure I do!

The semester begins...

Today I worked on my dad again. He came back for round two. I was really nervous because we've been on break for a month so I kept forgeting stuff, but luckily we all survived. My dad was a class 2. I had a chance to scale him so that was nice. First day back and I'm scaling! Prof. Costly said I did really well for my first patient ever scaling and it being a class 2. Hopefully I did. It took a long time to get scale checks however, so I wasn't able to polish or do flouride. RESCHEDULE.

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.