Probing

Today we learned how to probe. Very exciting. It's much easier than exploring, and because we have been exploring I feel more comfortable just starting right into probing. Celeste was my patient and she had very shallow sulci, so I think it will be good to get another patient that has larger probing depths. Professor Costley came over as I was probing, she always makes me nervous, but she also really helps by giving tips and showing me how to get a better angle or grasp or whatever I need. She always seems to make her way over here when I have my patient in the chair, but I'm glad because I think I learn a lot more when someone is watching and critiqueing. If noone was there to watch I may think I'm doing it correctly when I'm really not. Also our TA Jenny showed us how to chart which was really nice because I've been looking at the sheet wondering how the heck I'm supposed to write everything down. I guess we'll be learning that next week, but it was good to get a head start.

More exploring

I went home and practice over the weekend how to hold my instrument and it helped a lot. Today we just practiced exploring again and I felt a lot more comfortable holding my instrument. I was able to pass off a few more PE's, so I feel like we're really keeping up on that. We also had to fill out another health history thing. It takes forever because I worry that I'm going to miss something, so it's kind of a pain, but I want to practice so that I don't take forever when I actually have a patient waiting in my chair. Well it's off to radiology, I'm excited for next clinic to start probing!!

Exploring

Today we got to actually explore subgingivally on each other. It was kind of scary because we were so scared that we were going to hurt each other. We learned a lot about moving our way around the gums. I need to take home my typodont and instruments and practice. I might even try to practice on my husband if he'll let me. I just need to practice more to get more comfortable with it.
Gina

Intraoral exam2

I accitdentally posted just the title of my blog. So here's the real one. Today we learned how to do an intraoral exam. It's interesting to see how different each person is. For the most part everyone hear has very healthy mouths, but there we a few little spot here and there. There's a lot to think about and look for when performing an intraoral exam. I need to go over the verbage and names of lesion so I will know how to describe any findings. It's fun to be getting further into things. Soon we will be learning how to scale the anterior teeth so I need to get everything else down pretty good before moving on.
Gina

Intaoral exam

Learning to fulcrum

We learned to fulcrum today! It is a little awkward, but it will become natural with practice. We also learned how to do an extraoral exam. Holly R. and I got a little funny while we were practicing. It's wierd passing off PE's for things because I feel so robotic, like I'm trying to remember each little instruction on the PE. I need to read the clinic manual after clinic because I read it before and don't really understand the stuff. After coming to clinic and doing the actual stuff it makes more sense, and then to read over it after I will be able to remember it better. That is my goal from now on, to review the clinic manual after clinic.
Gina

Chair positions

Yeah! We took a lot of time today and learned chair positions. It was fun to figure out what surface to clean depending on where you're sitting. It's nice to actually sit down in the chair and start figuring out how to work on a patient. I like the pod I'm in, the girls are all ready to get going and learn and pass off PE's. We have stayed ahead of most of the class as far as passing off PE's. Today at the first of class we also learned how to take blood pressure. All the girls in my pod had taken blood pressures before, but I hadn't I felt like I caught on pretty easily. I had read up on how to do so actually taking someones wasn't very hard. I'd like to maybe take my BP cuff home and practice on family members, just to get it down quicker. My goals right now are to get a little faster at taking BP and pulse and respirations. I don't want my patients to have to sit there for a long time while I do that stuff. The better I get at it the better experience it will be for my patinets.
Gina

Passing off PE's

Today we learned how to write up a health history and interview a patient. There is a lot to remember on interviewing a patient. It will get easier the more we do it, but doing it today did help to be able to do my case study better. We also learned how to look up perscriptions and write them down on the treatment record. It's going to take a while with our first patients to get eveything written down. Our TA said the appointment times are about 3 hours! Our pod is pretty good, we have really jumped to it and passed off four of our PE's already. I think some pods haven't even done their first PE. I want to really keep up on things such as the PE's so that I don't feel rushed or left behind at any time. The other pods are practicing a lot more on chair positioning and sterilizing of instruments. I think we maybe should do a little more of that in our pod so when the time comes that I have a patient in the chair I feel a little more comfortable. Clinic is nice though, I like the hands on stuff, and I think I'm learning a lot.
Gina