Root Surfaces: Dominated

Today was totally awesome! I had a pt return that I had struggled cleaning at her last appointment. She had some difficult root surfaces to clean; what I thought was calculus was just soft roots. I was able to successfully detect calculus from root surface! I was able to complete the remaining quads by 2:45 and passed off my intra oral camera PE. I really like when I feel like I'm improving and learning.

Hard PT

My pt today was an older women that was a Class V. I'm a little disappointed with myself. Toward the end of the appointment after I had spent forever scaling 1 quad I realized I was removing not calculus but root surface. It was a good learning experience so now I know i will be better at differentiating root surface from calculus. I'm going to have the pt and I'm expecingthings to go a lot faster. I passed off my subgingival exploror and scaled 1 quad.

Pt Switch

McCall and I figured out that to help meet our requirements we could switch pts. I saw James and he was a Class II, He had adequate stain and I'm kicking myself that I did not pass off my air powder polish on him. Still I was a good experience to remove the stain. I scaled 3 quads and missed one area on the Distal of # 15 It was a really hard area to get but with great instruction I was able to successfully remove the deposit. At the end of the appointment I showed James His teeth and he said : I can't believe those are mine" We successfully removed most of the stain and his teeth look a lot better. It felt great helping someone!!!

Hard to be 25

My pt today was a 74 year old women that when I tried to give OHI told me "I don't Need some 20-something year old telling me how to brush my teeth" I was hard but a good experience to see someone who was not receptive to OHI. I tried my best and did not lecture. I found she was an Interesting 1B she had some bone loss but not enough to be a Class V. She had a lot more calculus that I would have expected for a 1B I also found that she had some enamel hypoplasia it was a great experience to feel with my exploror and differentiate between the hypoplasia and calculus. I scaled 2 quads.

Great Neighbors

Today my neighbor came in as my pt. She was a 1B and the scaling went well because my pt canceled she came in late but I was able to get 1 quad finished. She is pregnant and I was able to see that her tissues had a lot of marginal redness that was most likely a cause of the plaque biofilm and pregnancy hormones. I instructed the pt to try and be meticulous with brushing and flossing to help improve her oral health. I felt like the appoint went well and that I getting a lot faster with the OD and scaling times.

Jess is done!!

Jessica was my first pt the semester and today I completed her treatment. I felt great I was a little quicker and only had 1 spot missed. I felt like I had some good teaching techniques from Mondays clinic and was able to utilize them today. I found that I was struggling with the Lingual anterior just at the gum line by using a barnhart toe instrument with vertical and horizontal strokes I I was able to easily remove the deposit! It was awesome it felt great to finally improve in that area! My next goal will be again to work on my posture and continue working on getting the distal angle of # 2 and #15. Clinic was great today and I got my pts husband scheduled which awesome!!

Mother In-law

Today I worked on my mother in-law and I found that for me it actually harder to work on people you know (husband and child excluded). I think It was hard to do OHI and feel like your pt is taking you seriously. Compared to someone in their yearly 60s I'm just a child. However I my pt was a class V and I got an OD and 2 quads completed. I really felt that the class V was easier then a class 1b and that was really interesting to me. I feel like I'm getting faster and better at detection calculus. For my goal I would like to improve on my time of scaling and work on my posture.