10/23/12

Today I had my first clas IV pt. He had 9-10 mm pocketing. The first quad was the lr, which I felt I had an easier time at then on the ur. Access and using indirect vision made it harder to scale. I used my ultrasonic a lot, along with files. This was a good experience. Completely different when they have such deep and easy access pockets compared with a class II. His next visit I plan to place arestin to help with healing in these pockets. Instrumentation is difficult when it is that deep, due to lack of vision, and crown/root access. The crowns feel like they are in the way to place the instrument sometimes. Good experience, as now I see the difference, and severity of this classification.

10/16/12

Today is Mockboard. I was  a student examiner first, which was very helpful for me to observe the procedures and practice exploring for calculus. In the afternoon I was able to give an IA to my pt. My first experience with a real situation. It went well, but I was shacking when injecting....it seemed a very long slow process. But it did get him very numb. I missed three areas of calculus and 2 recession numbers. I realy felt this experience was helpful, as I now know what to expect, to put a 0 instead of 1 on recession, and to make sure all apex's are in the xray.

10/9/12

Still working on my calculus and explorer technique. My first pt was a class V, I missed a few areas, but learned that when the tissues are tight that the slimline ultra sonic is very helpful in getting under the tissue to clean off the calculus. On my second pt today I used it when I was going back over and saw that I had missed a spot on the anterior linguals, and maxillary anteriors, the ultrasonic helped to remove it quickly. I finished both pt's early today and kept within my time goal. I was also able to complete several pe's including a sealant. Yahy!

10/2/12

These next couple of weeks I am focusing on using my explorer better to locate calculus, and then instrument properly to remove it. This will help me to not miss areas. Our instructor this week, Lis is really good at this. She stands there and monitors everything that I am doing. This helps me to learn how it is suppose to be done properly. It has helped me feel more confident in this area.  THanks! to our instructors who care that we learn. I finished a class III, and a V today.