Class 5

Today I saw my first class 5 in clinic. I have had several at the VA. I lucked out in that this was a new patient as well. This patient had spent the last 2 years in Africa. She had made mention that she still had her teeth cleaned every 6 months, but that it is not as thorough as an American cleaning. She was maintaining her pocket depths nicely. She had very little build up at all. She was planning to go back to Africa in Dec. 2008. This time she does not have a return flight scheduled. She is trying to get all her dental work up to date before she goes back to Africa. She graduated here at WSU in 2000 in nursing and wanted to not be stuck doing the ordinary. She mentioned that in one area that she has been working in that there has been a lot of military invasions and a lot of villages burned and inhabitants displaced. She has sold her car and her home to fund her trips. Quite an interesting patient!

VA Experiences

Having the opportunity to work on patients at the VA has been very beneficial to me. I find that the environment is what I envision the real world to be like, in a way. The staff to work with is incredible and our instructor is as fair as the day is long! I find that learning under Professor Hanson has been an incredible experience that has proven to be extremely helpful in learning instrument techniques and professional patient interaction. She has been an immense boost in self-confidence for me. Though she will push for an increase in speed and efficiency, she still leaves you with a feeling that she is approachable and a student advocate! I have had patients that have left me discouraged at my lack of knowledge of how to get the cement off their teeth and watch her come up and with the flick of her wrist, show me how to pop it off, leaving me with clinician envy.
So far, the patients that I have worked on have been a delight, pulled at my heartstrings, or have been extremely patient with me as I have struggled to improve my techniques. I have enjoyed working with each one. I have left the VA each time exhausted, but satisfied that I did a little better that day than I did the time before.

Mock board experience

I was very aprehensive about today. I was glad it was a patient that i had seen before so I was familiar with how to attack his dentition. I used my orange ultrasonic for the first time and was pleased at its power to blast that tenasious calculus off. We had to wipe his mouth out a couple of times to remove the large chunks. I felt confident in my submission when I was through and was pleased with the lack of findings of the examiner! I am very glad for the experience without a lot of weight on it.

Mentally and Physically handicapped class III

I tried last night to think of what my patient might need since she has the functioning capacity of a 4-year-old. I didn't know what to think but decided that it would be fine to talk to her like she was my 4-year-old. She was very cooperative. I was able to test her blood sugars to pass off a PE. When I did start to scale her she had a wall of calculus just subgingivally so I am sure that my probe depths are inacurate. She is very hard to clean due to the tenasious calculus. I got to use my orange ultrasonic for the first time.

Exhausted!

Today I had a class IV patient. She was a diabetic and had quite a bit of perio. She also had a lot of malocclusion so it made taking a FMX challenging. I was able to make it through the OD. This afternoon I had a class II, which shouldn't be that difficult. He was a diabetic as well but stated that he was a type 1 diabetic, but was not on insulin. I had to do a physician's consult. It was then learned that he was a type 2 diabetic. We took his blood sugar in that he said that he had not tested his sugar since yesterday as he had run out of supplies to prick his finger. I was only able to get 2 quads done. The calculus was like cement on the UR molars. I had not seen 2 molars cemented together like the mandibular anteriors. Interesting experience.

CA 10-07-08

Today I was the CA. I was left to myself as Mr Solomon had meetings for most of the day. Needless to say I was a bit nervous to run the whole show. The morning went fine. In the afternoon we had a bunch of walk ins that I was able to find hygenists that needed patients for appointments. There was a mother who brought in an extra son to see if he could be seen as well. I consulted with the scheduled hygienist of the scheduled son, she was not able to see a second child as this would be a 3rd patient for her. I was on my way to let the mother know this would not work out today when I noticed another hygienist was finished and just doing paperwork. I asked her if she would be interested in a second patient. I told her I would help with tear down and set up of her unit to help make it possible. She agreed and I informed the mother it would be a few minutes then we would be able to see the second son. We were fast she seated the patient while a prepared the x-ray room for digital x-rays so she could move through her appointment quickly as it was close to time at the end of the afternoon clinic session. Our team work paid off and she completed the appointment in pleanty of time!! It was quite a busy session in helping several hygienist tear down and set up for second patients.. It was great!!

Maloclussion

Today was quite interesting for me. My first patient was my kidney failure patient. I was able to finish him up and use him as an exam as well. My second patient was a 1B, but he had quite a bit of maloclussion, an over-bite of 100%, and an over-jet of 10 mm. His mandibular anteriors were bent lingually. When I first looked at his mouth I paniced! I am greatful for the ultrasonic for those really hard to reach places. It worked like a charm! When all was done I only had one mistake! The patient was quite a pleasant fellow to work with, which helped make the experience easier to manage.