Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The Road to RDH: Exploring!

We're exploring now!! On each other! It is so cool to be able to feel calculus but it also drives me CRAZY because when I find it, I just want to scale it off SO BAD!!!! We are learning sickle scalers on each other soon and that is going to be the best day ever!


Thursday, October 24, 2013

The Road to RDH: Intra Oral Exams!

We learned the intraoral exam! That is what my group project is on in Hammond's so it will be helpful to understand it more! Our mouths are amazing, there are so many different variations of normal that I just find fascinating. (Melanin pigmentation, geographic tongue, etc.) I had never heard of any of these variations before school, but they are so common! Every single one of these conditions is present in at least one student of my dental hygiene class! We also learned gingival descriptions which, coupled with probe depths, are essential for diagnosing gum disease! 

Below is a photo from a video we made for our presentation!



Monday, October 21, 2013

The Road to RDH: UNC 12s!

We learned how to probe on typodonts today. I am both excited and scared to start probing on real people! We get to use our UNC12s on real people tomorrow!!!! No more typodonts! I am so excited and nervous at the same time!! Things are getting real :)))

I went to extra clinic this morning and got extra help on probing from Ms. Lewis because I don't want to hurt my patient! She taught me how to properly adapt to the tooth and fulcrum and all that at the same time! 

UPDATE: Lingual anterior probing is so difficult! The mirror really turns me around!  It was confusing at first but after doing it on Courtney in clinic I think I get it! It went well! I think I learn better by doing than by reading about it in class. BUT IT IS SOOOO COOL TO WORK ON PATIENTS!!!!!!!! SO cool! Another one of the girls in my class was just recently a Boards patient, so she has some deeper pockets still, and it was really cool to be able to learn with that! (The instructors let us switch partners so everyone in our team could get the experience.) This experience showed me that the difference between healthy gingiva and inflamed gingiva is night and day.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

The Road to: HeeHaw Farms!


We planned a trip to HeeHaw Farms with a few girls from class. It was so much fun to go to the pumpkin patch, go on a hay ride, and carve pumpkins! It was great to bond even more with my classmates! I can't wait for our Halloween party soon!


Thursday, October 17, 2013

The Road to RDH: Extra Oral Exams

I got to be partners with Brooke again today: that was fun! I missed her. I passed off my extra oral exam PE with her. I love the concept of intra and extra oral exams. I can't imagine any patient ever getting mad about us checking them for cancer. Especially when the extra oral exam feels like a head massage!!! Cancer screening saves lives. We haven't learned intra oral exams yet, so far just extra oral ones, but I am so excited for that day!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The Road to RDH: Free Toothbrushes!

Perks of being a dental hygiene student: Oral B came to our school bearing gifts! $170 worth of product for free! Each!
Thanks Oral B!! I can't wait to start using my new electric toothbrush! And the mouthwash is so gentle! It's great!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

The Road to RDH: First Bitewings!

Today my group took our first ever X-RAYs! It was only on Dexter, our lovely fake head, but I am so excited to learn all of the techniques! Dental x-rays are ESSENTIAL for our field and I can't wait to be a part of such an important aspect!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The Road to RDH: More Health Histories and Vitals

We got new lab partners and CIs today. My partner's name is Courtney and I'm pretty sure she's the youngest girl in my class! We're doing real health histories on each other instead of the mock health history assignments from last week which I think is kind of fun! Health Histories should help keep me on my toes for my entire career. Everyone is different which is what I love about dental hygiene: variety! Plus I will constantly be learning about new drugs/illnesses and I love learning :) We are also doing vital signs, which are so important to do for every patient! I don't think I have ever had my blood pressure taken at the dentist, but I will be sure to take vitals on my patients because it's possible we could catch someone with high blood pressure without them even knowing that they have a problem! I've heard some pretty crazy stories about this!

What I learned about Courtney:
-She REALLY likes to run
-She will do just about anything for anyone. Really. This girl is SO sweet and such a team player. I am glad to be around someone like her!