Saturday, February 28, 2015

The Road to: Giving Back! Give Kids a Smile!

One thing I love to do is give back to my community. As a student I do not have as many opportunities as I would like, in fact my options are VERY limited! So when opportunity comes along, I take it! This Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity to volunteer through Henry Schein's Give Kids a Smile.


Just a little about Give Kids a Smile: In many areas, even those with mid to high income, there are underserved children going without dental treatment. GKAS was launched in 2003 for this specific need. What was initially a one day event in February has grown to local and national events year round! Dentists and other team members volunteer their time and services to provide screenings, treatments and education to children throughout the United States. Below you can see me placing sealants with my assistant on one of the children who showed up following our cleaning.


Together we provided free dental treatment to over 150 children in our area on Saturday. It was amazing to help enhance the oral health of needy children, and also very eye-opening to how many people lack the knowledge of not only how to care for their teeth (and their children's) but the importance of it as well. Below is a picture of all the members of my class who showed up to help! 


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

The Road to RDH: WREB Anesthesia Written!

Boards... The word that sends a shiver down every hygiene student's spine!!

I did it! The real deal! 1 down 3 to go!!!!! I finished my exam about an hour ago and I feel really good about it! I will be SHOCKED if I didn't pass. I mean completely bewildered...

My advice: READ THE BOOK. (Malamed's book!) Carry it with you everywhere you go!
OR if you're like me: 
Despite carrying the book around in hopes of reading it, I couldn't really bring myself to study the book (I got bored a couple chapters in) so I just studied previous class notes and that was all I needed!

If you are about to take it please email me and I'll be happy to send you my class notes!! ESPECIALLY if you procrastinated. They turned out to be the perfect crash review for my exam.

Now on to cramming for nationals! I have exactly one month until I take NBDHE... But first a celebratory nap!

UPDATE: I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Saturday, February 14, 2015

Happy Valentines Day!


I'm posting this instead of the beautiful flowers my husband gave me or talking about how adorable he is because while I love him to death, I believe the greatest example of love is what Christ and his Father sacrificed for us. I hope that we can sacrifice and give our love back to our Father in Heaven through service. After all, we serve that which we love: "What we serve we learn to love, and what we love takes our time, and what takes our time is what we love."  -Marvin J. Ashton

Friday, February 13, 2015

The Road to: Access to Care! Lobby Day

The invitation to the left says to sign up for free CEs but as a student, I obviously don't get any of those! I didn't even get extra credit for it. So why did I do it? Because I am passionate about access to care!

Here are some of our talking points from today:

SB0177: ​Amending provisions related to the practice of dental hygiene. 
Sponsored by: Senator Stephen Urquhart

● Currently thousands of Utah residents go without preventive dental hygiene treatment because of the outdated restrictions placed on dentists working with a hygienist. This prevents us from providing care because we are unable to find a dentist willing to regularly leave their private practice to examine people in alternate or public health settings.

● This is not about Hygienists or Dentists though. It is about being able to provide services to the vulnerable and underserved residents of our state.

● Our solution is addressed with SB0177​which will allow hygienists to work together with a dentist or government agency under the arrangements set forth in a collaborative agreement.

● By allowing us to utilize a collaborative agreement, we can increase the access to thousands of residents in the state that are unable to walk through the traditional dental office door. Providing preventive care to our most vulnerable and underserved citizens. 

● 37 other states allow the public direct access to dental hygienists in at least some alternate settings. As of yet, it has proven to be a safe way to advance public health.
The blue states are the ones that currently allow direct access for dental hygiene as of 2014.

I had everything I wanted to say memorized and I was revved up to lobby but it was really anticlimactic. No one wanted to talk to us and pretty much everyone we talked to already supported it! WHICH IS AWESOME, don't get me wrong. I was just a little disappointed I didn't get to harass anyone :) 

UPDATE: Some really exciting news is that SB0177 passed unanimously out of the Senate Health & Human Services Committee on February 18th! Woohoo! Next stop... The Senate floor! 
Follow the bills progress at le.utah.gov


Thursday, February 12, 2015

The Road to RDH: Mock Anesthesia Boards and Dentist's Night

Mock Anesthesia Clinical: 
I just did my mock anesthesia clinical today. I wasn't stressed at all because I have administered the PSA and IA so many times in the past, BUT when I went to set up my unit, there was no chair! I had to run around the school searching for a chair. I found one, but I barely scraped by with finishing my setup before the examiners came. This stressed me out. I was stressed out further when my examiners told me I could dismiss my patient and just left. They didn't watch me dispose of my sharps. I stood there confused and trying not to panic because I was sure I had failed. My examiners returned after 5 long minutes and said "Sorry! You can dispose of your sharps now!" I passed with 100%! And my patient was so great. She was one of the juniors and has never had anesthetic before so she really didn't know what she was getting herself into. I was worried about her being uncomfortable or scared but she told me after my exam that she couldn't even feel my injections at all so she hoped I passed because it was so painless for her and she thought I did awesome. I wish I could use her for my actual clinical anesthesia!
My advice for clinical anesthesia:
PSA (Posterior Superior Alveolar)
More PSA
IA (Inferior Alveolar)
I am kind of obsessed with this blog called HygieneEdge. I watched these videos of theirs several times right before my exam!

Mock Anesthesia Written: My results for mock written are pending. I would love to know right away because I take my written exam on the 25th!! This is what I am really nervous for. I feel pretty good about this particular exam but the actual one I take on the 25th could ask me anything!

I have less than two weeks until written anesthesia and one month until National Boards. To say this is stressful is an understatement! One of my classmates posted this on Facebook yesterday:
"Aaaannnnnddd I don't play tennis"

I got a good laugh about how accurate this is!!!!!! It is so stressful but we can get through this! It will be so rewarding in the end. On a less stressful note:


Dentist's Night
I am co-chair of my school's branch of the Student American Dental Hygiene Association's Professional Excellence committee. We felt that it would be beneficial to our class to meet with dentists and ask them questions about their pet peeves, what stands out to them in a new hygienist, interview questions. etc. We invited a few dentists in the area, fed them dinner, then followed with a Q&A session. They had great input! As a whole we learned:
  1. Dentists HATE bad x-rays. (Of course) These stand out to them in a bad way. SO TAKE GOOD ONES! They also hold you accountable for your assistant's bad x-rays. You are responsible for retaking theirs if they are not diagnostic.
  2. Dentists love it when you can diagnose their patients for them and have something written down for them when they come for their exam. (Ex: MO on 13, RCT 30, etc) I have a hard time seeing carious lesions unless they are quite large so I need to study up on this!
  3. Dentists LOVE bubbly personalities. So even if you aren't bubbly, try to be! They also gave some advice about patient treatment. They said that if you are behind and feeling rushed, do not let your patient know. They can sense when something is wrong. You need to take time when they first come in and talk to them like you have all the time in the world. After a minute of chatting and establishing rapport, THEN you can rush through treatment.
  4. Dentists love to ask jerky questions in their interviews like "I'm a patient that has been going to this practice every 6 months for 15 years. You do my assessment and discover I have periodontitis. What do you say to me?" Your response here is essential because this is real life. You need to be careful not to make your dentist look bad, and you don't want any lawsuits!
  5. They also actually like it (sometimes) if you can be a little personal during your interviews (while still being professional). So if they ask what your goals are it can be OK to include a couple personal ones in your response. Personal = personable.
  6. Do not ever, EVER, tell your patient that it is your first day or that you are new there. EVER.

Happy Thoughts: Kiwi's 1 Year Anniversary

Kaitlin's Cancer Story

One year ago I came home to find my best friend crying. Kaitlin was diagnosed with cancer (Papillary carcinoma) and neither of us knew how to respond to that. I think the worst part of it was she knew something was wrong but her doctor had told her she was fine. She had a couple doctors tell her she was fine. What if she hadn't continued to seek out second opinions? What if she had just accepted their "No. You're fine" despite having blood tests with cancer levels??? Despite having a golf ball sized GROWTH on her THYROID???? I would have just left it at that after being told I'm okay. I am SO glad she didn't as it had already begun to metastasize when it was finally found.

 2.12.14:
"Well after months of doctor visits and being poked with many needles and having many tests done the doctor has confirmed that I have cancer. I will have surgery soon. Glad to finally be getting answers, but this is a lot to deal with right now."
Her mother immediately mailed her a Box of Sunshine. (A package filled with all things yellow! Which is also Kaitlin's favorite color!) It was the CUTEST thing. She also sent her positive quotes in the mail every single day of the week so Kaitlin would come home to a yellow happy thought. It was so creative, oh so cute, and I know that it really helped Kate get through it. She still has all of these quotes pinned up on her wall :)


2.27.14:
She had her surgery within weeks of the diagnosis. They removed her thyroid as well as a few suspicious looking lymph nodes surrounding it. They didn't want to remove too many without being sure, so they biopsied others.
"Just woke up from surgery. Doctor told my parents that it went well. Pain is at a bearable level currently. Thanks to everyone for your support!"

Was this enough? NO!

3.5.14:
She still had cancer, and it had spread. But she remained positive throughout everything. 
"So my pathology reports came back positive for cancer in surrounding lymph nodes. I'll do treatments to kill off what's left of the papillary carcinoma. After this I should be good as new! The hardest part is over!" 
This still had its frustrations though. This was a lot for her to deal with, emotionally and physically. This girl is a major runner. She can run at least 8 miles without stopping. (I'm sure she can run more but that is as far as I am willing to go when I run with her. I'm a wimp!)

 3.21.14:
"You think I don't see you, don't notice how your eyes follow as I run by. The look on your face says it all, "Why is she even trying?" I make my way down the sidewalk out of breath, 1 mile done. I need to walk, my energy is depleating. I wish I could scream out to all of you with your judging looks, "I HAD SURGERY 3 WEEKS AGO, I'M FIGHTING CANCER, I'M DOING MY BEST!!" But you don't know this, you just see an out of shape girl. 2 miles done. Avoid eye contact. Keep running."
Nothing stopped her though. She kept her grades up and continued to exercise throughout it all.

6.18.2014:
Good news:
"Remission!"
8.13.14:
This is a little unrelated to her cancer, but she did another brave thing. She FLEW to California for my wedding. She hates flying, hadn't done it in YEARS (since she was a little girl) and had never flown alone. I had no idea how much I would need her there, as it ended up being a really stressful week. My family was in a car accident the day before my wedding. (My twin brother, my sister, my brother in law, and my cousins.) The car was totaled and they were sent to the E.R. My brother was unconscious with a head injury. I don't know what I would have done without my best friend there to help me keep it together.
"Just booked a flight for the first time! I haven't been on a plane in years and now I will be flying alone! You better love me Jenni!"
9.29.14:
The best news!
"I am officially, 100%, cancer free!" 
Yay! She stayed strong, she fought through it, and I am SO glad. If you are in the dental field, please be REALLY on top of your extra and intra oral exams. I could feel the growth on her thyroid while doing extra oral exams, but only if I really jammed my fingers into her thyroid as she swallowed. It is SO important. Do not EVER skip these exams. You really are saving lives. If you are not in the medical field, please check yourselves! You can find a guide here. And make sure to ask for it at the dental office if you are not getting it!! It's free with your appointment. You can find another inspiring oral cancer story by Eva Grayzel at sixstepscreening.org