Finished my 1A's and 1B's this morning and if my afternoon patient doesn't stand me up I will complete my class 3's and my final PE. My requirements will be complete and I will be able to breathe and sleep a little better tonight. If only my WREB test scores would come and I would know for a certainty that I will graduate and be eligible for my license. I am excited to get my resume out there and hopefully someone will think I am an asset to their dental office and give me a job.

Winding Down

After today only two more clinics and one more day at the VA. It should seem like it is going so fast but every morning when my alarm goes off I wonder if I can make it another day. I think I am physically and mentally exhausted from boards and have not had the days or nights to recooperate. I am pretty bummed, I thought I was done with all my class 3's and 4's and found out today I still need one more quad. I sure hope my 3 shows up next thursday since the one I had scheduled today stood me up.

Today was the first day of clinic after boards. It was so much more relaxed knowing I was done with WREB. I passed both local anesthesia exams and national boards. Still waiting to find out about Process of Care and calculus removal. I sure hope I passed because finding another board patient and transporting them to whereever they are testing plus paying all the fees againg would be awful.
If I did pass this next month will be really nice to finish up all my projects and start getting faster with my patients.

LA Mockboard

Today was our LA mockboard, I passed the written, it wasn't so bad. I hope the real written board is like the one I took today. On the injections I failed the IA because I redirected my needle without announcing it and I passed the PSA. I am really nervous for the real thing. I wasn't very nervous today because I know the professors and I am not scared of them. But on the real day I am worried I will be shaking uncontrollably because it is the WREB examiners. I sure hope I pass.

Stressed Out!!!

Only one more clinic day before the real board. I am so nervous. I hope I don't fail. I am getting so tired of these long days of clinic and class and then to go home to all night studying, laundry, kids and a dirty house. I will be so glad when I feel like I have some control over my life and house and don't feel guilty when I am not spending every waking minute studying or stressing.

Today at the VA started out good. My first patient had extreme anxiety. I just kept talking to him about his kids and family and by the end of the appointment he said I made it pleasant for me and that I was going to be a good hygienist. That made me feel good. My afternoon patient on the other hand was a new patient and needed everything done. He had an abscess on his lower molar and because I didn't take a PA of it before the doctor came over, the doctor made me feel like I was stupid because I hadn't already taken a PA of that tooth. Oh well I made it through the day and now I am gearing up for another long day of clinic tomorrow.

Well I took Process of Care today and took National Boards last week. I sure hope I passed both of them because I really don't want to have to retake either one and pay the money. I also had my final mockboard last week and finally passed. I sure hope I can do that well on the real board day. I am really burned out I hope the remainder of this semester goes fast and I pass all my boards so I can be done with the exhausting studying.

Another day down in clinic. The ony great thing about today was both my patients needed injections. The bad thing about today if it would have been boards I would have failed my injections. My syringe was not over the premolars on my IA. If I don't pass all my boards I will probably crawl in a hole and never come out. I take my first board next Wednesday. They say no one fails National Boards, how stupid will I feel if I fail. Other than the fear and stress of boards I love dental hygiene and love the patients, every day is a new experience and I feel I am learning so much with every experience.

Injections

My husband came in today so I could practice injections on him (what a sport). He is my LA board patient so in another month he will let me to it to him again. He should get husband of the year for this sacrifice. I guess I did okay on his injections with a lot of coaching from Prof. Perry.

My afternoon pt I did injections on as well, I did okay on her IA but, on her PSA Prof. Perry said I did a great infiltration on her second molar, my 45* angle was off. I hope I get many more patients before boards to practice injections on.

2nd MockBoard

Well I failed my second mockboard today, but looking on the positive side my score was 27 points higher than last time, so if I can continue to increase on each exam I should pass boards with flying colors.
Today started out as a nightmare. My patient cancelled 5 minutes after she should have arrived. I finally got someone in an hour late. My scale time was cut about 40 minutes and I was so flustered and shaky. When I gave my injection I was shaking so much from all the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I finally calmed down and began cleaning. My patient bleed like crazy and unfortunately the time I had to clean went way to fast and I didn't get the time I really needed to take a breather and go back in and feel with my explorer.
Even though I failed today I am very happy I got a patient in my chair and I got the experience again to clean someone that has very hard tenacious calculus. Even though I have seen class III's and IV' since the last mockboard I don't feel any of them have had the hard calculus like these patients have had.
I am looking forward to the next mockboard and hope I can get better and my patient will not cancel or be late.

I was really nervous to go back to the VA after a long Christmas break, but it went well. I had two patients that were class V. They were both very nice and made the day go fast and it was fun. Today I saw my special needs patient, I gave her Nitrous Oxide, I wasn't planning on doing it so I hadn't reviewed my PE so I was bummed I couldn't pass it off because I needed help remembering how to turn it on. She was a great patient and seemed very relaxed to be on nitrous compared to last time when she was very jumpy.

Spring Semester Senior Year

Today is our first day of clinic of our final semester until we graduate! We are learning taleval before our patients show up. Today I have a 1A and class 4 scheduled I hope to start this semester out right both my patients show up and I can remember how to do everything. So far this semester I am feeling a little overwhelmed with signing up for boards and feeling like I have so much to still study and I am very worried about clinicals because I have only done injections on one patient.