Sleepy Sunday

Last night I attended Debbie's 50th birthday party, which was so much fun. She is the secretary at our school, and I always share my baking with her in turn for first pick of clients. Not crazy, booze filled, can't remember anything the next morning kind of fun, but fun nonetheless. She had some family over, and a neighbor, and there were great amounts of spicy Indian food with meats of unknown delicious origin. I wanted to ask what kind of meat it was, but I thought that might be rude, no? I arrived around 6pm, but we didn't start eating until 10:30pm, birthday cake even later. I think this may be part of the Indian culture. Children were present, and I overheard the parents mentioning that said children, ages 3 and 10, had napped earlier in the day so they could come over. 

Long story short, I got home much later than expected and slept through my alarm. I had previously arranged for a ride from a boy, and had to cancel. In my sleepy state, I agreed to go over later for lunch with his family and a Family Ties marathon. Now this boy is nice enough, but I have zero attraction or interest in him that way. For me to meet the family over traditional French Onion Soup Sunday and participate in marathon watching of the beloved childhood memory kind would just be misleading. Right?  To be fair, I did have an assignment to tackle, and I would like to think that I would commit myself to my homework even if I were interested in him (but who I am kidding). I feel like a total b word for bailing over txt message, but wouldn't it be worse if I went over with a 'let's just get this over with' attitude? 

Must be more assertive. Scowl more, smile less.

Level 3 Clinic

Bear with me while I stress about all things that are required of me in the next 6 months. I am by no means complaining, just making a list so that I can start to visually attack things.

 - 3 Minimal Cases ( 1 with Rads )

 - 2 Perio Cases ( Both with a FMX or Modified FMX ) No Panorex here, just old school PA's and     BW's which is so very time consuming...we're talking 18 pictures of your teeth in one sitting.

 - 2 Senior Cases ( 1 with Rads ) While I love my senior clients, they are by far my most reliable,    everything must be slowed down to their pace. And that pace is very, very slow.

 - 1 Child Case, between the ages of 6 - 11

 - 1 Adolescent Case, between the ages of 12 - 17 ( either adolescent or child with Rads )

 - 5 coronal polish

 - 2 air polish (this one is fun...I spray baking soda at very high speeds in your face)

 - 2 IntraOral Camera ( I like to do before and after pictures with the air polish for a 'wow'         effect to remind my clients why they committed to spending 6 - 24 hours with me in the first place )

 - 10 radiographs attempted, 7 of which need to receive a grade of 80%. Does that make sense? Just some background, if you make ONE mistake on one film, for example overlap or too mesial, or your obnoxious patient moved his big fat head, you get 60% which is a big fat FAIL. 

 - 2 Nutritional Evaluations. Client must keep a record of their diet for 5 days, I write a paper about it.

 - 2 Medical History Evaluations. In order to qualify, client must have a disease or condition and I ask them lots of personal questions about it. This one is tough, because often, our instructors feel that the client is not 'diseased' enough. Well I'm sorry that I don't have cancer patients with mitral valve relapse, diabetes mellitus or Paget's disease knocking at my door.  Although last semester, I was able to get an eval from a child who wet the bed. The teacher wanted to see my ethics in action. 

 - 2 Oral Hygiene Evaluations. Last week I signed up for an eval and barely passed because apparently I 'lost control of my client' because he was brushing too fast. I mean really, it's not like he started busting caps in people's asses. 

 - 2 impressions. Clients phone in and talk about what an impression I have left on them. Kidding. 1 sportsguard and 1 whitening tray. We're only just learning alginate right now and it is trickier than candy making. Spatulate, spatulate!

 - 5 UltraSonic and 5 Instrumentation tests. Must be done on a client with heavy deposit, you sign up that day, and if you're lucky, the instructor might feel like testing you. They did not feel like testing me today.

 - 4 Sealants. Please don't salivate when you get these done. 

 - 30 Deposit Removals. Someone like myself or Eve is 1 removal, Dad maybe 3, heavy smoker man who hasn't seen the dentist in a few years is a juicy 5 or 6. 

 - 1 six week re-eval. I convince you to come back in 6 weeks so I can nag you even more about flossing. 

 - 1 paper about a disease. Crohn's was taken, so I'm still undecided.

 - Out of all the clients I see, I choose one to make a 'case study' and do a big paper and presentation and study models for. I'm thinking of using this one client who has 3 decayed roots ( no crowns left! ), a denture she removes about every leap year, one premolar that's hanging on for dear life and a Class 3 furcation involvement. That is when so much gum and bone has been destroyed that you can see the space between the roots, it looks like a little window. French for window is fenetre, which is the root of furcation. I just say that to myself though, I'm not sure if it's actually true. 

 - 2 Long - Term goals, related to clinic, one of which is research based and one which is a personal goal, and we give bimonthly reports on our progress of said goals.  I think my personal goal will be to have a regular bowel movement schedule. 

 - 2 placements at either a Pedo, Perio or Ortho office, all of which have waiting lists.

 - 1 afternoon with school aged children nagging them to floss

 - 1 afternoon in the community talking about oral hygiene or denture care or sportsguards, something of that nature. I'm thinking about teaching the Firemen...

I think that's it for now. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Now come visit so I can clean your teeth!