How am I going to pass boards?!?!

       Ok so this week has not been my week.  I seriously felt like everything I have learned has gone out the door today.  I was not feeling normal while I was scaling...my positions, my angles, everything just felt awkward and not familiar to me.  I felt like I could not get calculus for the life of me.  I could definitely feel it, and i tried hard lateral pressure and I still could not get it off.  I started to wonder if I had dull instruments so I hurried and sharpened them and still ....no luck.  I was getting so frustrated!!! I wanted to give up.  I asked Marilyn to come over and see what I was doing wrong and she says... well its not your instruments so just use more lateral pressure.  I seriously could not get it.  It was my class 3 but still.... I felt I should not have struggled that much.  So she sat in the chair and tried to get it... she made it look so easy almost just with one stroke!  She gave me some good advice one how to get it better and was like o duh why didn't I think of that!  I got thinking, uh o what if it is like this for boards, what will I do?  I guess I will just keep getting better and only hope for the best.  I think I was just exhausted and had not slept very much.  Lets hope next week is better and I will have better lateral pressure and the strength to get tenacious calculus off! 

First Mock-Board!!! Ahhh...glad it is over!!!

Ok so today was SOO stressful!  My patient was so nice, I was glad to work on him.  It made it difficult because he only spoke spanish, but I was able to get by, I had Lizzy's husband be a translator for me and I am so grateful that he was there to help.The flow of mock boards was stressful and I always felt like I was missing a step and I felt like nothing was making sense to me because I was so nervous.  It went well, but it seemed like it just flew by.  Two hours goes by WAY faster than I wanted it to.  Before I knew it it was almost time to get my patient out of the chair.  I am so glad that we do mock boards to help me get the flow of things and then I will be more prepared for boards. It is crazy how you feel like you got everything but still manage to have missed some spots.  I only missed two spots so i was glad about that, but always room for improvement. I still passed that is all that matters.  Half way through the appointment and relaxed and went over what I had done with my explorer really light to help find anything I missed and I sometimes I noticed I would tense up and when i relaxed i was able to have better tactile. 

You would think that scaling one quad in two hours would be less stressful, it is crazy how fast the time flies by.  After I as done scaling I allowed myself 20 minutes to probe and do recession and I think it was enough time to not feel rushed to get him out the door to be checked.  After today I felt a ton of stress was lifted off me.  What a relief to have it over with..... only 2 more to go and then the REAL DEAL!!

I can't control my blood glucose...how come?!

    Ok so today at the VA seriously was such a good experience!  So for my research project our group is doing the relationship between diabetes and periodontal disease and how many patients are aware of the bi-directional relationship.  Well so today my patient had diabetes and periodontal disease as well...when I was asking his our routine questions about his blood glucose number I was in shock at what he said...... 260 I believe is what he said.  I said um.... is that normal for you and his response "ya its always high lately I haven't been able to control my blood glucose and I don't know how to fix it"  So first thing that came to mind, I asked him, how is your oral hygiene?  He was honest and said horrible, never floss, or brush.  I asked if he was aware that diabetes and periodontal disease had a bi-directional relationship and he said he was not aware.  So i educated him about how perio is making it hard for him to control his blood sugars and his diabetes is also making it hard to control his perio if he is not controlling his diabetes as well as not having good oral hygiene.  He was so impressed that I knew all this and had educated him.  It really made me feel good to be able to help him better understand and it motivated him to step up his home care and he promised that he was going to floss and brush properly so he could maintain better health and control his diabetes.  What he found weird was that his doctor had never mentioned this to him and so he had not clue about it.  My patients experience went along perfectly with my research project and I was able to see hands on exactly what my patient knew, and how he reacted after he was educated.  It really did motivate him to have good oral care because he wanted to control his diabetes and I told him it was going to be difficult if he didn't control his mouth first.   It is kind of sad that patients like mine today are not educated about their diseases and complications come from lack of knowledge.  I am glad that I have the knowledge so I can help educate others who are in need!