update on me!!
I just got back from a cruise to mexico and it was way fun even though I got sea sick!! It started in LA and then went to san diego then catalina island and then to ensanada mexico. In San Diego Lynden and I went to museums of ships like battle ships and pirate ships and then just walked along the pier. Then in Catalina Island we went snokeling and saw lots of fish then we rented a golf cart and went cruising around the island. there is only one town on catalina island and then the rest of the island is preserved as natural habitat so it was really pretty. Then in Mexico we went sea kyaking and we saw some seals and a lot of sea weed!! it was fun though to be out in the middle of the ocean in a little kyak, kind of scary too!! Then we went and bought some cheap stuff. It was so sad because they seem so poor and then are using there children to sell there stuff. There were all these signs that encouraged tourists to stop child exploitation. To not give any money to those little kids that came up to you trying to sell you Chickletts the gum!! It was hard to resist because they were like four or five years old. And we didn't barter with anyone about price because I just wanted to give them all I had because they were so poor, but the rest of my family did a lot of bartering and they got prices from $25.00 down to $10.00 so Yea for them!! On the ship I ate a lot of food that was so good, my favorite thing was Creme Brule, or however you spell it, but it was so good!! We went dancing and there was a formal night where we dressed up all fancy. We went to live musicals and watched dueling pianos. It was way fun. After I got use to the rocking back and forth motion then I wasn't sea sick anymore but now that I am home I still sometimes feel like my apartment is swaying back and forth!!!
My job is pretty fun but it is hard work. I feel so tired all the time and I sweat to death all day long because I am hurrying and working so fast that I have to come home and shower because I feel so nasty. It is hard to have to spend all day at work and then come home and only have like a few hours to chill with my hubby before I am totally exhausted and have to just crash and then start all over again the next day. I have been trying hard to keep good posture but sometimes I just can't see and have to lean over my patient. I don't think that my skills are improving. My indirect vision is still nowhere near good and my scaling skills especially on the molars are dwindling, it seems like. I feel so rushed everyday and I have an hour with each patient. It just seems like I can't really give my patients all that they need so I am having to do a semi good job. Is this just me?
I use oraqix a lot on my patients especially when using the ultrasonic, which I use on every patient. I have done quite a lot of full mouth debridements and then following that up with either quad scaling or half mouth scaling. I probe every patient but I usually don't write it down. If the patient has a few four probe readings I just mention it in my notes. If the patient has fives, and sixes then I do a perio chart. I give oral hygiene instruction while I am flossing my patient or while I am scaling because there is no time to do it seperate. I use a bitewing rin kit holder to take x-rays so I don't have to take retakes. One dentist that I work for only provides one instrument for scaling, usually a sickle scaler. The other hygienist in the office claim that they can do an adult prophy in 45 minutes. How the freak are they doing that and are they being thorough, are they setting up a rapor with the patients? No they are not!! And it seems like everyoffice I work in the front office person and the assistants think that they know so much more then me. Like the other day the front office person told me that I should be able to clean one of my patients in 45 minutes but she doesn't know. And one assistant was talking to me about apioectomies and then stopped in the middle of her sentence and aksed me if I understood and if I even knew what an apioectomy was. I do let the dentist teach me all that he knows but I do know that I know more then both the front office and assistants. I just don't try to be all knowing like they are!!!
It sounds like I don't like to do dental hygiene but in fact I do love it. I love when I can help people have better health, when someone really appreciates that I just taught them how to floss correctly and they understand why. I love getting to know a lot of different people. I love when I can share with a patient my knowledge of teeth and gums. I love when the people I see for the first time request to come back to me again.
School really was the ideal setting for dental hygiene. I wish that I would have used that time more effectively, trying to really perfect my skills and learn to scale with good posture. That I could have tried to make it how I would do things in the real hygiene world. I should have appreciated that we only had patients two days a week and only like two patients a day because now I see around 8-10 patients a day.
My job is pretty fun but it is hard work. I feel so tired all the time and I sweat to death all day long because I am hurrying and working so fast that I have to come home and shower because I feel so nasty. It is hard to have to spend all day at work and then come home and only have like a few hours to chill with my hubby before I am totally exhausted and have to just crash and then start all over again the next day. I have been trying hard to keep good posture but sometimes I just can't see and have to lean over my patient. I don't think that my skills are improving. My indirect vision is still nowhere near good and my scaling skills especially on the molars are dwindling, it seems like. I feel so rushed everyday and I have an hour with each patient. It just seems like I can't really give my patients all that they need so I am having to do a semi good job. Is this just me?
I use oraqix a lot on my patients especially when using the ultrasonic, which I use on every patient. I have done quite a lot of full mouth debridements and then following that up with either quad scaling or half mouth scaling. I probe every patient but I usually don't write it down. If the patient has a few four probe readings I just mention it in my notes. If the patient has fives, and sixes then I do a perio chart. I give oral hygiene instruction while I am flossing my patient or while I am scaling because there is no time to do it seperate. I use a bitewing rin kit holder to take x-rays so I don't have to take retakes. One dentist that I work for only provides one instrument for scaling, usually a sickle scaler. The other hygienist in the office claim that they can do an adult prophy in 45 minutes. How the freak are they doing that and are they being thorough, are they setting up a rapor with the patients? No they are not!! And it seems like everyoffice I work in the front office person and the assistants think that they know so much more then me. Like the other day the front office person told me that I should be able to clean one of my patients in 45 minutes but she doesn't know. And one assistant was talking to me about apioectomies and then stopped in the middle of her sentence and aksed me if I understood and if I even knew what an apioectomy was. I do let the dentist teach me all that he knows but I do know that I know more then both the front office and assistants. I just don't try to be all knowing like they are!!!
It sounds like I don't like to do dental hygiene but in fact I do love it. I love when I can help people have better health, when someone really appreciates that I just taught them how to floss correctly and they understand why. I love getting to know a lot of different people. I love when I can share with a patient my knowledge of teeth and gums. I love when the people I see for the first time request to come back to me again.
School really was the ideal setting for dental hygiene. I wish that I would have used that time more effectively, trying to really perfect my skills and learn to scale with good posture. That I could have tried to make it how I would do things in the real hygiene world. I should have appreciated that we only had patients two days a week and only like two patients a day because now I see around 8-10 patients a day.
posted by natalie jones at 10:18 AM
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