Rinse and Repeat

~WASH~WASH~WASH~

Who know washing your hands could be so detail oriented? I have heard of singing the ABC's or counting to 30, but I have never heard of this method. Three 15 second intervals.
     1- Focus on the palms and back of your hands. Rinse.
     2- Focus on the inter-digital. Rinse.
     3- Focus under the fingernail area. Rinse.
     4- Dry hands completely before putting on your gloves. (We don't want any hands chaffing)
You never knew there could be so many steps to a "simple" wash, did you?

~CLINICAL ATTIRE IS ESSENTIAL TO LIMIT THE SPREAD OF GERMS TO YOU AND YOUR LOVED ONES~

     1. Hair must be pulled back into a bun, no strands of hair falling in the face area, and no more than 4" hanging down in the back. (Failure to comply= hairnet, aka: unattractive)
     2. Earrings may be worn, but they must be studs and easily wiped off.
     3. Scrubs, hemmed to not touch the floor. Shoes only worn in lab and also easily wiped off, lab jacket (pressed) to be worn in all clinical area's.

*We  take all these precautions in order to keep our patients, ourselves, as well as our family safe.

~WASH HANDS~MASK~GLASSES~3 WASH~GLOVES~

This is the what happens every time we enter the clinic. We wash our hands, put on our mask, get our protective eye wear, wash our hands with the steps above, and finally put our gloves on. Now we are ready for treatment. :)

~Blue Boa~

Ann Arrington is the inventor of the Blue Boa. This is a saliva ejector. It hangs on the patients cheeks during intra-oral procedures to keep the water and saliva from gathering in the back of the throat. You tilt your patients head toward whichever cheek the Blue Boa is sitting in. This is a BRILLIANT suction and I would definitely recommend it!  Go to http://www.theblueboa.com/ to see the awesome video.

~Typodont~

Today we got to use our typodont for the first time. They are pretty crazy! They are basically a mouth with lips around it so it "holds" any water you shoot into it. This is what we used for our "patient". The only bad thing I thought about the clinic was that we had about a half hour to play around with the A/W syringe. There is only so much you can do with that thing. :) Overall, pretty chill clinic. At first I thought it was creepy. After "working" on it, I think it's awesome!

First Day!

Today was the first day of our Dental Hygiene studies. I will not lie, I was very nervous and barely slept last night. I had to keep reminding myself that others have survived and I would too, as long as I worked hard.

I live about an hour and 10 minutes away from WSU. I had an early start so I could have some time to relax when I got to the school. Long behold, I got about a half hour away and realized I had forgotten my lab coats. Ryan, my husband, was very kind and met me half way between. Good thing I left early!

Moral of the story:

Get everything ready the night before

and

Everything will work out if you give yourself some time for mistakes.

7:50am - Radiology Lab:

Today was a pretty chill day in Radiology. I have a little experience with the x-rays so I figure this as a review.

We watched a video on the different parts of the Radiology operatory equipment and how the x-rays are taken.

Continuing to the lab, we met "Dex", our plastic model, and took a few x-rays on him.

12:20 - Pre Clinic:

The day started out with us introducing ourselves. It turns out the Dentist in the midtown clinic that will be helping us out, is the brother of the dentist I worked for as a Dental Assistant.

We had a few different activities today to help us find our way around the clinic.

Our scavenger Hunt had us find area's in the clinic like glove and mask storage, and Emergency Response Kit.

This was very helpful to me because now I know where different items and tools are located. 

I struggled a little with the Eaglsoft program at first.

Once I got a hold of what I was doing and slowed down a little, it made more sense.

I had the most trouble with making myself someone's "Preferred Provider". After the teacher came to help, it was all good.

The advise that stuck out above the rest:

"The teachers are here to help you. They are not your enemy's".