I keep promising myself to put up a post at least once every few weeks but one thing leads to another and before I know it days turn to weeks then weeks to months and months to a full semester with no single post. Hello readers! Welcome to my world of constant procrastination.
This semester I haven’t taken time to update you on what we
have been up to. Well, we started our pre-clinics, dental materials and we are
also taking oral microbiology (Should have just been called Viral Microbiology)
If there has been a more exciting and challenging time in
hygiene school for me must confess it’s this semester. Every day we get closer to doing what we are really training to be. Dental Hygienist. We did
our first sealants on our typodonts
(Plastic and rubber model of the mouth with the teeth). The first time we got to work in the clinic.
Time went by so first maybe due to the excitement of being in the clinic for
the first time. It was also the first time we got to wear our scrubs. This was
in dental materials (DH170)
The next lab we got to take impressions of the teeth in the
dental lab. If you enjoy working by getting down to basics and creating
something from scratch the dental lab is the best place you can be in the
dental world. Trust me. We did the impressions of our typodonts again and even
though mine was not that great, a large chunk of it remained in the ‘patient’ mouth.
This is because I let it seat there for
a longer time than expected. I’m really
looking forward to giving it another shot tomorrow. In tomorrow lab we will be
doing sealants and taking impressions on the typodonts at the same time. Hoping
to perfect my skill.
 |
| Doing sealants on the typodonts |
What excites me about these classes is that we have our instructors
who come with a ton of accumulated experience and dedication to match. Mrs.
Ross taking us in the pre-clinic has been at the school since it started the
hygiene program and that is over 10 years ago so she knows the system inside
out. Mrs. Shaffer taking us in dental materials has been in the academia of
dentistry for a long time and is the past president of Northwestern Pennsylvania
Dental Hygienist Association. Sometimes
it just helps when the people in the steering wheel are people who have been
there, seen that and done that. Of course another great advantage as usual is
having some of our classmates who have been assistants before and so they keep
some of us reassured even when we do crappy impressions by telling us that they
will get better with time. Of course it’s always good to hear it from fellow
students. Thanks Elyse and Ashante.
So far the classes are keeping us busy enough as there’s
lots of material to cover and at least 2 quizzes or exams every week.
Pssssst… Marc, the other dental hygiene guy has come up with
a name of his typodont and he addresses ‘her’ by the name. The name escapes me
right now but I’m highly suspicious there’s a history to the name. I’m still
doing my research so has to know how to ‘get’ him if he dare claim one more
stupid thing about me.
Thanks for reading and let me know what you have been up to
or what you think in the comments section below.
