Today was my first day of practicum ! I will admit, I was nervous, but not as nervous as I thought I would be when the day finally came ... it seems like 5 shorts months ago, the term "winter practicum" seemed totally irrelevant cause it was so far away, but it's really here !
I got there early, and the morning CDA was really helpful and nice! She seemed like she really wanted to TEACH, which I loved.
The day went by pretty smoothly; I spent the morning mostly helping clean the rooms after each patient and a little bit with the sanitizing of the instruments.
In the afternoon I sorta got thrown into chairside, which was GREAT. I was REALLY nervous, (I was hoping that no one around could see my heart beating out of my chest!) You leave school thinking you're set, because you've done all of these things before... but what you neglect to take into account, is that you've only ever worked on MANNEQUINS! In the real world, where people move, and have tongues, and real cheeks, and saliva, and make sounds... THINGS ARE MUCH DIFFERENT!
It was also interesting how many of the tasks that legally a CDA can do, that the dentist did himself (and all dentists do). This made oral evacuation more difficult because I was used to doing it alone as the operator, when in this case, I had to find my way in around the dentist's hands and tools already in the mouth. It was tough, and I definitely wasn't perfect, but my dentist is WONDERFUL, and the CDA's were great, so with help, I managed to pull it off ! By the end of the day I was doing the complete room change overs and all of the sterilization myself !
I feel a lot better than I did this morning. I can't WAIT to get more responsibility and to learn more ! I loved how willing the staff was to let me try things even though I wasn't as quick or as skilled as the CDA's in the office.
Overall, a wonderful success ! Today made me so much more excited to finish learning, and to make this MY profession. (Although I still think I belong in the hygienist's op.)
A huge thank you to my wonderful practicum office !
PS. I know this comment will be controversial, but I stand by what I've said before... that there is something just so handsome about dentists. No matter what they look like, something about how they work, and how they explain things... I just love them ! Hooray for dentists !!!
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