 Hello again everybody Andrea Mayeski here with dental oil tutoring. I had a student come to me earlier today and they did ask me some very real questions and they made some real comments that sort of brought back memories for me because I remember thinking the same thing when I was a Student and wondering why nobody was ever talking about it Wondering why I couldn't get help, you know, just needing somebody to talk to you So you might be wondering what that is Well, if you're a dental hygiene student, you all remember if you're not there yet Or if you're at the end of your program, you're first day in clinic So I'm not talking your first day necessarily with your student partners But I'm talking your first day in real clinic seeing a real live patient Now it doesn't really make it any easier if you're seeing your mother your father your sister a friend or A patient you have no idea who they are you feel the same things like oh my god I'm working on an actual person now. Yes, your student partners are real people But if you mess up you don't feel as bad because they're feeling the same things and you know that they're as anxious as you are They're terrified to hold up that sickle scalar and clean those anterior teeth Because there's not a lot of ginger by there and you're all thinking and they're all thinking oh my god I don't want to mess this up. I don't want to hurt you I remember when I was a student on my student partner even just simply starting to scale and being like oh my god Does this hurt there? They're like no no like keep on keep on going and I'm like does this hurt? No, it doesn't hurt keep on going like I would just be so nervous and so anxious Now I remember my first real patient She was not only a friend of mine, but she was a friend of a friend And she was a little bit younger than me I'm trying to think how old I was probably about 24. She was maybe 18, you know So she was like a friend of a friend. I knew her from where we used to go camping, right? So you might be wondering oh, that's not so bad like you shouldn't have been too nervous because at least you knew her But I was very very nervous Even the paperwork stuff you are nervous about that too because it's your first time with a real person Going through everything and I remember you know Having in my head to make sure not to miss anything to make sure to write anything down because if you miss something That could be a pass or a fail depending on your school But mine was very very strict where you were allowed to miss a couple things whether it be If you missed writing down the patient's last name will that counted as a full point? And then on the next page if you missed writing down They had linear elbow on both cheeks instead of just one well That's another point, you know So points would add up and even if I got maybe three things wrong or missed three things. That's it I would fail that whole patient So here I'm thinking in the back of my head and you're all probably thinking the same thing whether you started clinic or not like okay You're nervous to begin with to clean somebody's teeth You're even nervous to go through the paperwork because you don't really know what you're doing You know what you're doing, but you're nervous and you don't want to mess up and you want to get a good mark And you want that patient to count and you know that you need a certain number of patients So you're thinking about this all even the first day Your instructors are probably saying to you know what guys just take it easy. Don't worry about it This is only your first day, but you're all probably thinking Yeah, it's my first day to mess up and it's my first day to get something wrong And that will just kind of set the tone for the rest of clinic, you know, that's what you're all thinking Okay, I thought the same thing, you know, you never want to mess up You want to be that student where you're proud of yourself where your instructors are proud of you You know saying things like wow it was your first day, but you did amazing not well You did really really bad today, but don't worry about it. It was your first day So there's so many things that you're thinking about that's totally normal But for the most part you are afraid to start cleaning teeth, right now Let me be honest with you my first patient I didn't do a good job cleaning her teeth at all because I barely touched her You know, I was just so nervous and I didn't really see any plaque I didn't really see any charter. I was afraid to go underneath the gum line So I didn't really check either but here I was you know with my instruments just sort of slowly taking my time Cleaning, you know, I put out my hand. Okay instructor. I'm done now Come on and have a look and she would come over to me and just be like, oh, did you even clean her teeth? Like there's still a lot of little pieces of tartar here You know, did you not see that and I would be like, you know, I'm just so nervous I didn't want to hurt her, you know, but we all say the same thing as an instructor We all say the same thing Don't be afraid to hurt them as silly as that sounds because you do need to go in there If you're not going in there, then you're not cleaning the teeth properly It's easier if your patient has a lot of super calculus to begin with like supra Tartar however you want to say it if they have a lot of supra so above the gum line You can start cleaning that and then sort of get the feel for the motions And then just slowly move underneath the gum and it does help to know the pockets ahead of time So that's kind of the best words of advice that I can give you and you do know the pockets ahead of time because that's part of your Assessment phase that you do to begin with with anyway So if your patient has pockets of all threes and twos so all healthy Then you know that you don't have to go too far underneath the gum line. So go go under a little bit until you feel Resistance and then that's honestly enough and just clean, you know Whereas if your patient has a six millimeter pocket, then you know you do have to go in there pretty deep And those are the hardest ones to do because You're nervous to begin with to even go in there at all So you're you might be comfortable going underneath the gum line a little bit But then a six millimeter pocket you're in there pretty good you guys So do not be afraid to ask your instructor to show you, you know, I suggest doing it first And then just simply asking your instructor, you know Ask them something like oh, could you show me how you would angle your instrument to get into this pocket? Depending on your Instructor they may say you will you should know this so you have to clean it first and then I'll let you know But hopefully you have a nicer instructor who will say sure I would be happy to show you and then look how she's just putting that instrument in no problem And it does go in there pretty deep as I'm cleaning teeth now. I don't even think about it. I'm just in there But I remember as a student watching my hygienist at work because I was a dental assistant And me thinking oh my god. She's just shoving that instrument in there It's bleeding like nothing else and the patient's not feeling any pain. Oh my god They don't feel pain. You have to get in there. So something to keep in mind So that was the hardest thing for me and you might be the same way But that was the hardest thing for me as a new student or as a student new to clinic Was to just get in there if it hurts the patient. It's probably because they have gingivitis It's probably because they have perio But your technique won't hurt them like unless you're horrible But at this point you would not have been able to pass your student partners if you had a horrible technique So does that make sense you learn all of this stuff but slowly and surely so keep that in mind So remember the days when you were in pre-clinic Learning on your non-student partners like you had um, we called them um typodonts So if you call them the same thing, so you have fake teeth where you're practicing on your motions are the same Yes, it feels different being in a person's mouth makes total sense But the motions are more or less the same. So don't be afraid to get in there Okay, and remember we all felt nervous. We all felt anxious our first day I was terrified the first week. I was still terrified but now Looking back. I'm thinking. Oh my gosh. It's just so easy. You know, you get the hang of it Even after the first couple weeks, you'll be saying to yourself. Okay. This wasn't so bad Um, it depends on the types of patients you have So it's kind of nice to have a really hard patient at first because then everything else is easy But you know, you might not be the type of person that wants to have like a dv3 class patient So you might want the healthy ones. You might want the easy ones, but then as soon as you get a harder patient It's almost like you're nervous every single time But if you start off with the harder patients say with a lot of stain Then every other patient after that you'll be like, wow, this is so easy now So it's kind of easier for you to start off with the hard ones Even if you don't pass pass all of your patients, don't worry about it You're not the only one. Trust me. I failed so many patients when I first started so many But I more or less blame my instructors because they I don't know Our school just made it really really hard to pass like I think we were allowed to miss two pieces of charter That's it if we missed more than two we failed that that patient so needless to say there was a lot of Appeals there was a lot of this isn't fair, you know, like even I Probably missed more than two pieces of charter and I've been doing this for 14 years, but Enough about my school. So I do understand when things do not seem fair and when things seem difficult But you can get past these things. So I guess in this video all I'm trying to say is If it's your first day of clinic coming up or if you're still new to clinic if you have questions Don't I mean it's easier said than done, but don't worry too much. We all felt the same way So just think we all felt nervous. We all felt anxious We all barely touched our patient because we were that nervous But it's better to get in to just get in there. It's it's just better You know, don't just don't shut your eyes and get in there, you know, just get in there You can do it and it will get better. It will get easier It's just it is normal to be nervous your first day if people say that they're not nervous They're lying. Okay. They're lying through their teeth. They're nervous. They're terrified And the patients know that, you know, and they do understand that you're a student They're almost expecting you to mess up, you know, and they can't say anything if you do because you're learning This is how you learn. So try not to worry about it too much So I hope this put some of your minds at ease if you're starting clinic very very soon Please if you guys have questions, let me know because I am here to help And good luck. I would love to hear your experiences too with your first day in clinic because that's exciting for me So please let us know. Um, feel free to comment and make sure to Subscribe because I will be uploading videos at least once a week now. So thank you guys so much for watching