Ooops!

Today my third patient of the day was a woman who had a full upper denture. I had her remove it and then I went to the back to start the fizzy cleaning. Once I had finished cleaning the mandibular arch I went and retrieved her denture. I rinsed it off in the sink in my op. then went to place it on the patient tray so the Dr could look at it and her tissues when I dropped it on the floor! I was so embarrassed that I had dropped such an important piece of dental work!!!! I look around trying to locate it when I realize it had rolled/bounced under the patient chair! Freak! I had to lift the chair up and consequently the patient so I could achieve access to the piece of platsticy resin. I immediately retrieved it and ran to clean it again! I am such a klutz. I am pretty sure she hates my guts! What is even worse is that her husband was my fourth patient. He and I had a great hour flirting and chatting about life. So when I walked him up front she is there and he is still flirting away and I am sweating because the wife is on the other side of the counter. So when you hear about the skanky hygienist who drops dentures under the dental chair and then flirts with husbands you can say.....'Hey I know her!'

Next subject is Oraqix. I want it in my office. My dentists will not get it. They do not think that it is something worth investing in. I think I want to get it myself but since I am a greedy person I want to charge my patients a fee for the use and then I would get that fee. What is y'all's opinion about that? Do you think it is something I should look into? I am pretty confident that i could 'sell' it. I have become very good at it. For the second day in a row every adult prophy I have completed has chosen to have a fluoride treatment which insurances usually do not pay for and my office charges $21--pure profit for my Drs. I have already had several SRP patients who do not want to become numb, they would rather have something to take the 'edge' off without receiving a full block. I know I could get my money back, what I am wondering is what you guys charge in your office. Is is already part of your SRP fee? Does anyone out there charge for Oraqix? Anyone? Bueller?

Thank You to all the Moms out there!

I just got home from spending the last 48 hours babysitting a 13 month old boy, Kaden. He is adorable. I had such fun with him. We laughed and giggled this weekend while his parents wen to Vegas for the weekend. It was their first time away overnight. So while they were enjoying Phantom of the Opera I was getting chocolate pudding everywhere! Right at this moment I am so proud of the moms in the world. You all have had to work so hard to keep children fed, diapers changed, baths taken, bottles fixed, dishes washed, clothing washed, walls washed, walks taken, ball played, naps taken, toys picked up and 1,000 more things done daily. THANK YOU for all you do for your families!

Right at this moment I am also thankful I am not a mother. I know I am going to age without anyone around to care for me and that makes me sad but at least I get to sleep through the night! I am just not ready to be a full-time mom which is what you are whether you work or stay at home. It is a lot of work and I am not used to it. Well I am off to teach 3 year olds that Jesus made the night and day for us for 2 hours. I just hope I have enough patience, energy and love left to give.

Advice Needed ASAP

Hey RDHs out there in cyberspace, I need your help! I am still struggling with calculus deposits at the base of the pocket. You know the kind that is down there yet the tissues are tight and all your instruments are to bulky to get around the deposit to get underneath. I usually end up scraping the top on the deposit until I can get it broken down enough to get under it. By then I have purple tissue that is severely damaged and all I can think about is how glad I am that I am not taking my boards right now because the amount of tissue trauma I just caused would flunk me. So then I think I am a failure as a hygienist. So I really need some help from you guys. How do you get that deposit off. In this one particular case I have a 6 mm pocket and I have used every tip of the ultrasonic (like the pink and orange ones that are huge meanies). Then I use all Gracey's I have....the rigid, non-rigid, and the after 5 mini ones. I have used my Montana Jack subgingivally....ouch! so what else is there? Let me know what you use and I can purchase one. I could really use some ideas! I feel really bad about causing so much tissue trauma but I had to get that deposit out of there......HELP!!!!

Best Weekend Ever!

I just had a really good weekend. I went up to Salt Lake City for the annual Utah Dental Convention. It was a really good convention--mostly because I got to see tons of people! While I love living in Cedar City I miss my friends and associates that live in northern Utah. I hung out Thursday night with Aimee, Emily, Candace and Desiree and Pam. We went to The Old Spaghetti Factory. It was very yummy! We had great conversation and it was wonderful to hear about all their lives and what they are doing. Friday I went to the Happy Sumo with most of 'my girls'. We were missing Melissa and Maria! Korbin, Heidi, and Natalie were there though. I loved being able to talk to them about work and dental hygiene! We worked on fulcrums, instrumentation, when to refer to a periodontist, injections, and rates of pay. I am so glad that they were there for me! I really needed that time with them! There was one moment that outshines all the rest...it is when my girls told me that they all purchased one of the cute RDH bags WSU SADHA was selling. I almost cried! Realizing that they valued SADHA enough to purchase these bags without my influence is the MOST amazing feeling of pride! Way to go my B-to-the ITCH-As!!

I stayed with my dear friend Andrea for the weekend. I arrived Wednesday night. Andrea took me to Joe's Crab Shack for some yummy shrimp! We went to Macy's to get breakfast food and I saw my favorite treats ever....cinnamon hearts with sugar on the outside. I bought 5 million pounds! We then rented Nacho Libre! I have not laughed so much at a movie for a long time! It was amazing. Jack Black was freaking hilarious! The accents and phrases he used were too funny and I cannot stop quoting the movie!

Saturday Andrea and I attended a Mary Kay party. We received some beautiful make-overs! Anyway, I was looking good and to boost my self esteem a cute man followed us off the freeway. We were having such a fun time flirting but alas he turned a different direction. Later that night we went to a luau for single adults. It was a lot of fun! The dinner was amazing, the entertainment was top notch, and the dance was alright. There were a lot of fun people there having fun! Then on Sunday we attended 3 hours of church in the dark. The power was out yet the good 'ol Mormons carried on and persevered in the dark! It was intriguing to me that a whole congregation and I squinted at the finely types pages of scripture and kept our shoulders to the wheel....What a great experience!

This whole weekend made me want to move up north. The pros are a larger social demographic for me, my hair girl moved up there, Andrea, Korbin, Heidi, Natalie, Andrea and I would start a book club, and the hourly rate is higher. The cons are Cedar is my comfort zone, no inversion/air pollution, I guess that is it....So why am I living down here? Good question! Well until later x o x o XX oo xx OO x ha ha ha!

Yes, this is a fantasy...

Ok so I love the disclaimer on the new Ford Edge commercial. If you have not had the pleasure of viewing this commercial-or if you did and missed the note at the bottom of the screen, I will tell you. As the Edge is driving around on top of a building it reads 'Yes, this is a fantasy. Cars cannot drive on buildings.' I love it! I love that America can make fun of their own stupidity. I mean it is ridiculous to even have to state that cars cannot drive on buildings-I know it is because of the false advertising laws etc-I would really like to think people would have enough common sense to realize that cars cannot defy gravity in such a manner. The fact that Ford took advantage of the blatant obvious fact and had a little fun with it made my day!

Winter Wonderland

I went to Delta this weekend to celebrate my nephew's 5th birthday. He is such a cowboy now. It makes me shake my head and thank heaven he does not have or want a mullet! I have a cute pic but I cannot get it to rotate....man I wish I wasn't so computer deficient!

Delta also experienced it's usual fog. It is wonderfully thick which results in all the trees, power lines, fences and pretty much anything outside to become covered in inches of frost. It is really beautiful. This is a picture of the small lilac bush outside my parents house there are also some sage brush edging the field across the road.
This next one is of the other bushes in my parents yard. I am also not a herbologist...where is Professor Sprout when you need her? Anyway, I think it is so beautiful in the morning before the sun burns off the fog and melts the frost...if the temp gets above freezing which it hasn't for a long time (it has been -24) . The pictures have a bit of blue in them and it makes me shiver even now.
I had a great weekend with my family. My mom made a wonderful turkey dinner. Brent made the best mashed potatoes-these are the only potatoes I will eat, willingly. We then played Settlers of Catan. I ran out of road pieces so I could not steal the longest road card from Brent...arggghhh! Earlier that day we rented an old school VHS of Willow. I love that movie and had forgotten just how entertaining it is. Val Kilmer sword skills might not be as great at Vigo Mortenson but he looked good in a dress! I really could use a 'brownie' to send some fairy love dust my way. And how many Nelwyn's did they find to fill the entire village? That is a lot of height challenged people!

I have completed my second week of full time work. I do not think this trend will continue and it makes me very upset. I really want to work and it is frustrating to be denied....Who knows what my future holds maybe Boise will get me afterall.

What the hell?

Yesterday I had this patient that we in the dental world call a PITA (pain in the ass) patient. I was warned that he would start telling me dirty jokes. Now it is one thing to hear an off color joke from a friend but to hear one from a old trucker guy with an oxygen tank is totally disgusting! He starts to tell me a joke and I stop him and say 'Is this going to make my ears burn? Cause I do not do that.' I was dead serious. Luckily he did not tell me any dirty jokes just lame ones about politicians. Anyway I took the xrays and noticed radiographic calculus. I was pissed as hell. I was hoping that the xrays lied. I started probing and shit they were right! So now I have to bring him back for SRP for 4 quads! I am not happy! Well luckily I saw him again today. He starts off telling me a joke he told me yesterday while looking at my boobs. So now I am pissed....which surprises me because last night I went to a piano concert and wore a great sweater that screamed look at my boobs...I just do not understand myself....How dare this PITA patient stare at my chest! Sometimes when I start concentrating I have been known to close in on my patient and give them a free boob rub. Today I made sure that he was far away from me even though the mesial of 20 and 27 were buggers and had huge boulders at the base of the pockets. Then Mr Pita tells me that I could take him home and that he is an excellent chef and would cook for me. I told him 'no, I would get in trouble'. He was all of the sudden afraid and said that he would have to watch himself because we were both attached. I said 'Yup'. He asked if I was attached and I was a little offended. I mean he is alright flirting, telling dirty jokes, and boob drooling as long as I am not attached. I mean he is freaking married! So I looked him in the eye and said No I am not attached but YOU ARE! He started apologizing about being such a flirt. I just ignored him. I was done with him and his stories about how much he missed 'hanky panky'. Yeah...can you believe he told me that. I was instantly transported back to the pharmacy where I had to endure the details of a dirty middle aged man whose 'monkey' was limp. Damn. Why do people have to tell their health professionals intimate details?

Bre...funniest thing happened today. My third patient today was reading a book. Yup, she was reading Xenocide...book two of Ender's Game. I laughed and told her all about you! Then her husband comes in and we start talking about the books and he jokingly starts looking around for sand to comb straight...you will know what I mean when you read the rest of the series. I think the series are worth reading even if they are not my favorites. Thank you for the new books to read! I will be looking into 'Water for Elephants'!

And to my newest fans at CDC...welcome to my little world!