Cementum or Calculus

Today was Janette's first day as a dental hygienist. Who is Janette you ask your computer screen....well she is the newest member of the Cedar Dental Center's team. She graduated from Dixie State College in May and has successfully procured a job at my office about 1 day before I knew Candice was moving down (but do not worry about Candice-she beat out 4 DSC girls for a job at a really good office here in Cedar! Way to go girl!). Back to Janette; since today was her first day it reminded me of July 6, 2006 which was my first day. It has been a great year. I cannot believe how fast it has gone. I have had so much fun at work that it does not seem like I have spent any time there at all. I have had backaches, finger cramps, wrist throbs, neck tweaks, shoulder twinges and my share of bad breath....from my patients not me.... but it has been a great 365 days.

Even though I have graduated and passed all the board exams I learned more this year that I ever thought possible. Luckily I have had some great mentors and friends who have helped give me advice through this blog and over the phone. Thank you to all you ladies who have helped me. So here is yet another question I have been trying to deal with. I had a patient who had 11 mm of recession on the palatal of 15. Pretty much that whole palatal root was exposed. The pocketing was 9mm on distal and mesial with 4mm on straight palate. There was not any mobility-HUGE roots. Anyway the root surface was covered in this soft substance. It did not look like calculus or feel like calc but I did my best to remove it anyway. I fear that I was removing cementum. This brings up the quandary of when are we removing cementum-which the PDL needs to reattach to the tooth- and when are we removing calc? I know we have all seen the aggressively scaled root surfaces and know that we can and do cause damage. So when do you leave that roughness on a root surface and when do you scrape that root smooth? In school I was taught to remove EVERYTHING, to get the roughness off and to have perfectly smooth teeth before getting a scale check but in perio class we were taught that Scaling and Root Planning was a procedure that could be too aggressive and going out of popularity.

Today I clean teeth to the best of my ability--which is SO much better that when I was in school! I try to get every deposit off of each tooth and I try not to be too aggressive on those fragile root surfaces. I hope I am doing an ethical and professional job.

A Month Later

You know nothing takes makes you appreciate the goodness of life like a vacation. I just got back from 5 days in Savannah Georgia and 2 days in Las Vegas and Mesquite. So now here I am in the cold Cedar City summer....95 degrees. And thinking to myself how I used to think it was hot here....


Ok so here is a little bit about Savannah. First it is full of trees. Kylie (my brother Dave's girlfriend) asked me it I was afraid to trees because I kept talking about them. I laughed and said if you had been to Utah you would understand....there are no trees. Anyway the trees all have this spanish moss growing on them and it is spokily beautiful!
We took a tour of the Sorrell mansion that was in Ghost Hunters tv show on the Discovery channel. It was cool to see the old house and hear about all the spooky things that happen there. Savannah is the most haunted city in America and there was always someone ready to tell you about their sighting of little girl ghosts etc. We even did a haunted Savannah tour! The drivers laugh was annoying but it was really pretty interesting hearing about murders and suicides and mayhem!!!





This is the Savannah River. Yup I said RIVER! The cargo ships come right from the ocean and ferry up the river. It is not a very wide river but it is pretty deep!

Since Savannah is so close to the ocean and shrimp boats they have the most amazing seafood. I ate so much shrimp, flounder, crab, etc while I was there I swear my pores smell like seafood...just kidding. I did eat a lot of seafood though!

This pic is of Dave looking off into the distance as all Jones' do. Kylie saw my blog and laughed and asked about the Jones pose. She did not know what it was so when Dave struck the pose in his army pics she wondered what he was smoking in Iraq. Now all his army buds do it and the wife/girlfriends laugh because now they know where it came from. So in the background is a bridge over the Savannah River.

This pic is more straight on of Kylie, Dave and Karla. Karla is Dave's other mom. She is affectionately called our 'dirty mom' because she is as sweet as our mom but dirty:) All kidding aside...she is a wonderful person who I have grown to love and respect! She lives in Panguitch and met Dave when he was working at Panguitch Lake.

This pic is of Fort Pulaski. It is the east wall-toward the ocean. It was build to help defend America during the Revolutionary war. The holes are actual cannon ball holes. This fort oozed history. It was humbling to stand on the same ground and touch the same bricks that men of honor did so many years ago. I am so thankful to them for fighting for our independence! I took so many more pics of this great fort but will spare you the boring history lesson! I just thought this east wall--surrounded by a real moat--was blog worthy.

This is the flag from one of the stairwells at Fort Pulaski. It was very emotional for me....sniff sniff. God Bless America!!!!! God bless the soldiers who are fighting for freedoms all over this world!

This next one is of Dave. How cute is my brother in his full gear? Man we are lucky to have him and his friends serving for us! LOVE YOU DAVE!!!

Teton Extravaganza

The Tetons rocked! I had so much fun! This is me and my sister Jo Ann. We are riding the ferry across Jenny Lake. My brother Brent's friend works at the dock at Jenny Lake and he gave us the hook up-free boat ride!!! If it looks cold that is because it was!

Then my brother Daniel wanted to pick up Jo Ann like the Jeep commercials! We were right on but when I took the pic a huge gust of wind came and the alignment was off.

This one is of my brother Brent. He is such a character! We were hiking to Hidden Falls near Jenny Lake and saw the boulder and had to take the opportunity for a great photo op!

Now this picture is a typical Jones look-into-the-distance pose. The man taking our pic asked us if we were going to look at him. We all said no and kept gazing off in the distance. Just a side note Daniel is wearing my WSU DH jacket-he forgot one and submitted to wearing mine-ha ha ha!

My high school friend Shawna works at the Pioneer Grill at Jackson Lake Lodge and got us a great cabin at Coulter Bay. It was not even like camping....2 double beds and a twin (so my bros did not have to be Green And Yellow--G A Y). We had our own bathroom and shower with actual hot water! It was so nice. THANK YOU SHAWNA! We ate breakfast at the Pioneer Grill the morning we left the park. It was delicious. We were not adventurous enough to have the trout breakfast which my Dad claims is the best Well he claims that fresh caught trout eaten for breakfast is the best, he is not too sure about the restaurant. She drew us about 4 different scenes with moose in them. Which rocked because my number one goal was to see a moose!

Luckily after breakfast we went to Signal Mountain and Jo Ann spotted this moose having breakfast. I was so happy! Up to that point the closest I got to a moose was a pencil Jo bought for me! Later that day as we were coming down Provo Canyon we say another moose just past Park City. How ironic is that. I leave the state to see a moose and I could have just gone to Park City!

Overall my trip was a blast! I love vacations with my family! There were hours of laughter, peeing (Daniel did the marathon 6 minute pee one morning--dang 2 gallon sized bladder), buffalo spotting, picture taking, game playing (I am the champ at speed;)), cell phone withdrawal, Jazz game missing, and driving! I am so glad we went even though my stomach is still in a knot when I think about Daniel and the old man at the park entrance; deaf people and old people struggle to communicate-I curse you old man.....

In less than a month I get to go to Savannah Georgia to see my other brother Dave while he is on leave from Iraq! I am quite excited for this summer!

Pirates, Tetons, Flower Covered Cemetaries....

I am so excited for this Memorial Day weekend. This is my favorite holiday. It is the time of the year when spring and summer collide! Schools are out, families are getting ready to vacation, grave sites are decorated with lovely flowers and memorabilia, flags are placed to remind us that freedom is not free. I love this holiday!!!

I am leaving in about an hour to go to Delta and pick up my sister Jo. Then we are going to Provo to meet my brother Daniel. Then we are picking up my brother Brent. The 4 of us are going to Malad Idaho to decorate the graves of my grandparents, cousins, sister, uncles etc. Then we are going to spend the night in Pocatello. Sat morning we leave for the Tetons! I am so excited to go to this park! A high school friend works at Jackson Lake Lodge and got us the hook up for a cabin in Coulter Bay. I am so excited I could barely sleep....that and the fact I went to see Pirates last night and had a big Diet Pepsi! So for those who will be seeing Pirates this weekend....I loved it. I have never really thought Orlando Bloom was all that...but this movie made me change my mind! He is my new flava of eye candy.

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend and please take a minute out of your life to remember someone who has passed on or who has given their life for the freedom you enjoy!

PS-I hear some WSU class of 07 already have their license! Man that was fast! Congrats everyone

Packing Cord

After working full time as a hygienist for almost a year I think I finally understand what tissues go through when packing cord. The other day this 14 year old kid came in for a cleaning. I was on my way out the door when Alisha one of the assistants in my office came up to me and said "Could you get some of this stuff off--I know I won't be able to get it all." She was cleaning aka polishing this kids mouth. Now Alisha is amazing. She knows when there is tarter that needs to be scaled and will get a hygienist or instruments for the Dr to get it. So in my head I am thinking that this kid has a little bit of tarter on the linguals of 23-26. No big deal. So I jump in and start asking the kid how often he brushes his teeth and he told me it was hard to remember to brush. So now I am thinking now wonder he has tarter. I pop my mirror in and see the great wall of china! Holy abundance of calculus! I stop right there and start OHI. Then I moved him to my room I had just shut down and got the ultrasonic out and proceeded to torture this kid. He winned and complained the whole time. I got out the patient mirror and showed him when I had half of the mandable done, he was amazed at the difference. I kept going on about OH and that he needed to see a hygienist from now on. After I cleaned Alisha came in a flossed and polished. When she was describing the tissues on linual of 23-26 she said it was like they had just done a crown prep and the tissues were pulled away from being packed with cord. It was a perfect visialization. I have never packed cord or seen cord packed and always wondered how it was done especially when Heidi Melissa Natalie and Korbin always told me it was their favorite part of being an assistant. I am sure you RDH know the look of the tissues when you removed the great wall of calculus! It was an awesome experience because I think the kid really learned something about brushing and flossing and I learned about cord:)

365 Days Ago

I cannot believe it has been 365 since I took WREB! One year ago today I walked into WSU Dental Hygiene Clinic with Alfonso Cardenas. What a fun time we had! I remember freaking out because it took me over 2 hours to clean 12 teeth! Guess what I did today...cleaned 32 teeth--yup thrid molars were fully errupted--on a mod/severe case of perio; aka heavy calculus (heavier than my board) and gen 4-6mm pocketing. Ok back to the cleaning 32 teeth in 3 hours!!! I have improved so much over this year! I am so glad to be done with school and living life! Speaking of living life....I ate some astronaut ice cream the other day. The package as silver and all vaccuum packed like space food. The ice cream itself had been freeze dried. It was actually pretty good. It was neopolatin. The vanilla was a bit chalky and the chocolate was alright but the best flavor was the strawberry. I am not usually a strawberry ice cream fan but it is pretty good space food.

Mairs Pitty Party

I am ridiculous! I cannot believe myself. Less than a month ago I got a 20% raise and life in the dental world was amazing! Yesterday I had to fight all my emotions and instinct not to quit. Right now-this very minute I feel like the worst RDH in the world. I feel like my Drs are less than satisfied with my work and that I am leaving deposit everywhere in the mouth. So in honor of Crystal I will start my pity party with a list....
1. My doc told me I had left plaque on the last couple of patients!
2. I could not remember how to use the Diagnodent!
3. When I see a patient I saw 6 months ago I wonder if I left stuff and that is why they are so heavy this time
4. When a patient request a RDH other than me I get all butt sore-why?
5. I had to look up what familial tremors were on my patients Hx!
6. I had to give my first wisdom tooth extraction injections and had to ask which ones and how many carps go in each spot.
7. I had to look up how to do a buccal injection!
8. I need to go BACK to remedial scaling school right now!

Ok the party is over. So don't cry for me hygienists! ha ha ha. No really I have had these enormous almost debilitating emotions of inadequacy. I hate that I am not perfect. I hate that my brain cannot recall everything I stuffed into it during school. I hate that have to be called on the spot for missing plaque. I hate that my logical brain that tells me I am doing alright is quieter than my emotional brain which is loudly pointing out my faults and failures. I hate that I feel like I cannot get all the calculus off and therefore should not be a RDH-I am doing more harm than good. I hate that these feelings are lingering and have not receded!

I know tomorrow is another day and that I can and will do better tomorrow! I know I graduated from WSU, which means I was fully trained and taught to be a great RDH. I know I will rubber cup better tomorrow and NEVER leave plaque again! I know I will give each patient my best effort to clean their teeth! I know these feelings of failure will end and I will be right as rain again soon! I know I have bored you to tears with this post but it has been very cathartic for me!