Class IV. 4. Four.

Today was so fun. . I had a patient scheduled this morning whom I found off the resource list, and I had no idea what I had coming!  She had some missing teeth, a bridge, and a LOT. LOT of recession.  Those roots were a showin' and a movin'.  I took 4 BWX on her, and her bone loss was extreme, with a decent amount of radiographic calculus, and an abscess shown between furcations.  I continued to do her OD and her probe depths were deep, but would have been a WHOLE lot deeper if she didn't have such large amounts of recession. . some of her recession areas were 6-9 mm!  Instructor B came over and said. . severe perio!  It was a fun experience.  She had generalized mobility, and some class 1 and 2 furcations.  It was fun stuff.  I scaled 2 quads today, and missed more spots than I wanted to, but was actually glad for the experience.  If I wouldn't have missed very many, I would have questioned my instructor a little bit :)  Because we aren't required to see many class IV patients, I wanted to really know what I was scaling, and missing spots will only allow me to be prepared for next time and give me a better understanding of what to expect with these types of patients.  It was a great experience, especially working with those furcations!  She was a sweet patient.  I can't wait to finish her soon!

Theeeeeen.  I had a patient in the afternoon who I hoped so badly would qualify for mock boards because he hadn't seen a dentist or got a cleaning in SEVEN years.  Wah- wah.  Nope.  He was a 1B.  I was like, how does this happen?  Haha- I guess good home care, right?  Dang.  That's okay- I don't want to wish upon people bad oral health :)  I just need a mock board pt-- but I'm not stressing.  Anyway- I did 4 BWX on him and did a full OD and scaled all 4 of his quads and didn't miss any spots, so I can't complain.  At least I had a patient in my chair. . that's all I can hope for.  Today was a good day.  I'm hoping for more exciting days in clinic, and that I can continue improving my skillzzzzz.