Today was my second day in Periodontics. For those of you not familiar with this specialty, we mostly do deep cleanings and maintenance for patients with gum disease. Keep flossing, folks!
We have a series of competencies we are required to complete. Today I was encouraged to do my Scaling and Root Planing competencey (this is basically removing tartar, or calculus as we call it) from the roots and crowns of the teeth in deep pockets in the gums. I felt uncomfortable doing the competency since this was my first S&RP patient this year, or actually ever.
Anyway, I did poorly on one section of the competency and although I did well actually cleaning the teeth, I got a 75%. I was a little disappointed but it being my first time, I was okay with it. Afterall, I didn't quite know what they were looking for and have little experience. Then, I was told that although the cut-off for passing is 75%, you have to get ABOVE a 75%, not a 75% to pass. Bummer... I was complimented for how well I did. Funny, it doesn't mean much when you FAIL. "You did a great job on the cleaning. You fail, but don't worry, it was a good learning experience!"
So I'm back at zero...I will have to make up the competency and thus I have nothing passed off in any of my three clinics at week 4 of 20!
P.S. I made a goal not to complain about Super Block (my endo, pros, and perio rotation). I hope this isn't complaining, merely an update on the rollercoaster ride.
2 comments:
I'm sure you'll "pass" the next one you do. This past week I went into our school of dentistry for a check-up and I thought of you the whole time. I was sure glad I wasn't the guy in the next chair over though, they discovered so many problems on him that he had to be sent to the periodontic floor for some immediate work, and when he left everyone was talking about how sad it was that he had those teeth problems when he was so young (junior in undergrad I think). Anyway, the point is that while I was there I thought you would be a great dentist!
I don't think it was complaining besides what good is a blog if you can't complain about stuff on it. As you can see from our blog I use it to complain about pregnancy all the time, but a good thing about being pregnant is it has made me better about flossing.
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