Pt. Z. L. <— ( click for more info detail )
Reflecting on my clinical treatment and faculty feedback, I think my clinical strength is the mesial side of the tooth surface when scaling. When the clinic professor checked my calculus, the professor always feel the mesial surface is so smooth. On the contrary, I believe my weakness was distal surface calculus removal. I had difficulty standing up on my fulcrum when the patient opened their mouth widely, which made it difficult to establish a good stroke to remove the distal calculus. Therefore, I always had residual calculus that needed to be rescaled on the distal surface of the tooth. Since then, I switched to an extra oral fulcrum, so the patient will not need to be opened as wide.
Pt F.A. <—( click for more info detail )
One positive experience that occurred during the treatment of this patient was that I figured out how to use extra oral fulcrums which made the patient feel comfortable. Previously, before I used to an extra oral fulcrum, I always ask the patient to open their mouth very widely during calculus removal, and patient’s TMJ got tired after 30 min. Right now, my patient only need to open halfway and I still have enough working space. On the contrary, I think my clinical weakness is time management. I usually do not finish up to Oral hygiene education for the first visit. I remember the first visit for the patient. I spent almost 45min doing medical history and two hours for patient assessment. And also during the probing, it nearly took me one hour to finish the periodontal chart. As I treated more patients, I become more efficient with time management.
