Term 2 has been quite the experience. Even though our term was cut short, I learned a lot in clinic and theory. This semester has had a heavier course load, but it has been manageable. I have re-learned a lot in courses that I did take in dental assisting, but its been a good refresher. Clinic has also been more challenging as we started working on each other rather than Dexter. Even though I have worked in a mouth and have previously done these skills, I hadn't done a lot of the procedures where I worked so again it was a nice refresher to practice things such as impressions and fluoride application.
My favourite part of term 2 was continuing to learn about different scalers, probing and exploring. This was my favourite as it was something new instead of something I have already done. It has also been extremely rewarding when practicing the different scalers, the probe and the explorer as I have become more confident when using hand scalers and am more eager to learn about them. I also really enjoyed doing head and neck anatomy and learning about the facial and oral structures.
I think the most challenging part of this semester was the increase in course load. From my very light semester in term 1 I think at times it has been hard to motivate myself to keep up with studying like I did last term. As a learner I believe that I am a visual learner as I need to look at pictures and read over notes to help me remember. '
My continued goals related to my clinical skills is that I want to make sure that I perfect my skills to always make sure that my client is comfortable. In practice I always made sure that my client was comfortable, when it came to taking films to post-op care after a surgery was completed.
In term 3 I am hoping to continue to learn essential skills in clinic and am excited to learn new things in clinical and to learn about parts of the oral cavity more in depth.