3 Day at the VA

It has been quite awhile since I saw 3 patients at the VA.  It has been really nice to finish my morning patient BARELY after the last 9:30 pt has been seated, thereby leaving my AMPLE time for relaxation before lunch.  Today, however, I was not so lucky.  Done to early.  :)  I saw some really nice people though.  I need to do some hand strengthening exercises (thankfully my hubband spent WAY too much money on some grip things so I can use those) because my hand was cramping like MAD on my morning pt.  To give myself a break I would pretend to be switching instruments or wiping something off on gauze, but really I was just resting.  How embarrasing is that?  I only took 2 PA's today, but next week I am going to get a MeChel Day (8 PA's and 2 Q of a III - lucky dog, thanks to Karen pt swapping) and be sitting pretty.  My patient in the afternoon was brand spankin new, needed pano, bwx, and full charting.  He was a 1B and yes I was the last one done, HOWEVER he had a lingual bar from hades, so I am using that to defend myself.

One of my grievances in school is that we treat patients who are mild-severe periodontally involved, but when we get out into the world of General Practice (where most of us are going, at least at first) we will be seeing LOTS of braces and lingual bars.  Well, how many of my Class III patients do you think have a lingual bar?  Seriously, put your guess in the comment section.  In other words, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO CLEAN A LINGUAL BAR!