My First Patient!

On Thursday last week, I actually got to see my first living breathing human patient!

I went into uni expecting to see my patient in the afternoon, however, when I arrived for the morning session (where I was assisting) it turned out that I had to step in to cover another student, meaning I was seeing my first patient like NOW. RIGHT NOW.

Thankfully my patient's medical history and previous visits were pretty short and simple, meaning I got through the notes quite quickly. I was a little more nervous by this point as I had expected to assist first and get a bit of a feel for things. In hindsight, I'm happy it worked out this way as I didn't really have any time to overthink and definitely learned a lot more by making the initial mistakes myself.

During the appointment, I completed an extra and intraoral exam, a BPE score, a plaque-free score, went through oral hygiene instructions (during which I failed to even ask if she uses a manual or electric toothbrush), and then I hand-scaled the lower anteriors. I definitely did not expect to be scaling in my first appointment, but I think due to our year group being quite behind because of the pandemic, I think the tutors were keen to throw us in at the deep end!

The BPE and the plaque-free score went quite well and I felt confident doing this as I had carried it out on my colleague the week earlier. After this, I went through oral hygiene instructions. I think this was the area I made the most errors. I was still not quite relaxed, and despite the fact that I definitely know all the right information, I just did not go about delivering this well. I hardly asked my patient any questions about her oral hygiene routine. Manual or electric? Who knows. Brushing once or 50 times a day? Couldn't tell you. Do they floss? No idea! I simply asked her to demonstrate her brushing and then corrected her technique. Looking back, I'm pretty horrified by this oversight but I definitely won't make the same mistake again! Lesson learnt (the hard way).

My patient had minimal calculus so there wasn't much to remove but it was great to get a feel of using the hand-scaling instruments in an actual mouth on actual calculus. I was definitely very concerned about hurting my patient, which meant I was more hesitant than I should be. Next time I need to remember to tell them to let me know if they feel pain as I spent most of the time scaling trying to guess and being worried.

I'm really excited for my next appointment as it's a chance to improve on the areas that didn't go so well. I definitely need to work on creating some kind of appointment flow chart to prompt myself and avoid missing little things until the process becomes natural.

For anyone else who is seeing their first patient soon, I would recommend having a little trial run with a friend or family member at home. It definitely feels stupid but it helps to stop your mind from going blank and to establish a bit of a process. Have a refresh of things like how to carry out an EOE, IOE, BPE, and PFS so you feel confident doing this. Ultimately remember that nothing can really go that wrong. Your tutors are around and you have someone assisting who will be keeping an eye! And honestly, the time flies, it really will be over in no time.

PS. A little shout out to Jade, who assisted me in my first session. My patient honestly would have made it through that entire appointment bib-less (and I probably wouldn't have made it through at all) if it wasn't for you!

Thank you so much for reading! Remember, #healthiswealth !

Lots of love,