Smooth Sailin'

Isn't it wonderful when life surprises you in a good way? Yesterday (yes, on Sunday and yes, on Father's day) was my State Board Exam to become a Registered Dental Hygienist. It consists of a practical exam in which WE are responsible for bringing our own patients, which must be approved of at the time of the exam. The extremely strict regulations to determine what is an appropriate patient are told to us months in advance, but even if you find someone that you think is just right you are still at the mercy of the examiners. Talk about stress!!!! You can do everything to prepare for this exam, and it is all based on depending on other people.

Due the fact that my entire license depended upon my patient showing up (and being approved) I of course picked up my patient from her home. Since I had to be at USC in Los Angeles by 6:30am, I had to pick up my patient at 5:30am. I had fears going through my head like crazy: What if she isn't home? What if she doesn't answer the door? What if she slept in? What if she doesn't want to do it anymore? What if she has the flu/a cold sore/etc.? I have heard the nightmare stories in the past...my personal favorite was: they had to go to Mexico to take care of their parents. YIKES!! Anything could happen, especially since the only confirmation I had with her was a message that my sister-in-law, Aracely left for her the day before on her answering machine. As I walked up to her apartment and saw NO lights on I freaked out a little. So I prayed and prayed and knocked on her door. All my fears lifted off my shoulders as I saw her smiling face open the door! I gave her a big hug, I could have cried! I am so happy that my patient was so reliable!

So I made it to USC with my patient...check! Next, getting my patient approved! We had a time limit to set up our chairs, anesthetize our patients, do our exams, and get them over to the check-in area. Luckily we only clean a quarter of their mouth for the exam (these aren't usually people that get regular dental care if you get my drift), so if the section I submitted wasn't accepted, I could go to another section of her mouth. But I was going to submit the area that had less of a chance of getting accepted, it is a long explanation, but just trust me that I spent a lot of time with my instructors at school discussing it. Then I got to play the waiting game. The examiners are in a completely different room so I get to just sit in my cubicle and wait for my patient to return, either as accepted or rejected. Now there were about 80 people being tested and they certainly don't have that many examiners, so it takes a LONG time to get your patient back. I don't think I have prayed all month as much as I did while I was waiting for my patient. Then, finally my patient returned...approved! CHECK!

All the rest is boring. The actual exam is something I have done over and over before. It isn't anything new, I just had to do a good job. I finished my patient and got her turned in for the final check-out. All my stress left once I learned that she had been approved, so it was such a smooth morning/afternoon. Again, I can't say how grateful I am for how smoothly yesterday went for me. It was so relieving to have reliable people and all things work out in my favor. My wonderful, fantastic, loving, sweet, helpful, charming husband drove my patient home. I had to stick around for the Ethics & Law written exam...piece of cake. I paid my patient for coming and insisted that she took the money when she protested. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have had a chance.

Now just as a minor side note...I have to wait 6-8 weeks to find out if I passed, and if I have been issued a license. So, now I just wait. Thank you to everyone who helped me. Thanks for reading along as I rambled about my dental hygiene journey. I hope that when you go to the dentist and you see your dental hygienist that you tell her/him that you appreciate all that they have done to get where they are. People are so misinformed about what it takes to be a dental hygienist (one girl at school even told us that someone thought that she was taking 2 years off from work to go to school to become a dental hygienist just to take a LOWER/less paid position than a dental assistant).

I need to write a separate post about the rest of my day. The whole day was pretty eventful, with Father's day and family.