Look out! I'm getting my anesthesia license!

Today I attended the first day of a four day anesthesia class.  Yay!  Makes me proud to be a RDH and it makes me proud to say that I'm a member of the ADHA (American Dental Hygiene Association).
It's because of the ADHA that LA (local anesthesia) is part of my scope of practice for the State of New Jersey.
ADHA continues to fight for the advancement of dental hygiene.  If you're a Registered  Dental Hygienist and not a member... why aren't you?
Ready to join?  Go to www.adha.org to sign up.

The following pictures are from the third day of the local anesthesia course.

My first patient and fellow RDH Karen. 

I love this picture.  I've never seen a patient with so many cotton tip applicators in their mouth at one time.

My Turn...

Here's Karen giving her first Inferior Alveolar Block (IA) injection to me.

Karen did a great job.
All in all I was a bit nervous but only felt minimal discomfort with all of the injections she performed.  

The palatal injections were actually less painful then any I had ever gotten before.  

What we learned in this anesthesia course:
1.  (ASA) Anterior Superior Alveolar injection
2.  (MSA) Middle Superior Alveolar injection
3.  (PSA) Posterior Superior Alveolar injection
4.  (NP) Nasopalatine Nerve Block
5.  (GP) Greater Palatine Nerve Block
6.  (MB) Mental Block
7.  (LB) Long Buccal
8.  (IA) Inferior Alveolar Nerve Block
9.  Maxillary and Mandibular Infiltrations