1 semester of dental school done, 8 more to go!

I've finally recovered from the hangover that finals week left me in after 3 days of laying around on the couch. For the first time in my life these past 2 weeks, I went about my day dragging my feet, praying that lecture would never end. Mainly because that meant another endless night of meticulous studying for finals. This may have been the first time in a very long time that I finished a test and felt like I was now leaving the fate of my grades to God. Not to say that I did poorly this semester but simply that for the first time in my college career I felt out of control... But before I explain anything about school I figured I'd start this post with highlights from this past month. Early this month, Regan and I went to the Drake concert and I'm disappointed to admit that it was worse than the Goo Goo Dolls concert we went to at Case!!! The opening act consisted of multiple local rappers that were atrocious and Drake kept talking to the crowd, "blah, blah, blah". For being a huge fan I was extremely disappointed. Another fun thing I did was participate in a mouth guard lab where I learned how to make custom fitted mouth guards. For atheletes, there are some pros and cons.  The upside is comfort and safety. You're AT LEAST 6X  more likely to receive a concussion with an over the counter product but you pay a lot more, roughly $150+ vs $20 for the professional one. So pick your poison. And last but not least, I'm officially CPR certified! Your in good hands if the opportunity presents itself but lets pray for both of our sake that it doesn't.

[Now back to school but proceed with caution.... I'll try to avoid excessive gory detail]

...Pre-dental students listen up because I about to give you the single most important tool necessary for accomplishing your goals in dental school: time management. I may have already hinted at this in previous posts but I cannot explain to you how crucial it is. Time management and a strong will are a two item recipe for success when coupled, like: Simon and Garfunkel; Scooby and Shaggy; Batman and Robin. A useful study tip I've learned  regarding time management and studying for finals is that you have to strategically divide your time studying certain topics in one class, as well as strategically divide time among classes. For example, I had 4 finals this past week: Preventative Periodontics, ACE Public Health Dentistry, Oral Histology and Heart & Lung in Health and Disease. The majority of our classes are arranged in that we have one main course director and then a multitude of guest lectures from dentist, to medical doctors, to pharmacist, and specialist that are better suited in that particular field. So in a class like Heart & Lung we had a total of 47 hours of lecture divided differently among each lecturer who then submit a number of questions proportionate to their class time. Its important you focus your study time on the lectures with the most hours.. which doesn't necessarily mean it had the largest amount of material or the most difficult. For instance, in Oral Histology we had loads of detail regarding tooth development but we also had 4 hours of lecture from a pathologist that covered roughly 200 slides of  >50 something different diseases and disorders. There was only 10 questions on that material out of 50 total, so what do you do about that when studying? If your me, you spend an hour on that the day before the test (clearly not enough) and go to bed with your hands and feet pre-tied together for the exam in the morning. The biggest take-away message I received this semester is to study often, study the right material, and prioritize what's important.... Which also means more delegating in student council.... jk.... but not really :-D

In the professional community they say that the hardest thing about the journey is getting into school and I whole-heartedly agree. Even with a 3.8 GPA, 90th percentile DAT, and LOADS of extracurricular activities/volunteer experience your still not guaranteed a seat with the dental school of your choice or a seat anywhere for that matter! So once your in, your in which explains why most dental students choose to cruise by and enjoy their lives in school while doing enough to pass. In parting, before I throw myself upon my big comfy couch I will share the one thing I learned about myself from finals week and its that I don't want to specialize. At least at this point in time... but I hope you've enjoyed my blog so far. I'll be adding one more post about our Healthy Smiles Sealant Program which lasts for 2 weeks starting next week and ends for X-mas break which commences on Dec. 9th. Adios muchachos!

My professional mouthguard with flare to intimidate the competition

First time in the ortho clinic placing sealants on our partners

You can't see it real well but we're all have our guards in

Not sure if I've posted this but they're pretty enough to post more than twice

A molar cookie. compliments to Niki

Regan and I nose bleed at the concert

This is probably how I always look

A group of 12 of us went to the Monsters hockey game. There was a group of 26 really loud students behind us.. turned out to be the Med students from our school. Small world.... or small arena? 

Selling this if anyone is interested. I'll make you a deal, I promise!

A CPR class pic I stole offline

Sealants!

Vascular what?

Its mid-week and we have finals next week.... burned....out.....

The Calm Before the Storm

Hey, I know most of you are thinking, "I'm going to stop reading this blog if Anthony is going to update it like twice a decade"... and I'm sorry. I understand deleting my Facebook has made it difficult for my friends and family to check on how I'm doing and yes, I am suffering :-P. I'm already burned out and this is our last week of class before finals week (GASP!) Sometimes I wonder how I'm going to get stuff done but  I end up getting through it... definitely God's blessings...but I don't want to be a downer. Although this will be a very dreadful 2 weeks of studying I get to see my family and close friends in a month, wooohooo! After finals week we have Thanksgiving Break and come back to participate in our Sealants Program (no classes), you know, the program I mentioned about visiting elementary schools for 2 weeks and placing sealants on 3rd and 6th graders? That will be a relief since we'll get to apply new found knowledge and improve on our hand speed. Upfront, I'll inform you that I will NEVER do Pediatric Dentistry as that in my eyes is glorified baby sitting. BUT I am excited to get out in the community and improve upon the health of these young children.

The semester is almost over and I'm surprised at how much I've actually learned. I know that sounds weird and it's difficult to explain but I feel accomplished thus far to know so much about the mouth and overall health in general! =] I'm finally starting to feel like a healthcare provider even though that's a long ways away. Minor things that happen to be standing in the way include this semesters finals. This coming finals week we have a final a day for four days in this order: Preventative Periodontics, Public Health, Oral Histology, and last but not least Heart and Lung Anatomy. In just about five weeks we have 47 hours alone of Heart and Lung Anatomy.. no joke! In an undergraduate course that would be about 5 hours a week for 9 weeks.We got that dose in half the time. You might wonder why Heart & Lung? and I won't go in to too much detail but it is imperative that we understand our patients overall health in order to treat and prescribe effectively. Or else there could be many complications during major procedures. Classes overall have been interesting though. Oral Histology has been a semi-cool class learning the nitty and gritty on tooth development. Preventative Perio has taught us how to do prophys, identify healthy gingiva vs. gingivitis or periodontitis as well as many, many other exciting things... I'm still trying to view our Public Health class in positive lighting but I can't help but feel like aside from learning how to apply sealants I haven't taken away much more than that. Early on we learned a lot about public health and strategies on how to tackle health issues on a community level but those lectures have died down.

Life outside of school has been great. So much as happened that I feel bad because I can't really provide any details off the top of my head. Halloween was the highlight of the past month as we all got together and had a group Thanksgiving dinner in our costumes. After dinner we had "a few drinks" and then went to an annual Halloween party the Dental Fraternity holds every year. It was a blast! Dental Students are a lot more fun than most people would imagine. Free alcohol, dancing, music and lots of crazy costumes; it was good times. But I should probably get back to studying... I'm losing solid ground while the clock keeps ticking.

My new couch =]

 My amazing gf and classmate as ninja turtles. Plus, some other Halloween photos

These are my new Oakley prescription glasses! My vision insurance reduces the price by 40-50%... nice huh?!

Eat that Frog!

"..imagine that every day, at some point, you have to swallow a slimy, live frog. It doesn’t matter whether you do it first thing in the morning or at 11:59 p.m., but you’ve got to swallow it at some point. Why not do it as soon as possible so you don’t have to dread it all day long? No matter what else happens throughout the day, nothing could be worse than swallowing the frog. The "frog" represents the academic tasks in a college student’s life that they do not enjoy doing (or any dreadful task for that matter)."


Before arriving in Cleveland, I had never heard this analogy but when I did it made perfect sense. During orientation week the Dean of our dental school spoke to us over dinner and shared this message for achieving success during our tenure at Case. Although it seems like a simple message, its easier said than done. Like most people, I struggle with productivity... especially when tasks start to accumulate. But I'm grateful that he endowed this wisdom to our class because the message has stuck to my subconscious.... whether I actually swallow the frog early or not. 

Id be thankful to have to swallow this frog instead of the BIG UGLY one known as "finals week"!