The Motto

"I heard once that they would rather hear about memories than enemies
Rather hear what was or will be than what is
Rather hear how you got it over how much it cost you
Rather hear about finding yourself and how you lost you
Rather you make this an open letter, about family and struggle and it taking forever
About hearts that you've broken and ties that you've severed
No doubt in my mind, that'll make them feel better"

-Drake-

Almost to Midterms!

It's been two weeks since I've updated my blog about progress this semester. Last post I mentioned that we began a couple new classes that have taken flight, but we've also added another. In addition to BP Fixed, we are taking a class called, Dental Materials. So far it seems like a class that you either love or hate. It compliments BP Fixed because it describes particular properties and explains the reasoning behind why dentist use the materials that they do. At our school DM is only a 1/2 credit but at others its more extensive -worth upwards of 3 credits. But don't let the credit count allude you into believing that there is little work required because we are assigned plenty of reading for homework.

Dental Materials is a very important class in my opinion because it helps you understand why you choose certain materials when establishing a treatment plan and understand what's commonly used in the fabrication and placement of direct and cast restorations. It can be a deciding factor in how much you charge your patients and how long the restoration lasts (crown, bridge, filling, temporary, etc, etc). Patients should also be aware of their options and get an understanding of what they are being charged for and why... it could save a lot of confusion and bitterness in the long run on the patient's end. For the dentist, if you have a firm understanding of a broad sense of materials then it could effect how you manage your inventory and in addition develop a routine of working with products your more comfortable with.

As far as BP Fixed, we have it once a week for 4 hours at a time. It's a lab class where we can develop hand skills and start practicing restorative dentistry. Currently we are working on a project where we cut an abutment with our drill and create a provisional. In lamen, we are drilling away cavities, and creating a "post" in order to place a temporary crown. The one you wear as a patient for about a week until you receive your permanent crown.

With regards to my other six classes, things have been sort of busy but manageable. At this stage in our education, each semester gets more difficult and requires much more time in the lab and library. I'll take our schedule any day over what they have scheduled for us next year. Masticatory Dynamics can be confusing at times but is the foundation to dentistry. We are learning about how the teeth should come together, in occlusion, and how the entire jaw functions as a unit. This last week we began learning about where each cusp should rest and exactly where they should move with respect to its opposing tooth and neighbors in space. It requires a great deal of spatial ability but this is helpful in practice when creating dentures and correcting malocclusion (incorrect jaw orientation). I hope I'm explaining this right.. it's still pretty new to me. We had our 1st test of 3 in Body As Host and that went well. Now we are learning about bacteria and their association to our mouth, body, and health. This class can be pretty interesting in learning which bug causes what disease and how our immune system copes. Then we have good old Head & Neck. This class is a doozy. To date, we have learned in gory detail (..literally) about how the entire head is innervated, the vasculature, every bone and muscle in the head, and its development.... unfortunately this is not where the class ends so please, pray for me. On Valentines Day, we spent lecture with cadavers (dead bodies) picking at their face and familiarizing ourselves with how it looks in real life; not in a book. It's not so bad if you keep up with it and become familiar with latin terminology; gibberish in my opinion but very descriptive if you understand it. Lastly, we have ACE: Knowing the Patient which is blah... neither here, nor there. It's informative but definitely not challenging. It basically covers communication: what questions to ask, how to ask them, in order to understand your patient's needs.

Social life has been alright. There is a bar strip called Coventry out here which is ok but not exciting. Drinking and/or socializing is SOO important in dental school because you need to relax so you don't explode. Our class is very competitive so I try and distance myself as much as possible during the week to reduce stress because it's contagious. As the year flies by fewer people go out and opt to study through the entire weekend but it's necessary at times. Since Regan's departure to California to pursue her dreams, my adventurous side has become obsolete but that happens when you don't have your own car. This semester has gotten heavy so I don't blame myself or anyone else in my class for strapping down and getting stuff done. But I look forward to having an exciting summer, my only summer in 4 years of dental school. I'm praying that I can find a job in Lacey (or WA) and move back for the summer. We will see.

Well, I have my first mock interview/simulation with a patient, who's an actor, first thing in the morning. So time to prepare. Remember, preparation is the key to success. I also, have my first prophy (teeth cleaning) on a random patient this Friday so this week will be interesting. And to update everyone about our intramural basketball team, we finished our season 0-5. Go us, haha!

Superbowl! Emily is an artist with the appetizers.

 Facebow transfer - creating a cast that models how your patients teeth come together

  This is an abutment. It is how teeth are prepped for a crown

 Some drill heads

 Learning how to do an oral cancer screening

 Just having some fun.

My first cast...

 This is workable!

What not to do when taking an impression of your patient

This would have choked my little friend, Danielle, here! ;-)

Determined

This poem will never get old to me, no matter how often I read it. For years these lyrics have resonated within and have been a constant reminder of the eternal journey ahead. As the mileage on me steadily increases with each year, I am witness to many beautiful events in my family and friends' lives. I long for the time when I'm no longer the traveler and I can put my feet up to rest. I will have my moment, I'm sure of it.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

BY ROBERT FROST

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

Sonicare!

Just received my new FlexCare Plus toothbrush in the mail and I can't explain to you how ecstatic I am about getting to use it! Nerdy.... I know. Our local Philips Sonicare representative agreed to come and speak to our first year class about how great their products are and in return for our time gave each of us one of their top notch brushes priced at $120. Earlier in the year their competitor, Oral B, did exactly the same thing which is a good indicator for how serious they feel it is to grab our attention early in order to gain our loyalty before we have our own offices. After sealant rotations, I am more grateful than ever to receive these gifts knowing that there are children not too far from me who don't own a basic manual toothbrush.

The product that we received is programmed with 5 different brushing modes and has a special unit that sanitizes your brush heads with a UV light, eradicating bacteria. It also came with 2 different chargers, a travel case, and two cleaning brush heads; as opposed to 1 cleaning and 1 polishing brush head from Oral B. In my opinion, Sonicare has won my vote as the best product on the market for a few reasons. Although there isn't a noticeable difference in how squeaky clean my mouth feels YET, the company has more too offer for similar price points and their products look and feel of better quality. Plus, they offer a 2.5 year warranty including free shipping and 15% off additional future purchases for a year. 

I highly recommend switching from a manual brush to an electric brush as I've noticed a huge difference in my oral hygiene. Philips has also offered us a 75% discount ($160 off) on their best, top of the line Diamond Clean brush making it $59.99 instead of $220. I don't make any money off this, I'm just offering because I already have a nice toothbrush. So if your honestly interested in buying it, message me on here or give me a call and I'll give you my discount. Here's a link to the toothbrush: 

http://www.usa.philips.com/c/diamondclean/289711/cat/en/

Oh, and I burned my lunch because I was distracted writing this post... damnit

Safe Haven

Studying at the dining room table has always been a comfortable thing for me. Growing up, I almost always completed my HW at the dinner table, so naturally I can't study anywhere else in my apartment. On weekend mornings I sit here in silence, drink my coffee, and do what I do best. Its all I know.... Its my serenity.

Here We Go Again

I'm sorry blog. I've been away for a while and I sort of left unannounced.... with no indication of when I'd be back. You see, there was an incredible level of inertia that I needed to overcome to get myself to write here again. But I have to admit that my heart was calling back to you. I need this... I need you... this connection provides clarity and helps me attain sanity in my sporadic, sometimes hectic schedule. Plus, there are people out there that read you and I need to keep them informed; aware that I'm doing well.

Happy  WAY Belated New Year everyone! Welcome back to my blog, this is my first post since 2011. I want to continue to provide insight in to the life of a dental student and young adult 36 + hours from his comfort zone. This semester has been nothing short of stagnant and we've just finished our 5th week of classes. In the first 3 weeks, the pace of lecture was sluggish and often light. Our class load was as follows: ACE: Knowing the patient, Masticatory Dynamics, DentSim, and Body as Host. ACE has been a refreshing course because it isn't your typical didactic and it challenges us to use recently attained knowledge and apply it in clinical scenarios; Masticatory Dynamics has covered the jaw/skull in relation to their functional properties; Body as a Host is an immunology, microbiology, and genetics class all thrown in one; and lastly, DentSim is the most exciting so far (in my opinion) since we're learning how to drill preps. What makes this class so fun is that we have a unique KaVo laboratory that is equipped with manicans with removable jaws and teeth. Each station has 3D cameras/software that track your every move while drilling and measures floor depths and prep outlines. This computer set up provides feedback; highlighting areas that we could improve upon. The fourth week was our final week of sealant duty in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, which was bittersweet.

This last week, we added two more classes to our schedule: Head & Neck Anatomy/Physiology and BP Fixed Prosthetic. We have only had 4 hours of lecture in Head &Neck and we already have enough material to have a midterm... at least that's what it feels like! Its an undoubted fact that this is the hardest science class that we have to take in the entire 4 years so wish me luck because I already need it. By the time that we are finished we will know the entire head and neck inside and out in METICULOUS detail. As far as BP Fixed, we've only had one lecture but I'm already really excited because we are going to learn how to do crowns and bridges this semester. Getting the opportunity to develop my hand skills this early in my education is a blessing!

There has been so much that has happened this past 5 weeks that I would love to share but I'd probably end up writing a long winded novel that would eventually become to boring to finish. This is why I have been so reluctant to write a new post because it's difficult to find a balance between too little and too much information! I'm going to continue to do my best to write more frequent short posts and avoid writing lengthy ones like this. If you are a pre-dent or current professional in the dental field and would like to hear more, send me a message. Below I posted about our 3 week sealant duty with pictures included.

Sealants!

So much can be taken away from the sealants rotation. An obvious item is that the experience allowed me to hone my hand skills as a clinician. I developed techniques to help with fine hand movements while working in limited space. But beyond the practical experience, this was a true opportunity to refine communication skills. The locations that our rotations took place were prime venues for young professionals to escape the comfort zone of the classroom and work with patients who were in a completely different state of mind, in so many ways. This program provided our class firsthand experience on working with inner-city children from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. It was a moving experience that taught me how pivotal access to care can be in a community and confirmed the necessity of subsidized programs such as this one.

Before participating in sealants rotation, I believed that there was a large disparity in oral health status between children from rural areas versus those located in the inner city. I now know that this isn’t necessarily true. Although it’s the year 2012, there were children that informed my partner and me that they did not even own a toothbrush. This wasn’t as much an indication of low income but more a shocking perspective of priorities in areas of low social economic status (SES). I performed my own research before attending the rotation and made note that in order for schools to be eligible for the sealants program at least 50% of the children must qualify for free or reduced cost lunch (185% below federal poverty guidelines). Even this knowledge was not enough to prepare me for some of the mouths that I would work on.  There were many children with caries; some required urgent care and to my surprise didn’t register any discomfort during probing. It is one thing to hear statistics and another to see it.

There was one particular patient interaction that had an impact on me. Following our normal routine in the final week, my partner and I set up our station and grabbed a new patient. It was my turn to play doctor and I introduced myself to a very sweet second grader and asked her to take a seat for an examination. After opening her tiny mouth, it was immediately apparent that she had rampant decay in her adult molars, the worst I’d seen by far. I thought to myself, how could this already occur at such a young age?? So I asked her, “How often do you brush your teeth, Sweetie?” to which she responded, “I don’t have a toothbrush”. She informed me that none of her siblings owned a toothbrush; my heart broke for her family. There were some portions of her molars that were salvageable for placing sealants but this gesture would not be enough to save this poor child’s mouth in the long run if there weren’t serious changes at home.

                In the beginning of last semester we watched a movie called, Unnatural Causes. This movie did an excellent job describing the hardships faced by families of extremely low social economic status, and displayed obvious marketing schemes that continue to suppress these areas. There was a period in my childhood where my dad was a single parent with no choice but to raise my sister and me, in a flea ridden apartment in a low SES community full of corner stores and run down businesses. I felt for these children, but I wanted to do my best to convey to them that there are people out there that want to help them be healthy and successful.

Despite the difficult moments, I gained invaluable experiences. There were some children who had excellent oral hygiene to which I could only do my job and send them off without a care in the world. I enjoyed the challenge of working with these disadvantaged elementary students. For me, it wasn’t an issue of relating to their lives but more developing my communication skills with children. I am thankful to have participated in this program.