Let's Try This Again

Alright, alright! I’ve been bombarded with emails from readers like you who are tired of waiting for me to make another entry. What can I say? I could think of a hundred excuses for not making entries over the last three months, but none of them are any good. I just got tired during the 2nd quarter. It seemed like there was hardly anytime to breathe, and when a break finally came, the last thing I wanted to do was log on to the internet. But, here you guys and gals are waiting for me to stop making dumb reasons for not keeping up with this blog. So, I’m resurrecting this blog from the dead. I can’t promise daily posts, but I’m going to do it frequently—let’s say 3 to 4 times a week.

Let’s start with today:

February 6, 2006

Third quarter is the busiest quarter for Pacific’s first year students. Operative dentistry, dental anatomy, and biochemistry are all coming to a close. For us, that means a practical exam in Operative nearly every week. In fact, during the last 4 weeks, we’ve had two operative practicals, and over the course of the next 4 weeks, we will have 3 more. Count ‘em up! That’s seven practicals in 8 weeks. Maybe it’s difficult for you to understand how much pressure that is for a student, but keep in mind that we have 26 ADDITIONAL credit hours at the same time. In addition to preparing for operative practicals, we’ve had fixed prosthodontics practicals, 2 or 3 major dental anatomy projects, 2 physiology exams, 2 biochemistry exams, 1 OCP exam, etc. I haven’t had a weekend to relax since January 1, and it doesn’t look like I’ll have one anytime soon. I mean, last Wednesday, our fixed professors told us we needed to wax up seven teeth (4 mandibular incisors, 1 maxillary incisor, 1 maxillary canine, and 1 mandibular 1st molar), take 3 impressions (1 maxillary and 2 mandibular), fabricate 1 splint and 1 temporary cantilever bridge all by Wednesday! I spent nearly 12 hours after school last week working on that project alone, another 6 hours studying for today’s biochem exam, and I still need to spend a couple hours tomorrow evening fabricating the splint and temporary.

Next week, we have 3 practicals and a physiology exam! There aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all. The professors are mindful of the amount of work, but they remind us that we signed up for the accelerated program when we decided to come to Pacific. And, don’t misinterpret what I’m saying as complaining—I’m not. I love it! I’m learning a lot of dentistry and my skills are improving. In another 5 weeks, the infamous 3rd quarter will be completed (we have 10 finals during finals week!!), and 4th quarter will be here—and that means we get to see our first patient! It’s almost here! And, the students are all very ready to move on.

Today, after a biochem exam, that shocked most of the students because it was departure from the test files that we had, my group was assigned to the continuing care block down in the clinic. We rotated playing doctor with another student. Each doctor practiced perio-probing, using a plaque disclosing tablet, providing oral hygiene instructions, completing a prophy, and delivering a fluoride tray to our patients. Probably one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in the clinic. Using the probe is a little trickier than you might think. On a healthy dentition, the probe might only be inserted a millimeter or two at most. Inserting the probe anymore than that can hurt the patient. So, it was fun to listen to pairs of students in adjacent operatories jabbing each other a little to hard. Can’t wait to see what happens next quarter when we start delivering local anesthetic to each other. Should be an experience to remember!

The afternoon was filled with physiology, endodontics, and oral pathology lectures. After a long night, and then a long day, these three classes put most of the students to sleep—especially this quarter. We are all exhausted. But, I wouldn’t trade my time here for anything else.