Anesthesia

This last quarter has been much better than 3rd quarter. During the 4th quarter at Pacific, the class is split into 8 groups. During the morning, we meet together as an entire class for courses in physiology, orthodontics, microbiology, radiology, periodontics, and orientation to clinical dentistry. In the afternoon, we split up into our groups and attend one week blocks each week for 10 weeks. The blocks include oral surgery, radiology, endodontics, periodontics, orthodontics, and anesthesia. They are giving us the final touches on our preclinical education before we see patients on July 8. I'm really loving the courses. We've learned how to do flap surgeries, extract teeth, do root canals on every tooth in the mouth, and administer anesthesia. We've also learned about invisalign, and will be able to take part in the invisalign clinic during our 3rd year.

This week we just finished up anesthesia. We learned to do the IA, Gow-gates, nasopalatine, greater palatine, local infiltration, posterior superior alveolar, lingual, and buccal nerve blocks. It was a lot of fun practicing on our classmates. And, it wasn't as scary as we all initially thought it would be back in July.