Baby's First Cleaning

TGIT Everybody!
(Thank God It's Thursday!)

We don't have classes on Friday for the rest of the semester, so Thursdays are my Fridays now! I'm definitely less productive now that I don't get up and do things on Fridays, but whatever, I could use the break I guess.

So if you read my blog yesterday, you know that today was my first cleaning! (Not the first time I've had my teeth cleaned, but the first time I've cleaned a patient's teeth.) And it went great! I will say I was a little nervous, definitely not super frazzled, but a little on edge. There are just so many steps to remember; when do I take the blood pressure? When do I check in with faculty? When do I do the extraoral/intraoral exam? It can be really overwhelming. But it ended up going smoothly and my professor was so happy with how I was cleaning my patient's teeth that he said I "put a smile on his heart." Literally, one of the best things I've ever heard from a faculty member here, and it really put a smile on my face. (And my heart!)

I also had a fellow D2 and friend assisting me, which made things a lot easier. Friends help friends get through dental school.

So now all that I have to do this week is help with my dental fraternity's fundraiser tomorrow at the school. It's the D1s white coat ceremony tomorrow (I remember mine like it was yesterday) and we're selling t-shirts to the D1s and their families. Hope everyone's week is going well.

Are you nervous for your first patient experience? Are you a dental student right now seeing patients? Or on you on break? Let me know below!

Snapchat Official


Until next time,
PJ

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Score a 24: A (Realistic) Guide to Taking the DAT for the Busy Pre-Dental Student

Image
Hello Everyone and Happy New Year! I just got done taking my DAT this weekend and due to the two snow days my college has called for today and tomorrow, I decided that I could use the extra time to write a How-To Guide of sorts for taking the DAT. I don't know about any of you pre-dentals reading this right now, but I read a lot of online DAT guides before my exam that terrified me. I kept reading things like, "I studied for 12 hours a day for 6 months before the exam," "I completed the DAT Destroyer 15 times and memorized it forward and backward," and "I sold my soul and gave up my first-born child for a 20 or better." (Okay, maybe the last one is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.) I knew that I would never be able to live up to these expectations and I figured that I would also fall short in my score because of this. I was extremely busy in the months leading up to my DAT, and I know many of you will be too. We're pre-dentals! Be...
Read more

Dentist = Doctor + Engineer + Artist

Image
Hey guys! I hope your Tuesday is going great. Mine was a long day, surprise surprise. I went to the school early this morning to get some x-rays done with a friend, but I couldn't because all of the x-ray machines were taken. So I ended up pouring up some casts and getting ready for our practical next Monday, then I went to class and finally I assisted in the clinics this afternoon. I was having a great conversation with the student I was assisting about how he got into dentistry. He said that at first he wanted to be an engineer, and then he became more interested in the health field, and finally he decided on dentistry. We talked about how much engineering there is in dentistry. Before coming to dental school, I never considered myself an engineer, but now that I've seen how much technical, mechanical detail there is to dentistry I can say that I have some knowledge in the subject. Knowing how to taper a wall by so many degrees, making sure cavity prep walls are parallel,...
Read more

Interview #2 - University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine

Image
Hello all! Well, the new year is quickly closing in on us. 2014 has been a crazy year for me, and I honestly wouldn't have changed a thing. And from looking at the flood of "Your Year in Reviews" on Facebook, it looks like everyone else has been having quite the year too! (I deleted mine after seeing that it didn't include me getting into dental school. Because it's not like that was my ultimate life goal for the last 10 years or anything.) So here's the second installment of my six part interview series! The only thing I knew about Pittsburgh before visiting it was that I heard a rumor that if you put a lit lighter under a running faucet the water will light on fire (Pretty sure this is false. Maybe it was true at one point, but I'm sure they have this under control now.) One of the dentists I worked with over the summer went to Pittsburgh and convinced me to apply there and after visiting I could see why he encouraged me so much. I loved it! After ...
Read more