Done deal, I have officially scheduled my very first patient. While I am overwhelmed with the heaping pile of work that the D-2 year is, I am glad they throw us into the clinics so early. Granted, I am not expected to do much outside of recall exams, but my group practice manager said if the patient needs work done, we will be doing it. There are plenty of procedures I could attempt competently on a live patient. However, obviously there is plenty I can’t do yet either. Mainly prosthodontic business. I could also do ½ a root canal (haven’t learned obturation yet).
Basically, the school is trying to ‘get our feet wet’ early so that we aren’t as awkward with patients once we hit the D-3 year. So we only have Thursdays this semester to see patients. We also have rotations through radiology, pediatrics, perio, and urgent care. So there really aren’t even that many opportunities to see real patients. There is only so much we can do though because we don’t have the treatment planning course until NEXT semester. This limits us to recall patients.
So come November 6th, at 2pm – I will be examining my very own LIVE PERSON…whoooo. I hope to schedule a few more as well but we will see.
In other news:
Endo has actually turned into a good class. For all of my griping leading up to it – I have learned a pretty good deal and feel pretty damn comfortable with the basic concepts. The worst part was the mounting of teeth (which mainly occurs during the first month). I still spend a LOT of time doing homework teeth and practicing, but things are going smoothly.
Fixed prosthodontics is giving me trouble. The crown preps are coming along just fine, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make a provisional successfully. I spend hours and hours and they always end up looking like crap.
Dentures also sucks big (mainly because I feel lost trying to set teeth).
All the other classes are going fine. Now by fine, I am not implying that I am going to be busting out A’s in every class, but I am learning SO much more than I did last year. The things that I am learning are also relevant and PRACTICAL towards what I am doing with my life. And as I’ve mentioned previously, the grade feels less important to me at this point. I am plenty competitive for GPRs which is what I see myself doing in 2.5 years.
The work is hard, I am far busier, but I am enjoying WHAT I am doing so much more. This is a good sign.
This semester is blazing by. I am going to be a D-3 before I even realize it.
Hell, I’m going to be a dentist sooner than I think.
Scary right?
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