Thursday, November 11, 2010

2/3

Done. I have one more major test to take before I can legally practice dentistry (assuming I also graduate).

Let me see if I can portray just exactly how stressful this crap is. So as explained, the mannikin exam is just as it sounds, we perform several dental procedures on a fake patient with plastic teeth. There are two sections: prosth and endo. Prosth involves prepping #9 all-ceramic, #5 PFM and #3 FGC. 3 and 5 are to be made as a bridge prep meaning the must draw together. Endo equates to a #14 access and #8 full RCT. If you fail ANY tooth from any section you must remediate the entire section. So if I have 100% on my bridge prep but leave an undercut on #9, I have to redo all the prosth section. This also costs 950 dollars...ghee.

OKOK, so now realize we have been practicing for this thing since the summer pretty much. I failed the summer mock mock exam. I also failed the mock exam we had this fall. The trend was not looking good. So imagine my utter jubilation when I finally found out my score this morning. PASS. And REALLLY passed too. No score was below 90 which washed away any and all dental self-confidence issues I had been experiencing over this exam.

But let me emphasize that this was a terrible process indeed. First off, the exam itself was extremely stressful. But that's not even the bad part. The bad part is waiting 26 days for them to actually grade it. TWENTY SIX DAYS. It wasn't so bad for the first two weeks because you know it will take awhile. But oh boy, this last week I was border line going insane with anticipation. To the point where I was having trouble sleeping, concentrating on school, doing ANYTHING. I'm sure I've lost a month off of my life simply do the accelerated aging all this stress has placed on my organs.

I though the joy of passing the written exam was going to be tough to beat. I was wrong, this definitely takes the cake. And I'm sure the only thing that will surpass this feeling shall be finishing that last portion come spring time. Knowing that it is finally over. Good lord I can't wait.

Now I can move on with my life and get out of the mire of simply not knowing. I have two GPR interviews coming up. Seeing as I only applied to two programs, I couldn't have asked for anything better. They both are in the next week so my focus must now shift off the academics and towards the future.

Just thought I'd throw this celebratory post up before I head off for the evening to continue taking in all the good vibes. The blue label is coming out tonight.

Off I go!