Sunday, July 27, 2008

Boards and Beyond

Boards are done, the semester ended, and now all there is to do is pretty much see patients. Time has been going by slowly and I have so much free time that I am bored at times. Crazy. It has been a long time, years in fact, since I have been really bored. Being bored has let my mind wander a bit, and I have started thinking about what I am going to do when I get out of school. I still want to buy or startup my own practice, but the reality is starting to hit about how scary that could be. But, I will have to do it sometime, and I really don't think that an associateship or residency is for me. I am too sick of making money for someone else, and I do not think I can do too many more years of doing dentistry the way I want to.

So, I started my journey towards my practice by going to dentaldemographics.com and beginning to research the areas I want to go when I graduate. At this point I am trying to compile fourteen zip codes to have studied and then I will move onto the next step of deciding whether or not to buy or scratch start. Exciting and scary times.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Here is what I have consumed myself with since the semester ended. If you look at the fading tulips, you can see the annuals already planted.





Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Bored...

Which is a good thing...I think. I have waited two years to finally be done with the worst Temple could offer me and now that it is here, I don't know what to do with myself. I keep reminding myself that I need to enjoy it while it lasts, for a couple of reasons. 1-I will be academically cleared soon to take the boards, and that will be stressful, and 2-when we get patients and have classes, it will be time consuming and stressful once again.

So, in trying to stay relaxed I have begun to fix up the lawn. I have planted my salsa garden (jalepenos, tomatoes, etc), planted the annuals for this summer, and need to lay down fertilizer sometime today or tomorrow. Today my goal is to clean the living room, lay fertilizer, and maybe tackle the basement (if the wife gets laundry done in time). Boring, I know, but I love it.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Clinic begins...sort of

So the horrible semester is finally done, and we have started into the summer session which consists of Treatment Planning and Introduction to Clinic. Talk about getting into the good stuff. Lectures are a lot more laid back, but full of useful information, and we are finally in the clinic. True, it is just assisting the upperclassmen, but it is in the clinic. We have one admissions and one oral surgery that are scheduled for us, and then we have to go in on our own time and attend two sessions of pedo, endo, treatment planning, removable, fixed prosthetics, and restorative. I have done my required time in Admissions and one session in restorative and treatment planning.

Admissions was a little boring at first, as we are waiting for someone to come to be admitted. But once the patient showed up, it was a little intimidating. You have to review the medical history, and it is amazing how many people are just sucking down the medication. One thing that was crazy is when the attending doctor grills you on what to do if the patient has this medication or what would you ask or what would prescribe for this problem remembering that the patient has these problems. It got hectic and you are humbled when you realize how much you need to know. The good news is, I know most of the information, I just need to learn how to mash it all together and apply it to each situation.

Treatment planning is kind of fun. It basically consists of a recall/hygiene appointment in private practice without the hygiene cleaning. We record the probing depths, mobility, recession, previous restorations, and then treatment plan (duh) what would be best for the patient to help them get back to their optimal health.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Finally Done

Finals ended yesterday. Finally. Ha. Scores have been trickling in so far, and so far so good. I have aced every final up to this point (with a 90 being the lowest) and am glad that two weeks with 2-3 hours of sleep a night paid off. I am a little worried about my local anesthesia test, as it wasn't so much on local anesthesia as it was on who discovered Oxygen and math. Remember that I haven't done any long division since the eleventh grade (which sadly was ten years ago). But alls well that ends well.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Waiting for Local Anesthesia

Now, I know that this picture has nothing to do with dentistry (or at least legit dentistry), but it is cool, and I really should be studying so I went with it. It is 9:44 am, Thursday morning and my local anesthesia test is this morning. I am so sick of studying that I couldn't take it anymore and decided to throw down a couple of thoughts on here.

Finals has mostly come and gone, minus today's anesthesia test and tomorrow's Oral Path test. I can't believe that they are almost done and we pseudo-start in the clinic on Monday (pseudo-start meaning we are in the clinic, but just to observe. I believe we get patients sometime in May). It all started with Pharm and it started well. I aced that test (quite literally, and thankfully making up for my first Pham test) and have since had Perio, Radiology, Endo, and two Pedo tests (don't even get me started how dumb that was). I have done quite well in everything except Endo, which I have no clue how I did.

Every Endo question had two possible correct answers, and depending on which question she picks as correct will dictate what my score will be.

Anyways, I am looking through Anesthesia and am bored to death...well back to the grind.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Drudging up to finals

Thursday once again. I can't believe that in one weeks time, I will be done with Pharm. That is fun and crazy at the same time. It feels like I have been studying for this class forever, but still have so much left to do. Finals are coming up quick, with Perio on Tuesday, Pharm on Thursday and Radio on Friday. Then, Monday is Endo, Tuesday is Pedo, Wednesday is Pedo again with Anesthesia, and finally Oral Path of Thursday. So, I guess that means in two weeks, I will be done with the hard part of dental school, or so they tell me. I can't believe how much I have studied the last two weeks. I have kept telling myself that soon it will be over, and then I can relax, but that motivation is quickly wearing off.

Tomorrow we have our big denture practical. We get to rip the teeth out of the denture wax-up we have been working on for the last month and set up our teeth in a couple of hours. Fun times. I actually don't mind the waxing up as much as other people in my class. Granted, it is not my favorite thing to do [I would much rather be doing Endo (my new found love), or restorative or anything dental related other than pedo] but it is a nice break from all of the stress of finals looming. My lowest practical grade this semester was an 87 in Endo and I think a 90 in Restorative, so I am not too worried about tomorrow at all. Even if I bomb the practical, I should still be sitting well in that class.

Dang...I hear something softly whispering my name from across the room. And I have a sneaking suspicion that is my Oral Path stuff...

Friday, March 28, 2008

Another week gone

It is Friday already. I can't believe how fast time has been flying by. I really can't believe it when I sit down to study Pharm and it seems like I get through half of what I want to and over two hours have passed by. That part stinks. Pharm is a scary class for me. It is cumulative (which completely sucks, but it probably should be...grrr) and that is scary. That is a lot of drugs that I supposedly have a good grasp on that will be tested on in no particular order. One of the few things that gives me hope is that I see some of the upperclassmen and tell myself that if they could do it, so can I....ha ha.

One crazy thing that has been going on here lately has been the recent number of attacks on SEPTA trains by teenagers. Over the past few weeks, it has mainly been teenager on teenager, but yesterday that changed. Sean Patrick was killed by four truant teenagers for no apparent reason. According to the many news sites (here is one) he just was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is crazy how uncivilized this city is. This city has some of America's most important history, amazing culture, and atmosphere, but turn the corner and this city is a dump. Some of the areas in this city are unbelievable. Not only can you not believe that human beings live this way, but I am amazed at how little they want to change their lives. Anyways, just one more unbelievable story out there.

Back to school. I can't believe that I am getting ready for finals. This is what I have been waiting for what seems like forever. I am so pumped to finally get the chance to work on real people. As exciting as typodont teeth are, and realistic as you try to make doing endo on real teeth feel like a real patient, as much as drilling into pig skulls seems more realistic, it is not the same. I can't wait to not only work on people, but to have the interaction with them. I have been working for a very, very successful dentist and I want to see if I have learned anything from him when it comes to dealing with humans.

This last week we received an email from our restorative IV teacher about a quiz we took last week. I did fine on it, but a lot of the class did very poorly (failing badly poorly). She decided that we would retake the quiz next Wednesday. At first I was bugged, because I don't want to spend another day of my life studying that stuff, but then when she said that the quiz was optional and she would take the higher of the two scores, I thought what the heck. I will study a little and see if I can't pad my grade a little so I am not as worried come finals. Anyhow, the wife wants me off the computer to spend a little time with them before I get to feeling guilty again and bust out Pharm.....

p.s. I found the pics of my gum grafting on pigs....I will have to post those soon. I still can't find my implant pictures. :(

Monday, March 24, 2008

Tonight, you get two for one

Just about to sit down and tackle a Pharm back exam in preparations for the final coming up soon, and then my son had a milestone in his life. Whether it is a good one or bad one, well that is up to you, but I am leaning towards not so good. My wife is playing with one of the hundreds (or so it seems) toys that he received from the wife and I, grandparents, wife's patients, etc for Easter when I hear a cough/sneeze. The wife lets out a holler and calls for a tissue. Just seconds later, another shriek (again from the wife) comes from across the room with a more frenzied call for a tissue. I put down the back test, get the tissue and go to deliver the wanted good. When I get there, I discover what the commotion was all about.

My son sneezed, partially blowing out a bugger (gross, I know, but I must continue). That was the cause of the first holler. Then, probably due to the fact that Garrett is now 4 1/2 months old and discovering all sorts of new feelings and that he can direct his hands very deftly now, Garrett takes his finger straight to his nose and cleans that nostril right up. Hence the second scream. My son's first nose picking experience. My son is now officially a nose picker; at 4 1/2 months. Like I said, whether or not you think that is good, well that is up to you. I just wanted to get this special moment in time written down.

Quiet before the storm

Mid-terms came and went, were stressful and are now done. It feels weird, the quiet before the storm. Starting April 8, we begin finals which runs until April 17. So, as of today, there is 24 days until this all ends. I have been trying to get through Endo and Pharm, but it feels as though I am not going to remember all of this long enough for finals. It is hard to really describe how it feels. I know in my mind that I need to be cracking down and really getting this info down, because I am running out of time, but there isn't that feeling of urgency that really makes you bust your butt off.

Today was our endo practical. We had to access two molars; one maxillary and one mandibular molar. That wasn't too bad. My mandibular molar access was a little wide, but I am happy with it considering that is was only the second access I have ever done (whoops, I should of practiced maybe once or twice more) and the pulp chamber was very, very small. Talk about being relieved when I finally found the pulp chamber. We also had to access and obturate the canal. That went smoothly.

All in all, not a bad day.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Shooting at School

Today is Saturday, I am watching the Jazz game while my son is being used as workout weight by my wife, I decided to write up a little something. So much for my daily update, huh? Ha ha. Well, something interesting did happen to me this week. On Wednesday, in the subway station in front of the school police shot a suspect. A link to the story is found on abc.com. It was pretty crazy. I actually didn't even know anything had happened until I was getting ready to go home for the day. I grabbed up my stuff after a wonderful afternoon in our "special session" denture course (total waste of time...okay, not total, just not exactly organized to produce maximal efficiency) and headed down the stairs out the door and was greeted by pandalerium (as jeff foxworthy would say). There were cops everywhere, tv crews were everywhere, and there was nowhere for me to go to get home. I called the wife, and she was able to turn on the tv and internet to find out what was going on.

Apparently, two undercover cops found a guy smoking in between cars on the subway. They removed him from the subway, when he started to fight them, ran away, then for some strange, dumb reason, decided to turn around and pull a gun on the cops. So, the cops (as any cop would) shot him. What that meant for me was nothing more than a headache. Don't get me wrong, it is a sad commentary on the state of Philadelphia, that someone smoking on the subway would lead to gun shots being fired, but I guess you tend to get desensitized by this stuff. That might be part of the reason why this kind of behavior is so common here. It happens so much, that it isn't really news anymore. It is just a headache.

Anyways, I had to cram onto a way too crowded bus, wait half an hour while the bus driver tried to explain that when he said "no stops from here to Girard street" actually meant he wasn't going to stop.

Every person that came up to the bus: "Do you stop at XXXXXX St?"

Driver: "No, only Girard"

Next person: "So, do you stop here?"

Driver: "No, only Girard"

And so on. I came home and talked with the wife about buying a car, or bringing out the old "green" car (a 1994 Toyota Tercel) from Utah, and so on. But I think we have decided to risk life and limb to save the $15,000 a car would cost us over the next two and a half years and continue to take the subway. I even tempted the wife with a new Jeep Liberty, but she didn't budge (which is probably a good thing; if she gave into me, we would probably be one million bucks in the hole, with her around, we can keep it in the hundreds of thousands).

Well, the wife just brought the son by, and he has his sleepy eyes and still needs a bath, so I am off for the night.

Peace.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Oral Path done, time for Perio

Oral Path exam has come and gone, and it wasn't that bad. The questions were all very straight forward with no surprises. I definitely can't complain; if every test was like the one today, then I don't think I would ever worry about a test again. It wasn't cake, you needed to know the information, but all the questions were straight forward and straight from the material presented. So, after the Oral Path test, it was time to study for the Endo quiz later that day. This entailed going Temple Hospital for a three dollar cheese steak and a quick run over the quizzes given in years past. This turned out to be a great move, as who can turn down a toasted, three dollar cheese steak, and the Endo quiz was straight off the back quizzes.

After the quiz was completed our row instructor pulled the row aside and told us how disappointed she was in the result of our first practicals. She said our row had the worst scores when it came to our accesses, and she felt that we weren't filing our canals out well enough. Although I admit that my access was not perfect, it was triangular, and not bad. I am proud to say that my filing was excellent, and that is not just my opinion; my row instructor told me so. :)

After that, half the class split to go study for the Perio midterm tomorrow, and me being either 1) the sheep that I am or 2) not wanting to dig through human teeth looking for a good one or two for an upcoming practical, decided to split as well. This meant that I could come home and spend some time with my wonderful wife on our anniversary, then scoot off to study for the perio test coming up that I had not even looked at yet.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Oral Pathology Midterm Looming


So, here it is, awhile since my last post (which was posted full of good intentions to keep posting), the night before my oral pathology test, and possibly the worst week I have had in dental school, and I am here posting. I think of all the time I have wasted the last month and a half, when I could of been keeping up on what has been going on in my life, and now is when I decide to post. But, it is Sunday, and after a day of church, a little scripture study, a little uplifting music, I am all inspired and ready to go with this. My new goal is to post everyday, no matter how little I write. I can find five minutes a day to do this....I think.

Tomorrow I have my Oral Pathology midterm. I don't know what to think about it. The information is straight forward, the notes are easy to understand, I have all the summary questions answered, BUT there is no back test. That always makes you feel wary, because you aren't quite sure what she thinks is important, and you don't get those five repeat questions that always make you feel good as you are taking the test.

After the Oral Path test, I am planning on rushing home on my wedding anniversary and kissing my wife, telling her that I love her, and then locking myself in a room to wrap my head around some Perio. My Perio mid-term is Tuesday and I have yet to even look at it. In fact, I just received and copied the notes twenty minutes ago. I feel bad about kind of ruining the wedding anniversary, but I have to do what I have to do....I hope. I can justify it by saying that a couple of crappy wedding anniversaries will pay off down the road when I can really afford (both monetarily and time-wise) to spoil her.

Well, it is 10:30 and I am just watching the minutes pass by, thinking that I could be sleeping, so I am off to bed to get my standard 4-5 hours of sleep, then up tomorrow morning for some last minute Oral Path cramming.
So, here it is, awhile since my last post (which was posted full of good intentions to keep posting), the night before my oral pathology test, and possibly the worst week I have had in dental school, and I am here posting. I think of all the time I have wasted the last month and a half, when I could of been keeping up on what has been going on in my life, and now is when I decide to post. But, I it is Sunday, and after a day of church, a little scripture study, a little uplifting music, I am all inspired and ready to go with this. My new goal is to post everyday, no matter how little I write. I can find five minutes a day to do this....I think.

Tomorrow I have my Oral Pathology midterm. I don't know what to think about it. The information is straight forward, the notes are easy to understand, I have all the summary questions answered, BUT there is no back test. That always makes you feel wary, because you aren't quite sure what she thinks is important, and you don't get those five repeat questions that always make you feel good as you are taking the test.

After the Oral Path test, I am planning on rushing home on my wedding anniversary and kissing my wife, telling her that I love her, and then locking myself in a room to wrap my head around some Perio. My Perio mid-term is Tuesday and I have yet to even look at it. In fact, I just received and copied the notes twenty minutes ago. I feel bad about kind of ruining the wedding anniversary, but I have to do what I have to do....I hope. I can justify it by saying that a couple of crappy wedding anniversaries will pay off down the road when I can really afford (both monetarily and time-wise) to spoil her.

Well, it is 10:30 and I am just watching the minutes pass by, thinking that I could be sleeping, so I am off to bed to get my standard 4-5 hours of sleep, then up tomorrow morning for some last minute Oral Path cramming.

Monday, January 7, 2008

First Day Back After School This Year

Today was my first day back at school, even though I have missed the first week of school. I am sitting here at the computer dead tired (our flight was delayed yesterday, we didn't get home until 5 a.m. this morning) and having completed one day of school so far. Today was Pharm, Oral Path, and Endo. Endo was very basic today, very introductory, and very boring. We basically went over info that we have covered ten times before in Histo, Anatomy, Physio, Micro, etc and then went into the lab and made sure that we had all our instruments. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not complaining. I need all the help I can get right now as I try to get caught up. I am a little worried that I am getting dangerously behind in Pharm and Oral Path.

The good/bad news is that tomorrow we have all dental classes, but I have to stay at school until 3 p.m. to do my radiology rotation. So, while it will be fun to actually have a whole day of relevant classes, it will stink to wait around 4 hours for the rotation to start, but it will be good to have that time to hit the books and get rolling on this studying stuff (I guess).

Anyhew....I am dead tired, and it is getting late, and if I don't head off to bed I will be dead tomorrow, so Peace.