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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...