On August 1, 2013 I left my homestate of Michigan and headed west to Colorado. I started this blog as a way of keeping my friends and family in touch with my mile-high adventures, as well as my new life in dental school.

Friday, January 24, 2014

A little bit of Projects...

For starters, I recently updated the look of this blog, including a Projects menu at the top of the page. There I'll try to keep pictures and descriptions of all of my projects for you to check out!

..........

Like I mentioned in my last post, I'm taking two labs this semester: occlusion and direct restorative (simulation).  I'm absolutely ecstatic because I feel like I'm actually doing dentistry, and it's so much fun!  To tell you about it, I'll break it down by class:

Occlusion

Our first session in occlusion was taking impressions on our dentaforms.  Most of my classmates (including myself) have never taken impressions before, so it was completely new territory.  It's quite simple really, but as with all things, it takes some practice to get the hang of it.

I didn't get a picture of the process because my gloves were covered in sticky alginate, but I found this one on the internet.  See link in caption below:

http://www.healthscienceeducation.com/products/health_science/career_pathways/dental_diagnostics.htm
After taking the impressions, we went to the lab and poured them up with stone and trimmed the casts once they hardened.


Last week, after practicing on our dentaforms, we got to go into the clinic and take impressions on each other.  Working as a dental assistant last year, I saw countless impressions be taken, and boy is it harder that it looks!
It seemed like everyone in our class struggled and had to try so many times that we all had rashes and cracked lips for a few days.

Luckily, my partner Natalie is a good friend of mine, so we had a lot of fun throughout the process, even though we were miserable for a few days after...




















Direct Restorative:

In sim lab, we finally got to start drilling!  Many of my friends at other schools started last semester, and hearing their stories, I was so excited to hold a handpiece!  Our first assignment was to drill different shapes into a block, practicing different angles and techniques. Once we got the hang of that, we got to practice on our mannequins.  I only got a picture of my first attempt (which is NOT good!) but as an example, you can see what we were doing.

Our first assignment was a Class I composite prep on #29. 




Thursday, January 16, 2014

Semester #2!

After a long and much needed winter break, I'm back at school for my second semester.  I can't believe how ridiculously fast time is passing... I've already been in dental school for over 5 months!  After a semester of waxing, I'm also really excited to be taking new dental classes.  Here's a run-down of the classes I'm taking this semester:

Didactic:
Human Physiology
General Pathology
Microbiology
Immunology
Interprofessional Education
Infection Control

Dental:
Occlusion (tech lab)
Direct Restoration (sim lab)

Last week we started drilling and taking impressions, and for the first time, it actually felt like I was in dental school!  Pictures to come :)