We are issued a giant, heavy, white box of supplies, which serve as our new "lab drawers". Back in the day when students had their own chairs in the clinic, the boxes easily be brought to your chair and left there for easy access. These days, I dont think I've seen one person carrying those huge things around. Instead, we've donned "clinic bags" of sorts to bring up whatever supplies we'll need. I was lucky enough to find a nice black cosmetics box in our attic at home, which fits my supplies perfectly! But like most things in school, people do what works for them. Some like the freedom of having everything on hand. So after unpacking the white box into my clinic bag, the box will sit nicely in the closet, probably until graduation.
Reflecting on D2, I'd say was way more fun than D1. Tons of lab work, but also a lot of dentistry. Constantly cramming just became a way of life. There's quizzes in every class, which keep you on your feet. At first I definitely remember feeling overwhelmed by the 5 or 6 casts we had to have poured, impressions and wax-ups that were due, and preparation for tests and quizzes, but all was well. Looking back on individual courses:
Endodontics I
Endo was awesome. Probably one of my favorite courses so far. The class is divided up into groups of about 8, and assigned different instructors who grade projects and teach technique. You can of course ask any professor for their opinion, but asking the one whose grading you is usually most wise. But preclinical endo is great. Dr. Pantera plays Pandora, or the occasional movie and we go at it on our extracted teeth. The projects are on different teeth each week, and the lecture part of the course correlates really well. Although I feel like I've learned a lot, I can see clinical endodontics being quite challenging. Visualization in posterior teeth, or even anteriors may be a challenge, since they are fixed, rather than in our hand. The only improvement I could think of is having a typodont where mounted teeth could be placed, to simulate clinical endodontics. Working with extracted teeth was a great experience though, to teach the complexity of the root canal system, how instruments feel cutting actual tooth structure, and tons of other things.
Ethics and Law
Awesome class, and I hope we get more of this because it's really important. Dr. Gary and Dr. Maggio are really passionate about the subject, and it doesn't hurt that Dr. Gary is also a lawyer AND a dentist. The class touches on a lot of subjects that will definitely arise in practice, and teaches the ethical and legal obligations to dentist. We also covered a bit of social media, which gave me some guidelines for this blog. I personally thought quizzes and the class was overall fair, although like any ethics class, there are subjective areas that will encourage more discussion than probably was intended. Aside being amazingly relevant to dentistry, I liked the information the class taught about how the clinic at the school runs, and Dr. Maggio's survey results about successful students in clinic, and patient interaction. Simple things like communicating clearly, being more accommodating and courtesy can help dentistry run much smoothly and improve the patient experience a ton.
Indirect II
Indirect was a challenge for me at first. This class really showed me how important attention to detail is, and the professors drive that home over and over. Cheers to everyone for getting through the infamous 3-unit bridge project. Luckily, the competency was a #30CCC rather than a #18-20 FDP prep. But the bridge definitely got it's fair share of attention. I think I must have waxed, broken and rewaxed it 5 times, and casted it twice. We're not required to cast our own, but I'd suggest it for anyone with any interest in the casting process. We had a lecture from Dr. Conny about lab work and dental school which gave me some basis for constantly being in B28 second year. Dr. Conny is an incredible prosthodontist who has done his own lab work for many years in private practice and stressed the importance of dental students understanding the process lab technicians go through to fabricate restorations and dentures. Dentists these days are placing more indirect restorations thanks to CEREC and increased demand for more esthetic, tooth like solutions, yet, dental students are doing less lab work. He presented examples of dental lab work authorizations with outrageous requests, clearly showing that the dentist did not understand the process which must be followed to fabricate the crown/bridge/denture/etc. So if you're a dental student drowning in lab work thinking, "This is pointless, I'm not going to be a lab tech", know as a future dentist, you'll be a customer, and a supervisor of a dental lab one day. And supervising something you've never done before, might be quite difficult.
Removable II
Went through partial dentures this semester. Now those mysterious tooth replacing apparatuses in patients mouth's make a lot more sense. I can see removable being really tricky, but amazingly rewarding when things come together. Lecturers were again great, and Buffalo has really helpful prosthodontists that are really passionate. For my own future reference the process for removable includes: Primary impressions, secondary impressions, pouring of a diagnostic cast, surveying, determining the need for survey crowns, preparing guide planes, heights of contour modifications and rest seats, then taking an impression for the master cast. If a survey crown is indicated, we've learned its better to make your modifications before taking the impression of the crown prep, so that the lab can fabricate the crown according to the modifications. The specs of the crown should also be clearly communicated on the work authorization. Some upperclassmen mentioned they hadn't had the survey crown experience so I'm really glad we had the opportunity to work on one. Survey crowns are crowns that are made to fit the partial denture framework. They're usually indicated on teeth that are excessively tilted, or that may require a crown due to caries or other pathology.
Oral Sciences II
Learned some valuable knowledge here and Oral Sci was really well run. Not really much to say about this course, except that brute memorization only goes so far. Dr. Cho really emphasizes understanding the material, for your own benefit as well as that it's on the board exam. So the three hours on Monday afternoons spent in a basement other than Squire's, was well spent. The coolest things I thought came out of Oral Sci was learning about the science behind periodontal treatments like PDGF, and the experiments our own faculty went through to develop advances in their field.
So that's about it for D2. D3 starts full swing on Monday with a full day of clinic! #letsdoit
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