In a little over 12 hours dental school will be in full swing, complete with a packed schedule, lab work, clinical rotations and of course, exams. After thoroughly feeding off the 1st years energy and orientation, it's about time to get back to reality. I've gotten a little back into things with a few preparations and restorations the past couple of days, but today I just took for myself.

Checked out the progress on our new capoeira space on Utica, Solrise Farm and Cultural Arts Center. The place is nothing less than incredible and I'm really excited to see us grow. They've got a ton of tomatoes, corn, plants that looked like mini squash, and a ton of other things. There's a flower we ate that I forget the name but I really need to find out what it was. Bright orange, and had a spicy kick. I'm beyond jealous of Emily and Corazel who live on the upper floor and maintain everything.  The studio floors were just being coated with polyurethane so we had practice at LaSalle Park on the west side overlooking Lake Erie. Had a roda for the entire time and it was great seeing everyone again and catching up.

After some grocery shopping, and general hanging out all day, I decided to treat myself to a "last supper" of sorts - Lobster stuffed salmon (courtesy Wegmans), over a spring greens salad with avocado and tomatoes.

Looking forward I think this year's going to be a little different than last. I've discovered my interests, in and outside of school and where I really want to place my efforts. Coming in first year, I think it was natural to be riding the hype of dental school, and see yourself giving your life to it. Dr. Comfort, the speaker at the white coat ceremony said it best in that dental school isn't who you are, it's just something we do. As dental students we have the opportunities to reach so many people, and really make an impact. At the same time, as dental students in Buffalo, we have limitless opportunities to grow as individuals.

And so it goes.

Back for More- D2

Been back in Buffalo since the 3rd, but tomorrow the pace will definitely start to pick up. Jam packed day of Picasso training, supply distribution, computer updates and more. Looking forward to the Big/Little lunch though, after meeting a good amount of the first years I'm again amazed at the admission committee's ability to select students. While 2015 has it's own dynamic personality and atmosphere to it,  2016 definitely has some interesting flavor. Its awesome feeding off of their excitement also, because this time last year I was ecstatic. This year I'm just looking forward to getting back into the swing. Maybe it's the olympics inspiring me, but I think this year has limitless potential and I want to realize as much of it as possible.

Had a little bit of an organizationfest today. Upcoming events include:

1. Meeting with James Harris Friday 8/10 to discuss moving the Burmese outreach project forward. After getting involved with For Hope International this summer my heart for dental missions and serving the underserved expanded. Before now I never gave much thought to dental careers with non-profits, but so far it seems like an exciting path. I really want to see this happen.

2. Direct Quiz next tuesday 8/14. Haven't opened VitalSource in quite some time...

3. Perio Practical Practice 8/17

4. Toronto Tough Mudder 8/19. THIS IS GOING TO BE EPIC :D

5. Direct Midterm 8/21. Word from the grapevine is that it's going to be tricky. There are a lot of details from the readings and going through everything again is going to take some time. Should be all right in the end.

6. Perio Practical Exam 8/24

I think that's everything, for August at least. Schedule this semester's pretty intense but I really want to keep up with the Capoeira group downtown, especially since we've got our own studio now. Also, started a pretty interesting book - Everything is Marketing: The Ultimate Dental Practice Growth Strategy by Fred Joyal. I was a little reluctant to buy it since it seemed to be just another lame dental business book, but he's got some clinical tidbits here and there that I'd like to integrate into practice.More on that in the future.

Summer2012

Spring Extension (Early Fall) came and went in an instant, but I'd be kidding myself to say this is the first free moment I've had. Reflecting back now it's easy to see how most people say that will be the best time of dental school, but I prefer the optimistic approach thinking the best is yet to come.

Direct Restorations and Perio are continuing into the Fall and I'm pretty pumped to get back into it. I brought home some waxing supplies for the summer, but have yet to do much with them. I figure I at least want to try out another #8 and a molar. It's strange to think this is supposed to be out "last" summer, since boards are next summer, and summer of third year I'd hope to go on a mission trip of some sort. Speaking of which, being home and catching up with friends and family has brought up some awesome opportunities, one of which I've been saving for this summer. A family friend mentioned a group she's part of who goes to Haiti around the December holidays, and I'm REALLY hoping I get to go.

In other news, summer 2012 is frickin' fantastic. This marks my 8th summer of lifeguarding at the Valley Stream Pool, and may very well be the last, since next summer I'll be searching for something more dental related to do. Aside from arranging some shadowing and such, this may as well be just another summer of undergrad. Getting a head start on the Perio exam coming up would be wise though, since summer really is an incredible about of free time that we won't see again for a while.

I was just thinking the other day how late August is taking on a new meaning as a time of always doing something pretty crazy. Around that time last year I had the DAT, and this year I've just registered for the Toronto Tough Mudder with some med friends. Along with classes, helping out with orientation and that race, Fall is really going to require hitting the group running. Until then :)

D2 Begins

Today was the official start of second year and it's got a good feel to it so far. D1 ended with a bang all around I think, since for the most part our averages were really high throughout. Definitely a needed "break" after the shock treatment of first semester.

Here's a snapshot of the ever changing spring extension schedule courtesy Tricia Hackett-Swanson from class. Physical Assessment is about 2 weeks so that'll be out soon. The class was divided into 4 groups, so that we have our final examinations at different times. I totally lucked out making into the group getting tested last.

I spent most of today practicing putting a rubber dam on my typodont. Since we'll have to use one for every operative procedure in class, and in the clinic I figured this is something I should be pretty efficient with. Those things are much trickier than they appear, and from spending some time in the clinic with upperclassmen, I already knew they were tricky. Although Dr. Sabatini taught us to place the ring around the tooth first, then place the rubbed dam over the ring and tooth, I found it much easier to place the ring through the dam before placing the ring in the patient's mouth. I shadowed an endodontist who I remember placed rubber dams with ease this way. Still need to work on not tearing the dam while placing it through contact areas. A friend suggested using a piece of a spare dam to push the dam through the contact area, which I'll need to try. Floss can also be used but it might cut the rubber. As with many things in dentistry - "whatever works best for you".

All we've got is Nutrition tomorrow, but given the 14 chapters we have to read for Physical Assessment, that time is anything but free. All in all I can see myself spending hours on end in B28 since I'm really loving this stuff so far. Placing and removing a dam for 4 hours was actually pretty fun and I'm sure most everyone's going to love when we start restorations. Here's to second year!

Friday Afternoon Endo

When I see the "C" for Clincal Rotation on our Integrated Dental Practice schedule I'm never sure how to feel. The last clinical rotation I had was spent talking to a fourth year friend for a few hours about impressions, casts, dentures, patients and dental school in general. All very, very useful stuff, but while in clinic it'd be great to do something clinical which is exactly what I got this time around

I had the privilege of working with an awesome third year, named Joy whose name perfectly fits her personality. Our patient was an elderly woman in need of RCT on tooth #11. She had many other dental problems, however the canal in this tooth had been previously treated and needed to be completed. Joy began with a few anesthetic injections before removing the IRM (temporary filling -Immediate Restorative Material), while I manned the suction. Once cleared she then cleaned the canal with the slow-speed and filed and shaped it with different files. Despite some trouble we ran into with excess saliva, and placing the rubber dam, the patient was amazingly patient and understanding. Looking back, I think that situation was exactly what Dr. Goldberg in Orofacial Neurobiology was talking about. Our patients will react to our demeanor and attitude. While competence is vital, compassion and empathy for our patients is also critical.

Once we had a clear canal, the next step involved cleaning the canal with a bleach solution, measuring the correct gutta percha length and filling. While the bleach rinse was fairly painless, measuring the correct length of gutta percha can be tedious. Once measured the apex could then be filled and checked via radiograph to ensure that the apex really was filled. I familiarized myself with the digital radiography program and developer the clinic uses and some protocols for the x-ray room which was nice. Once the apex was filled we could then fill the remainder of the canal then finish it off with more IRM since this patient would need another appointment to crown off the  tooth since so much of it was lost to decay. 

This was the first appointment I got to assist in entirety at UB's clinic and I can say I completely understand  how 3 hour appointments can fly by, how amazingly helpful the professors and assistants are and how great our patients can be. Next week we've got an Orofacial Neurobiology Midterm on Tuesday and Microbiology on Thursday. Group presentations for Community Dentistry are also coming up fast. On a more fun note, I've been keeping up with the weekly Capoeria classes and it feels like I'm getting the hang of it. There's also a couple of bike rides for Diabetes and Cancer that I'm  getting excited for. Never a dull moment! 

Post Spring Break

It's been a week since we got back from Spring Break and it seems like Spring just decided to descend on Buffalo. We've had basically 4 days of consecutive 80 degree weather which is uncharacteristic of Buffalo for this time of the year. It's supposed to cool down a bit, but before it does, some classmates and I have been taking full advantage of the weather. Being super bogged down in work all the time, its hard to find time to explore the other campus at UB North, however we got to the other day which was great. It almost makes you feel like UB South is the somewhat neglected campus.

Aside from the fabulous weather, there has been work. Third Micro Test was challenging, different from the past though since the material was divided up between a bunch of professors. And questions from the longest lecture (81 slides on Staphylococcus) were left off. Thankfully I saved that lecture for last :). Physiology is the next exam coming up next Wednesday, where we'll be evaluated on our knowledge of the lungs and respiratory system. The book work continues...

Integrated dental practice though has proven to be an awesome experience. On Monday we took our first alginate impressions on one another, and poured up casts. Our overseeing faculty had sympathy on us since they realized how long this would take, and our group had one hour less than the other groups would have, since we lost an hour to lecture. Even with that sympathy, and the added stress of the Microbiology exam the next day, the process took hours. Taking impressions is probably something we'll do many, many times in our careers, and we've probably seen dentists do flawlessly, without hesitation. Learning the procedure on the other hand is another story. First you need to measure out the powder, and water. They both then need to be combined and mixed throughly in a mixing bowl with a spatula, and within that same minute that it is mixed the impression material must be placed in a tray, and into the patient's mouth properly. Spend too much time mixing and your material polymerizes and you'll have to start all over. Spend too little time mixing and the material won't set correctly and you risk gagging your patient with dripping alginate down their throat(which I may have experienced lol). Once the mandibular and maxillary impressions are taken, it is rinsed, sprayed with Cavicide, wrapped in a wet paper towel and stored in a sealed plastic bag.

The next step, which is normally done in the same day, is to make the cast out of castone. This involves mixing water, and the stone powder, then filling the impression carefully. Once full the rest of the castone is neatly placed on a paper towel which becomes your base. The impression tray is then placed on top of this and set to dry, which takes about an hour. Once dry you can then remove the stone from the tray, trim the model and be set to go.

The whole process took a couple of days since none of us really wanted to wait around for an hour when there was a 10 lecture exam the next day. This made removing the stone a little more difficult than it should have been, but removing the stone from the alginate in a pool of water made things a little easier.  All in all, a great experience to have! I'd hope to do it again sometime, before having to be evaluated, but I'm not sure if we'll get that opportunity.

D1 Spring Semester Post Midterm Update

The semester's just about halfway through and despite not having any lab work this semester, it's busy as ever. Just last week I finished up 6 tests in a matter of a week and a half. Neuroanatomy ended and Orofacial Neurobiology has taken it's place. Not much to say about this class yet but from the Pre-test it seems interesting. We're given the option of testing out of the class if you can score high enough on the pretest given on the first day of class. While taking it it seemed like the kind of thing you could study and totally test out of, but according to those who actually did study, they didn't find any detail in the readings on some of the questions. Case studies II has also began which is just a continuation of last semester.

One achievement I'm particularly proud of is being the first dental student to take courses in the medical school! At my interview for Buffalo I asked a question that I thought blew my interview right there -"Are there any opportunities to take courses outside the dental school? I'm really interested in spanish and would love to learn and become a bilingual practitioner." The professor interviewing me responded asking me if I had any idea how much work dental school was, to which I answered "Couldn't hurt to be ambitious." The class has been going great so far and it's really nice to interact with some other students, and learn something outside of the sciences for a couple hours a week.  This Wednesday I'll be heading out to a clinic to speak with spanish speaking patients and take a patient history. It should be a great time:).

Although we have no lab classes this semester, we do have one class that puts us in the Clinic a couple of times a week. This semester is the first time the school has introduced Integrated Dental Practice into the curriculum. The purpose of the class is to get us more comfortable in the clinic and introduce basic dental procedures so that we are more competent when the time comes for us to treat patients. Thus far we've done exercises in infection control, fixed prosthodontics where we poured jadestone models, removable prosthodontics and a few others. The best yet have been clinical exercises where we learned how to do comprehensive oral exams, tooth charting and placed and cured our first composites on one another. Since it's a class in the making there are plenty of issues being worked through but kudos to Buffalo for taking the initiative to provide a dynamic curriculum.

Spring break starts this Friday and I think we're all ready for a week off. That's all for now.