What advice would you give to someone entering D3?

[Springs01]

I will be entering clinic soon, and I have no clue what to expect. All we have done so far in d2 is shadow. So I feel kind of uneasy and unprepared. Also I'm a slow learner, and it takes me forever to adapt to new situations. My transition to clinic for sure won't be very smooth. So how can I prepare myself for clinic? And what kind of mindset should I put myself in?

Also, in your opinion what is a worst thing in D3?

I really appreciate your answers and insights!

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[hellopeople]

I will be entering clinic soon, and I have no clue what to expect. All we have done so far in d2 is shadow. So I feel kind of uneasy and unprepared. Also I'm a slow learner, and it takes me forever to adapt to new situations. My transition to clinic for sure won't be very smooth. So how can I prepare myself for clinic? And what kind of mindset should I put myself in?

Also, in your opinion what is a worst thing in D3?

I really appreciate your answers and insights!

First relax. Essentially everyone makes it through third year clinic just fine.
I'd say do this stuff:
1. Familiarize yourself very very well with your graduation requirements. Every patient you see should be assessed for potential requirement fulfillment prior to starting treatment. Map out who you will be doing what on. Spreadsheets are good for this.
2. Bring in friends and family early on if you can. They are reliable patients usually.
3. Familiarize yourself with the clinical procedure in the first weeks. This includes the use of whatever software you will be using, b/c this can suck up time like crazy otherwise.
4. Talk to the fourth years b/c they know the "tricks" to getting through your specific program much more so than anyone on here. A big part of this will be knowing which faculty will teach you the most, which will help you get through the procedures in a timely manner, and which are worthless for both goals. Typically you want your hand held as you first do things and want more streamlining later

 

[sgv]

Clinic is a lot of fun!

Always call your patients the day before to confirm their appointment.
There are a lot of steps in dentistry and there are some steps that you can be tempted to potentially skip or intentionally look over. It's easy to fall into an "Aw, f*** it" attitude when you run into a situation where you decide between laziness and giving the patient the best care possible. You can avoid this by always reminding yourself that you need to treat your patients like family.
Make sure you're doing something during every clinic session. If you do this, you shouldn't be falling behind in clinic. Be efficient by recording how long it takes you do something and how much you accomplish in each session. Then try to find out where you're inefficient and fix it.

 

[DentPETE]

Try to minimize the amount of crazy patients you have to deal with. A few bad apples will drive you wild.

 

[480640]

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[ncide]

How do you do that?

Ask them what they think about oil pulling.