Experimenting on Patients: How to learn various techniques

[eleanor_rigby]

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I am currently a second year dental student and will soon step up in the clinics near full-time starting next fall. We are required to assist the third and fourth year students a few times a month in order to acclimate ourselves to the clinic environment and observe various procedures on real patients.

I have been assisting various people who use different techniques that we do not learn in pre-clinic on our mannequin heads. I realize that the methods that our professors teach us aren't the only way to go and that there are more faster and efficient ways of achieving the same end result.

I feel like a lot of the time there are things that others know that I don't know and vice versa and information exchange isn't always possible due to various factors.

I am trying to learn as much as I can while I'm assisting, but I can only acquire so much information from others.

I know dental school is supposed to teach you the minimum necessary in order to not kill anyone, but I get paranoid about not learning or being aware ofthe most efficient and "best" techniques when doing different procedures.

Is it all a matter of trial and error and experimenting with various supplies on my own or just googling things and then trying them out? It might seem rather trivial, but I won't always be in an environment where I can feed off of others knowledge and was wondering if others use certain sources to acquire more dental knowledge outside of the formal educational setting.

 

[Streetwolf]

You should start off doing what your instructors taught you to do. After you become adjusted to clinic and more comfortable with the procedures you can start becoming more 'efficient' in your work. You'll learn a lot of these tricks and 'short cuts' through your classmates, and then others you'll pick up yourself. And still others you'll learn when your faculty sits down with you and tells you to do it a different way.

All of these things will come to you just like it came to your upperclassmen.

 

[tinman831]

My recommendation would be to ask plenty of questions. You are in dental school to learn. So learn as much as you can. Don't be afraid to ask an instructor how to do something, or if there's a better way of doing things. Dental school teaches you the basic minimum skills required of all dentists. What you know on top of that makes you that much better as a clinician. In dental school, I was so wrapped up in trying to do everything by the book, I never got a chance to learn as much as I could have.

 

[cresophene]

I am currently a second year dental student and will soon step up in the clinics near full-time starting next fall. We are required to assist the third and fourth year students a few times a month in order to acclimate ourselves to the clinic environment and observe various procedures on real patients.

I have been assisting various people who use different techniques that we do not learn in pre-clinic on our mannequin heads. I realize that the methods that our professors teach us aren't the only way to go and that there are more faster and efficient ways of achieving the same end result.

I feel like a lot of the time there are things that others know that I don't know and vice versa and information exchange isn't always possible due to various factors.

I am trying to learn as much as I can while I'm assisting, but I can only acquire so much information from others.

I know dental school is supposed to teach you the minimum necessary in order to not kill anyone, but I get paranoid about not learning or being aware ofthe most efficient and "best" techniques when doing different procedures.

Is it all a matter of trial and error and experimenting with various supplies on my own or just googling things and then trying them out? It might seem rather trivial, but I won't always be in an environment where I can feed off of others knowledge and was wondering if others use certain sources to acquire more dental knowledge outside of the formal educational setting.

If you think you know a faster or more efficient way well by all means talk to your instructor about it. It's the only way to truly know if you're crazy or not 😀

That aside, I was always someone who wanted to 'do my own' thing in the lab,and most times it was a disaster.

 

[1992Corolla]

I usually did things my own way and it was way faster than what we were taught.
Sometimes doing something from step 1 through 10 is the best way to learn about the entire process and it is good for basics, but when you get good at sep 1-10 you realize you can make it 1-3 and still accomplish the same goal.

Ex: Hand files for endo - they have their place and it is a good foundation/building block to learn, but in private practice, rotary will win you over (not that I do any endo anymore...)