Internship - Making the most of it

[perla93]

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Hello everyone,

I recently landed myself a 3 week internship at a relatively busy dental office. The head dentist has been amazing and has made it clear to me that I can use this opportunity and treat it as a "build your own internship", and learn what I want to during this time. His practice has 2 dentists, 4 dental assistants, a lab tech, 2 treatment planners, multiple hygienists, etc. What I've been doing so far is bouncing around from room to room following interesting surgeries and cases, and helping the dental assistants with minor duties. This is my first internship, and I want to make sure that I am maximizing my time here in terms of what I am learning. What do you guys think would be the types of skills that I should be developing? The lab tech that works there is a really easy-going guy that is extremely pro-active in teaching and explaining things to me. Are there any skills that I should ask him to help me learn while I am there?

I am looking for experiences that will make me the most marketable on my application, as well as to help give me an edge for future internships/jobs and dental school. Please give your input, any is greatly, greatly appreciated!!

Thanks y'all 🙂

 

[teethlover93]

In terms of skills... Try dental assisting on some cases. You get a different perspective when you are actually participating in the surgery rather than just watching it. You'll eventually be able to guess what the dentist's next move is. They can teach you how to take x-rays (panos, PAs, bite wings), which would make you more marketable for other assisting jobs. You can ask the dentist to help you read the radiographs. They can also teach you how to take impressions and make models.

When I'm dental assisting, I like to have a little notepad of "cool things," which are either weird cases that I've seen (e.g. 6 supernumerary teeth) or just interesting things the dentist has mentioned to me. Since I started carrying that around with me, I feel like I'm retaining a lot more.