Losing my confidence in clinic

[Snerik]

Hello everyone. I’m a D3 and we started clinic back in July and all I’ve done so far was cleanings, an immediate denture, and 2 fillings.

I feel like I’m not doing much and my patient base hasn’t been the best. Every day I’m there I feel like the most useless person in the clinic especially considering that a lot of my classmates have done tons of fillings and a crown or two. Any time I get new admits they need just cleanings and if they do need extensive work they either cancel on me or no-show.

I know I’m pretty much starting out but it’s a massive blow to my confidence when I see what my classmates have been up to while all I’ve been doing is taking radiographs and getting patients that don’t amount to much work for me to do.

I’m just wondering if this is the normal experience and I’m just overthinking it. It’s hard to build confidence in my hand skills when I get no patients to practice on. I do try my hardest when I get patients but I just feel like a complete failure who can’t compete with his classmates.

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[Blueshirts]

Use your time hanging around docs when they are discussing difficult cases or delivering big tx plans and see how they effectively communicate. See how they analyze a fms and pan, etc. Plenty of things you can do while in the clinic to keep learning, then when you have to explain and deliver treatment you can do it confidently and be able to answer the pt’s questions.

 

[happy_6523]

Ask your classmates, especially D4 students, to share the procedures.
I’m very busy in the clinic, and I don’t mind giving out procedures once I’m done with the requirements. Most D4 students are pretty much done with the requirements at my school. Also ask your patients if they’ve any friends or family members interested in coming to dental school