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DANG JAVADI,

Your experience sounds great. Sounds like UOP really focuses on keeping their students happy. Sometimes makes me wander bout my decision 🙄 jk

keep up the posts
 
Wednesday, August 3, 2005

It's nearly midnight here in California, and I just got done eating dinner. It was a long day at school. I got to school early again, and I worked on my class I preps of #19, #31, and #3. I think I finally got a couple of examples to show my row instructor tomorrow that she'll pass off.

Our a.m. class was restorative. We had a lecture on how to prep tooth #8 for a PFM crown. For you anxious pre-dents, that is a porcelain fused to metal crown on the right central maxillary incisor. It is unbelieveably tough. I can't even begin to explain how challenging it was for me to cut the prep. There were so many unfamiliar steps to follow that I wasn't even sure how to begin. I just sat there and stared at the typodont tooth, occasionally glancing at the model of the finished product. We had to get familiar using 6 new and different types of burs. So, for the 2 hours I spent attempting to cut the prep, I fumbled around trying to figure out which bur I needed, and which surface I was supposed to cut, and how deep to cut, and on, and on, and on.

Basically, it came down to me just grabbing the handpiece and starting to cut. By the time I was done, 30 minutes later, I had cut the ugliest thing I'd ever seen. I was too ashamed to show it to my row instructor. I was sure that he would fall on the ground and cry after he saw it. Anyway, I wasn't too detered. I pulled out another tooth, and tried again. The second attempt was a lot better than the first.

Biochem was biochem. I think the professor is kin to Bob Ross, the painter on PBS. I used to flick through the channels and I'd stumble into Bob and his happy little paintings. I remember I'd sit there and watch the entire show, even though it was as dry and boring as shows come. It's like I was in a trance and I couldn't do anything about it. Our biochem teacher is exactly the same. You sit there and stare at the power point slides and listen to him drone on about hemoglobin for 60 minutes, and at the end, you can't explain why.

We finished the day with an anatomy lecture on the skin. Just the typical lecture. We have a big quiz in that class on Monday. There goes another weekend.

I stayed after school and cut some more class I preps and a crown prep. The lab was packed with about 60% of the students all trying to get some projects finished up.

For anyone that wonders how Pacific does it in 3 calendar years instead of 4, all you need to do is spend 2 weeks with us and we'll show you.
 
ItsGavinC said:
Good stuff, it's nice hearing how other students spend their days.
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Hey gavinC,
how does javadi's experience compare to your first year? And what school are you at? I am wondering just because I have been interested in Pacific, but I would also like to go to a school where I might have at least some opportunity to enjoy my life and spend time with my wife. (if this is even possible at any dental school). Anyway, let me know what you think. You too javadi.... thanks
 
TimR said:
Hey gavinC,
how does javadi's experience compare to your first year? And what school are you at? I am wondering just because I have been interested in Pacific, but I would also like to go to a school where I might have at least some opportunity to enjoy my life and spend time with my wife. (if this is even possible at any dental school). Anyway, let me know what you think. You too javadi.... thanks
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I'm wondering the same thing.
 
Guys,

I don't think it's much different than a full-time job, except that you have homework after the kids go to bed. I get home at 6pm 3 of the 5 nights a week. I hang with the kids and wife until about 8 or 9pm. I study until 11pm or midnight. It's tough, but it's manageable.
 
DREDAY said:
DANG JAVADI,

Your experience sounds great. Sounds like UOP really focuses on keeping their students happy. Sometimes makes me wander bout my decision 🙄 jk

keep up the posts
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It's not too late. You can back out from UCSF and apply UOP again next year : P You'll still finish d-school in 2009! J/K. Hey, if you can start a thread like this for your school when it starts, a lot of us would really appreciate. You prob wish someone had done this before you made your decision. The values of these threads are invaluable.
 
Thanks J.. for taking the time to write this blog... I haven't followed a "series" like this since 90210 ...way back in the days... I start up in a couple of weeks... the experiences you are writing are actually warming my brain up for the start of my D-Days... I actually went out to the range to brush up on my game... wow... the power of this website... got me thru the DAT blues... got me thru the painful wait of the app process... now SDNers are helping me overcome my anxious wait for the first day of class... NICE!!!!

What happened to your other Avatar hahahhahahah!
 
Thursday, August 4, 2005

***Tried to post last night, but the server was having trouble when I tried.

Operative again today. I got to the lab an hour early to work on a couple of preps. When I took a look at the ones I had done the night before, I noticed a few glaring mistakes. I keep turning my wrist as I move more mesially on tooth which produces an undercut on the mesial wall. So, I cut a new prep and tried hard not to undercut. It worked.

We had a lecture on how to prep #13, a premolar. Premolar are small teeth and have a very small occlusal cutting surface. I cut 8 preps yesterday. On 5 of those preps, I made the same mistake. I kept cutting the mesial supplemental groove too wide. The problem is that I can't find a good location to hold my mirror so that I can see the occlusal surface of the tooth and not splatter the mirror with lots of water. However, as I was finishing up yesterday, I think I stumbled into a good mirror location. If I hold the mirror slightly out of the mouth, I can get a decent look at the tooth.

Dr. Salimi, my row instructor, passed me off on #19 and #3. That means I can focus on #13 and #30 for next week. We have our first practical next Thursday. During a practical, they give us one tooth (#30 for this practical) and we have 90 minutes to cut the best prep we can. We can't have any notes or assistance. For this practical, we are allowed to take the typodont jaw out of the dummy's mouth to inspect the prep, but on later practicals we won't be able to remove the jaw. The grading on the preps is pretty tough. The course director went over the grading procedures and told us that around 50% of the class traditionally scores a D or an F on the first practical. So, I'll be happy with any grade better than a D. A D is clinically unacceptable, but a C is clinically acceptable (but ugly).

I was too tired to stay after school. We have a very tough week next week. I'll be studying all weekend.
 
JakeMUSC said:
nice move golfing with the dean 👍 😀
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Yeah, and check this out. Both he and the Dr. Yarborough send me emails the next morning thanking me for golfing with them. Are you kidding? I was the one who should have sent the email to them. The administration at the school are top notch.
 
DREDAY said:
DANG JAVADI,

Your experience sounds great. Sounds like UOP really focuses on keeping their students happy. Sometimes makes me wander bout my decision 🙄 jk

keep up the posts
Click to expand...

I'm sure you would have liked it here.
 
At the rate they are teaching you how to cut and prep and such, and how hard you are working, it seems you will be be able to graduate as a dentist by end of the year. thx for sharing your experiences with us.
 
Quick question, is it required to wear long sleeve shirts during labs?
 
luder98 said:
Quick question, is it required to wear long sleeve shirts during labs?
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No. You have to wear business casual. Some professors like it if you wear a tie. So, must students wear button-up shirts and slacks. With the milder temperatures in SF, people tend to wear long sleeve shirts more often than not to stay warm.
 
JavadiCavity said:
Thursday, August 4, 2005

***Tried to post last night, but the server was having trouble when I tried.

Operative again today. I got to the lab an hour early to work on a couple of preps. When I took a look at the ones I had done the night before, I noticed a few glaring mistakes. I keep turning my wrist as I move more mesially on tooth which produces an undercut on the mesial wall. So, I cut a new prep and tried hard not to undercut. It worked.
.
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just curious...so they teach you to do amalgam preps w/o undercuts? or is a crown prep that you are doing? i have heard some schools don't want undercuts in amalgam preps (in order to help in retention of the filling), preferring parallel walls, just curious if this is so...all these logs remind me of the start of dental school...keep up the good work!
 
cusp of carabelli said:
just curious...so they teach you to do amalgam preps w/o undercuts? or is a crown prep that you are doing? i have heard some schools don't want undercuts in amalgam preps (in order to help in retention of the filling), preferring parallel walls, just curious if this is so...all these logs remind me of the start of dental school...keep up the good work!
Click to expand...

For amalgam, Pacific teaches parallel walls. No undercuts. Some teeth require a slight flare on the mesial/distal walls. However, on #31, #30, and #19 (the only mandibular teeth we've cut so far, they do have us cut a slight tilt to the lingual in our preps. The idea being that we need to cut parallel to the enamel rods in the crown which and these teeth have a crown with the long axis slightly lingual to the long axis of the tooth.
 
Friday, August 5, 2005

Biochem was a little more interesting today than usual. I think it's because I sat closer to the front than my usual spot near the back. I like the extra leg room I get in the back but it's difficult to see the powerpoint screens from back there. I think I'll move up closer from now on. The lecture covered how hemoglobin binds oxygen. It was more detailed than my undergrad lecture.

Following biochem, the entire class was split into four groups and we met with anatomy faculty to discuss a clinical case of muscular dystrophy. Every other week or so, it seems like we are going to go through a similar exercise. I kinda like it because it sums up and ties together all of the anatomy and histology we've learned during the last couple of weeks in a practical application. We were done an hour early so we got a 2 hour lunch.

As soon as lunch was finished we had a short lecture on the muscles in the back and the procedures for skinning our cadavers. By 2pm we were in the lab with scalpels cutting and removing skin and fat from our cadavers. The process was long but surprisingly fun. Our cadaver, Charlie, is skinny with thin muscles. Initially, we were a little too aggressive and cut through a couple of muscles. But, we got the hang of it and we were able to find all the structures we needed to find.
 
Dr Javadi, thanks for keeping up the postings.

I wanted to know if you feel some pressure in school? By pressure I mean if your school "wants" people to fail?

I have a friend at NOVA in optometry. He says lots of students dropped out after the first year. He says NOVA and many other schools gives you tons of info to study and make you fail--just to make money. He's a 40 yr old father of 2 and just graduated...

So even in dental school the weeding out continues? 😱

Thanks in advance....
 
Dental Mom said:
Dr Javadi, thanks for keeping up the postings.

I wanted to know if you feel some pressure in school? By pressure I mean if your school "wants" people to fail?

I have a friend at NOVA in optometry. He says lots of students dropped out after the first year. He says NOVA and many other schools gives you tons of info to study and make you fail--just to make money. He's a 40 yr old father of 2 and just graduated...

So even in dental school the weeding out continues? 😱

Thanks in advance....
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Dr. Javadi? you are too nice, but it feels too premature. As for pressure, honestly, I'm the only one putting any pressure on me. The professors have an open door policy. I get an average of 2 to 3 emails a day from professors with further explanations of difficult concepts. Fellow students go out of their way to level the playing field by sharing info or helping out. There are remedial courses for students who are struggling. The support system here is top notch.
 
Monday, August 8, 2005

Anatomy quiz at 8am. I spent most of Saturday and a little bit of Sunday studying for it. I wasn't able to do any lab work because of the quiz. I did alright on the quiz. It covered the histology of the nervous system, blood, the circulatory system, the back, and the skin. Some tricky questions, but nothing that wasn't expected.

For OCP, we met our GPA (group practice administrators). These are the guys who run each of the four sections in the clinic. Based on your last name, you are grouped into one of the four sections. The GPAs assign patient loads, make sure students complete requirements, and give the green light for students to graduate.

We also went down to the clinic and practiced giving fellow students a health history interview, took their vitals, and administered both a head and neck exam and an oral exam. It took an average of 30 minutes each to run through all of the steps. Each week is essentially a repeat of the previous week plus something new. I like the repetition, it helps me learn.

We got our loupes today, but mine weren't sized correctly. They are being shipped back to Designs for Vision for adjustments. The rep said it could take 2 weeks or more to get them to me. I told him that was pretty sad considering it took them 4 weeks to get them to me the first time and they cost me $1500. He shrugged his shoulders and said he was sorry. That's what you get when a professor at your school creates a small monopoly for one vendor--crappy customer service.

In the afternoon, we spent two hours looking at radiographs of teeth. After about 20 minutes, we had seen everything they were going to show us that day, but we still sat through the remaining 100 minutes. At one point, one of our professors was talking about how delightful it was to remove calculus from a patients root. She said, and I quote, "When you finally get the calculus off, it feels the same way you feel after you pick your nose and you finally get a good one." Needless to say, the class was on the floor laughing. None of us had any doubt in our minds that she was an avid nose picker, perhaps even trained professional.
 
JavadiCavity said:
Monday, August 8, 2005
one of our professors was talking about how delightful it was to remove calculus from a patients root. She said, and I quote, "When you finally get the calculus off, it feels the same way you feel after you pick your nose and you finally get a good one." Needless to say, the class was on the floor laughing. None of us had any doubt in our minds that she was an avid nose picker, perhaps even trained professional.
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gross!!! glad i dont have dirty professors like that 🙄
 
Dr Javadi, thanks for replying. I'm glad you are in a positive environment 🙂

I hope I end up in a good school too.

You said that they call the students from day one Dr....? So that's why I keep calling you Dr Javadi 😳 But if you like I can call you daddy Javadi!

Have a great week and thanks a million for keeping us posted!

You are going to be a great dentist!
 
Tuesday, August 9, 2005

This morning was the first time in 4 days I had time to pick up my handpiece and do some work. I tried my luck at a crown prep, and it became apparent quickly that I had no idea what I was doing. The good news is that none of are doing that well with it. The bad news is that we have to turn in a crown prep tomorrow for a grade. I stayed after school and cut a few more, but any improvement was hard to see.

At 8am, I put away my crown prep and got ready for dental anatomy. We finished our wax-up of #8 and turned it in for grading. I failed. My wax carving also failed. Apparently, most of the class failed. The average was a D, as far as I could tell. The professors told us not to worry about it. They assured us that we would get better.

In the afternoon, we had another anatomy lecture and lab. Today we used a chisel and hammer to break the spine. We removed the vertebrae piece by piece until the spinal cord was exposed. We made an incision through the dura mater and took a gander at the nerves, etc. It amazes me how delicate and small such a vital organ like the spinal cord happens to be. After lab, we went to a seminar and discussed in more depth some of clinical topics related to the spinal cord.
 
JavadiCavity said:
....considering it took them 4 weeks to get them to me the first time and they cost me $1500. He shrugged his shoulders and said he was sorry. That's what you get when a professor at your school creates a small monopoly for one vendor--crappy customer service.
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My gosh, they didn't give you guys a break?!?!?! I got my design for visions at a student rate of $815 with shipping and tax. And they were the new frames that just came out...well they were the new model a year ago 😀

I'd ask if they could cut you a deal. Maybe its just my local rep that does the discount.
 
JavadiCavity said:
Tuesday, August 9, 2005

This morning was the first time in 4 days I had time to pick up my handpiece and do some work. I tried my luck at a crown prep, and it became apparent quickly that I had no idea what I was doing. The good news is that none of are doing that well with it. The bad news is that we have to turn in a crown prep tomorrow for a grade. I stayed after school and cut a few more, but any improvement was hard to see.

At 8am, I put away my crown prep and got ready for dental anatomy. We finished our wax-up of #8 and turned it in for grading. I failed. My wax carving also failed. Apparently, most of the class failed. The average was a D, as far as I could tell. The professors told us not to worry about it. They assured us that we would get better.

In the afternoon, we had another anatomy lecture and lab. Today we used a chisel and hammer to break the spine. We removed the vertebrae piece by piece until the spinal cord was exposed. We made an incision through the dura mater and took a gander at the nerves, etc. It amazes me how delicate and small such a vital organ like the spinal cord happens to be. After lab, we went to a seminar and discussed in more depth some of clinical topics related to the spinal cord.
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I dont even have to go dental school now with this at-home study program 👍

It'll be interesting to see how big a difference there is b/w programs at different dental schools.
 
Hey Javadi,


How are the sim lab at the UOP resindential building? What kind of work and practice can you do in there? and does it really benefit the students?

dre
 
DREDAY said:
Hey Javadi,


How are the sim lab at the UOP resindential building? What kind of work and practice can you do in there? and does it really benefit the students?

dre
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I'm not sure what the facilities are like at housing because I haven't been there. I can only tell you what I heard from students living there. One student I talked with said that they don't have hi-speed hookups for their handpieces, so they can only use low-speed. I interpret that as meaning it is a traditional lab, not a sim lab. So, the type of work that can be done there isn't preping cavitites or crowns, but more along the lines of working on stone models or making temporary crowns. I'm sorry I don't know better than that. Although it might not sound glamorous, I really wish I had access to a lab like that after school closes at night. A lot of the work we do doesn't involve our hi-speed handpieces.
 
Wednesday, August 10, 2005

I had trouble accessing SDN last night, and I went to bed early (9pm). So here is my post . . .

Before class started this morning, I went into the lab to try and get another crown prep finished. I finally got something that is pretty good. I was surprised. It really boosted my confidence.

At 8am, we had a lecture which reviewed the steps for an anterior crown prep. We didn't finish the lecture portion until 10am. In lab, we learned to make a splint. It's used to help prepare a temporary crown. I'm not sure how it helps, but we'll find out next week. Anyway, the splint is fun to make. First, (for a maxillary model) you grind down a stone model until you remove the hard palate. Second, you use a heat/vacuum. Not sure what it is really called. Essentially, you place a piece of clear plastic underneath a heater until it gets very warm and starts to melt. Once it's hot enough, you flip on the vacuum and it sucks the plastic down around all of the anatomy of your stone model and makes a very nice plastic model or your stone model. Third, you use a knife of scissors to cut away the plastic from the stone, and you're finished.

During the last hour of lab, we had a round robin competition between rows. This involves spending two minutes at a station and then rotating to the adjacent station until you've gone through all 14 stations. At each station, we worked on the same tooth--#8. We prepped it for a crown. We looked to see what needed to be done and then spent the next two minutes doing it. In the end, we had created 14 crown preps of tooth #8 in 28 minutes. Most of them weren't clinically acceptable, but 2 or 3 came out alright. We came in 4th place. It was fun and revealing as to how quickly we cut a decent prep.

In the afternoon, we suffered through another biochem lecture. Today, most of us weren't even sure he was speaking English. After biochem, we had an hour lecture in anatomy on neuroanatomy. Nothing too interesting to note.

After classes, I went back to the lab for 2 hours to work on a prep of #30 for a practical tomorrow. Shouldn't be too bad. The lab was packed with everyone trying to polish up on their skills so they don't become one of the 50% that fail tomorrow.
 
Dental08?09 said:
My gosh, they didn't give you guys a break?!?!?! I got my design for visions at a student rate of $815 with shipping and tax. And they were the new frames that just came out...well they were the new model a year ago 😀

I'd ask if they could cut you a deal. Maybe its just my local rep that does the discount.
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The cost of the 2.5x ($800) was included in our loan package, but if we wanted to upgrade to the 3.5x, we needed to come up with the extra $700.

They called me yesterday and said they would have them to me by next Wednesday. We'll see about that.
 
KellyHeetland said:
Hey row buddy! Would you mind forwarding me the emails from profs? Great job in diarying (if that's a word) our experience here. Keep it up. See you at 8 w/Charlie.
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It's heet time. Uhh, you must not be on the profs "A" list. Sorry. It's going to cost you $100/email. Pay up tomorrow and I'll send you all of Dr. Anderson's tips (that's how I ace his quizzes--just study the bullets).
 
Thursday, August 11, 2005

I made it to school by 6:45 and had plenty of time to cut a practice prep on #30 before our practical at 8am. A practical is a hand skills test. We had 90 minutes to cut an occlusal (biting surface of a posterior tooth) prep on number 30. We were allowed to use a marker, our handpieces, any burs we felt were necessary, hatchets, an explorer, and our amalgam condenser. I was slightly shaky from being nervous. It took me a few minutes to relax enough to be able to cut the prep. Making that first dip into the enamel can ruin the entire prep within the first 5 seconds. But, I did alright. It took me just over 30 minutes to finish what I thought was a nearly perfect prep. I was slightly off centered on my supplemental grooves and my fluidity wasn't as nice as I would've liked, but otherwise it was flawless. Unfortunately, the professors who graded my prep, didn't agree. Actually, one professor did agree, the other professor thought it had a few more mistakes. I reviewed his suggestions, and I think he's out to lunch. I'm not sure he/she is on the same page with the rest of the class. But, that's what you deal with in dentistry--everything is subjective. The ideal prep (which is what a perfect prep is referred to at Pacific) depends on who is grading. So, it's pointless to worry about it. I ended scoring well, but not as well as I thought I did.

After the practical, we had a four hour break. I went and observed in the clinic for a bit, and then I headed to the cafeteria to study. At 2pm, we had a lecture on the supposed controversy over amalgam fillings. Essentially, there is no danger from having amalgam fillings. Antiamalgamists are putting on a smoke and mirrors show for the public to listen to.

We were done by 4pm. I passed on heading to the lab and went home. I got to play with the kids for a few hours. It was nice way to end the day.
 
JavadiCavity said:
Wednesday, August 10, 2005

I had trouble accessing SDN last night, and I went to bed early (9pm). So here is my post . . .

Before class started this morning, I went into the lab to try and get another crown prep finished. I finally got something that is pretty good. I was surprised. It really boosted my confidence.

At 8am, we had a lecture which reviewed the steps for an anterior crown prep. We didn't finish the lecture portion until 10am. In lab, we learned to make a splint. It's used to help prepare a temporary crown. I'm not sure how it helps, but we'll find out next week. Anyway, the splint is fun to make. First, (for a maxillary model) you grind down a stone model until you remove the hard palate. Second, you use a heat/vacuum. Not sure what it is really called. Essentially, you place a piece of clear plastic underneath a heater until it gets very warm and starts to melt. Once it's hot enough, you flip on the vacuum and it sucks the plastic down around all of the anatomy of your stone model and makes a very nice plastic model or your stone model. Third, you use a knife of scissors to cut away the plastic from the stone, and you're finished.

During the last hour of lab, we had a round robin competition between rows. This involves spending two minutes at a station and then rotating to the adjacent station until you've gone through all 14 stations. At each station, we worked on the same tooth--#8. We prepped it for a crown. We looked to see what needed to be done and then spent the next two minutes doing it. In the end, we had created 14 crown preps of tooth #8 in 28 minutes. Most of them weren't clinically acceptable, but 2 or 3 came out alright. We came in 4th place. It was fun and revealing as to how quickly we cut a decent prep.

In the afternoon, we suffered through another biochem lecture. Today, most of us weren't even sure he was speaking English. After biochem, we had an hour lecture in anatomy on neuroanatomy. Nothing too interesting to note.

After classes, I went back to the lab for 2 hours to work on a prep of #30 for a practical tomorrow. Shouldn't be too bad. The lab was packed with everyone trying to polish up on their skills so they don't become one of the 50% that fail tomorrow.
Click to expand...

just in case you are curious, the spint is used so that you have a model of what the pt's tooth looked like originally. then after you prepare the tooth for a crown, you just mix up some acrylic, pour it into the splint and then place it onto the prep and when the acrylic has finished setting, it will look very similar to the original product. it also saves time b/c you don't have to block carve the tooth and also it preserves much of the original anatomy.
 
JavadiCavity said:
Wednesday, August 10, 2005

I had trouble accessing SDN last night, and I went to bed early (9pm). So here is my post . . .

Before class started this morning, I went into the lab to try and get another crown prep finished. I finally got something that is pretty good. I was surprised. It really boosted my confidence.

At 8am, we had a lecture which reviewed the steps for an anterior crown prep. We didn't finish the lecture portion until 10am. In lab, we learned to make a splint. It's used to help prepare a temporary crown. I'm not sure how it helps, but we'll find out next week. Anyway, the splint is fun to make. First, (for a maxillary model) you grind down a stone model until you remove the hard palate. Second, you use a heat/vacuum. Not sure what it is really called. Essentially, you place a piece of clear plastic underneath a heater until it gets very warm and starts to melt. Once it's hot enough, you flip on the vacuum and it sucks the plastic down around all of the anatomy of your stone model and makes a very nice plastic model or your stone model. Third, you use a knife of scissors to cut away the plastic from the stone, and you're finished.

During the last hour of lab, we had a round robin competition between rows. This involves spending two minutes at a station and then rotating to the adjacent station until you've gone through all 14 stations. At each station, we worked on the same tooth--#8. We prepped it for a crown. We looked to see what needed to be done and then spent the next two minutes doing it. In the end, we had created 14 crown preps of tooth #8 in 28 minutes. Most of them weren't clinically acceptable, but 2 or 3 came out alright. We came in 4th place. It was fun and revealing as to how quickly we cut a decent prep.

In the afternoon, we suffered through another biochem lecture. Today, most of us weren't even sure he was speaking English. After biochem, we had an hour lecture in anatomy on neuroanatomy. Nothing too interesting to note.

After classes, I went back to the lab for 2 hours to work on a prep of #30 for a practical tomorrow. Shouldn't be too bad. The lab was packed with everyone trying to polish up on their skills so they don't become one of the 50% that fail tomorrow.
Click to expand...


Nifty! I remember using that plastic heater at my orthodontist's office while shadowing... for some reason, I had forgotten about it. Cool. 😀
 
cusp of carabelli said:
just in case you are curious, the spint is used so that you have a model of what the pt's tooth looked like originally. then after you prepare the tooth for a crown, you just mix up some acrylic, pour it into the splint and then place it onto the prep and when the acrylic has finished setting, it will look very similar to the original product. it also saves time b/c you don't have to block carve the tooth and also it preserves much of the original anatomy.
Click to expand...

Hey, that's pretty slick. That's a nice way to make a temp.
 
Friday, August 12, 2005

The week is finally over. I thought it would be a little tougher than it turned out to be. Next week will bring another biochem exam, but no other tests or practicals. That'll be a nice break.

Today we had a biochem lecture. I'll spare you the details this time, since I'm tired. After biochem, we had an oral quiz in anatomy. The professor pointed to structures and we identified them. It wasn't too bad.

The quiz was brief and so we had a couple of hours for lunch. In the afternoon, we flipped our cadaver over and dissected the abdominal and thoracic walls. I spent an hour trying to find the cephalic vein and the axillary artery. I finally found it, but only after I did a serious hack job on Charlie's deltopectoralis area.

After school, the family came down to SF and watched me play soccer across the street from student housing. It was a nice way to let off some tension. We had about 25 people show up. It was kinda cold, so my kids only lasted an hour. Oh well, at least they came.
 
Flipper405 said:
Nifty! I remember using that plastic heater at my orthodontist's office while shadowing... for some reason, I had forgotten about it. Cool. 😀
Click to expand...

I'm glad you could figure out what I was describing.
 
Monday, August 15, 2005

Biochem exam started at 8am. Of course, I was to school by 6:30am, so that I could run through the notes one more time. I ended up doing well on the exam, which is a nice way to start the week.

Our first and only class on Mondays is OCP. We had a short lecture on how to use the pigtail explorer safely in a live patients mouth, and then we were off to practice in the clinic. I have posted some pictures at rubberdam.blogspot.com of the clinic and me exploring a classmates mouth--enjoy!

After a long lunch, we had another short introductory lecture to periodontics. As with any intro lecture, we covered basic terms and looked at pictures. This perio lecture starts our periodontics module in OCP. I'm looking forward to learning some of this stuff. For you amateurs out there, periodontics is the discipline of dentistry that covers the gums and their attachment to teeth. We will use probes to measure gum recession and other aspects the gums. Should be fun.
 
Cyrus,
You are a maniac! I can't believe you keep this going, but it's way cool in my book. Your girls are adorable. I don't know how you do it! Have a good one. 🙂
-Lucinda
 
LucheJ said:
Cyrus,
You are a maniac! I can't believe you keep this going, but it's way cool in my book. Your girls are adorable. I don't know how you do it! Have a good one. 🙂
-Lucinda
Click to expand...

Since you and Yvette do all the work in Anatomy, I have plenty of time to update this thread. Good luck on the Restorative quiz!
 
Tuesday, August 16, 2005

I decided to sleep in this morning until 6:30. I needed to catch up on some sleep. You would think I had time on Saturday or Sunday to sleep in a little bit, but with exams on Mondays, I find myself staying up late on the weekends to study so I can be with the family during the day. Anyhow, I got up a little later, and I took my time getting to school.

At 9am, we had a quiz in Dental Anatomy. These quizzes aren't that difficult. It usually requires about an hour of studying notes and test files to do well. After the quiz, we moved to the sim lab and started our wax up of tooth #12. I'm determined to do better on this wax-up than I did on my last wax-up. In addition to a wax-up of #12, we are required to do a wax-up of number #6 at home. The nice thing about wax-ups or carvings is that it's the only time I can watch a movie or TV while doing school work.

We had a brown bag lunch with the Dean. The lunch happens once a quarter and the Dean discusses current events in dentistry, happenings at the school, policy changes, or whatever he feels like. Yesterday, since we recently elected class officers, he talked about how to escalate concerns to his level.

In the afternoon, we had a lecture on the lungs. Afterwards, we went upstairs to the cadaver lab. We sawed through the sternum and ribs and removed the rib cage. Next we located the root of the lung, which contains the pulmonary arteries and veins, the bronchi, the lymph nodes and other arteries, and sliced through it with our scalpels. Once we completed the cut, we could completely remove the lung from the thoracic cavity. We spent some time indentifying nerves, vessels, and lobes.

For our last meeting of the day, we had a seminar in the large conference room downstairs. We went over clinical conditions of the lungs and abdomen.

After school, I stayed in the lab and cut preps on #3, #13, and #8 (crown prep). The professors recommend 30 to 60 minutes a day cutting teeth with our handpieces. I also sat down with a classmate and started studying for our big anatomy exam next Tuesday.

I got home at 9:30pm. It was a long day. I think I'm going to change up my schedule a bit. I'm going to limit the nights I stay at school past 5pm to once a week. Now that I've got a handle on the way things work here, I don't feel the need to spend all day at school.
 
Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Our morning Restorative lecture covered making acrylic provisional crowns using the press-form splints we made in lab last week. After the lecture, two professors showed us powerpoint presentations of their practices and practice philosophies. It motivates me to see what I'll be doing 3 years from now.

We moved to lab after the powerpoint presentations and worked on making our acrylic provisionals. I quickly found out that my crown preps from last week weren't reduced enough on the lingual fossa. So, my acrylic impressions were too thin on the ligual side. I spent the next two hours working to get a good impression. I hope I get faster than that.

In the afternoon, we had biochem and anatomy lectures. Our biochem teacher changed for the next two weeks. The odd thing is that the new teacher is a human clone of our first professor. They have the same monotone voice, hand gestures, idiosynchrocies, and physical features . . . but we are assured they are not related.

I stayed after school until 5pm. I'm off to a good start on my new goal. We'll see how long I can manage it.
 
Thursday, August 18, 2005

Sorry for making anyone wait to read Thursday's entry until Friday morning. We have a big anantomy/histology exam coming on Friday, and I have been up late studying for it downtown with a friend.

Today, we had our first quiz in operative. It was the same format as all of the other quizzes we have: multiple choice, 10 question, based on the lecture notes, and scantron. I did alright. Operative can afford to make the quizzes somewhat easier because of the challenging nature of the lab work.

After the quiz we had a lecture on cutting a class II amalgam prep on tooth #19. We prepped the mesial and occlusal surfaces (denoted 19-MO). Our professors tell us that the class II amalgam prep is the toughest procedure to learn in operative dentistry. You have to drop a box cut down the proximal surface without (ideally) nicking the other tooth. However, the most challenging feature (at least I think so) is that many of the cuts we are making have to be accurate to 10th of a millimeter! So, not only do my eyes have to be able to see very, very small depths, but also my hands have to be able to apply just the right amount of pressure to the handpiece so that I don't cut deeper than necessary. It's tricky, but after 6 weeks of playing with a handpiece, it's something that many students get a grasp on quickly. By the end of the day, students were able to produce very nice class II preps.
 
Friday, August 19, 2005

I spent the morning in the cadaver lab helping a classmate study for our upcoming anatomy/histo exam on Tuesday. Let me emphasize this again for any pre-dents reading this thread--IF YOU WANT TO SLEEP AT NIGHT SCHOOL AND EARN GOOD GRADES DURING YOUR FIRST YEAR, YOU SHOULD TAKE ANATOMY, BIOCHEMISTRY, AND PHYSIOLOGY DURING UNDERGRAD. It is pretty clear who took these classes in undergrad and who didn't.

Biochem started at 9am. Fortunately, he had some computer problems for the first 10 minutes, so lecture was a little shorter, but to compensate he decided to talk a lot faster so he could cover all of the powerpoint slides before class ended. I was riding the bull today--I'd be paying attention one minute and the next minute my eyes would close and my head would start to lean back against my chair and then I'd startle myself awake again. I didn't want to fall asleep for obvious reasons but also because some people in the class have decided it would be funny to pass a digital camera around and take pictures of people when they fall asleep.

In anatomy, we covered the immune system and the heart--all this was covered during 4 HOURS of lecture. During lab, we got to dissect the heart. I was behind the scalpel, so I got to do the honors. Dissecting is a fantastic way to learn anatomy. I actually enjoy carving our cadaver up.

After school, I was feeling a little behind in my pre-clinical courses so I decided to stay and work on my temporary crown prep. I think it's turning out really well. I spent about 2 hours on it tonight (I tend to go slower and more cautiously on my first attempts), and I still have a few more hours to go. The insane thing is that I've seen dental assistants take an impression of a tooth and make a temporary in 10 minutes. My speed needs to improve.

This weekend I'll be studying for our OCP test on Monday and the anatomy exam. Should be a wing-dinger of a weekend.
 
JavadiCavity said:
Friday, August 19, 2005

I spent the morning in the cadaver lab helping a classmate study for our upcoming anatomy/histo exam on Tuesday. Let me emphasize this again for any pre-dents reading this thread--IF YOU WANT TO SLEEP AT NIGHT SCHOOL AND EARN GOOD GRADES DURING YOUR FIRST YEAR, YOU SHOULD TAKE ANATOMY, BIOCHEMISTRY, AND PHYSIOLOGY DURING UNDERGRAD. It is pretty clear who took these classes in undergrad and who didn't.

Biochem started at 9am. Fortunately, he had some computer problems for the first 10 minutes, so lecture was a little shorter, but to compensate he decided to talk a lot faster so he could cover all of the powerpoint slides before class ended. I was riding the bull today--I'd be paying attention one minute and the next minute my eyes would close and my head would start to lean back against my chair and then I'd startle myself awake again. I didn't want to fall asleep for obvious reasons but also because some people in the class have decided it would be funny to pass a digital camera around and take pictures of people when they fall asleep.

In anatomy, we covered the immune system and the heart--all this was covered during 4 HOURS of lecture. During lab, we got to dissect the heart. I was behind the scalpel, so I got to do the honors. Dissecting is a fantastic way to learn anatomy. I actually enjoy carving our cadaver up.

After school, I was feeling a little behind in my pre-clinical courses so I decided to stay and work on my temporary crown prep. I think it's turning out really well. I spent about 2 hours on it tonight (I tend to go slower and more cautiously on my first attempts), and I still have a few more hours to go. The insane thing is that I've seen dental assistants take an impression of a tooth and make a temporary in 10 minutes. My speed needs to improve.

This weekend I'll be studying for our OCP test on Monday and the anatomy exam. Should be a wing-dinger of a weekend.
Click to expand...

nice posts. Have yet to figure out how they will apply to the schools other than Uop but good job.
 
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