clinic
You are viewing stuff tagged with clinic.
You are viewing stuff tagged with clinic.
I do not think I have ever been this excited for a semester to be over. It is with profound exhaustion that I welcome our 3 weeks off before we begin treating patients. I just found this out: we had 29 credits this fall, and something similar this past semester. The dental school crams a lot of learning into second year: I talked to a professor who graduated in the 1960s, and he said it has just always been like that in school. Glad to hear I have company. Anyhow, my first clinical case is a complete upper and lower denture for (not simultaneously, of course, since we haven’t the chops yet); and I am extremely excited. To think I’ll be practicing my skills at bringing people back into dental function again; making their lives and chewing abilities better, getting them out of pain. I’m so excited to put push hard against the limits of my abilities and, in doing so, improve my clinical skills, knowledge, and judgement.
This afternoon, I’ll go into clinic for the second time. I’ll observe a student dentist (or hygiene student) go through a full patient appointment. You have to check the patient’s chart, understand underlying medical conditions, scan for drug conflicts, meet the patient, find out why the patient is there, determine recent changes in their medical history, consult with specialists about treatment plans, possibly do some treatment, take radiographs, explain things to the patient, obtain consent, plan the time of the next visit, and on and on.