Where did October go?

my dentures in progress

I didn’t mean to take that long of a hiatus, but it was definitely nice to just back off from the internet and just relax. Also, I’ve been in a bit of a book funk and I haven’t really been reading much the past few weeks. I just haven’t found any good books that have caught my eye and I don’t know what I’m in the mood to read either. That’s probably one of the worse feelings in the world, when you’re surrounding by a ton of books and yet you feel like you have nothing good to read.

In the meantime though, I’m surviving my second year of dental school. I always heard that second year is the hardest year, but so far I’m actually enjoying it. I guess it’s because we spend more time in the lab and I get to work with my hands which is the main reason why I wanted to be a dentist in the first place. Check out the awesome pair of dentures I waxed up. I can officially make dentures now so let me know if you’re ever in need of a pair.  At the same time I can’t wait for Thanksgiving. I just want to hibernate all winter and catch up on all the sleep I’ve been missing out on. It was a good thing we got that extra hour of sleep last weekend.

I’m heading out of town this weekend, but hopefully I’ll be able to visit everyone’s blog in the coming weeks to see all the great books I’ve been missing out on. I’m definitely in need of a good book recommendation.

DS2

I can’t believe how fast this summer has flown by. Is it really August already?! It’s that time of year again. Dental school starts up tomorrow and I’m absolutely dreading it. It’s not that I hate dental school or anything, but I just much rather lay out on the beach and read for fun than stick my nose in a book about pathology or pharmacology. I’m hoping to still be active on this blog, but from what the other students have told me, second year first semester is suppose to be the hardest semester of dental school. Hopefully I’ll still have some time to read books that I want to read, but who knows where this semester is going to take me.

Although I am happy to say that I finally did finish the Harry Potter series! Yay me! And I’m hoping to get a post up soon about my thoughts on the series as a whole. Quite honestly, I’m a little bummed out that it’s over. It’s almost like the end of my childhood or something. I mean Harry Potter has been around since I was 10 or 11. That’s more than half of my life. The end to an era. Definitely a bittersweet moment and I have a lot to say about the series. In the meantime I hope everyone is having a good Monday!

Hello Summer!

Austin, TX

Summer! Its finally here. As you’re reading this, I’m probably sitting in the last class of my first year of dental school. After today, I’ll be home free! Well, as close to home free as possible since I still have two papers to write during the summer, but let’s ignore these minor details for the moment.

I’m looking forward to a summer filled with road trips, new adventures, and a ton of great books. First up is a road trip to Austin, TX! Sorry, but I’ll be MIA until I get back next week. I haven’t been on a road trip in a year and I’ve realized two things as I’m trying to pack for it:  1. I’m terrible at packing and 2. I can’t decide which books to take with me. Help me!

So now that it’s officially summer and people are sending out graduation invitations (I have one to attend on Saturday), what are your summer plans and what books do you have on your summer reading list?

Life as a Dental Student

Ok, so I lied. I had these big plans for spring break to clean up my google reader and give my much neglected blog some TLC, but spring break has come and gone with me neglecting my blog more than ever.

I could make up a lot of excuses, but the bottom line was this: I was just so mentally and physically exhausted from the courseload that I really didn’t want to do anything. So that’s exactly what I did during my spring break… absolutely nothing. And it felt great!

I didn’t mean to be so absence in the blogosphere lately, but then again, I didn’t realize how difficult and time consuming this semester of dental school was going to be compared to last.

The good news is that it looks like the worst is over and we’re pretty much over the hump. We only have about 45 days left before the semester is over and we’ll finally be done with our first year. I can’t wait! Until then though, I’ll probably be in and out with my blog.

With that said, here’s a few pictures of what I’ve been up to in dental school. I still wouldn’t trust myself with a real patient, but at least I can say I’m getting better.

my first attempt at drilling a class I on a first molar

same tooth with an amalgam filling.

an amalgam filling done with indirect vision, which is ridiculously hard. i'm terrible at working on the upper teeth because it's so hard to use the mirror to do all of your work. my drill was definitely going all over the place.

1 Semester Down 7 To Go

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

I hope y’all had a great holiday with friends and family!

As for me, school has started again and two days into it and I’m already tired and overwhelmed. You can expect random sporadic posts and commenting from me since I’ll be popping in and out of the blogging world depending on how much free time I have. From the looks of it though, it doesn’t seem like I’ll have a lot.

Apparently this is suppose to be a hard semester for us. Gross anatomy is about as fun as it sounds. I’m definitely not looking forward to working with cadavers. Just thinking about it makes me want to puke and I have a feeling I’m going to be one of the students who will be emptying their stomach contents all over the floor after setting foot in the gross anatomy lab.

On the bright side, we finally got our drills today so I feel like a real dentist drilling fake teeth. It was an exciting moment until I realized I’m terrible at this. Here’s a scary thought, one year from now, I’ll be working in the clinics with real patients. I know most patients are afraid of dentists, but I think I’m going to be more afraid of my first patient than the other way around. Hopefully by this time next year, I’ll be ready to numb up my classmate and start clinic, until then I need to figure out how to use this drill properly.