Clinical Cases, Teamwork & More!
Hey everyone,
Hope you've all had a great week! This past week has been absolutely packed with things to do, some things better than others, so let's just get straight into it!
🦷 Dental Diary
At dental school this week, I had 2 clinical sessions on campus: the first of which was more clinical skills practice, working on scaling posterior (back) teeth, basically just practicing removing calculus in preparation for our practical exam in a few weeks. At the end of that session, we actually did an additional activity where we split up into small groups and answered questions about periodontal disease and calculus, but this time, in the context of clinical scenarios. We were essentially replicating the practical exam, and I realised that when talking through the procedure, we really had to be specific and basically "think out loud" and mention everything from our posture, chair position, and how we hold these instruments. This was really tedious because once you repeat something, it becomes natural, and you can then do it without much thought, but when you have to explain every movement you make, it really forces you to slow down. I guess that can be useful to stop us rushing and making mistakes. When we were asked about how we should speak to patients, I also felt another gap between thinking you know something, and actually being able to describe it on the spot! The best way to really bridge that gap though is to just practice talking to patients with friends when we prepare for this exam soon.
The second clinical skills session was once again in the haptic simulators room. This time around, we didn't just practice drilling into some virtual teeth, we actually had a "mock exam" where we were asked very specific questions about a certain patient case (are you noticing a very clinical theme this week too?) and just prepared one tooth as if we were going to then fill it. I got asked loads of questions about the dental materials I could use, isolating the tooth, and had a discussion with my tutor. It was actually quite an interesting session, but we only practiced preparing a single tooth, so not the best use of time to be honest.
As usual, I had a few tutorials throughout the week, nothing too special. I also went to King's volleyball training this week for the first time. The session was recreational, and we just did some drills and played king of the court. It was definitely a lot of fun, but the warmup we did absolutely killed me, and my core was aching for 3 days afterward!! This ties in nicely to this week's insight, so let's just segway into that!
🧠 Insight of the Week
The insight of the week is about team sports; as you've probably just read, I went to volleyball training this week and for most of it we were in teams of 3. I was with 2 other guys who I didn't know at all, and honestly, they were loud and maybe overly energetic guys. I don't mean this in a bad way at all but what I'm trying to say is that they're not people I'd normally socialise with or anything. The point was though, as we were playing some practice games, we really got to bond as a team, and by the last match, you could already tell the difference in the team chemistry. This leads me onto the actual insight, and it's that we can actually get on very well with almost everyone, and team sports are an amazing way to be able to connect with and get along with people you otherwise wouldn't be able to. This is such an important skill to build, especially in a career like dentistry, where you will have to deal with all sorts of people who sit in your dental chair, build trust and rapport with them, and so on. Even when it comes to your dental team, you may not get along at first, but being adaptable in situations like that is so key in the future.
📚 Reading Log
On a more disappointing note now, I haven't been able to read much at all this week to be completely honest. I tell myself that I'm really busy, but to be honest, I think I might be scheduling my reading time all wrong, since I try and read before sleeping, but by then I'm really exhausted so I only read a couple of pages before drifting off. I'm going to try and block out time during the day to read this week though, and hopefully see some improvement next week
✍️ Applicant Tip of the Week
For this week's applicant tip, I'm going to focus on answering the age-old question, why dentistry?
This question is extremely likely to come up in your interviews, and even if it doesn't, I'd still recommend you research this, because let's be honest, if you aren't sure why you're applying to dentistry, you probably shouldn't be applying anyways!
When answering this, you really need to show why dentistry is a good fit for you, and what you can bring into the field. It is really important that you answer this question from a personal perspective because most students will give similar answers and it's imperative that you stand out.
I'd recommend talking about a personal experience (or even work experience) and talking about what skills you learned from it, what you were able to reflect on about it, and how those skills and reflections relate to dentistry. It's crucial that you're always comparing your own experiences, skills, and traits to how they can be applied to dentistry, to show that you're a good fit.
You might want to mention things like: being a team leader, working precisely with your hands, building long-term relationships with patients, being able to combine scientific theory and critical thinking, with manual dexterity and your own artistic style, especially when it comes to specialties like aesthetic dentistry!
That's all for this week, I hope you guys have a great next week! If you are enjoying this weekly email thing I'm doing or if you have any suggestions, please let me know, my Instagram is always open if you'd like any advice or just wanna chat! Talk to you guys next week!
Omar Tabaqchali :)