Scaling, Haptics & Carving!
Hey everyone,
I hope you've all had a great week! Mine has been quite a busy one, where I've done loads of hands-on work, but I'll get into all that soon! I haven't had much work in terms of lectures this week so I spent a good amount of my spare time going out and exercising, which was honestly really refreshing. I usually try to exercise a few times a week anyway, but I had been so busy these last couple of weeks that coming back into it was a big relief! Anyways, enough waffle here's a quick rundown of my week!
🦷 Dental Diary
This week in clinics, I was working on periodontology and practiced a procedure called supragingival scaling, which is the removal of calculus (hardened plaque) from the surfaces of the teeth. In this case, we were removing this calculus from surfaces above ("supra") the gingiva.
It was good practice, and the technique did take some getting used to, especially on posterior teeth, as we had to angle our instrument (the sickle scaler) at a 90-degree angle to the gum line and this was much harder to do in the back of the mouth where there was less room. Over the next few weeks, we will be doing more of this in preparation for our clinical skills exam in December, so we should get enough practice in by then!
Another session I had on campus this week was using the haptics simulators. We have these every couple of weeks, and we mostly just practice caries removal using these machines. These were very cool to use last year when we hadn't touched the real instruments, handpieces, and drills yet, but now they're nothing too interesting and I guess we just use them to develop some dexterity and muscle memory.
I did learn some more about preparing cavities though, applying the knowledge I learned from some reading I'd done about proximal boxes to help me prepare the tooth for restorations. That felt really good to be able to apply knowledge from extra reading into real scenarios, and kind of showed me that I'll get out what I put into dentistry! (guess this is like a mini insight of the week! here's the proper one now though:)
🧠 Insight of the Week
The insight of this week is really to do patience; so as some of you may know, I was recently practicing carving to develop my dexterity and whatnot. If you don't know, go check out my Instagram ;), anyway, and I was carving the upper anterior teeth. I had done basic single tooth carving before last year and made it a point to get a carving all done and finished in one sitting. This time though, I deliberately took my time and split the work over 2 days, and the improvement in quality was pretty astonishing to me honestly. Simply removing the pressure to just get the carving done in one go really helped me pay attention to details and actually develop my skill a lot more.
Now, thinking back, I realise that if you're reading this and you're an artist of some sort then this is common knowledge. Personally, I've never been artistically inclined when I was at school, so even things like art homework were just something I had to get done. Only recently, after spending ages on the dental Instagram scene, did I realise I have to go into my clinical work with an artistic approach, not just a scientific one. So, for anyone thinking of studying dentistry, it's really an amazing combination of both science and art, but just like I didn't care for art, you really don't have to love both before starting it.
📚 Reading Log
I am finally back on my reading as of this week, and I've just finished reading Piranesi, so here's a quick review of the book:
🗿Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - 9/10
This short book is a mystical story about a man living in a house. The house he lives in isn't normal though; it's vast and filled with endless rooms and corridors. To him, the house is his "world", and he travels around all the rooms, discovering it and writing a journal about his experiences. This journal is essentially the book. The only other person living in the house is someone he calls The Other, and he meets with him regularly, and the other gives him resources to help him survive. He can make do on his own though, using all the bodies of water in the house to fish and collect seaweed to use for fire. Suddenly he finds a message written for him one day and that's really where the plot of the story begins.
It's hard to talk too much more about the plot without revealing anything, but the story is essentially this man, Piranesi, exploring the house and this mystery. There are some great plot twists and turns, but most of these are towards the end of the book. Until the last 50-100 pages, this book is very character and setting-driven, and only really picks up towards the end. That's one of the things I didn't quite enjoy, because getting through the first two-thirds of the book was quite exhausting personally, as I prefer plot-driven stories. What I do love though, is the house itself, which really becomes its own character throughout the story. The ending was very strong, and so the slow start was worth it. Some of the themes that are explored in this story are trust, belief, mental health, and identity. The idea of identity that's explored was fantastic, especially at the end. The writing style did take some getting used to, and since it is a journal, you learn so much about Piranesi from the writing style, since it's essentially "his" writing, but it did grow on me towards the ending of the book.
Overall, this was a fantastic book, and a great read for everyone, especially since it's quite short. It's one of those books that isn't too action-packed, but really does transport you to some faraway world when you're reading it, so I'd highly recommend it!
✍️ Applicant Tip of the Week
This week's applicant's tip is going to be about answering the interview question: Why medicine/dentistry and not another health profession, like nursing, etc?
An applicant suggested this question for this week, so here it is! If you guys have specific questions you'd like me to go through, just let me know, and I'll do it next week!
So the reason they ask you this question is to see whether you truly have a passion for medicine/dentistry and whether you understand the other roles in the healthcare team. You want to remember to never make any profession seem more or less important, because the healthcare team is like a machine, with each member being a cog; you need all of them to be in place for the machine to work. You can even use this metaphor if you like! When answering this, acknowledge the roles of the other members, and highlight what specific things that your role does and why you personally prefer them. For example, nurses have more contact time with patients than doctors do, but it is the doctor responsible for diagnosing conditions and prescribing medications, etc. Additionally, something to consider is that doctors and dentists are usually the leaders of their respective teams, so it's vital that they communicate effectively, with patients as well as members of the team.
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 :)