They say you always remember your first...

Well, as you know, sometimes when you go to the dentist you have to get an injection before they work on you. That means at some point in dental school we learn about giving injections. We talked about how to do them and the technique, but once that is said and done, it was time to actually give an injection to someone. So instead of using a patient, we give injections to each other. Last week was my week to learn to give injections, and also receive an injection from a fellow student. Fun right?

Actually, it wasn't too bad at all. Giving injections is a pretty simple process, once you know what you are doing. We just didn't know what we were doing. But that didn't stop us, and in the end it was just fine. No one died, no one got facial paralysis, but we all got numb. Also as part of this lab, we administered Nitrous Oxide to each other. I have never had "laughing gas" so it was a new experience for me. It didn't really make me laugh, it just felt like I was heavy, and everything seemed to slow down a little. My voice sounded funny, to me at least, and my fingers and feet were tingly.

Anyway, it was a good experience and getting to do something hands on is always the best way for me to learn anyway. I just won't tell my first patient that they are only the 2nd person I have ever injected.

Here are a few pics of the injections. They are a little small, but you get the idea.

Getting some instructions on injection technique.

Prepping the "patient", Jill. She was in good spirits considering she knew I had never done this before.

"Bullseye!" Success.

My first paying dental gig

Yesterday I had my first dental related job that I got paid for. I helped out a Senior here at school with his North Eastern Regional Board Exam (NERB for short). I spent the day sucking saliva and handing him instruments that he needed in order to help him work quickly and efficiently and in turn he paid me for my time. I think it went pretty well and I am pretty sure he passed. All his work looked good. I had assisted for NERBs before, last year, but I enjoyed it more this year because I knew all the stuff that he was doing and why he was doing it. It was a good experience to get me ready for clinic and taking my own board exams one day.

Well I am officially on SPRING BREAK!! I am looking forward to a little time off to relax and recuperate. We leave tomorrow to spend the week in Florida. We are pretty excited to get to the beach and enjoy some warmer weather. It should be a fun trip. Look for some pictures to appear on our blogs in the near future.

The 2nd Year

Well they say that the 2nd year is the busiest, at least when it comes to non-clinical stuff. I have also found that it seems to go the fastest. It is now March and the Spring semester will be over in April.

I haven't posted anything on here in a long time, so I am going to try and get better at putting some stuff up at least every few weeks or so.

It has been crazy February. I had about 10-11 different tests and quizzes that I had to study for. We had about 2 a weeks and sometime 3. All I can remember about the month of February is looking at the wall above my desk a lot. I spent the whole month studying and cramming. But all in all I have escaped unscathed. I did well on all the tests and I am doing well in all my classes, and despite all the studying that has to be done I am enjoying school. We have a pretty tight knit class and we all help each other get through. Plus we usually keep ourselves pretty entertained in lab while we joke around with each other.

I was thinking the other day that it is going to be kind of sad to go off to a practice somewhere and not have these friends around right there to talk to and have a little fun with.

The other crazy part about Feb. is that we got hit with 2 big snow storms. It pretty much shut the city down for about 3 days. I have several pictures and things to put up and I will try and start doing that more. Look for future posts that have mostly pictures.

Also, since I have been doing such a bad job at blogging, Ashley decided that she was going to start a blog for us to keep people up to date on stuff. Look for that at theschappers.blogspot.com

She will up date there too, and I will focus this blog more on what I am up to with school and those things.

Anyway, just wanted to put something up since it has been so long. Look for more to come soon I hope.

An overdue post

It has been too long since I posted anything up here. We have been keeping busy.  I am done with my first year of school.  I have some pics of my last project to post on here.  I will try and do that soon.  Also, we had family in town over the 4th of July.  We had a good time with Britney, Rob and Drew.  Again, more pics I need to post.  

Aside from that I have a lot more free time on my hands now that I am on my last summer break ever.  Ashley is keeping really busy with tennis lessons.  She likes it, but it wears her out and she comes home pretty beat most nights.

Aside from that we don't have any official plans for the summer other that a 2 week trip to UT coming up in August.  We are excited about that and getting to see family and friends that we haven't seen in a while.

Well it is late. I will post more again soon. 

To every King a Crown & Bridge

So we have started our Crown & Bridge section of our restorative class.   I thought I would throw up some pictures of the crown preps I have been working on.  We did some temporary crowns too, but I didn't get pictures of that.  We have more to do though, so I will try and get some of those too.  In the mean time, here you go.

 

Trip to DC

This last Saturday, some friends and I went down to DC to catch a Nationals baseball game and see some sights. Ashley had to work that day, otherwise she would have come.  We had a really fun time and the weather cooperated for us until it was about time to leave.  It has been raining here for the past week or so, but it was nice on Saturday albeit overcast. Here are some pics I took at the game and in the city.

From right to left here: Me, Chet Welker (friend from school), Tracy (friend of Chet's from home), Dan Seger (another friend from school), Kate (Dan's friend)

A couple of shots from the seats we got thanks to Stephanie McLean.  She has a friend that works in ticketing there and was able to hook us up with 5 seats for only 75 bucks.  It was a great deal.

These ones I took with the G10 on full zoom.  I love that camera.  I can get some great shots really easily.

This one got just out of frame on me.  I had a feeling about the 2nd baseman, so I was watching him throught the lens.  Sure enough a little dribbler came his way and I got him mid throw.

This one I almost got the bas on the ball.  If you look out in front of the hitter, there is a blur that is the baseball right down by the leg of the guy on the top step of the dugout.  So close!

The rest of these are pictures of the sights around DC.  This first one reminded me of you mom.  Its the National Education Association building.

I have more pictures, but I will put those up on the Picasa web album rather than take up space here. Just follow the link on the right side of the blog if you want to see more. 

An amendment to my statement...

Our friend Andrea pointed out that I totally left her out of the story about helping with boards, and she definately deserves honorable mention.  Our friend Andrea from Salt Lake came out to be a board patient for Corbin (her bro in law) and Craig.  She got worked on for 2 days straight, and probably never wants to hear the word "dentist" again.  She was a real trooper thought and Craig and Corbin both owe her something big for her being a victim, oh I mean patient. Ha ha.  Props to you Andrea for being braver than most.  I don't think Ashley is willing to be a board patient for me, and I am her husband!