Fall in Colorado

It has been a few weeks since I last posted, but I honestly have not had a free minute to write until this weekend. Tons of lab work, tests to cram for, Delta Sigma Delta initiation, and of course family time have all made the second half of September a busy one.

Tests: we had our Oral Pathology 1 midterm last Monday and our second test for Pharmacology Wednesday. The oral pathology test went great; it was much easier than I was expecting and definitely "over studied." Pharmacology, on the other hand, was the other way around. I felt like I had studied enough, but just barely squeaked out a B. I think I had studied enough, actually, but just didn't focus on the write material. This is the first non-dental specific class where the professor actually attempts to narrowing in on the aspects most relative to dentistry. Those were the points I didn't put enough time into for Wednesday's test. I think I have it figured out now, though, and hope to see improvement on the next exam.

Lab: currently we have three active lab classes. In "Complete Dentures," or Removable Prosthodontics I, we are making, well, a set of full dentures.  I need to start taking pictures of my projects, but basically we are doing everything from making custom trays to placing the fake teeth in wax. There are no really patients, of course; everything is done on a typodont. The other two labs are Indirect Single Tooth Restoration 2 and 3 in which we learn about and how to prepare crowns, inlays, & onlays (with the focus being on crowns).
In ISTR 2, we are currently at making a die system on which to wax up our crowns for tooth # 30 (lower right 1st molar). We've prepped the tooth, made provisional crowns, taken impressions, made casts, made a custom tray, taken more accurate impressions, made a more accurate cast, and made a die system. The die system basically consists of a set of pins placed beneath the cast you've made of your patients teeth (with your crown prep finished) and set in another layer of stone in a way that enables you to remove sections or particular teeth from the arch and still be able to replace them exactly where they are supposed to be. Pretty cool, but nerve-wracking when you are taking a reverse drill-press or what amounts to a small hack-saw to a fragile bunch of stone teeth that are the culmination of hours of work!
ISTR 3 is simple so far: we are making gold crowns in ISTR 2, but need slightly different technique, materials, etc. for porcelain-fused-to-metal crowns (which is what we do in ISTR 3). Just started prepping #12 (upper left 1st premolar) Friday; trying to get that nice, clean finish-line is much more difficult when you are "drilling" looking through a mirror!

Well, you get the idea. On the bright side, I have been doing some fun stuff. Our Delta Sigma Delta initiation party was a blast, and I went to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra for the first time about 2 weeks ago with a couple of friends (Cody and KC, above). $5 student tickets for Masterworks concerts! We had got $75 seats, the best in the house, for $5. Unbelievable.

Today, Ritsuko, Masashi, and I drove up towards Rollinsville (on the Peak-to-Peak scenic highway) only to get stopped in construction-induced traffic jam. Fortunately, I had enough mind to IMMEDIATELY turn around and pull into a picnic area we had just passed. It was Cold Springs Campground (and picnic area) in Arapaho National Forest, and it ended up being just what we were looking for. The campground and picnic area was ok, too close to a fairly busy road, but take a hike up the mountain behind the campground and you will be in for a real treat! Pine forest interspersed with large, young stands of aspens, open areas with plenty of elk tracks, and beautiful views of Mt. Evans, and other snow-capped peaks both south and west of the Idaho Springs area. The climb was steep, but easy with plenty of sticks and boulders to keep Masa busy climbing and playing around. We had a great time.

Quick Update

Just finishing up a great weekend in between two test-less weeks! My friend lent us her condo up near Winter Park for the weekend, so Ritsuko, Masa, and I left Thursday afternoon and stayed for two nights. Great little place with a wonderful view and easy access to tons of cool stuff, not the least of which are two ski resorts and Rocky Mountain National Park! We decided that two small places will definitely be much more fun than one big house in the future. Oh, and yes, I did have one class on Friday that I missed. No big deal, though, I've been keeping up on stuff.

 

 Masa and I at the top of Rollins Pass

So starts another week. Oral Pathology tomorrow at 10, so I'll probably go in early to get some practicing in. I went in early Thursday morning last week and was able to composite restorations on 13MO, 14MOD, and 15MO in about 45 minutes, with only #14 needing some touch-up grinding and polishing. Fun stuff. This week should be pretty easy, honestly. I'd probably take another 3-day weekend in the mountains if we didn't have our Delta Sigma Delta initiation party on Friday.

One more friday in the bag

Today was a good day. Beautiful Colorado weather; cycled in to school, arrived at 8. In 90 minutes I managed to polish off one nice crown prep on #30 and a good inlay prep on an old MO on #19. Slow for a dentist? Yes. Good for a second year practical? Absolutely. Follow that up with a little studying, an ASDA meeting over lunch, and a solid 98% on my first (and easiest) pharmacology exam, and the stage was set for a good, relaxing weekend.

I was home by 3, so we went to the HAR-mart to get some of our Asian-food basics, then Masa and I told a walk and harassed the ants in the park across the street. They have one 100x100 yard square of this park kept nice and trim with a Navajo memorial sculpture in it, while the other 100x100 yard square is left as a wild high-plains field. In that field, there are about 20 nice sized ant hills, to which Masa has taken an interest lately. I forgot the camera, but after a little exploratory digging, we managed to find where the ants kept their larva under one of the larger mounds. It was amazing how quickly the ants started grabbing their young and carrying them off into unmolested areas of the mound.

Should be a nice relaxing Labor Day Weekend. Have a good one!

Practicing

I didn't really "practice" much my first year of dental school. I did well enough with waxing to not have to put in any extra hours, and my "satisfactory" grades in operative (prepping and restoring Class I, II, etc. on plastic teeth) seemed too much like a fait accompli to worry about too much.

This semester, though, things have changed. The denture-making process is going fairly smooth, but the indirect restoration stuff will definitely take some work! I've been trying to put in a solid 2 hours a day of practicing crown preps recently. Getting a nice finish line with proper positioning, accurate morphology, adequate occlusal reduction, and trying not to hit the adjacent teeth when working in the contact areas seem to require planning and consistency just as much as they do a steady hand. Musicians, artists, actors, etc. are constantly honing their skills through repetition and practice; why should dental students (and dentists) approach their "art" any differently?

In other news, first test of the semester is tomorrow: pharmacology. I'm not worried about it at all; not only is the material fairly easy, but 80% of the questions are based on questions present on the practice test we were given. Smooth sailing. . .

Mom & Dad visit for the Weekend

My parents flew in from Indiana Thursday, and we have been nothing but busy everyday. Needless to say, I have gotten absolutely zero studying done. There are a lot of things more fun to do than studying, though, such as. . .
driving up Pike's Peak, taking a tour through the Cave of the Winds, walking around Garden of the Gods, going out to eat at Pho '79 and WaterCourse Food, going to an art exhibit put on by a fellow dental student, visiting the Denver Botanic Gardens (and getting an annual family membership), and making sushi.Oh, and how could I forget the Delta Sigma Delta "White Trash" rush party on Friday night! It has been a great weekend, but I admit that all this driving around and going out to eat is more exhausting than just going to school and studying! I'm looking forward to getting back into the groove this week; I'd better, we have our first pharmacology test on Friday.

Picking up the pace

Classes are now in full swing; here's my initial take:

Complete Denture: great instructors, good lectures, so far I've had enough time to get my lab work done in lab.

Orthodontics: Can't judge the instruction yet, but the manual they gave us is complete crap. Fortunately, I find reading the book somewhat interesting.

Periodontics: love the subject matter + a fun, in-your-face instructor = a great class

Pharmacology: prof seems good, but the pace is kind of slow and the material a bit dry

Indirect Single Tooth Restoration: this will probably be one of the most difficult, time consuming classes. Doing crown preps probably won't be easy, but the faculty are very helpful, the lectures good, and it's kind of fun being up in the lab.

Oral Pathology: I hear this will be our most difficult subject this semester due to the shear amount of information. I think the prof will be good, but we'll see how the class goes!

Lots of reading to be done. My parents are coming tomorrow, so I was running around today getting stuff ready. Then, I need to pick them up tomorrow morning before I go to class. Not much time to study, but I'm glad they're coming out now and not later in the semester. Anyway, time to get some work done before bed.

Reading before class

My goal this semester is to read class material for a class prior to lecture, so I was up early today getting through some pharmacology handouts. This is much easier to do when the read material consists of well organized, focused handouts as opposed to indiscriminately assigned book reading. Fortunately, the pharmacology handouts fall into the former category.

We also had some friends over today, so lots of time just hanging out at home and at the pool. It was a good day, and I'm ready for a busy week!

National Board Dental Exam (NBDE) Part 1

I'll just start out with something for the one or two dental students or predents reading this: it wasn't that hard and odds are that you will pass.

Part 1 of "the boards" is a 400 multiple-choice question, 7 hour test that you must pass to become a dentist in the United States. It tests mostly stuff you would have learned in a good undergraduate biology program (minus the section on dental anatomy and occlusion), or what you spend the majority of your first year in dental school studying. Human anatomy, physiology, pathology, etc.: the foundation of most professional medical programs.

Now, though I said it wasn't that hard, that doesn't mean I didn't study for it. Of course, taking Part 1 right at the of your first year of dental school is helps (everything is still fresh). The University of Colorado is one of a handful of schools that do this; most schools give their students time during or after their 2nd year. Regardless, I studied probably an average of 6-8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 6 weeks in preparing for the boards. Some of this "studying" might not have been the most focused or productive, but that's just my estimate.

How did I do? Pretty well. The test is scaled (meaning missing 25 questions this year doesn't yield the same score as missing 25 questions last year), and one needs to receive a 75 or higher to pass. Scaling is done to fit a certain percentage of test takers into a particular score. Our biochemistry prof wanted to have half the class with an A- or higher, so he scaled (well, he actually curved, just adding points on) the test scores to get half of our class into that range. Scaling is also done to compare results from different versions of a test. Here is scaling percentages that came with my test (I think they have used for the past couple of years), listing the scaled score first followed by the percentage of test takers being put into that score category:

• 99: 0.7%
• 96-98: 2.2%
• 93-95: 5.9%
• 90-92: 12.1%
• 87-89: 18.5%
• 84-86: 21.2%
• 81-83: 18.5%
• 78-80: 12.1%
• 75-77: 5.9%
• below 75: 2.9%

It's not hard to see that this is a nothing more than a normal bell-curve, no magic formula or anything. Notice the "below 75" category: that means that 2.9% of test takers are guaranteed to fail once scores are scaled. It's not a curve (where points are added on to bump everyone up), it's a scaled score. Sucks for those 2.9%, but going into it thinking that you have a 97% success rate is really how you should be approaching it. I mean come on, taking a test where 97% percent of the test takers are guaranteed to pass should not stress you out unless you're a slacker who has always just barely managed to stay afloat.

Now that you know what makes up the scaled score, you'll understand mine: 87. I fell within the 60.6-79.1 percentile, which is above average and fine with me! If you ever get on Student Doctor Network you've probably noticed that most of the scores posted by people fall in the high 80s/90s. Remember, board scores really only matter if you're applying for specialties or are a foreign-trained dentist trying to get into a program in the U.S., and that's who most of these people are posting these scores. For most of us, the boards are basically Pass/Fail. Actually, the boards WILL be Pass/Fail as of 2012. Another thing you might notice on SDN is people saying something like "I got 89 percentile. . . ," the number referring to their scaled score. This is incorrect, they did not miss less questions than 89% of other test takers, they simply got a scaled score of 89, a number with no significance in and of itself other than that it is above 75 and passing.

There is one more set of scores on this test that will help put all of this in perspective, the raw scores. This is how many question you got right out of 100 for each of the four sections. Here are mine followed by the national average in parentheses:

Anatomic Science: 79 (64.6), Microbiology/Pathology: 74 (65),
Biochemistry/Physiology: 75 (60.4), Dental Anatomy/Occlusion: 85 (73.4).

Add it all up and you'll see that I received a scaled score of 87 with only 313/400 question answered correctly. You can miss approximately half of the questions and still pass.

In conclusion, Part 1 of the boards is not that bad as long as you've put sometime into studying for them.