Doc's Writing Refuge

So I am a patient based skills examiner on the clinic floor at Marquette. And what is a patient based skills exam? Only one of the most important things burgeoning pre-doctoral student dentists will ever do to prove themselves competent to operate independently on patients (that’s also known as…being a doctor!). In other words, a student must perform several procedures from start to finish on a patient under my supervision with NO help from me and with me GRADING each step of the procedure. And NO ONE can graduate without passing ALL of their patient based skills exams. Just a little bit of pressure on students. But it’s also a CRAP load of responsibility and pressure on ME! I must always remind myself of the procedure, each step of the procedure, each grading criteria for each step of the procedure, the rules for the testing of that procedure, etc. Do I study the rules and criteria for each exam I administer? You bet I do. Do I refer back to the rules and criteria for the procedure during the examination? Also, you bet I do! As an analogy, a pilot who has flown an airplane hundreds of times will ALWAYS go through the written start up and take off procedure on EVERY flight just so NOTHING is missed. That’s how seriously I take these exams. Why? These aren’t blind examinations. I know each and every student that I test. These are students that I have helped nurture from DAY ONE of dental school. I deeply want to see each and every student succeed and I care deeply for each student. But I also have a responsibility to objectively administer the exam, protect the patient, protect the public and future patients, protect the profession, protect the interests of the State Dental Examining Board, protect the University, etc. I need to give my students praise only as I am allowed during the exam and I am also obligated to give students bad news should the need arise. Giving bad news is HARD and SUCKS but I HAVE to do so when needed and I try my very best to do so in as caring a way as possible (I hope it comes across that way). And a great amount of teaching can arise from things that don’t go as planned.

So, when students are taking a patient based skills exam and are completely stressed out just know that I AM TOO!!!😱

Disney World has this new people mover transportation thing that’s like big ski lift gondolas (like at Whistler Mountain in British Columbia, Canada) to move people between EPCOT and Hollywood Studios and a couple of resort hotels. It’s officially called the Skyliner but I call it the sky bucket (can’t take credit for that) cuz it looks like buckets hanging from a wire.

So I pretty much love all things Disney (and have spent WAY too much money at Disney World to prove it) but these sky bucket things? Not my thing! First, Disney built a sky bucket station at my quiet, hidden, unknown, back entrance to EPCOT so that’s a bummer for me now with extra pagan hordes of people at my favorite entrance (not to mention the ugly buckets coming and going from the new (and big) station). Second, the sky buckets don’t go anywhere I need to and/or want to go from EPCOT (it’s like taxation without representation???). Third, the sky buckets will not operate when lightning is in the vicinity. Isn’t Orlando the lightning capital of Florida? Fourth, the sky buckets have NO air conditioning. Whoa!!! Are you kidding me? Sometimes it’s so hot at Disney World you can’t even stand outside in the shade. Shove ten sweaty stinky Disney crazed people into a glass and metal enclosure in the hot Florida sunshine? Do you think that will feel good for twenty minutes? Do you think that will smell good for twenty minutes? Do you think those buckets will ever smell good after twelve hours of that every day (I picture a sumo wrestling gym’s locker room)? BARF!

Probably shouldn’t judge it until I’ve actually seen it but I guess one could say I have developed a significant bias. We’ll see. Skyliner (I mean sky bucket) officially opens in a few days and I will get to see it for myself in December.

Well, not today, but I certainly have gotten wax on my clothes. I hate messing up my clothes with wax and it always seems to happen on days when I’m wearing something OTHER than scrubs (which usually means EXPENSIVE).

Dental student=waxing a whole lot of something all the time and it will probably never change (yeah I had to do a load of waxing as a dental student…same shit different year). And guess what? I’m waxing a whole lot as faculty (that will probably deter a whole lot of people from becoming faculty).

So when it happens (wax on your clothes), and it will happen, here’s what I’ve done:

-On an ironing board put a towel or washcloth UNDER the waxed area of clothing (for pants put the towel/washcloth inside the pant leg directly under the wax).

-Put several layers of paper towels OVER the waxed area of clothing.

-With an iron set on low to no- more-than medium run the iron over the paper towels that are directly over the wax (the wax will melt into the paper towels).

-Repeat until the wax has been absorbed into the paper towels (be sure to put new pieces of paper towels over the waxed area often so that wax DOESN’T go back into your clothing).

-Any oily and/or colored residue can be removed with a simple degreaser (I use plain old Dawn dish detergent).

Hope that helps. Maybe someday waxing will go away forever (yay, there goes some of my dental school PTSD!). But for now waxing is here to stay and hopefully we can remove those ugly waxing memories from our clothes.

Interproximals STRESS ME OUT when I’m prepping teeth for crowns. There’s way too much crap to worry about such as: I can’t hit the tooth next door; I can’t over reduce the mesial and distal axial walls; I can’t over taper the mesial and distal axial walls; I can’t wreck my margin/chamfer; I can’t hurt the patient; I can’t I can’t I can’t (it’s no wonder some of we dentists go nuts and have to spend extraordinary amounts of money at Disney World!).

And back when I was a damn, dirty, diseased University of Minnesota preclinical dental student who would never amount to anything (jury is still out on that one) I was taught to take my big ass diamond crown prep bur and cut each interproximal a little at a time from the buccal, then the lingual, then the buccal again, then the lingual again, etc., and all the while: I can’t hit the tooth next door; I can’t over reduce the mesial and distal axial walls; I can’t over taper the mesial and distal axial walls; I can’t wreck my margin/chamfer; I can’t hurt the patient; I can’t I can’t I can’t. ENOUGH ALREADY!!! So, find a lazy ass way to do it (well, it’s more like find a comfortable and efficient way to get the job done WELL and RIGHT but it’s always more fun/rebellious to think I find lazy ass ways to get things done).

With a 245 carbide bur I know I can drop a perfect mesial and distal box (Class II preps) in my sleep AND I can do it without: hitting the tooth next door; over reducing the mesial and distal axial walls; over tapering the mesial and distal axial walls; making a horrible gingival seat; hurting the patient. So now when I do a crown prep I START my prep with a 245 carbide bur and prep perfect mesial and distal Class II boxes that have a perfect mesial/distal width of 1mm from cavosurface margin to axial wall and have a perfect gingival contact opening of at least 0.5mm. I will push my buccal and lingual proximal walls a bit further to the buccal and lingual (think inlay/onlay prep) because those walls have to go away anyway for a proper crown prep. Further, I will add a little tiny bit of taper to my mesial and distal axial walls (once again think inlay/onlay prep with a path of draw/insertion). Next I will get my big ass diamond crown prep bur and prep the occlusal and buccal/lingual axial walls. And finally I will use my big ass diamond crown prep bur to gently incorporate my already prepped interproximals into the crown prep (I turn those gingival seats into beautiful chamfers and finalize the entire path of draw/insertion). This all saves me a whole lot of extra stress because: I don’t hit the tooth next door; I don’t over reduce the mesial and distal axial walls; I don’t over taper the mesial and distal axial walls; I don’t make horrible interproximal margins/chamfers; and I don’t hurt the patient. OK, that’s a whole lot of DON’T but those are good DON’Ts that I can live with (we dentists are such curious folks…or at least I am).

I was so looking forward to a Door County getaway this weekend. However, this damn cold/flu/virus/crud/sickness-from-hell flared up again this past Wednesday (couldn’t sleep Wednesday night and was panic stricken about feeling ill again). So, round two of antibiotics (different from the first round) and I am feeling much better (but too late for Door County).

I can’t remember the last time I’ve been this sick. When it first struck (the Friday before Labor Day) I felt like every cell in my body was miserable (even my skin hurt). My wife told me that I was not well enough to teach (two Fridays ago) and I totally agreed with her. Then she ordered me out of bed to get some fluids on board and all I could do was stare at her and mumble something about how I couldn’t even pick my head up off the pillow. Yeah, this has been a tough illness.

Why the heck have I been so sick? Maybe I’ve been really nervous about: the new semester; new classes; D1’s becoming D2’s and all their TOUGH Fall Semester classes; meeting the new D1’s and hoping they like me (a little); grading patient based skills exams; etc.

I know full well that you only get one opportunity to make a good first impression and I think I’ve been burning the candle at both ends trying to meet and greet and get to know the new D1’s. And this year I have additional pressure: I was chosen to be a Faculty Liaison to the new D1’s. So what does it mean to be a Faculty Liaison? The jury is still out regarding my role (this is a brand new role and all of we newly minted Faculty Liaisons (there’s 4 of us) are being very pragmatic about our duties at the moment). What does it mean to me in my heart and mind? DON’T BE A DUFUS AND SCREW IT UP FOREVER. So I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself. And I don’t want to a)be overbearing and force myself on folks and/or b)be distant. However, I feel like it’s hard for me to distance myself from students so I guess I’m trying more to not be overbearing.

And sometimes I feel like when I teach I am not aware of how much energy I’m using up until it’s too late. It’s like I’m withdrawing money from the ATM and don’t realize that I’ve taken out all the money I have. Maybe that’s why I’ve been so damn sick as of late. And I chuckle when I think back to last year at this time. I was tasked with directing the very first day of D1 PrezRez which included a whole lot of lecture materials and demonstrations. I was so nervous I broke out in hives (first time I’ve admitted that)!

Well, enough for now. I’m on the mend and I have another Door County trip in October. Maybe I’ll do a little staycation stuff today. Weather is beautiful and watching the sun set from my porch is still one of my favorite things to do.

Well, here we go (hopefully this isn’t my first and last post…if I never generate an audience or if I run the risk of getting fired from my job for blogging then this will likely be my first and last post).

Why am I blogging? Hmm. Well…I recently found out that many dental students actually want to get to know their dental professors. What’s more is many dental students actually want to communicate with their dental professors. Wow! When I was in dental school (which, by the way, I hated with a passion…more on that another day) I was way too intimidated by and afraid of most of my dental professors. They were uncommunicative and scary folks who didn’t want to be talked to (and especially talked back to) but I didn’t really want to talk to them anyway because I was afraid I’d say something stupid that could set someone off and then my entire dental career could be over in a really scary heartbeat.

However, I did have some really cool dental professors…cool professors that inspired me and continue to inspire me. I even communicated with them. And they communicated with me. What’s more is they communicated with me as if I was a colleague and not some damn, dirty, diseased dental student that would never amount to anything.

So, I guess I get it. In fact I am ever so grateful to the dental professors who took the time to communicate with me and who cared for and nurtured me through the harrowing hell that is dental school (at least it was a harrowing hell for me). Seeing as how I fall into the category of dental professor (yeah, the guy who COMPLETELY HATED DENTAL SCHOOL is a dental professor) I guess I want this blog to be a means to better connect with students. Perhaps my thoughts within this blog will speak to students and may even be a means to start meaningful (and perhaps even lifelong) dialogue.

And what do I want to write about within this blog? I certainly want to share dental tips and tricks as dentistry is ever so technical and I am always looking for and finding lazy ass ways to get things done (actually, I think it’s more like I absolutely positively strive to be a safe and efficient dentist that DOES NO HARM but it’s more fun to think that I’m a lazy ass). However, there’s SOOOOO much more to me than dentistry. For instance, I am a HUGE Disney geek so don’t be surprised when pictures of Disney trips show up in my blog. In fact, I love to go adventuring hence the TREKKING part of my blog’s name. I’m also: a musician; a runner; a big fan of eating-out; a stand up paddle boarder; a Packers and Brewers fan; am gluten sensitive and always looking for the perfect gluten free beer/bread/restaurant; etc. etc. etc.

So this blog will be all about my teaching and trekking. I hope someone actually reads this blog. And I hope that this blog will open a little meaningful dialogue.