POST-HOLIDAY RUSTY BRAIN & INTRODUCTION TO CLINICAL DENTISTRY

Assalamualaikum, hello reader!

I think I'm not the only one with a problem of slow "warming up" to new subjects in a new year or a new semester.. I'm sure most of you exam-sufferers understand the situation of trying to squeeze your brain-deciphering the flashes of tiny images of words you've came across during your always last minute studying. Aha! This happens to everyone.

So this took place during our first Oral Surgery class with Dr. Retish earlier today;

Dr. R: "Okay what nerve supplies the lower jaw?"
Class: "mandibular nerve"
Dr. R: "what nerve does it originate from"
Student X,W,Z and maybe J: "facial nerve" (confidently)
Dr. R: "REALLY GUYS?" FACIAL NERVE? *facepalm* "
Student B, F, G, K and few others: "trigeminal nerve!"
Dr. R: "okay so what are the main branches of the trigeminal nerve?"
krik krik...
Students: "ophthalmic" "maxillary" "mandibular"
Me inside my head: Man my anatomy's shitty as hell. What did i learn again in 1st year DDS?

So anyway, hope that I made the point that you can't really opt to just forget stuff once your done with the exam. The hard truth is friends, the stuff you learn in the pre-clinical years will be your BASE to survive dental school. Without a good base, you'll be just like a denture with a weak denture base-: prone to cracks and fractures. (was that a denta-nerdy enough analogy? lol! )

So how do you manage and overcome this rusty brain problem? Obviously it's a hassle to have to go thru the pre-clinical textbooks all over again and RE-learn stuff. My suggestion would be: STUDY NOT FOR THE SAKE OF EXAMS BUT STUDY FOR THE SAKE OF LEARNING.
Another hard truth about dental school is that good grades can only prove that you're good in memorising and absorbing information whereas dentistry is MUCH MORE than that. True dentistry (in my opinion) starts during your third year where all of your skills & knowledge will be integrated into treating a patient. Trust me, when you study purely out of passion, curiosity or the want to learn something, automatically your brain will somehow find a way to store the info in your long-term memory. So try doing that. Try to LOVE what you are doing.

Moving to the next and more interesting thing; CLINICAL DENTISTRYYYYYY!
I swear it gave me the chills but a lot of excitement at the same time ! Like finally you're gonna put all the knowledge you've sumbat-ed into your head to good use and test how well you really know your stuff by application. This is where it gets tricky because your grades don't mirror wether or not you'll be good in the clinic. So let's just hope to God that my grades will mirror my clinical skills. Aameen !

Today Dr. Brindha gave us the lecture on introduction to clinical dentistry. She talked about dresscode, what we'll be doing for the next 9 weeks in preparation to handle REAL patients. Yassss we've graduated from scary head mannequins to real life breathing sweaty talking human beings! There's also stuff about patient confidentiality, ethics, infection control and all that. Can't wait to get our clinical labcoats and the shiny nametags! weehuuuu

Will be doing a post specifically on ICD soon!

xx