This Is How I Spend My Free Fridays...

It feels like it has been years since I last posted here. Somewhere along the lines, I just never got back into work and blog mode following spring break. The coming of April also brings a ton of work - 2 research project presentations, 1 presentation on "Exercise during Pregnancy", 2 research reports, 2 papers, and 2 lab finals. So bear with me until we get closer to graduation.

I'm not sure how common or uncommon this is: a dentist with a general fear of blood. I'm the lab member that still gets queasy when we have to collect tubes of blood for plasma epinephrine samples in our kinesiology labs. As a future dentist, this worries me. I figured that the best way to cure me of my fear is to "throw myself to the dogs". In other words, force myself to shadow and assist in the oral surgery department where there is bound to be loads and loads of blood.

So I threw on a pair of disposable gloves, a dental gown, and disposable eyewear and started assisting in oral surgery. There were some interesting cases (i.e. alveoloplasty) but most of the time, the student dentists were simply extracting teeth or extracting the roots of tooth from the gum. It was also my first time suctioning and assisting. I'll admit that I'm not a pro at suctioning; there are so many things to consider at one time - "am I blocking the dentist's light? am I getting in his or her way in the mouth? am I suctioning too much or not enough? what in the world is the equipment that they are asking me to get?!?!" The student dentist was kind enough to laugh at my inadequacies.

"At least you didn't faint from the sight of blood", she told me.

The moral of the story: it takes baby steps, people, baby steps. Everyone has to start somewhere. The other moral of the story is that I should probably watch a few helpful YouTube videos on dental assisting...

But I survived! And I enjoyed it enough that I'm probably going to keep going back!