Our outbound flight was delayed 4 days, but luckily Capitol Hill opened on Friday.  We were able to meet with assistants to Senator Barbara Boxer and the HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) committee to lobby for 2 important issues. The first is called SIMULATION act, which requests more federal grant monies to be allocated to promote simulation technology to virtually all allied health training programs.  Studies have shown that students/residents who learn how to perform irreversible procedures on simulation technology vs working on live patients reduces error rates from 30 to 4%.  This can directly affect dental schools who lack funding to upgrade sim clinics. The second is SLID (Student Loan Interest Deduction), which requests raising the current modified gross income cap, which is currently $70,000, to be able to have a $2500  “above the line” deduction for new dentists working in public health and HPSAs (Health Professional Shortage Areas).  Both groups that we met with were receptive and encouraged us to send letters and make phone calls to our senators and representatives in our home states to get their support on these bills and ask them to co-sponsor them.

It was a wonderful experience to lobby for dental issues on Capitol Hill.  I can’t tell how receptive they were, but being a representative of our school and profession made me feel like I was making a difference. Because of “snowmageddon,” I missed a week of clinic, but the faculty were very understanding and rescheduled my patients for me.  I happily spent some time poolside today in the 76 degree Arizona weather to thaw out.   Extracting #15 today was a great reminder that it’s good to be home.

Tomorrow is my first day back in the clinic in 2010. I’m assigned to work in the SNCU (Special Needs Care Unit) for the week. Our SNCU is really unique. We have a special wheel chair lift to recline people who are not able to get out of their chairs. In SNCU, I am liable to see anyone with a complex medical history or a developmental disability. I’ll stay posted on the exciting things I learn this week!

Happy new year 2011!

I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been so busy.  Clinic is going well.  It seems like when I first got into clinic in May, I never had all of my appointments booked. Now, I’m booked out at least 1 month! Either patients like me, or I have too many? I like to think it’s the former

I also got a new puppy since writing last…another major use of my time! Sophie is a black lab mix and we got her when she was 9 weeks old. She’s potty trained, crate trained, sits and shakes and loves to run at the park.  She has been a great addition to my life and a good way to de-stress and unwind after a long day at the clinic.  I don’t think I could have handled her during 1st or 2nd year because she does require time and attention. Now that I’m in clinic full time and public health classes are over, my evenings are free to play with her.

Please post any questions you have about life as a student at ASDOH or a resident of Mesa. Happy Friday!

I’m getting really excited about selecting rotation sites for fourth year.  We go on one externship which can be done in a public health dental setting virtually anywhere in the world and then we go on three rotations to community health centers for 4-6 weeks at a time.  The sad part is that our class will be split into two rotation blocks and people on opposite blocks will only see each other once or twice at school in the whole 4th year!  I’m planning to rotate to places that I’ve never been and would not otherwise be able to spend a month.  The only one I would like to request for sure is one in Maine.  I have always wanted to visit ever since I read a book that was set on the coast of Maine…the imagery in the novel was enough to make me want to spend a month there at some point in my life.  My mom wants to come visit me in Maine, and it’s funny because she just read a story set in Maine too.

This weekend was nice because I took a break from all school work as soon as I left the clinic on Friday.  Myself and few of my classmates and their significant

others, as well as a friend from outside school and her fiance, and my bofriend all went to Theatre 168 in Scottsdale on Friday night.  The Jesterz are an improv troupe who take suggestions from the audience and create “instant hilarity” on the spot.  For $12 a person, the comedy was hard to beat.  We all walked out with our abs feeling worked out and cheeks that hurt from laughing.  I highly suggest going!

Saturday was a time to cheer on my favorite football team, the University of Nebraska Huskers!  There are a few other husker fans at the school and I have a friend who recently graduated and moved out here to AZ for work and we all get together to cheer on our team.  We went to 1st Round Draft, a bar and grill who claims to be the “Husker Headquarters,” we were slightly disappointed with how mellow the crowd was.  We’re planning to keep trying out all of the so-called Husker bars to find the best place to view!

We had friends over for a game night Saturday and had another night full of laughs that stemmed from Catchphrase and Cranium–both are great group games.

Today I’m writing a few public health papers that I wish I had gotten done earlier in the week, but here I sit.  Ha!  I have one down and one to go and then time to hit the pool while the sun is still up.  Hope you enjoyed the synopsis of my wonderful, much needed weekend!

Stay tuned

A little bit about me: I grew up in Northern California (yeah Nor-Cal!) and was introduced to dentistry at an early age.  My mom was an assistant for a Periodontist and I was always intrigued by her stories about surgery.  A periodontist is someone who specializes in treating the supporting structures of the teeth (ie: the gingiva, bone, etc…) and the diseases and conditions that affect them.

I started working for the same periodontist when I was 13 years old, as a front office helper, doing filing and answering phones, scheduling appointments and running errands.

Once I started high school, I worked after school; I helped in the lab with sterilization, cleaned operatories and helped the front office ladies with whatever they needed.  Up to that point, I never saw dentistry as a future career.  When I started college, I was planning to pursue a degree in social work, because I loved doing community work and helping people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It was right around that time when the periodontist trained me as his surgical assistant.  After interacting with the patients, helping with tissue grafts, bone regeneration, implant placement and osseous surgeries, I fell in love with perio and knew that it was the field for me.  As a little girl I remember loving to watch surgeries on the Discovery channel, so I think perio was just in the stars for me! Â

I am thankful for my mentor Dr. Cole for helping me get to where I am today and opening my eyes to the possibilty of being a periodontist.  I never envisioned myself becoming a dentist…no one in my family had ever graduated college and I am going to be the first doctor in my family.  I am thankful everyday for the opportunities I have by following a career in dentistry.

I am now trying to find a perio program that is a good fit for me.   I’ll be applying for residency in a year from now.  I am interested in clinical periodontology as well as public health dentistry and am not sure what my career will look like yet.

So that is me in a nutshell and I hope I can be of assistance to you as you follow your dreams.