My name is Mai-Ly. I’m a 2nd year ASDOH student. I am the D2 Class President of the Class of 2012!! :) I am involved in ASDA and Student Ambassadors. I graduated from the University of Arizona and grew up in the NW Phoenix area. I sing and act on my leisure time. I am very involved in the Asian American community as well as the Vietnamese community in Arizona.

If you’re reading, please feel free to comment and introduce yourself – I’d love to virtually meet you!

Now, to the good stuff. You wanna know about my life as a dental student, right?! Well, since I don’t really know where to start, I will just start with my life today – Sept. 10, 2009!

Today, we were in Clinic Orientation II. This module is about teaching us and helping us transition into the dental clinic. We have been in the similation clinic since last March working on mannequinnes- however using instruments and doing procedures on an actual human being is quite different!

Today, we learned about the Sickle instruments. These instruments are used to scale and remove plaque and calculus above the gingiva… There are other uses, but removing calculus supragingivally is the main purpose. Today was also the 3rd or 4th time that we’ve actually been working on each other… sticking instruments into each other’s mouths. Sounds kind of vulgar if I say it like that though.

Anyways, it is fun. It is kind of scary at first. I remember when I use an explorer in one of my classmate’s mouth for the first time. I was so scared I would hurt her. I was so scared I would make her gums bleed that I didn’t really practice. However, the key to maximizing your total experience in dental school is having empathy and having guts. We are all in dental school together. How do we know how to do things correctly if we don’t do them incorrectly the first time? How do we know if we are hurting someone if we don’t hurt someone first? How do we know how to maneuver an instrument or a mirror in a mouth with a big tongue if we don’t practice? As dental students in this Clinic Orientation II environment – we have the opportunity to practice on each other and give each feedback. We have to know that it’s okay to accidentally poke someone. It’s okay to put too much pressure on the cheek. If we don’t do it, we’ll never know the thresholds of how much we can and can’t do that will be uncomfortable for our patients. Anyways, today I realized that it was okay if I pressed too hard or if I accidentally poked too much – I trust my classmates to give me constructive feedback and I trust that they won’t be mad at me. Otherwise, if I don’t trust them to give me feedback to better my skills – how will they trust me to give them feedback to better their skills?

Right now- we are in simulation lab. We are in our Operative II module, where we refresh the skills we learned last year in Operative I. I also have Radiology rotation later this afternoon, where I start receiving hands-on experience in taking X-rays. I’m excited!

Tomorrow we have our Pharm I final. Now that class is super interesting because you learn about different medications that your future patients will take and how those medications will affect your ability to treat your patients… However it is also super hard!!!

So I better ta-ta for now because I have to get my classwork done so I can go home to a night full of Pharmocology fun and macaroni and cheese! teehee…

talk to you later!!! :)