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Robyn Nguyen: First Year Dental Student
6am: Rise and shine for school. Having an 8am class sure makes it difficult to get up in the morning. The cold and foggy winter weather definitely doesn’t make it any easier to leave my warm and comfortable bed. However, like Robert Frost has artistically stated, “I have miles to go before I sleep”, and the whole day is just beginning. Today is anatomy lab day so need to bring scrubs to school.
7am: Catch the shuttle bus to school. I see most of my classmates running to catch the shuttle like me. I guess everyone is a bit late this morning as long hours studying at night is warranted for our upcoming midterm. We all get on the school shuttle and immediately the conversation shifts gear to the coming exams. We talk about how far along we are in studying for the exam and about our daily lab sign offs for our Preventive and Restorative Dentistry preclinical class. Everyone is concerned about how to balance our time between studying for our lecture-based classes and practicing for our Competency Exams in our preclinical class.
7:30am: The shuttle arrives at campus. A bunch of us are heading towards Starbucks for our morning jolt. Those of us who live at the school’s off-site campus housing like to get into class a bit early. It is nice to just have a few minutes of relative peace and quiet in the lecture hall to reorient for a full day ahead.
8:10am: BMS (Biomedical Sciences Stream) lectures begin. Today we are learning about the kidney for the first hour, and posterior and anterior triangle for the next hour. We have a seven-minute break to stretch our legs and ask any questions we have from our previous lecture.
10am: It is Gross Anatomy lab time. Some of my classmates have already donned scrubs. There are four of us per cadaver. We have a lab manual we go by and we spend as much time as needed in the lab. The instructors are there to answer questions and help identify structures, but attendance is lenient. You get what you put into it—it is all about self-discipline.
Noon: The instructors allot this time for anatomy lab for the day has ended. We all have access to the lab 24/7 and most of us have been using that advantage to go in on weekends to review for our upcoming practical exam. Practical examination will be interesting; we have to identify and know the function of everything we’ve learned in lecture and dissected in lab. We will have 90 seconds at each station and spelling actually counts. It is lunchtime and those of us who didn’t bring food have plenty of choices but we usually end up grabbing something from the hospital cafeteria.
1:10pm: Now we’re heading to our next class—Preventive and Restorative Dentistry. We usually have an hour lecture before actual lab begins. Today we are discussing composite restoration. First, the lecture is on the science behind composite and the mechanism of how the restoration functions mechanically. Then, we move into case scenarios that would quantify composite restorations as treatment plans.
2:15pm: Our daily lab work officially begins. Our assignment is to simulate occlussal caries on #30 that would extend throughout the pits and groove pattern. It is all indirect vision and we each have our own mannequin head at our lab bench and typodonts with teeth to work on. Each row is assigned an instructor to help us if we have questions, and to check our work as we progress. After getting approval for our caries simulation, we move onto the next step with our composite restoration. This is when knowing the anatomy of each tooth intimately is crucial. After my restoration is complete to my liking, I call our row instructor to come and check my work. My instructor checks the integrity of my restoration and gives me feedback and suggestions for the future.
5pm: Time to go home. After cleaning up and storing away all of my instruments in my locker, I head to the shuttle stop to go home.
5:45pm: I’m home and exhausted. I jump in a hot shower.
6:15pm: I start to study for my classes. I am studying for anatomy tonight as the midterms are looming on the horizon. Today is for Anatomy and tomorrow is for Histology. I’ve made plans to make sure I have enough time to study for all my classes.
8pm: I am eating dinner and watching TV at the same time. No particular show in mind, just whatever is on. It is my one time of day to relax a bit.
8:45pm: Fun and games are over. It is now time to do more studying.
Midnight: I am pretty beat. It has been a long day and I’ve accomplished a lot. Time for some much needed sleep before yet another early day of school.
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Elisa Sin: Third Year Dental Student
The third year marks the beginning of a great time for a dental student. It marks the beginning of not only didactic or scholastic work but finally seeing patients.
6:15am: I'm not really good at eating breakfast, so I usually take an hour and a half to shower, get my things, and get ready. I walk to school just 3 and a half blocks. Third year classes are a little bit different from 1st and 2nd year because there are a lot more clinically oriented classes and less strictly science classes.
8am-Noon: I attend lectures on clinical topics like orthodontics (science of straightening teeth) or removable (science of dentures and replacing missing teeth).
Noon-1pm: We break for lunch and I usually eat with my classmates downstairs in the school cafeteria. My classmates and I are pretty close since these are the people you literally spend everyday with them since the first year.
From 1-4pm, 4-7pm or 1-7pm: I see one or two patients depending on my schedule that day. Sometimes, I may not have any patients, and in that case I either go to the lab (to work on patient cases like setting denture teeth—make dentures, pindex crown and bridge work—prepare impressions of teeth for fabrication of crowns and bridges) or go home to study for yet another exam, eat dinner or relax.
Once a week: I do research with a periodontist and also work on goals for my extracurricular activities.
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Alexis Tessler: Fourth Year Dental Student
6am: Get up and run or go to the gym. I really like running in the city of San Francisco, because it is so beautiful and you can do it just about everyday. I find that physical activity is the best way to stay sane. And, as a dental student I don’t have the time or money to eat as healthfully as I would like, so I try to mitigate my poor nutritional choices with activity.
7:45am: Leave for school to be there by 8. I live only about .75 of a mile from school which sounds nice, except it is all up San Francisco’s infamous hills!
8-9am: I catch up on paperwork/emails/patient apt/fellowship duties. This is really tough in school to keep up with.
9-11am: Differential Diagnosis Class, a preparatory class for the National Boards Part 2 exam. We have learned the Oral Pathology information several times, but this class helps to decide between multiple diagnoses.
11am-1pm: Practice management – this class is meant to prepare students to start a practice or negotiate an associateship after graduation. I find this class a little tedious for two reasons: 1. I do not intend to be in practice until after graduate school (at least 3 years from now). 2. Some of the information is very basic accounting and finance which I studied for in my previous career.
1-2pm: Eat lunch and complete many of the 8 am activities that haven’t been finished.
2-5pm: Clinic – I see the first of my patients at 2pm. Each day we have two clinic sessions. On Mondays and Thursday we have an evening session so our clinic day does not start until 2. This is nice for those patients that work, but it is tough on the students.
5-6pm: I break for dinner, but usually this is shorter than an hour because I spend some time cleaning up from the afternoon patient and setting up for the evening patient.
6-8:45pm: Night Clinic, patient #2
9pm: Home resting (aka exhaustion) usually watch a little TV. Call family...
10pm: Good night.
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Hugh Patton: Solo Practitioner
Wake up and get my three boys ready for school and daycare, which requires making breakfast and clothing them, not to mention brushing their teeth. I take them to school and daycare by 8:15 am, then go to my office.
I’m a solo practitioner with three employees. I check my e-mails, go over the schedule and start at 8:30am. I have a mix of everything, since I am a general dentist. I see pedo to geriatric and do all my own hygiene.
Lunch time is from 12-1 pm, and I usually go out to eat. I live 5 minutes from my office, so if need be I will go home for lunch. I have the flexibility to leave early for lunch, but try not to run over into lunch. After lunch, I check e-mails and go over the schedule. I also handle the bookkeeping, so I use this time to pay bills.
I see 15 to 25 patients a day, depending on the time of year. Summertime is a more children-heavy schedule. I see my last patient at 5pm and usually head home at 5:45pm to my loving three boys and wife. This is family time, dinner, shopping, helping with homework and all can occur on a given night. Some evenings have obligations with my local dental society, which could be a meeting or a social event, where I meet other dentists.
I work Monday-Thursday, 8:30am– 5:45pm, and Friday, 8:30am–noon. I generally do not have many after-hour calls, on average just one a week. Some weeks I will have lunch with a specialist in the area. Overall I enjoy my profession, and having my own business gives me a sense of independence and pride. Being a general dentist offers me variety at work.
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Dunn Cumby: Professor and Part-time practitioner
5 am: Wednesday is a fun day because I get to do a mixture of things and it is right in the middle of the week. The alarm clock goes off and I get dressed for my morning walk, read the newspaper and then listen to the morning news. I power walk for about 35 minutes. After my walk, I cook breakfast, shower, get dressed and leave for the office.
7:30am: There’s a morning huddle at the office, and that’s when I get a feel for the day. The entire staff is present and we go over the schedule, and note any special needs or concerns as we begin our day.
8am: I start seeing patients. On this particular day, I saw a patient that needed two implants. This is a new technique that I recently learned. I like this new type of implant because it is easier to restore than the one I used to use. The surgery went well, I am very pleased with the results, and it only took an hour and a half. We had scheduled two hours to do the procedure but things went so well that I had 30 minutes before my next patient. I was able to use this time to visit with my office manager about purchasing new computer equipment for the front office.
10am: My 10 o’clock patient was 10 minutes late, but we were able to still finish all that we had planned. I extracted six lower anterior teeth and placed an immediate lower denture.
10:45am: I did a healing check on a patient that we had done an impression for a crown the day before. Her temporary crown had come off so we had to re-cement it.
11am: By this time, I have seen four patients and done four hygiene exams between seeing my morning patients. From 11 - noon, I have two consultations. One is a referral to an oral surgeon for the extraction of four wisdom teeth. The other one is a middle aged gentleman who needs lots of restorative work but his oral hygiene is so poor that unless he takes ownership of his oral hygiene, we are wasting our time. We agree to let the hygienist do a deep cleaning and see him in two months to decide if we should continue with the treatment.
12:30 – 1:30pm: I have staff meeting at church. The church is located between the office and the school so there is no wasted travel. The lunches are usually pretty good; the menu is always different and sometimes it is an adventure!
1:45pm: I arrive at the dental school.
2pm: I teach a freshman class for an hour. It’s a fun class! We cover ethics, history of dentistry, jurisprudence and some of the foundations of business. After the class there are always students with questions. After I finish with the students, I go to my office at the dental school, check my messages, check my mail and usually there are some students that stop by with questions about different practices that they may be considering when they graduate.
5pm: I usually leave the school between 5 and 6 pm and go home. I take care of my dog. I have dinner, relax, check my mail and look for something good on the tube. I usually fall asleep on the couch until my wife wakes me up, and then I go upstairs and call it a day.
11:30pm: I end the day by reading my evening prayers and usually am in bed by this time.
Thursdays and Fridays are spent either entirely at the dental school or entirely at the office. My Wednesdays are special because of all the different things that I get to do and all the people that I get to see.
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Lisa Jacob: Dental Director, Federally Qualified Health Clinic
6:30am: I get up and like to grind my Starbucks coffee beans fresh every morning. As the coffee brews, I jump in the shower and get ready for work.
7am: I watch bits and pieces of the Today show while I get my nineteen month old son fed and dressed. I always have to know what the weather will be like since it changes a lot in northern Maine.
7:40am: My husband and I drop our son off at his babysitter’s which is about a mile from our house. We usually chat a bit with her before we go to the office which is only two blocks away. My husband and I work at the same dental office. He is a general dentist. I am a pediatric dentist and the dental director for a federally qualified health center. We have two dental hygienists, three dental assistants, two front desk staff and an office manager. As I enter the clinic, I greet my staff and patients. I quickly check with my office manager to see if there are any pressing issues this morning. I proceed to my office and review my schedule and work email.
8am: The siren from the local mill goes off at this time every morning.
I usually see children under five and my special needs patients in the mornings. Today, my patient is receiving conscious sedation for his dental treatment. I see patients’ every day, Monday through Friday from 8-5pm except for Thursdays. Thursdays are my administrative day. On Thursdays, I work on creating new protocols, the clinic schedules, attend administrative meetings, and perform my community outreach activities.
12pm: My husband and I usually go home for lunch. Lunchtime is a good time to run errands or catch up on chores at home. On Wednesdays, we go to our local diner and have lunch there.
1pm: I am back at the dental clinic seeing patients. As a pediatric dentist, most of my school-age patients want to come in after school. I usually have a number of recall exams to see with the hygienists between my regularly scheduled patients. I prefer to do my easy operative cases towards the end of the afternoon. Throughout the day, I am asked to make a number of decisions that affect our practice. I respond to my work emails and complete my treatment notes by the end of the day. Before leaving the office, I review my schedule for the next day.
5pm: My husband and I leave the clinic and pick up our son on our way home. I make dinner and we all sit down and eat together.
6:30pm: Our family usually goes for a walk around our neighborhood if the weather is nice. Otherwise, we use this time for phone calls to family and friends.
7:30pm: It’s time to give my son a bath and read him some books. We watch a little TV.
10pm: Lights out....time to go to go to bed.
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