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  • A Refresh of anahorvath.com

    A Refresh of anahorvath.com

    WOW. The last time you heard from me was March 26, 2023. It is now February 17, 2025. So it’s been a minute. Looking at where things are, I realized I wanted to refresh anahorvath.com and see what new directions and places I can take my blog and this website.

    Let’s catch up, shall we? Since March 2023, I survived the nightmare that is the second year of dental school, started seeing my own patients in clinic, and can’t believe that I recently set my dates for taking the INBDE (Integrated National Board Dental Examination). We are over the hill in dental school which just blows my mind. I’m currently working on my first set of dentures and slowly but surely, I’m getting through all the requirements that come with graduating with my DDS. I’m also currently in the process of preparing to apply to orthodontics residencies coming up very very soon and look forward to the adventures that come with that.

    In my personal life, things have been pretty decent. Boo, my sweet little mini dachshund is now 14. My Taylor Swift-loving, screeching, fun, little green-cheeked conure Bobo is now 7. Pets make life so much better. I spent last spring break in Las Vegas which was a very fun and exciting trip! My aunt, uncle, sister, and I saw Blue Man Group, Ka (a Cirque de Soleil show), and walked pretty much the entire strip. We enjoyed the views from the High Roller, even if it was a rainy day, and experienced the Sphere from the inside and out. Personally, the Sphere is overrated. Much cooler from the outside if you ask me.

    What were some of the highlights from the Vegas trip?

    -Primrose at Park MGM. Great breakfast spot and it was away from the casino smells. Super cute atmosphere.
    -The gardens at the Bellagio. The theme changes each season and I just loved all the floral arrangements. The wisteria and hydrangeas were my personal favorites.
    -The Princess Diana exhibit at the Shops at Crystals. I’ve always had a fascination with the British royal family. This was a great exhibit. Also- if you’re into the fashion of the British royal family, this is definitely the thing to do. They even had a few of Kate’s dresses.
    -Blue Man Group. One of the performers came up and took a selfie with my sister and I! Super cool show.
    -Ka. I hadn’t seen a Cirque de Soleil show until Vegas and now I don’t know that anything will live up to this. It was incredible.

    I turned 25 this last October and took a girls’ trip to Miami to see the ERAS TOUR. Oh my goodness, probably one of the best nights of my life if not the best to-date. Taylor Swift is an incredible performer and Gracie Abrams was an incredible opener. If there’s any interest in a post about the concert, I am more than happy to share. I have SO many pictures and videos hahaha.

    So you might be asking yourself, what’s next for anahorvath.com. To be honest, I hope that I can continue to share my life happenings and travel adventures. But in addition, now that I’m almost through with dental school, I don’t see why I don’t include more dental content. If I can provide some evidence-based dentistry to you all every once in a while, I think that would be really cool. If there’s anything in particular anyone is wanting to know, please reach out- whether that’s dentistry-related or something else.

    Looking forward to more adventures!

  • Why I Keep a Gratitude Journal

    Hello hello! Happy weekend. I hope this week was a good one. I’m feeling like talking about things that reminds me of the positives in my life. There are so many and I truly have so much to be thankful for. As I’ve taken time over the past year to focus on my health, specifically with all the gut stuff going on, I’ve found that a gratitude journal has been a great way to help me reflect on my days/weeks and find little things to be thankful for.

    I wish I could be the type of person that can regularly keep a journal of some sort, but I’m not. Sometimes I wish I was that girl though! I can keep a journal going fairly regularly for like a week or two and then who knows when it’ll see me again.

    The thing I like about I how keep a gratitude journal is that when I’m feeling like it, I write down 3 things I’m thankful or grateful for in a day. If I just want to write a word or phrase down, that works. And if I also want to write a whole paragraph or more, I do that!

    Especially when days are harder at school, I find that it can be good for me to look for little things during the day that made me smile or feel good and I write those. On tough days, sometimes it’s hard to think of things though. In cases like that, I keep a gratitude journal because it’s something I can look back on that always makes me smile. It always reminds of the good things in my life even when life doesn’t feel so great in the moment.

    Like recently I was just looking through my journal, and on one day in November I said I was grateful for sugar cookie almond milk lattes and on a day in January I said I was thankful for olives. HAHAHA. Oh what was I going through?! Of course I’ve included some things that are more meaningful to me, but I think it’s fun to look back and see what I’ve been grateful to have. It really can be the little things, like olives. No joke though, if you like olives, I really like these olive snack packs by this brand called Oloves, and they have a couple of different flavors. I take them to school almost every day as a part of my lunch. Not sponsored by Oloves, but I wish!

    Anyway, I think it can be really good for my mental well-being to keep a gratitude journal so I will continue to work on it. In the past I have kept a physical notebook as my gratitude journal but since school, I’ve been using my iPad so much that I just keep it on there. So that’s a little bit on why I keep my gratitude journal.

  • Failure

    Hello. Hi. How’s it going? It’s been a while, again. Life is all good and things are going well, I just haven’t been giving this blog the attention I should be giving it. I don’t mean to return on a somber note, but as I reflect on this past week, there’s something I wanted to talk about. Failure.

    I had my first operative practical this past week. We had to complete four projects on plastic teeth in just under three hours. Two of them were specific preps (which is when you drill the teeth), and two of the projects were fillings on pre-prepped teeth. I am known to be incredibly hard on myself. I want things to go well and I want what I do to look good. After that practical, I could just tell that what I had done was not my best. One of my preps was much more shallow than I thought it was (which is not good) and somehow I managed to cause a significant amount of damage to one of the plastic teeth I was filling when I had NEVER done anything like that before on a project or when I had practiced on my own. Another one of my preps turned out much bigger than it should have and it was in the wrong spot just slightly.

    I think I actually failed something in dental school. And if I truly did fail this practical, it will be the first academic failure I will ever had encountered in my life.

    As I share this post, my goal isn’t to make anyone feel sorry or bad for me. I think it’s just important that I share what was going through my mind because I bet someone out there can relate, even if it isn’t specifically relatable to being in dental school. Did I receive a score right away? No. Have I received feedback yet? Also no. So am I potentially just assuming the worst because I wasn’t happy with how I did? Maybe. Am I being way too hard on myself? I think yes, but also I know I could have done much better. Tears were shed on my drive home let’s just say and my performance on that practical put quite the damper on the rest of my Monday.

    Since the day of my first operative practical, I’ve done some reflecting and even talked with some upperclassmen, and a couple of things have come up that I think are important to share regarding failure, or at least feeling like you’ve failed.

    1. If dentistry was easy, there would be more dentists in the world. I am trying to learn something that is totally foreign to me. Becoming proficient at working with a handpiece is going to take time and practice. This is something I began thinking about day 1 of my dental school journey and it’s something I have to continue telling myself. I will learn everything I need to learn. It will just take time.
    2. Failure is OK. Making mistakes helps you learn. It helps you grow. You can see where improvements must be made to get better at whatever it is you’re doing. And on that note, growth won’t always be comfortable. If you’re always in your comfort zone, you can’t grow! There’s no push!
    3. Don’t let failure win. It is so easy to let a setback tear you down and rip you apart. You should have seen me at lunch following my practical. However, you can’t let your sadness, frustration, anger, or whatever emotion that may be consume you and allow you to bury you alive. Just because one bad thing happens doesn’t mean you’re doomed. You won’t flunk out of school. The world won’t end. Cry it out, do whatever you need to do, and then get back to work. See what can be done so that success happens the next time.

    Regardless of what happens with my practical grade, things will be ok. If I have to remediate it (which means take it again because I did fail it the first time), I’ll remediate it. And I will be kind to myself and take this as an opportunity to show that I am capable of doing good work. And if you fail something too, do the same. Be kind to yourself and come back stronger on your next take at whatever it is you’re doing. Have a good week everyone. ❤️

  • Preview of Semester 2, Year 1!

    Helloooo! I hope you’re all doing well. So exciting that we’re in a new year! Wishing everyone the best. This week, I just wanted to take time to give a little preview of what’s to come for semester 2 of year 1 as a dental student! So if you’re interested in the dental school content, feel free to stick around and if not, that’s totally fine too. I’ll see you next week. 🙂

    I started my second semester of my DS1 year at the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine this past Tuesday and there’s a lot to accomplish in the next few months! I am taking 14.3 credits this semester (as opposed to to the 19.5 credits I completed last semester) and some classes I really look forward to include operative dentistry (direct restorations I), immunology and microbiology, oral radiology, and oral histology. Out of my entire course load, 5 of my classes are on a graded scale (meaning grades are received on a scale of A to F), and 4 are pass/fail I believe. For my pass/fail courses, a pass is considered anything at a 75% or above.

    I think that semester 2 is going to be exciting! I get to start truly working on my hand skills as they relate to actual dental handpieces and begin drilling on plastic teeth later in the month. I have absolutely ZERO experience drilling so this will be a fun new journey.

    From what I have heard, I will have much more free time than I did last semester, and I look forward to that, but knowing myself, I will definitely be using that time to study. This semester, I hope I can work more on giving myself time to relax and actually enjoy the things I want to do when I’m not studying or practicing anything. Last semester, I found myself feeling guilty for taking time to relax or do anything not school-related. I felt like that time should have been spent getting ahead in making my study guides or something else and that made it hard to enjoy working out or enjoy a show on Netflix even. I deserve time to rest and I think that actually acknowledging that and working on that will help me perform even better in classes, with lab work, and in our sim clinic as I get to work in that too.

    Here’s to another good semester of school! If you’re all enjoying the dental school content, please let me know and if you’re not into it, also let me know. We can always change it up. And if you have any questions, feel free to leave them as a comment or reach out on my contact page. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

  • Here’s to You, 2022

    Happy New Year everyone!! I know we’ve now started a new year, but I just wanted to take time in this post to share a little bit of my 2022 with you all. So I made a video! Enjoy and best wishes in 2023. ❤️

  • Sugar, Spice, and Everything Ice

    Ice at Gaylord
    My sister and I with Charlie Brown 😉

    I know you’re sitting there looking for something fun to do. I also know that you’re wanting to get in the Christmas spirit. And oh my goodness, look at you sitting there looking at your screen somewhere in Colorado. Wow. I have a recommendation for you!! Check out Ice at the Gaylord!

    This is the second time my family has gone to see Ice at the Gaylord and we had a great time again! The first time my family visited the Gaylord, the theme was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. All of the ice sculptures revolved around the story of Rudolph. Within the Gaylord’s Christmas village, they had a dedicated area that was kept at 9 degrees (if not colder) where we were immersed in the story of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Super cute. And we had to wear these fun blue parkas while we went through the exhibit so we stayed nice and warm.

    This year, Charlie Brown was the theme! So we got to see Snoopy, Lucy, Charlie Brown, and the gang. Some of the most iconic scenes of the Charlie Brown Christmas movie were displayed in ice. There was an ice slide in what would be Charlie Brown’s school auditorium. You could crawl through Snoopy’s dog house and take pictures. We really enjoyed it.

    Ice at Gaylord

    In the past when we visited the Gaylord, we stopped at one of their restaurants for dinner. The food was good even though there was a pretty long wait. This year, we decided to skip out on the food, but we enjoyed walking around the property and seeing all of their Christmas decorations. They have this giant Christmas tree in a beautiful open area that overlooks the mountains. They also have a really cozy, huge fireplace with giant stockings sitting over top of it. I love it honestly.

    So if you’re looking for something fun to do, check out the Gaylord Resort and all it’s fun Christmas stuff. They have tubing, ice skating, a Cirque de Soleil show, and of course, the Ice exhibit thing with Charlie Brown that I talked about! We’ve had a good time and I think you’ll enjoy it all too. We actually went just after Thanksgiving so they’ve been running for a while and I think they keep Ice open through New Year’s Day at least!

    Ice at Gaylord

  • It’s Been a Bit

    It's Been a Bit. This picture is from my white coat ceremony!

    Helloooooo! It’s good to be back! I apologize for the long hiatus, but my first semester of dental school had me pretty preoccupied. So yes, it has been a bit! So let’s catch up then shall we?!

    Let’s talk about my first semester of dental school! 19.5 credits flew by and things went well! Could there be improvement? Absolutely. And I plan to do even better this upcoming semester. But, I enjoyed it! I did very well in my wax lab and enjoyed getting to further develop my fine-motor skills. I took quite a few very basic level science classes again which were fine, but I am very excited to move away from talking about the mitochondria (which is the powerhouse of the cell by the way). My anatomy class was by far my favorite class this semester though. I’ve always enjoyed anatomy and it was good to review and dig deeper!

    Outside of school, life has been pretty good. A while ago, I may have discussed that I was dealing with SIBO, and that is now cleared up for good (we hope!!). I am continuing to navigate this gluten-free, dairy-free life, and I’m enjoying that quite a bit actually! I’m feeling good and eating good food for sure. We actually started making gluten-free, dairy-free pizzas at home because I was really missing pizza more recently and I think it was a huge success. If anyone is wanting recipes, let me know!

    While I’m on break from school, I PROMISE to be more active here again. Yes, it has been a bit, but I plan to be gone less in the months to come. I have some pretty fun things planned for the blog this upcoming year and I hope to continue providing you with good things to read if you’re all up for it. Next on my agenda is to relax and rest up, enjoy Christmas, and ring in 2023!

    I’ll see you all next weekend. Much love! ❤️

  • My Personal Statement: How I Got into Dental School

    Sorry for the not so exciting post this week. I have two big exams Monday and Tuesday. With these two monsters coming up, I haven’t had time to put together anything super special for this week so here’s the personal statement I wrote for my dental school applications! Enjoy!

    My art journey began when I was very young. On my first day of kindergarten I was so proud of myself as I colored precisely within the lines of each illustration on my paper. In second grade, I rushed into my first art show, holding my mom’s hand so that I could keep up with her quick pace as we tried not to be late. I had drawn the faces of two children, one a fiery, angry, little boy and the other a sad, blue, little girl. Before I knew it, I was a sixth grader at my school district’s art show. My drawing of a vibrant playground with children of all backgrounds happily playing together had won second place. I knew that art was a personal passion and I was driven to be as skilled as possible. Throughout middle school and high school I continued to explore my artistic abilities and most recently finished the piece I am most proud of. This piece shows my own two hands set against my piano. When I look at this piece, it makes me proud. It brings me joy because I know it did the same for many others who viewed it at the local art show. 

    In retrospect, I realized that art parallels dentistry and these parallels have enticed me to pursue art as a hobby and dentistry as a career. Both art and dentistry have been a part of my entire life. My mom received her doctorate of dental surgery from Tver State Medical Academy and currently works in the profession in Colorado. I have always been inspired by her work and the dental field as a whole. I learned so much regarding the inner workings of a dental office and the language of the dental field from spending time with my mom at the office growing up. On a more general note, both dentistry and art require precision and attention to detail. There is steadiness and a requirement of well-developed fine motor skills too. Art and dentistry also have ways of evoking a variety of emotions but based on my experiences, both bring out positive emotions the most. 

    This is why I want to pursue a dental career. I am passionate about bringing out the positivity in others. If they are in pain, I want to share my knowledge and expertise to make their lives more comfortable. Similarly, if a person is lacking confidence in the way their teeth look, I want to help them regain confidence and certainty in themselves and their oral health. I have seen how art can impact people in a positive way and bring about feelings of joy and comfort and I have seen the same positive impacts in dentistry. One situation that left an impression was a nervous patient who was stressed and scared about having two fillings done. When appropriate, I talked with him to comfort him and make him feel confident throughout the entire procedure. He talked about his love for cooking and we talked a lot about food, soccer, and his heritage. He became more comfortable the longer we interacted. It felt wonderful to be able to help someone in what they considered a scary or stressful situation. In that moment, it was so special to see how a dentist can connect with a patient too. I was shadowing at the same office on a different day and that same patient came in and brought the dentist, dental assistant, and me each a jar of homemade pico de gallo. Dentistry is a branch of healthcare that provides such special, personal opportunities like this to interact with others. I would be honored to have the ability to serve as a resource and support system in any way that is needed. From my time as an artist, I have developed the patience, fine motor skills, and eye for detail that will help me be successful in the dental field. Like my art, dentistry will be something I can be proud of and will be a life-long learner in. I desire to feel pride in the work that I do, not only by the aesthetic appearance of my future patients’ teeth and gums, but also in the way that I see immediate and long-term health changes in my patients. The most important thing I have learned as an artist is that art connects people. Dentistry does the same. I am eager to share my skills with my colleagues and patients and also develop meaningful relationships that last for years to come.

    And that’s what I wrote to help get me into dental school! With a personal statement you want to tell your story. You don’t just want to answer a question. You want to share your experiences and your personality! Really put the PERSONAL in personal statement. If you have any questions about dental school applications or the personal statement, feel free to reach out! I’d be happy to help and share more with ya! Have a great week and I’ll see you all next weekend! ❤️

  • Busy Busy!

    I have been gone for a bit here, wow. Things have been busy busy with school and I just haven’t had a chance to stick my head up and step outside the dental school bubble for a bit. Here’s how life has been lately as a dental student!

    I’m officially two months into my program. Woohoo! In that time, I’ve already taken two midterms and done pretty well, taken at least 20 or so quizzes, turned in three tooth projects, and studied so so much. I have accumulated over 150 notes too (thanks to my iPad and Notability for helping me keep track of that). I also had my white coat ceremony! That was a pretty fun weekend! Most days have been really good, but there are occasionally days where I have been incredibly tired or discouraged for one reason or another.

    Favorite thing in dental school so far? Wax lab for my dental anatomy class! While it was a bit of a learning curve at first, I have really enjoyed the little projects I get to do. So far, I have made a central incisor (one of your front top teeth!), an upper canine, and an upper first premolar. We have used different types of waxes to get acquainted with a variety of different materials and I will easily say that red wax is the number one enemy. It just has too low of a melting point for me. I also burned myself with it twice when I first started working with it. Regardless of those little complications, waxing teeth has been pretty relaxing and a great way to express myself artistically. It’s a good little dexterity challenge too!

    Least favorite thing in dental school so far? I don’t have anything negative to really say honestly. It is just so shocking how there suddenly seems to be less time in my day! 🥴 It just feels like I could use another four or five hours each day to get everything done that needs to be done. Busy busy! That’s what time management, discipline, and a good planner are for though. I have found that if I tell myself I have to get something done and it’s in my planner, that’s a commitment to myself to get that thing done. This applies to things in my personal and school life. I also just listen to my body though. If there’s some extra studying or a workout I want to get in but I am EXHAUSTED, I’ll give myself that time to take a bath or go for a walk or just go to bed. I need to take care of me too and rest is important.

    Again, sorry for dropping off the face of the earth for a bit there. Now that I’m more adjusted to my school schedule and new life, I fully intend to get back to posting more regularly again. I hope you are all doing well and I’ll be seeing you next Sunday, for real this time. 😅 Have a wonderful week!!

    busy busy
    Yay for white coat ceremony pics!! 🙂

  • First Week of Dental School!!

    First week of dental school classes? ✅ What a week it has been, wow!! Lots of good things, for the most part!

    My very first day of dental school started with class from 1-4 pm, and that was it! It was a nice slow way to start things off. My first classes were a part of what my school calls the body system series and that includes three classes: physiology, microanatomy, and clinical correlations (which ties clinical work into all the basic sciences, from my understanding at least!). It was just an hour of each class on Monday. Honestly, it was a great way to start off my dental school career. Nice and easy!

    Tuesday was a tech lab orientation day where I got to wear my special navy-blue scrubs for the very first time. Very fun, very fun. I saw where I’ll be waxing up teeth this semester and got my bench all set up which I enjoyed doing. My second class on Tuesday was Intro to Community Public Health. I’m pretty excited for that class because I think it will provide some outreach opportunities and a lot of good information regarding working with the community.

    On Wednesday, I had my seminar class called Intro to Dentistry. The professor for that class was one of the two that interviewed me prior to my acceptance, which I think is pretty cool. One thing I’m looking forward to is getting to work with professors throughout my time in school. I’ll have the same professors for many different courses and I look forward to the relationships I’ll build.

    Thursday brought my first dental anatomy lecture and more microanatomy and then before I knew it, it was Friday and I was done! Friday, I had another microanatomy lecture and a loupes vendor fair. For those of you that aren’t familiar with what loupes are, they are the eyewear that dentists and hygienists will wear to better see what they’re working on. In a way, they’re like little magnifying glasses you get to wear. I haven’t ordered a pair yet, but I have a pretty good idea of what I’m going for. I feel very fortunate that my mom is in the dental field, so I have the chance to use a pair of her old loupes. I do also plan to get my own pair though, so I look forward to that little journey and shopping experience!

    First week down and many more to go! I’m all organized and ready to go! I hope you all have a great week and I’ll see you next weekend. Stay happy and stay healthy!! ❤️