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Tag: life as a dental student

  • 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!

  • 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!! 🙂