My Tiny Winy Frustration

I know everyone is different, not everyone has the same will as me. I’m just writing out of my own observations and opinion of comments made by others.

The highest degree of satisfaction for me currently in clinics does not come after doing a good restoration or finishing a thorough scaling for my patient. Instead, that feeling will only come when my patients practice the oral hygiene instructions I given to them. On subsequent visit, they would voice out their difficulties to follow certain methods and discuss with me, seeking for further guidance.  At least they are making an effort to take care of their dentition and I on the other hand feel that my advice took roots in their minds and hearts. That really will make my day.

Is community work only for people who specialized in community dentistry? I don’t think so. Instead, this branch of dentistry is the one that reminds and instills in the students the required qualities to become a dentist, and not a heartless-money-sucking-workaholic. I know many are aiming towards establishing their own dental clinic in the future and I got to admit, I once thought so too. “Who cares about community and the people out there? This is a job and it will remain a job, no further than that.” And so it seems to many. I’m just generalizing the thoughts of many friends around me. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only weird one there, thinking about going out to the world, spreading oral hygiene instruction to everyone. “Why waste time?” many would say, “They will still come back with heavy calculus in no time. By then, just do scaling again, can fill in one more quota what; can charge them one more time what.” Rather than siting in our private cubical daily, drilling cavities and doing scaling, there are many out there who don’t know how to take care of their teeth nor even get to see a dentist yearly for their teeth check due to various reason. Dr. Noorliza once said this “if they can’t come to us, then it’s our duty to go to them” We are going to carry a suffix “Dr” in front of our names for a reason. Dentist, like any other health care professions, are a noble occupation. It’s a profession that “cares” for the oral health of the people, not “earn” from the oral disease of the people. It is when you put your mind into to making money, that’s where all the wrong thoughts and mind sets coming in.

Maybe many senior dentists out there might me calling me a “fool” or might be thinking that “this naïve girl doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” Those words “being caring”, “self-sacrificing”, “sympathy”, “empathy”, they are only found printed in dental school brochures.

True, I haven’t experience working life, I haven’t try to survive among the same kinds yet; I writing more on a dental student level. I personally feel it’s rather unhealthy to cultivate thoughts that dentist have to be always working indoor, attached to their dental chair. Many associate trips to dental camps or short visit to social welfare places as a waste of time and a hassle, especially the reports that have to be written after those trips. Irony, these will be the activities that we will be doing once we start our service with the government and maybe as future head dental officer in certain places, we might need to take charge in the planning of these activities themselves. They are just training us to become leaders one day.

The ‘sit back and relax’ mindset for me sometimes the most annoying thing on earth, especially during discussion. “Nevermind lah, so and so will come up with an idea, we just follow only. You just tell me what to do; I will do it for you. Don’t ask me to plan, I DON’T KNOW ALL THESE/ I DON’T HAVE ANY IDEAS” Those words in cap, those are the clue words for “I’m not bother, this doesn’t interest me, just tell me what to do”. Well, even if you are not that creative or running low on ideas, at least you can look up in the internet for inspirations instead of staying idle throughout the meeting. It is the effort that counts. Or maybe, people are just not up to take responsibilities, it’s always the “I, Me, Myself” mentality out there.

Well, this post doesn’t intend to direct at anyone. This is just a channel to let out my own thoughts and views about things. I do not hope to offend anyone here. Good day ahead. 

Special note: All photos were talk off the internet. Credits belong to respective site. 

Busy as a Bee?

For the past one month, so much had happened. I’m physically drained, mentally exhausted, emotionally disturbed. And it’s not the final exam yet. OH MY GOODNESS!! SESSIONAL COMING!! And-I’m-so-not-ready-to –face-it

(My new self-proclaimed twin in class :p)

From mid-June, I started my 3 weeks of conservative dentistry posting. By God’s gracious blessing, I was seeing patient for almost everyday; sometimes there were even two patients in a day. (and I’m not boosting here, just showing how occupied I was) Most of the restorations were composite; did one or two GIC cases. I’m still trying to handle GIC well; maybe I will get a few extracted teeth to practice on.

Besides drilling cavities and building up the tooth, I completed my first denture case. It was just an upper denture where I need to replace 2 missing front tooth for the patient. Manage to do the whole denture under Dr.Dhana’s guide. The patient I got was very cooperative and it was easy to manage the appointments. I was very happy with the look during the try-in. The patient was also happy with the fit, complimenting it once I place it in the mouth. The shade selected was excellent, my arrangement for the central incisor was alright, but sir did a little adjustment for the lateral incisors. He customized the lateral incisor shape to follow the opposite site, taking the overall esthetic to a whole new level. With the guidance of Abang Zul, our dedicated lab assistant, I did the wax-up, invested the cast, dewaxed, packed and acrylized the denture. So many dramas occurred during the lab procedure but the steady Abang Zul was always like the superhero, making sure I still can proceed to the next stage. I was so nervous to crack open the thick layer of plaster and see the outcome. Thankfully the whole denture came out right. Learnt some tricks on polishing; didn’t know sandpaper was useful to trim the interdental regions. After everything is smooth, I call the patient for the delivery. Trimmed a few areas to get the denture fitting, repolished and gave the post-insertion guide. Kak Mel, our dear receptionist can’t even tell which teeth that were replaced. It was a good finish to the case.

And being the kepoh (which means busybody) that I am, I volunteered to help out the deco team for the Lagenda night. That event happened last week. The whole decoration took about 3 days to finish. Everyday, I felt like a zombie going to class in the morning. Although there were tones of things to read (especially for Oral patho quiz) and assignments to accomplished, I never regret my decision. The final outcome was quite satisfying. 

It was an utter big regret for me that we couldn’t manage to come up with a dance this time. I badly wanted to try out an Egyptian choreography (not belly dancing) that I found on YouTube. Oh well, shall reserve it for interbatch maybe? As a representative from BDS students, Naurah and I performed a duet on Taylor Swift and The Civil War’s song “Safe and Sound”. Our batch guitarist, Suleiman and Nigel played the wonderful background music of the song. I always wanted to experiment a duet with Nau, well, it was a good one but our nerves got the best of us. I don’t think this will be the last of us though, still more to come.

And oh, the end of last month too, our FOD lost some talented and dedicated staffs. I don’t feel it would be fair to club their departure write-up together with all the stories above. I will separately write a dedication post for them later. 

Now left one more week of clinics and I’m off to full study mode. End-posting exam for General Medicine is coming up this week as well, I better buck up. Bye for now.