When Learning Isn't Fun

I've got to say, one of the hardest things about being in school since I was 5 years old is getting up every morning and knowing only one thing for certain: that today I will learn something new.  Unfortunately in the high-pressure environment of a dental residency, it's easy to forget that we (the other 4 residents and I) are learning and often we feel like punching bags where the fists are different tasks and questions that we aren't equipped to do or answer.

It's easy for you, the reader, to tell from that statement that an AEGD, or any residency for that matter, can feel like a beat-down at times.  As I sit here and write this, I know for a fact that I'm going to feel very dumb and silly multiple times this week for either not knowing or forgetting something that someone expects me to know.  However, once you come to this realization and strip away the stress that comes with chronic unpreparedness, you can start learning.

I had to figure this all out again in the last few months and coming to terms with this has been refreshing.  I must do the best I can each day without sacrificing my personal health and wellbeing to perform at a high level.  It's not just for me but for the future of the Air Force and I owe it to each of my faculty members and patients to constantly give my best effort.  I will often fall short and I will often fail, but once you can realize that that is part of the way we must learn, it isn't so bad.

I know this is a little different than my other posts but I write it to point something out.  When things seem hard, take a step back and try to understand why they seem hard.  Often it's just that, they seem hard but really aren't.  Perhaps it's our perspective that makes them hard.  If I know ahead of time that the way they are teaching me is by asking me questions I may not know and having me do difficult procedures, then I can be totally 100% comfortable with not knowing things and failing! Because if I believe that the intentions of the residency are pure, to make me a better dentist, then I have to believe the methods are pure as well and that's ok.

It's been a hard month as we've transitioned into more clinic but I'm starting to get the hang of it.  I can see improvements already and I know what the different faculty members expect.  Best of all, I'm learning why they expect what they do.  It isn't for their own self-pleasure or to make sure we all have a crappy time, but to improve our thinking skills and our hand skills to perform at a level that will allow us to exit in August 2015 and be able to handle far more cases with great confidence that we have never possessed before.

Because I trust the end is well intentioned, I can trust the process is well intentioned, too.  And that in and of itself is why this next month will be better than the last.

Steel on Target and Chemical Warfare

These last few weeks have absolutely flown by.  I finally finished the COT guide and am seeing patients in my AEGD.  Here are some thoughts so far about the experience.

If you don't want to be in the military, the HPSP is not for you.  The "military" things die down a little after you finish in-processing to your base but you have to wear the uniform every day and operate in the understanding that you're doing dental work on members of the military to further the mission. 

Air Force dentistry is awesome and frustrating at the same time.  Having specialists and people who genuinely care deeply about the work they do is awesome.  The paperwork can be confusing and redundant and sometimes you'll wish you could "experiment" a little more.  By experiment I mean try some more cutting edge things.  My base does have a CEREC machine but you won't see us throwing CAD-CAM crowns on any tooth we feel like.  Everything the Air Force does is backed heavily with research because they have to do what is going to be the absolute best for airmen and soldiers in deployed situations.  A posterior composite may work for a patient on a yearly recall, but amalgam has the better long term track record so you'll see much more of that on posterior teeth, for example.

The military community is special.  People understand each other and get that the mission is crucial.  There's an overarching feeling of teamwork that is really cool to feel every day.  Some things about the Air Force are frustrating when it comes to dentistry but it's hard to ignore how important the dental work is.  

Financially the Air Force isn't as lucrative as private practice but as a new clinician, I'm happy to be where I am to further my skills and training for free (and getting paid!).  The compensation is more than enough without having student loans and you should be able to live comfortably if you are budgeting and planning correctly.

All in all, I'm really happy with my decision.  I've had a few late nights but the weekends are always a welcome time to relax.  I try to get absolutely everything done during the week so I don't have to come up and work on weekends.  So far it's working out!

If you're about to head to COT, check out the COT guide on the Additional Resources page!

[The title of the post is somewhat of an inside joke but just know that they're very corny jokes about using burs to cut teeth (steel on target) and fluoride (chemical warfare)]

And Now Everything is Different

In a few short months, seemingly everything in my life is different than it was.  Here's a quick rundown of everything that's changed in the last few months:

May:
Graduated dental school
Set up my move to Colorado Springs

June:
Wife quit her job in Oklahoma City
Actually moved to Colorado Springs
I left for COT (at the tail end of June)

July:
Wife got a new job in Colorado Springs
I did the COT thing in Alabama for 5 weeks

August:
Flew home from COT
Wife actually started her new job
I started my new life as a resident at the AF Academy


Dang.  That's a lot.  It was a lot, still is a lot, and definitely feels like a lot.  I'm not going to get super deep into any of these things in this post for a couple of reasons.

Reason 1: It would be a novel
Reason 2: I started a new tab called "Additional Resources"

In the "Additional Resources" tab, I'll be posting full documents of various experiences I've had.  When I started this blog in 2010, I was chronicling my dental school and Air Force journey.  As I've gotten older and time has moved along, some of these things have actually ended.  That's awesome because that part of my life is now in the past and nothing about it can change again.  This means I can post full documents detailing every little thing I want to talk about in a place that you can access and refer to without having to jump on my blog to read!  For example, I'm almost done with my full writeup about COT which is a very common topic I receive questions about.  I'm also planning to do one about dental school in general as well as one about what it's like to be a student on the HPSP scholarship.  I'm technically active duty now so my HPSP days are over.  I've also done a full move with the military so I can definitely give you some start to finish information on that as well.

Here are just a few thoughts I have about the last few months.

When change happens in life, embrace it.  Understand that it is temporary but very necessary for us to move forward.  Think of it like a rocket on the launchpad.  It will never fly without a fast and abrupt change.  The fuel must be ignited and that can be very scary.  Eventually the rocket reaches outer space, does what it needs to do, and now a whole new thing has started because of that.  Just like our life, we can't sit on the launchpad forever.  Talking about doing something and doing it are very different actions and if you want something new, something has to change.

With that said, let me talk briefly about a few things that I'll dip into more detail on later:

Moving:  This is really nice because the military will move all your stuff for you for free.  You can move part of your things and that's totally fine.  I would definitely take valuables with you in your own car (if you are driving).  They are efficient up until you want them to deliver it.  Expect delays of up to several weeks in the summer.  Call the moving company and keep tabs on the progress of your move.

COT: This is not an easy month but it was worth it.  You will learn fast and you don't have a choice.  It's a 5 week flood of information and you'll feel like you're in some weird Air Force blender for 5 weeks while you sweat and march all over Maxwell Air Force Base.  Be prepared to be sleepy on a daily basis but keep a good attitude.  When you're being yelled at, ignore the volume and listen to the words.  Keep a good perspective and it will go by quickly.

The Air Force:  In-processing involves getting an ID card, making sure your pay is correct, doing computer training, etc.  It's a long process but embrace it.  The military is a massive system and it's a wonder they keep things as straight as they do.  Respect those ranked above you and enjoy the process.  If your mindset going in is "I can't wait to do my time and be out" you're going to hate it.  Even if you are planning on getting out, you can't for a few years so make the best of it!

Time to run but hoping to keep the blog a little more consistent this year!  Starting to see patients in a couple weeks at my AEGD so that should be a blast.  Be sure to check out the "Additional Resources" tab in the coming weeks for a whole new set of awesome information!

Cookies, Willpower and Life Systems (How to Do More and Not Hate It)

As some of my frequent readers will know, I was the president of my dental school class for 3 years before we recently graduated.  One of the ongoing jokes among my classmates was that I had more hours in the day than anyone else.  I was often the first one in, the last one out, and the guy working on stuff while everyone else was relaxing.  (Note: This did not give me the best GPA or make me the best student in my class, but I had a reputation for being highly productive.  Do not get those confused!)

Now don't misunderstand this as me bragging about myself or trying to put others down in any way, because it's not.  I view leadership as a service to others that I take very seriously, not as a hierarchy of importance, just a hierarchy of service.  But that's a topic for another day.

How is it that I had the ability to work so hard and long while seemingly getting things done that others hadn't yet started or make study guides (with the help of many wonderful classmates) and flashcards for test after test after test?

Let me preface this by saying that some people are simply high energy while others are not.  I consider myself a high energy person but I think that comes from playing to my strengths and who doesn't like doing something they're good at?  I'm not, however, an extrovert that always has to be the center of attention and accomplish things to boost my ego, quite the opposite.

This post is about something else, something we commonly call "willpower".

Willpower is the ability to muster up the energy to do something that we otherwise might be inclined to put off until later, put off forever, or substitute something simple and more fun in its place.  It takes great willpower to workout every day.  It takes willpower to eat healthy.  It takes willpower to save money. Why?  Because there are a thousand other simpler and more intriguing options at our disposal.

Instead of working out we could:
Sleep in
Get to work a little early
Not go out in the dark cold morning

Instead of eating healthy we could:
Have some more chocolate (yum)
Eat the rest of the steak right now even though we're full
Go out to eat with our friends

Instead of saving money we could:
Get that new MacBook Air
Buy the TV that's just a little bigger than the one we wanted
Take a vacation now

What if you could hijack your own willpower and change your patterns?  What if you could say "no" to good now so you could say "yes" to great later?

The following is a synopsis of a study I've read about countless times that changed my life.  It taught me one of the most valuable lessons in my life: willpower is like a battery, it can and will eventually run out and must be recharged! (Read: Ego depletion). We can circumvent this by setting up systems in our life that don't force us to use willpower (or use far less than normal) so that we still have willpower for later.  Here's the study, in summary:

2 groups of students are taken to a lab and seated at different desks in the same room.  1 group is given a bowl of cookies while the other a bowl of radishes.  After each group is allowed to eat from their bowl, both groups are given a puzzle to complete.  The group that ate the cookies worked on the puzzle for an average of 20 minutes longer than the students over at the table with the radishes! (Side now: the puzzle had no solution).

What does this mean?  Essentially, it takes almost no willpower to resist cookies so these students had plenty of willpower saved up to work on the puzzle.  Eating a radish is no fun and takes much more willpower and thus these students gave up easily on the puzzle since they had used all their willpower to eat the radish (and resist the cookies).

Link to full study description: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/01/self-control.aspx

There are some more details to the study that you can research yourself but I won't get into those today.  Hopefully you get the take away and that is that willpower is a limited resource!

So what can you do about this?

In my life I've set up systems around me that allow me to use as little willpower as possible on the daily mundane tasks so that I have more willpower for later.  Here are some things I do that help me waste less willpower:

-Leave my keys, phone, and wallet in the same spot every day (no willpower spent thinking and searching)

-Set out my workout clothes each day (when I wake up I just have to walk in, put on my clothes, and leave)

-Do a budget at the beginning of every month (I don't make daily decisions about finances)

-I keep my computer very well organized (no willpower wasted searching for lost items)

-I have a separate to-do list of things that need to be done later, that I cannot do today, in a separate list with an alarm set for the date and time I can actually do that thing (no willpower thinking about things I can't do anything about) [example: I have a form I've completed that I can't submit until July 1.  So set an alarm for July 1 and forget about it and don't put it on your normal to-do list!]

-I cook chicken once a week and put it in a container so I never have to settle for junk food when chicken is ready-to-eat in my refrigerator

-Sunday is a pretty relaxed day, so this is when I plan ahead on my week and double check that my calendar is right and that I have all the food I need for the week (during the week, no willpower wasted thinking about all the stuff I have coming up or if I'm going to run out of something mid-week)

This kind of thinking, what I like to call the "Life Systems" approach, allows your free time to be much more productive than ever before.  You haven't wasted your willpower looking for keys, stressing about how much is in your checking account, forcing yourself to dig out your workout clothes from 3 different drawers, so you have plenty of willpower left to tackle all sorts of other things in your day that do demand your attention.  These tiny tasks that drain us little by little can be the difference between getting something done at the end of the day.  I enjoy coming up with ways to automate those things in my life that are necessary but not that fun to do so that I don't waste my willpower (and time) on them.

I hope this post has helped you get an insight into my productivity and allows you to search your own life for ways you are accidentally sucking away all your willpower and wondering how hyper-productive people are able to get so much stuff done. If you'd like to read more about this idea, and other concepts that have helped me be more productive, here are some books I highly recommend:

How to Fail at Almost Anything and Still Win Big - Scott Adams
The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth - Chris Hadfield

Another secret to willpower is that we will always tend to default to things we know we can do!  It's easier to get things done when we know what we're doing and adding skills to your life opens up new doors.  Setting up systems gives you time to focus your willpower to learn and grow to become better at whatever you desire.  Webucator, an online eduction company that recently reached out to me as a part of their "Most Marketable Skills" project in the Webucator Asks Project, offers many self-paced courses online including Microsoft training courses (Word 2013 course is FREE for a limited time!), as well as many others, to help you expand your knowledge and succeed in today's world.

Hope this was informative and as always, feel free to email me with any questions you might have!

"I'm a Dentist, Don't Get Too Excited"

"... and if someone has a heart attack you should still call 911."

For the movie people out there you'll recognize this line from The Hangover.  It's a scene where Stu mentions something about being a doctor and his friend calls him out saying "he's a dentist, don't get too excited."

So here I am, finally done with school, and a dentist.  But don't get too excited because for me this is really just the beginning.  I've dreamed of this for a long time but really this is just my permission to being my career in a field that I find really fun and allows me to directly serve others.  Toss in the Air Force gig and you've got the whole package.  It really is a dream come true, I'm finally Dr. Matthew Lee!

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  I haven't blogged in a solid 2 months and more happened in those 2 months than I can even wrap my head around right now.  So let's rewind the tape:

1) WREB - Western Regional Examining Board
This was the regional exam I elected to take because I planned to get a license in Oklahoma and it was available at my school.  Pretty easy decision.  For the Air Force I can get a license anywhere but my home state is as easy as any.  Details aside, I had to organize the back-up patient pool (since I was class president) and I'm glad I did because it really bailed a few people out.  One of my patients was my brother and the other patient was not related to me but due to HIPAA, that's all I can really tell you.  But he/she was wonderful.  My endo section went very smoothly and I passed everything!

Here were my scores:

Not too bad!  Things went well and that was definitely the most stressful test of my life since the DAT.

2) Graduation requirements

This fell into place very nicely for me and I was fortunate that it did.  I borrowed a crown prep from another student in case the 2 I had left fell through and I'm glad I did.  I had just enough points to graduate and, in fact, both of the crowns in my patient family ended up falling through.  Imagine that!  Endo was a minor nightmare for many folks and I scrapped by with exactly how many I needed to graduate.  It's a shame too because I actually found endodontics to be very fun and I'm really excited to learn some new methods to perform root canals in the future (Wave One?).

3) Speech! Speech! Speech!

So one of the cooler things I got to do as president was give a speech at our Senior Dinner.  This is a few days before graduation and it's where our class along with their close family and our faculty get together and eat expensive food together and dress really nice.  It's a blast (I had to help last year so I had been once before) and once of the best memories I'll have of dental school. 

Back to the speech part.  I had to give a speech (aka "reflection statements") and I found that very exciting.  I'm usually quite introverted and typically don't assert myself unless it's requested of me.  When it is requested of me, I go all out and try to do my best.  I got a lot of compliments after the speech which was very nice to hear and a comment I heard a lot was "I had no idea you were so funny"!  Well if you were class president for 3 years and constantly stressing out about not only yourself but everyone else, you'd be a pretty serious person, too.  That was over and I could be myself and my true colors came out I suppose. 

One of the coolest parts about the speech was when I promoted the hashtag #oucod2014 at the beginning.  To do that I busted out my iPhone and took a panoramic x-ray picture of the audience and tweeted it to @oucod2014, our official class Twitter account.  I encouraged people throughout the weekend to use #oucod2014 on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter so we could go back and search "#oucod2014" and pull up a bunch of posts and pictures from that night and the next few days, including graduation.  We actually had pretty good participation and it was a lot of fun.  Here's the pano I took on stage as well as a picture of me taking it:

It was more awkward for them than me, watching me slowly take a picture of everyone

Photo by Shak Feroz 

Photo by Shak Feroz

4) Email this paper and now you're a Captain

I have had tons of forms to fill out for the Air Force which I will definitely not go into (at least not here).  One of them was my new Oath of Office.  It doesn't actually have to be signed by someone in the military, just a Notary Public.  I went that route since he had someone in that capacity at our school.  I got the form from her in a PDF and sent it off to the proper Air Force authority.  A couples hours later I got a replying saying I was "good to go" so I'm pretty sure that means I'm a captain now.

Cool!

We're moving to Colorado Springs at the end of June, I'm flying out to COT on June 30, back to Colorado Springs on Aug 1, and my AEGD starts on Aug 5.  Whew!

That's all for now, sorry I've been such a bum about posting lately.  I hope to ramp this up more soon and flesh out some of the static pages on this site as well to have more information available.  I want to comb back through all the hundreds (seriously) of emails I've gotten from you guys and make sure all the relevant questions are addressed on the "Got a Question?" page.

Until I post again, email me if you have questions!  And in the meantime, check out my official website at MatthewLeeDDS.com!

Should You do the HPSP for Dental School?

I like to do some more generic posts now and then (by that I guess I mean every 3 years) and this is one of them.

I want everyone out there who is considering the HPSP scholarship to have a place to turn for great information and know exactly what steps to take.  In helping many people work through this process, I believe it's a decision that involves 2 basic things:

1) Numbers
2) Emotions

There are lots of things to consider but honestly I believe that just about everything can fall into one of these two categories.  Many people have the tendency to base most of their decisions around either Numbers or Emotions but this is not a decision someone will be happy with if they do not consider both sides fully.

For example, I tend to plan vacations around the right time of year for the price of rooms, airfare, maximizing deals, and getting the most bang for our buck.  I tend to not mind so much about the specific destination.  My wife likes to imagine all the wonderful things about the different destination options and think about the fun things and memories that could be made where we go.  I'm the Numbers and she's the Emotions.  We are well aware of this about each other and we use those strengths appropriately.

Here's my opinion about these as it pertains to the HPSP and some things to let your Numbers and Emotions wrestle through a little bit.

1) For the Numbers, we're talking about money and time.  I know it's awkward to talk about money, especially in a well compensated profession like dentistry, but it has to be part of the discussion here.  When you consider the numbers, think about these questions:

- Am I doing the HPSP only for the debt reduction?
- Am I basing my decision on where I go to school on whether or not I get the HPSP?
- Am I going to be happy making *only* $90,000/year in the Air Force?
- Does this decision make long term financial sense (4 years of military vs. earlier private practice)
- Will I be happy being ?? years old when my time is over?

Let me give you my overall opinion on the concept of the numbers here.  In the end, dental school is expensive and many will straddle themselves with crippling debt and decide in their minds: "this is how the world works and I will be in debt for a long time, so I'll just make the payments and get used to it."  Others will say: "I'm going to tackle this quickly and reduce my debt load so I can pay less overall interest and be free of these payments."  I naturally fall into the 2nd camp here but what's nice about the HPSP scholarship is that it forces you to take option 2, for dental school anyway, because the debt is a non-factor.  If you're naturally inclined to making great financial decisions and want to start a business, you might find that a 4 year military commitment will actually hinder your ability to develop a business and it is worth the debt up front to be able to start in the real world sooner.  This wasn't at the top of my priority list.  It actually is important to me, but my emotions helped tip the scale in favor of taking the scholarship.  This is where you have to decide what makes sense for you.

2) For the Emotions, we're talking about lots of external and internal things that have basically nothing to do with numbers.  This is more about who you are and who you want to be.  Think about these questions:

- Is military service in general something that excites me or makes me uneasy?
- Does my spouse (or potential spouse) support this decision?
- Would my time in the service be an adventure or a burden?
- Can I be happy with wherever the Air Force decides to send me?
- Is this something that I want to be part of my life story?

These are much more personal than the Numbers and must be taken on a case by case basis.  The fewer people that your decision affects, the easier this decision is to make.  If it's just you, then that's easy.  If you have a wife or husband, they have to be part of this discussion.  If you have children, then their long term well-being comes into play.  Think deeply and seriously about these.  If you're a natural Numbers person, this may take intentional and focused effort, even the help of friends and family.  If you tend to be a dreamer and a feeler (Emotions), then you'll need to sit down and get real about the financial impact of your decision because it can crush you if you blissfully ignore it.

If you need advice, I'm always here to answer questions (see my email on the right column) and my "Got a Question?" section has many common questions and my answers to them.  In addition, seek out a recruiter as soon as you become even mildly interested.  The ability to talk it through with someone may give you the spark you need to move forward or the warning sign that this might not be for you.  The sooner you find out, the better.



Overall, think about these two things and when making a decision about the HPSP scholarship, don't just list the pros and cons in two lists.  Try to list pros and cons under either Numbers or Emotions.  This will help you better understand both sides of this so you don't end up making a numbers decision that sneaks up and destroys you emotionally because you forgot to think serious about how you feel.  However, just because something *should* be a pro or a con doesn't mean it has to be!  If your parents are paying for your school, then DON'T list "no debt" in your pros sections under Numbers.  Just don't list it at all!

One last thing... a pro/con list is no good without ACTIONS.  Make a list of action steps to take to clarify some pros/cons if you can't make a decision.


---
Example
23 y/o male, $400/month car payment, girlfriend that will probably be spouse soon, strong family ties to surrounding area, never considered military service, grandpa was in the Navy, dad owns his own business, uncle is a dentist in nearby town (didn't do HPSP)

NUMBERS
Pros: no debt after school, job after graduation, limited health care costs, stipend in school could help with car payment, still young so not very old when time is up
Cons: can't start a business right away like my dad, uncle thinks it's a waste of time, not as lucrative as private practice

EMOTIONS
Pros: girlfriend loves the idea, grandpa was in the military so there is a pride factor
Cons: never been interested in the military that much, don't want to move away that badly

ACTIONS
Get more opinions of dentists who did the HPSP instead of just uncle who didn't, research military life some more, see what dad thinks about long term effect on starting dental business 4 years late, ask recruiter about different bases and research things to do in those areas
---

I Can Almost Taste It

I'm officially in that weird stretch of school where things are almost done, and I feel a true sense of them being done, yet I still have a lingering stress of making sure everything actually does get done (follow that?).

I also feel like things really are starting to end as I bid farewell to some patients for the last time and reflect on all of the struggles my class in particular has had over the last 4 years with all the changes here at Oklahoma.

And finally, I'm starting to feel like this Air Force thing is real.  That's where this post begins.

Just after my last post in October, I found out officially that I will be heading to the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO for my 1-year AEGD.  It is scheduled to begin August 5th and presumably will end around that same time next year.  Before that, however, I am slated to attend COT in the July class (June 30-Aug 1).  Right now my wife and I are trying to decide if we should move to CO just before COT or try to squeeze it in right after.  It's a tough decision and I'd rather move before, but it's probably going to come down to how comfortable we are financially.

Just before Christmas my wife and I actually went up to CO Springs to look around and we found two great apartment complexes just E of the Academy.  My housing stipend will be about $1600/month so we are shooting for something in the $1000-1200 range to maximize how much we can save while still enjoying our time there.  We plan to call the 2 complexes back in a month or so and whichever can offer us the better deal we will probably take.  We like one of them a little more than the other but we'll see how it all shakes out.

I haven't received my official orders yet but they should be coming soon.  That will allow me to schedule the AF to move my stuff and get that all sorted out.   My wife is a NICU nurse and she'll be applying for a Colorado license soon so she can start looking for jobs out there.  It's probably going to be a bit difficult considering she'll only be there for 1 year but I'm confident she'll find something, even if it's part time.  

In terms of dental school, things are coming together nicely.  I won't get into the details, but my class has taken the brunt of the changes here at Oklahoma the last few years and we are chronically behind in clinic compared to the classes before us and the upcoming classes behind us when we were them.  Fortunately the faculty seem like they're going to be flexible with us because we are simply running out of time to get everything done.  I think I'll actually be able to meet all of the requirements so I'm still working hard assuming that our requirements won't change (which they likely will).

So things are finally coming together and starting to seem real, but I'm still in the fog of school and working hard to finish up on time.  As soon as I do, I'll have about a month and a half off (May 10 - June 30) to just hangout, which will be very nice.  I'm such a high-gear person though that I think it's going to be kind of hard for me to have so much time off and I'm already trying to make arrangements to work part time or something for that short period that I'm waiting.  We'll see! 

Other than filling out tons of very similar forms for the Air Force that are emailed to me weekly (name, SSN, address... etc.), not much else has happened besides finding my AEGD spot and looking for a place to live.  Things will heat up even more soon once I get my orders and buy my uniform (soon!) so stay tuned for more frequent postings as school comes to an end and my Air Force journey begins.

As always, email me if you have any questions!