A New Voice

My whole life so far has been a push to get to the next thing.  To achieve the next goal.  I've been pushing and working to be right where I am (maybe not Alaska specifically, but you get the idea) since I decided to become a dentist back in 2007.  But that was during college, a place I wouldn't have been without good grades and the solid work ethic I developed in High School.  Which was obviously a carryover from that high-energy Middle School kid I was before that.  Don't forget the little me who was always fascinated by science and helping others!

Ok, so I guess... theoretically... I've reached the place I've been pushing for my whole life.  But what does that mean?

To me, it means this.  It's time to decide what's next.  I have thoughts and ideas about what I want to do, who I want to be, etc., but there's no carrot sitting out there for me to chase anymore.  Not an obvious one, anyway.  In some ways I feel like I'm "done" with what I wanted to accomplish.  And in a purely goal-oriented sense, I guess I am.  I didn't plan any further than this.  I wanted to be a dentist.  Poof.  Done.

Now What?

I thrive on structure and planning.  It's in my blood (all my blood cells are in perfect lines and neatly flow through their respective vessels).  Until now, most of that structure has been structured for me.  And you'd think that in the Air Force it would still be there.  It is to an extent, but I'm undecided on if the Air Force is going to be my long term plan so even that structure may not apply to me.

From birth to the end of my AEGD residency, there were goals to hit and tasks to hit them.  Now the goal is... whatever I want it to be!  It's freeing and a little scary at the same time.  My life has always revolved around some sort of curriculum or syllabus and has been divided into 9-week and 2-semester intervals.  No more!  It's summer time and for the first time ever, I don't really have a "summer break".  I worked a lot when I was younger during high school and college (even dental school) and I'm so thankful I did.  It showed me life outside of the academic bubble, and I'm fully immersed in that now.

The last few months in Alaska has sort of been me kicking up my feet and not feeling the pressure of performance from outside sources for the first time in my life.  But as those voices from the outside fall away into the past, a new voice has emerged to push me.

Mine.

Ok, weird dude. What's that about?  So without professors and instructors and mentors saying "don't do that" or "let me show you"... even "nice job!" and "good work!", I have to be that for myself now.  It's made me thankful for the training I've received because I have an internal compass of what I want to do and what I want to be.  I have to look at a filling and say "wow that's great!" or look at an impression and say "I really need to take this again", no one is doing that for me.

And it's slowly coalescing into a new vision for my life, one that's still pretty blurry (but getting clearer) right now.  As a believer in Christ, I am constantly pulled towards things and ideas that allow me to give to others more than I take.

Just an introspective post for you guys.  Remember that all the training you're going through is helping you develop your voice.

Specific questions can be sent to my email.  Comments are moderated so they take a couple weeks sometimes for me to check up on.  Have a great summer!

Educating Patients

Here's the thing.  We go to school and learn to become dentists.  How does this work?  Well, we sit in classrooms for hundreds of hours, then we practice on some fake teeth, then we start doing the real thing.

So what happens when it comes to treating patients? Well, we think back on our education and we make decisions for treatment based on what we know.  However, I truly believe that it's easy to put blinders on and forget to educate the patient on one basic question:

What can I do to prevent all this?

A strange question to think about because for the dentist, we essentially rely on the work of bacteria in the oral cavity to keep us working!  But our ultimate goal is to put the patient's oral cavity in such a position, and to educate the patient properly, that they can go home and maintain their oral health optimally for... ever!  We are humans so this often doesn't happen, but I want to emphasize patient education today.

I spend a lot of time on patient education.  I tell them how carcinogens in cigarette smoke can alter a cell's ability to properly duplicate itself; I tell them how small areas of demineralization on their tooth are in a fragile balance between repair and destruction; I tell them that calculus is a structure that a village of bacteria built as a way to protect itself so that it can go out and invade our mouths.

It's always exciting when new and highly applicable patient education materials arrive and I had the privilege of finding out about one just a week ago.  It really is a wonderful balance of talking on a level the patient understands without using fluffy words and bogus language that doesn't hit on the severity of the issue.

Here's a little word from Southcommon Dental on the sweet infographic they've created that you're free to use with your patients!

---Most people know that if you don't take care of your teeth, you will eventually get cavities and have to pay an extra visit or two to the dentist.  But what is actually going on in your mouth?  Why do cavities form when you stop taking care of your teeth?  Southcommon Dental has put together a dental infographic that delve into this topic and teaches you why not brushing and flossing ultimately leads to this problem.  Check it out!

HPSP Laptop Rental

My blog tends to be about me.  Stories about what I'm doing or what I'm going through.  I tie that in together with details about the Air Force (as much as I am allowed to divulge) and particularly the HPSP scholarship.

However, as a "regular" practicing Air Force dentist now, I don't have much more to say along the way other than updates about how things are going in clinic and information that can help you along your HPSP path, whether that means talking you into or out of the scholarship (which I've done many times both directions!) or giving you tips along the way.  My 5 year track record of being one of the only active HPSP student bloggers online and the many hundreds of emails I've received since this all began, gives me some unique insight into what HPSP students are doing and thinking about.  So what's my point?

One unknown aspect about the HPSP scholarship is this weird option in there to rent a laptop and have the military totally cover the rental.  These days, people aren't usually thinking about renting a laptop (vs buying) and the logistics of renting electronics is less and less appealing.  On the other hand, it would be nice to take advantage of this free offer from the military and be able to rent a high quality laptop for the few years you're in school.  This would prevent wear and tear on your own machine and your dollar would go further to buy your own laptop for yourself once school is over.

I think I've only heard of a few people actually utilizing the laptop rental reimbursement but that may change very soon.  A company called Laptops for Military Docs is getting straight to the point.  This company will give you step by step instructions on how to rent a high quality laptop from them hastle-fee.

Now I must admit, this company is very new and I have no personal or financial stake in this whatsoever.  Obviously with them being so new, I did not personally rent a laptop through them (or anyone, actually).  But every once in a while something comes along that I feel compelled to let my readers know about.  This is one of those times!  This company is clearly set up for specifically this reason and I have to believe that by focusing solely on HPSP students, they will be able to help you, too.

Technology is changing rapidly so consider a rental reimbursement during dental school to save yourself some money!  It's an option that's free to you as long as you're willing to do the legwork and Laptops for Military Docs is there to make it easy.

I'd love for some of you all to give this service a try and let me know how the process was for you!