Direct Clinical Skills

Total Hours: 220

Total Procedures: 75
Class I: 27

Class II: 26

Class III: 8

Class IV: 3

Class V: 10

Class VI: 1

#30 Oc - Patient presented to the clinic with recurrent decay and some mild sensitivity to cold. The  patient has a fear of needles so we usually have to take the local anesthesia injections slowly, but after that the patient was profoundly numb and got through the procedure easily. I felt that I could have made the anatomy of this tooth more refined with a more narrow central groove, however, the restoration had heavy occlusion so after adjustments the groove ended up wider than I would have liked.

#14 Oc - Patient presented to the clinic with recurrent decay and #13 missing and in need of an implant. I didn't originally think we would have to restore the oblique ridge, however, upon caries removal the caries broke through the ridge and the prep ended up being much larger than I previously estimated.  I was happy with the final restoration and was able to establish appropriate occlusion that wasn't too heavy on the restoration despite #13 being missing.

Variation of Clinical Cases:

I started out clinic mostly doing Class V and Class III restorations. I learned quickly how to use cord to develop a smooth margin on subgingival restorations and doing so many of these restorations early on peaked my interest in esthetic restorations. However, throughout school I strugged to find patiends that needed Class II restorations. I was constantly not meeting the number of Class II restorations necessary to challenge test cases and competencies which was a point of stress for me throughout my second and third year in clinic. During the Class II restorations that I did challenge I found that I could never establish the perfect interproximal contact. After some self reflection, I believe that I was adapting the matrix band too close to the neighboring tooth and then I would spend alot of time using sanding strips to lighten the contact and then I started over correcting and the contacts were close to being open. By the beginning of Quarter 11, I feel that I became proficient in class II restorations despite them being quite challenging for me in the beginning.

I believe that I performed about 80% of all direct procedures independently wihtout help from faculty. When I did receive significant feedback from faculty it usually was due to some caries remaning at the deepest parts of my preps. I feel that I tend to be more timid when removing caries because I fear that I will have a pulpal exposure, but I know moving forward that I need to be more aggressive with caries removal and I will need to have a better idea of when I am truly close to the pulp and an indirect pulp cap would be more beneficial than exposing the pulp. I feel competent in direct dentistry and I look forward to becoming more skilled, efficient, and quicker when placing restorations.

Direct Mock WREB Exam:

#30 DO - Pass

#30 MO - Pass

#9 ML - Pass