My family and friends complain that I am always going a mile a minute and constantly on my phone, but I have found these perceived flaws have attributed to my greatest strengths in dental school. I think for a dental student I am quick and efficient with most procedures. This allows me to be productive and my patients value that appointments don’t take the full 3-4 hours, or if they do, we can get multiple procedures completed. I have had a handful of long-time patients of the school who have had dozens of student dentists before me. They always comment that they’re shocked about how quickly I’m able to get procedures done. Additionally, frequently being on my phone allows me to be accessible to my patients, which has been helpful with scheduling and having very few cancellations/no-shows. I have also found that talking to my patients over the phone and texting them allows us to connect more so I can best understand the kind of care and communication they appreciate, and they feel like they know me and can trust me.

      As a long-time perfectionist, I strive for excellence in all that I do, and during dental school procedures don’t always go perfect. I have found it challenging to not take complications, obstacles, and failures extremely personally. I feel that my greatest weakness is coping with patients that are disappointed with the outcome of a treatment or are in pain. Although on the outside I likely appear to be composed, when my patients are unhappy, I lose sleep at night and let it ruin my day and distort my feelings about dentistry. When I’m not seen as perfect or I’m disappointed in how a procedure went I am extremely hard on myself and beat myself up about it. Although I know it is good that I care about my patients, I know that in the future I need to work on developing better coping mechanisms and finding a way to turn off negative self-thoughts because it has affected my mental health at times.

Currently, I am over the threshold of fillings and crowns needed to graduate and I am about to finish my periodontic requirements in the coming weeks. I still need to complete my fourth root canal and endodontic competency, a removable partial denture case, my removable prosthetics competency, and my crown competency. I have my ER rotation coming up where I will likely be able to finish my endodontic requirements. I also have two patients scheduled to start denture treatments so that I can finish my removable prosthetics requirements. I also have a patient ready to be scheduled for the crown competency, so I am hopeful that I will finish my graduation requirements on time and before May.

With less than three weeks of clinic remaining, I reflect back on my first year in the simulation clinic and how far I have come in three short years. I was petrified to pick up a handpiece and was scared for the person that would be the first patient I would do a filling on, prep and restore a crown for, or perform an extraction on. Today, I feel confident in my abilities and although I don't know everything, I feel competent enough to know the basics and my limits as to what I can do by myself and cases that I need help on or that I should refer out, which is important for a new graduate to distinguish and understand.

I feel competent in diagnosing and treatment planning and I understand the importance of following treatment sequence. I also feel confident in direct procedures and restoring patients with zirconia crowns. I also feel that after my mission trip to Jamaica I can handle most non-surgical extractions. I also feel that I excel in connecting with my patients and instilling their faith in me. I also think that I have gotten better at getting patients to accept my treatment plan and communicating why they should follow my treatment plan and I think this will be critical towards my success when I am a practicing dentist.

Obviously, there are also many areas of dentistry that I need to foster and grow in order to become a fully competent dentist. Having done only four root canals and six removable cases on patients I need much more exposure to endodontics and removable prosthetics. I intend to take CEs to expand my knowledge and join study clubs so that I can feel more competent deliverying dentures and completing root canals on my patients. I also plan to prioritize taking CEs to learn laser surgery and crown lengthening so that restoring crowns with excess gingiva and subgingival margins easier and I dont have to refer my patients out to specialist. In regards to patient-doctor interactions, I also feel that I need to work on having less guilt when asking patients for money to complete their procedures. I always find myself feeling bad when patients complain about the cost of a procedure and sometimes agreeing to implement the treatment plan they want and not the ideal plan that I created and each time I have regretted it. I need to realize that I am providing an important service that has worth and my patients need me to spearhead the ideal treatment plan. I hope that as my confidence as a dentist increases, especially as a licensed dentist and not just a dental student, I will be able to feel more comfortable asking for and collecting money for my services.