I am having a great experience in Pasco! The first couple days were filled mostly with shadowing and standing. After the first couple days, I have really jumped in with both feet. I have had a lot of assisting experience during extractions, root canals, and fillings. One thing I've discussed with the doctors here, is how difficult it is for them to have to extract "savable" teeth. I put savable in quotations because it takes money or insurance and patient compliance to obtain the proper treatment to save the teeth. To combat this issue, the clinic has really focused on teaching parents and young kids to prevent decay and periodontal disease.
As far as dental procedures, I worked as a left handed dentist today, well maybe not a dentist, but I was in the operator's chair on the patient's left. I finished an IRM temporary filling for #8 and then a chemically cured RMGI temporary filling for #31, which was similar to the temporary filling we did in applied dental materials this year. We also have a lot of ER patients come through the clinic. Most of them have large abscesses and need extractions. I'm learning a ton from the doctors. I've been reviewing a lot of dental materials with them, a.k.a. being quized - I knew it would useful someday, just didn't think it would be so soon.
Overall, RUOP has been a great experience so far. I think it has brought together a lot of what we learned this year and given them practical application. The anatomy has come back, the micro, some of the histology, definately physiology, dental anatomy, dental materials, basically there has been a reference to all the classes we took this year (even MIDM) while I have been here in Pasco.
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