Almost done.

I'm sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while. I just haven't had much to update since school has just been more of the same..... Anatomy, anatomy, anatomy. Good news is, this Friday is the final for Head and Neck Anatomy. That's right, after this week we will be all done with anatomy and we can say goodbye to our cadavers.



The Dental Hygienists started class this week and we had our formal introduction to them today. In the RIDE program we end up taking quite a few classes with the hygienists. It is a class of 35 and they are all women, except for one poor (Lucky?) man. Since we work so closely with Hygienist after school in Practice, I think this will be a good opportunity to work with them and see what there schooling entails. I learned one big difference today: Dental students have 33 credits this quarter, Hygienist have 10. The hygienist clinic at the Spokane campus is really nice, but I don't know how much time we get to spend in it.

Since Anatomy is ending, this means we are starting other classes. So starting Thursday and Friday we begin the following: Physiology, Intro to Clinical Dentistry, Histology, and Medical Microbiology. I have a feeling things are only going to get harder from here.

Below is a VERY simplified version of the cranial nerves I'm memorizing for the upcoming final- This little schematic doesn't even show what they innervate, what fibers they contain, or their pathways...... Can't wait until I'm done with this. That being said, the body is amazing - it's organization is completely inspiring.

Out with Trunk Anatomy, In with Head and Neck

Trunk anatomy is done. Hurray!

Friday we had our lab final and our comprehensive written final. Last week is now a blur. It is hard to differentiate the days when they were all spent in the library or classrooms reviewing for the final. Everyone was pretty worried about passing, but I think overall everyone did fine.

Now it is time to hunker down to get through the next 3 weeks of Head and Neck. Supposedly Head and Neck is the harder half of the course.... we'll see.

Those of you headed into dental school, you may be interested to know that I have still managed to not study on the weekends (except for 2 hours the Saturday before the final). So there is free time to be had. I believe this Saturday is going to be dedicated to fly fishing for Steelhead.... tis the season.

Last weeks summary:

It was stressful. I had a hard time sleeping.... the Pelvis was haunting my dreams (It was that darn Gubernaculum). In retrospection, I think I didn't study very efficiently and spent too much time reviewing information I already knew, as opposed to taking the time to learn more information.

The image below is our first anatomy task for head and neck.... label the skull.