Waxing Teeth and Happy with a "C"

Wow - Waxing teeth is just not my forte. Let me explain how this works:

1) We get 40 minuets to wax up our fist tooth. This tooth is pass/fail and you have to try pretty hard to get a fail here. 21 points if you pass

2) We leave the room and the teachers grade the teeth.

3) We enter the room and read the giant paragraph of things we did wrong. This is normally where I start to panic.

4) Now we get 40 more minuets to wax our 2nd tooth. This time you are dealing with around 90 to 120 points and the stakes are a lot higher.

• I have NEVER been a student to shoot for a 70%, but when it comes to waxing I'll take a 70% in a heart beat and never look back.

5) After the 40 minuet buzzer goes off, we get 5 mins to grade our own tooth, 5 mins to grade a partners tooth, and 5 mins to discuss with our partner and put down a "consensus" grade.

6) We leave and the teachers do their thing.

7) I enter the room. I look at all the zeros on my page, and start pondering how I will ever pass this class (my new found weekly ritual).

We have waxed 4 teeth so far. On two of them, the Central Incisor and the Maxillary First Premolar, I received a grade between 50% and 60%. The other 2, Maxillary Lateral Incisor and Maxillary Canine, I have received a passing grade on.

Okay, so you get the point. Dental Anatomy at the University of Washington is HARD! A little rumor has been floating around. I'm not sure if it is true, although I have gotten some affirmative nods from some faculty at it's mention.
Here it is:
Last year out of the 66 students that make up the Seattle and Spokane campuses, 6 (that is right, SIX) students got above a 3.0 in this class.

All this being said - Dr. McCoy, who is our professor here in Spokane, is a legend in dental anatomy and the kindest and most genuine professor I have ever worked with. He is retired now and is only a part time faculty. Before he was retired he was the Chair of Dental Anatomy and with his help the UW became Dental Anatomy champions of the National Board Exams. So, needles to say he knows his stuff.



A few weeks ago, my wife and I got a rare chance to leave the kids at home and go out. We decided to get something to eat and then go down to the dental anatomy lab. Rendy wanted to try her hand at waxing. It was just the two of us and was a fun (and cheap) date. Some pics are below. Turns out she is a natural.