Inspection, Palpation, Percussion, Auscultation

One of the different things about the RIDE program is ICM. ICM is Intro to Clinical Medicine. It is a medical class that we take with the Medical students. It is part of this RIDE idea to create Super Rural Dentists that can practice in tiny towns where there are no physicians around, that can handle diverse situations.

So we take ICM to help teach us a little bit about the ways of the Physician.


This Quarter we are doing Physical Examinations. You know the one.....
Examine the eyes, the ears, the nose.
Listen to the heart and lungs.
Check for proper Neuro functions.
Check range of motion and reflexes.

2 weeks ago we learned and practiced the chest and abdominal part of the physical examination. Part of this exam includes palpating (feeling around) the abdomen. There is a very nice young classmate of mine that ended up being the Guinea Pig for her small group, and the technique was demonstrated on her in front of most of her group. As the Doctor is palpating her stomach he gets around to the colon area and states -

Doctor - " Can you feel that moving around?"
Young Female Student - "Yes...."
Doctor - "That is your feces moving around in your colon"

Medical Students from around the room gather in excitement to sneak a peek and learn how to feel for someones feces in their colon.

I'm glad I'm in Dental School!

Sometimes we will get comments from the medical students, all in good fun and usually in response to some comment made to them by one us regarding us making a higher salary, being done with school 4 years earlier, or having our loans paid back by the time they land their first job, that goes something like this "Ya, but you have to work in the mouth all day." I'm pumped I get to work in the mouth all day, if palpating for feces is the alternative...... But Hey, I'm biased.

When my classmate told me this story - I laughed hysterically. I think you have to participate in ICM as a dental student to truly understand the situation. As interesting and informative as this class is, it is awkward at best and most of us know we will never use 80% of it again.

I mean c'mon.. when is the last time your dentist asked you to take your shirt off so he could auscultate your bowl movements, or ask you to take off your pants so he could test your patellar reflex?

I can see it now..........

Location: Dr. Tuckers Dental practice in Middle of Nowhere, WA


Dental Assistant - "well Mr. Patient, before we get started today I'm just going to ask that you to take your pants and shirt off, drape this cloth over you, and the dentist will be in shortly to see you"

The patients are going to flock to my practice!!!

With all that being said, this stuff is really interesting and fun to learn about, and I know that I'll be better off as a dentist because I have learned these skills. One of my small group Physicians always tells the dental students that we really just need to be able to tell Normal from Abnormal, at that point we can refer the problem out or call for help. I think this is very good advice to keep in mind while taking this course.