The CEJ (Vol. 2 Issue 2) by Colorado ASDA

The

CEJ

The

ISP Journey

Find out about one international studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dream to study abroad!

Crazy Clinic? Hear some of the crazy stories CU students have had in the clinic!

Feature Article:

The

Story Vol. 2 Issue 2

Magazine Name

The Colorado Extraoral Journal: Dentistry Outside the Mouth

The Official Newsletter of the Colorado Chapter of the American Student Dental Association Editor-in-Chief Rick Collette Executive Council President Kyle Larsen

President Elect Becky Bye

Alternate Delegate Danny Adler

Vice President Natalie Lesinski

Vice President Elect Ben Matthews

Immediate Past President Christian Piers

ISP 2 Rep Michael Schulte

ISP 1 Rep Saniya Setia

Executive Board Kyle Lantz John Luke Andrew Zarrar Duraiz Rick Collette Ali Lindauer Kimberly Engols facebook.com/ColoradoASDA

The

CEJ

Jenna Hyer Jordan Duffy Lauren Llorente Addyson England Stephanie McDermott Kelly Santarelli Nicole Hall twitter.com/ColoradoASDA

Caroline Stern Sarah Wood Christopher Friemuth Amanda Hand Ian Lowell Nikki Kumor Lindsey Miller

instagram.com/ColoradoASDA

Want to write for the CEJ? Contact Rick Collette at editor@coloradoasda.org

youtube.com/ColoradoASDA

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Magazine Name

The Colorado Extraoral Journal

CONTENTS 8

Vol 2 Issue

Cover Story

The Story

Feature Articles Crazy Clinical Chronicles

COMOM, aka The Very Best Way to Spend 2 A.M. on a Saturday

Journey of an ISP Student Dental School 2.0

[NAT]match.com: More Than Just a Dating Website

A Case For Quality Chariside Manner

The Sweet Life: Finding Financial Success After Dental School

DS2 Summer: From Intern to Student

Denver: To-Do List

Letter from the Editor

EDITOR from the

R i c k C o l l e tte | E d itor- i n - C h i e f | C o l or a d o A SDA

Ladies and Gentlemen, Doctors and Future Doctors, Welcome to the Winter Issue of the CEJ. This issue is many things, but its overarching theme is simple: it tells a story. The story of dental school is anything but typical, and the wide variety of articles in this issue really illustrate just how many different things dental school can be to many different people. There are clinical challenges to tackle. There are financial

challenges to tackle and a chairside manner to perfect. There are volunteer opportunities and decisions about the future. There are social events and blogs to read. Myriad stories are told every day in which we all play supporting roles. Maybe it’s this time of year. Maybe it’s third year forcing me to think about what I want to do with the rest of my life. Maybe it’s the yoga my sisters guilted me into doing. Or maybe it’s just pure, dumb luck, but lately I’ve been thinking about the future of dentistry. My future in dentistry. And as the saying goes, you can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been.

Reread your story. I think you’ll be surprised what you find. See you in the pages. Cheers,

Rick Collette, ‘17 PS—Turn the page for a special message from our Electronic Editor, Ali Lindauer.

So I hope this issue can encourage you to think about your own personal story. Take a moment, have a cup of coffee, read the stories in this issue, but more than anything else, think about your own story. The characters who’ve played a role in it. The events that have led you to where you are. The scenes you’ve lived.

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Letter from the Electronic Editor

E-EDITOR from the

A l i L i d au e r | E l e c t ron i c E d itor | C o l or a d o A SDA

increasingly busy, and the idea of sitting down to read a book or an entire newspaper often seems daunting. Hence the birth of the Blog: a truncation of the expression weblog (thanks, Wikipedia).

“Blogs are the New Black”

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Since the dawn of literary time, writers and journalists have been feeding the hungry masses via stone and print publications, passing their stories and information into the hands of all who care to read. In recent years, however, the transformation of text from paper to digital has greatly changed the way information is passed from person to person. More often with each passing year, books are enjoyed on e-readers, newspapers share information on the internet, and journals are published online. With this change in times, the format of literature has evolved as well. People have become Vol 2 Issue 2

Blogging has become exceedingly popular as technology advances and the reliance of modern man on the internet increases. Science forums have sprouted up all over the internet, and health professionals often look to websites in their respective fields for quick sources of information. In dentistry alone, there are many blogs and websites dedicated to sharing quick snippets of information to the interested reader at a moment’s notice. The ADA and ASDA themselves have several different blogs with information tailored to a vast array of topics, and individual dental corporations and product distributors often maintain blogs of their own. These blogs are not always catered to the well-versed dental professional, but are often tailored to our patients as well. With the good comes the bad, and there are downsides to this ease of publishing and informationgathering. The accessibility of false information and scare tactics

on the internet are increasingly worrisome problems in the dental community. In addition, it is easier than ever for patients to self-diagnose their health and dental issues. As future dentists and health professionals, it is now our responsibility to familiarize ourselves with this false information, where it is found, and understand how to combat it. The benefits of blogs and other online information sources have great potential of outweighing any risks associated with information sharing. Online resources for us as dental students are limitless, and there is no better time than now to be studying dentistry. Take advantage of the opportunities to learn from your peers and colleagues and start reading! For students here at CU, Colorado ASDA also has a blog where you can find information on how to survive dental school, current events in dentistry, what to do when you graduate, and how to catch the famous-yet-sometimeselusive “ASDA Fever.” Check us out at www.blog.coloradoasda.org!

Ali Lindauer, ‘17

Personal disability coverage is one of the most important financial planning considerations for new Dentists. When considering your options, make sure you ask these questions! Does the policy: • • • •

Cover you in your “Own Occupation” even if you choose to work in another after a disability with no benefit reductions? Separately cover your student loan payments? Cover you fully for “mental/nervous” disorder claims with no limitations? Have a special discount for CU Dental School Students & Residents?

Be sure to know. For Dentists and Specialists, the best value is the strongest policy. Please contact David Richards, Disability Income Specialist for the dental profession since 1993 at 303.714.5875 and visit the website at www.ddsdi.com

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By: Rick Collette, â&#x20AC;&#x2122;17 Editor-in-chief

nce upon a tooth... A long time ago, in a dental school far, far awayâ&#x20AC;Ś In a hole in the ground, there lived a dental student... Call me Tired.

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All these classic first lines were obviously written by dental students, and their subsequent stories have gone on to become some of the world’s most beloved pieces of literature and film. So when I asked students to submit their stories of dental school, I expected nothing short of greatness. And greatness is precisely what I got. What follows is dental students’ stories distilled down to their essence. Like Batman—dental student by day, writer by night—I recognize the value of a well-told story. If you’ve ever wondered what the lives of other dental students are like, this is the story for you. Yellow suit up, my friends. Here we go. “Uccinator.” Well…that was sort of a nonstarter. I’m admittedly unsure what this person meant by this word. Moving on! “You know you’re in professional school when, during the first day of class, you move from the syllabus to lecture one.” To me, this captures the very essence of the first half of dental school. The time for half-measures and talk is over. We’ve all been in undergrad classes where, on day one, you could expect to review the syllabus and essentially learn nothing. It became such a trope

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“Each time I pick up a handpiece I think, ‘Crap I can’t do this…how am I going to do this?’

that many people simply wouldn’t show up until the second class. But that all changed on day one of dental school, when Microanatomy contained about twenty minutes of “Welcome, congratulations, here’s the syllabus.” Then the fun began. “Now passing a class means you need an 80%.” I’d wager most people here in dental school never really flirted with a 60% in undergrad, but it was always there, sort of as a safety net. When a class was having its way with you, most of us probably thought something like, “I’m sure I can use my biology degree for something if I don’t get into dental school.” But, like so many things, the 60% pass is no longer applicable. And for good reason. Would you see a dentist that only knew 60% of the information in dental school? “Infection control is really important, except when practicing placing IV’s on each other...in a classroom.” Having “grown up” starting IVs on countless hundreds of patients, I couldn’t agree with this sentiment more. It was, without a doubt, one of the stranger days in dental school. Classrooms are for listening to lectures and browsing the vast internet, in that order. Starting IVs on one another seemed incongruous somehow— like a scene out of a different book.

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But the first part of the quote is spot on: Infection control is really important. “By far the best years of my life thus far due to the amazing people that I’ve been lucky enough to meet and become friends with. Beer makes it a lot of fun too.” And then there are the social aspects of dental school. In a schedule-locked class of 80, you really have no choice but to make friends. And if you can’t, there’s always the great social lubricant, which can turn even the staunchest introvert (i.e. me) into a social butterfly. I think all of us have made at least a few lifelong friends here in dental school. And all of us have no less than 80 future colleagues to whom we can refer annoying patients. I only kid, of course; Bender is getting all of those. “Each time I pick up a handpiece I think, ‘Crap I can’t do this… how am I going to do this?’ Then when my hands spit out magic and everything works out, I actually realize we are prepared, and we can do this. Great feeling!” Finally, there’s the reason we all showed up to orientation, the reason we continue to show up every day. To learn how to be dentists. Learning often feels like an odd dichotomy in dental school. On the one hand, sometimes in

clinic I feel like I know absolutely nothing. But on the other hand, if I think about where I was just two and a half short years ago, I’ve learned and internalized an incredible amount of information. They say if undergrad learning was like drinking from a faucet, dental school is like drinking from a fire hydrant. And they aren’t wrong. But they failed to disclose the other half. Putting two years of information into practice in a twohour appointment feels a lot like trying to put all that water back into the hydrant while it’s still on. The good news is, every practicing dentist invariably says that the actual dentistry is the easy part. That seems hard to fathom at this point in our education, but seeing the sheer automatic way a professor can clean up your prep— sometimes doing more work in twenty seconds than you’ve done in the past hour—makes me hopeful for the future. The story of dental school is long and sometimes grueling, but it is a story that all of us will retell for the rest of our lives. Unless you’ve blocked it out of your memory. While it may often feel like a slog, try to remember where you’ve been compared to where you are now. Remember what it felt like to get accepted. Remember why you’re here. Reread your story. The Colorado Extraoral Journal

Crazy Clinical Chronicles

Compiled by Sarah Wood, ’17 Anterior Guidance Committee Chair

veryone in dental school has had a “crazy” day in clinic. Whether it is a crazy experience with faculty, patients or just nothing seems to work right. Here are some of craziest experiences here at CU:

“ “

I had a patient cancel her appointment the morning of because she had a toothache….” I had a patient once who told me that radiation had made her really sick. She said, ‘When Chernobyl and Hirosaki went off, I

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should’ve stayed inside!’ So I asked if she had been in the area and she said, ‘Oh no, I’ve never left Colorado. I just should have stayed inside.’ Meanwhile, she didn’t even want to wear the lead vest, because x-rays weren’t an issue to her...

“

The water wasn’t working in my high speed hand piece so I got 4 new ones trying to fix the problem…. turns out the water switch on the rheostat wasn’t flipped…”

“

It was my first extraction in OS and I was a little nervous. My patient was a nice older gentleman and as I got everything ready my assistant chatted him up. As the conversation progressed he started to warm up and proceeded to tell her that he could heal people with the power of Jesus. My assistant and I mulled over this while I performed his extractions. After I was finished, I went to get the covering OS faculty and as when I walked back into the room, the patient was trying to heal my assistant’s hands….”

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“

My patient loved her previous student provider so much she started crying at my first appointment with her because she missed him so much.”

“

My patient asked me about whether or not I had a girlfriend. When I said I, in fact, had a boyfriend, I watched her face go solemn. Then began a conversation about how I have been brainwashed to believe that homosexuality isn’t real and it’s really just a perverted mind, and how being a ‘man’ meant giving all that up and marrying a woman and having kids someday. So I told her I respectfully disagree and asked if she wanted to be transferred out of my pool. But to my surprise she just said, ‘No. It’s your life, I guess,’ to which I replied, ‘I agree!’ Now we mostly just discuss how the weather has been lately.”

“

I had a patient in EM who came in because he was in pain, but then informed me that he could

not lose any teeth because he just signed a contract with Armani. Good thing models rarely smile.”

“

One day I was cutting a crown and was so focused on it that I didn’t notice the Piezo was out of its holder and shooting water everywhere. And luckily for me turned ALL the way up. Fast forward about 45 minutes when the covering faculty went to check MY NEIGHBOR and it sounded like she was walking through a lake. Water was everywhere.”

“

I assumed it would be just a regular day in screening but little did I know I

was going to treat quite the character. When I called the patient’s name in the waiting room, a girl with bleached blonde dreadlocks, gauged ears and a nasal septum piercing stood up. I thought, ‘Oh great, she is definitely not going to get accepted!’ I later learned that she was a strong cannabis user (4-5 times per day), did not believe in fluoride, and removed her orthodontic brackets on her own because she ‘thought her teeth were straight enough.’ We are about 4 months into her treatment now, and she is probably one of my most consistent and reliable patients. Moral of the story: never judge a book by its cover!”

“

Once, when going over a health history with a screening patient, he attempted to Segway to his journey with bladder cancer by telling a descriptive story about ‘shooting blood out his Johnson.’ He also told a vivid story of a bar fight he avoided by running home, yet still ended up getting knocked out and picked up by the ambulance. Assuming it was last week, I asked. Nope....25 years ago. However, I did get The Colorado Extraoral Journal

some good life advice on children: ‘If you can lay down and make ‘em, you can stand up and raise ‘em!’”

comp care faculty to cover me. I believe I had nearly every cassette out and no assistant. It was a lot of fun but pretty crazy appointment.”

I pulled out the third tooth of a three tooth extraction and half of the adjacent canine (not being pulled) came out with it. Turns out the patient had splinted it to the bicuspid with some ‘filling material’ he got from Walgreens. He had attached the bicuspid to a restoration on the canine and the whole thing had come out with the extraction. Standing there dumbfounded, I looked at the oral surgeon with a look of ‘Please Help Me!’ and he just says, ‘I don’t know how to fix that. I just do surgery man.’ Fast forward to me running around the school trying to scrounge restorative tools and a triturator, filling the tooth with some GI, and the OS just looking at it for a minute and telling the patient ‘Looks good. You should probably get that looked at soon though.’ Great day in clinic.”

“

“ “

One of my patients told me, ‘If you really want to know how I feel you should probably take me off my Lithium.’”

My patient came in for a SRP in a perio chair and advised me that #7 had ‘broke off ’ and wanted to know if I could glue it back. I chose to go ahead and extract the PFM crown/post and I built her a composite crown for #7 using a suck down stint. I then completed two quads of SRP and then etched and bonded the composite crown to #6 and #8. The covering faculty was a periodontist who Pictured: and but left for lunch while signed Michael off onFiala the‘16 SRP Natalie Lesinski ‘17 speaking with IRepresentative was doingMike theCoffman restorative and I convinced a at ASDA’s

2014 National Lobby Day. 14 Vol 2 IssueStudent 2

One of my patients during our appointment decided that it was a great idea to show me a very violent zombie movie. Just as it was getting to the goriest part my covering faculty walked by….”

“

I once saw a patient that had a fistula that went from the back of her ear to her auditory canal. She had signs of left ear deafness and left facial drooping. When we expressed our concern regarding her condition, she didn’t think it was a big deal at all. She said that she had the ‘hole’ since she was a little girl. She also noted that she would cover the opening with a bandaid sometimes so that water wouldn’t drip out of it. Her chief complaint was that she had ill-fitting dentures and wanted them fixed. She had no concern for the fact that bone was visible when you looked through the opening.”

“

My 70-year-old patient gets up out of his chair while I am getting things from the dispensary and walks over to another patient who is on nitrous and gives him a very enthusiastic high-five. I asked him if he knew that guy and he said, “No I could just tell he likes to party.’”

COMOM, aka The Very Best Way to Spend 2 A.M. on a Saturday By Nikki Kumor, â&#x20AC;&#x2122;17, Membership Coordinator

hroughout dental school, we often learn about difficulties in obtaining dental care for many American families. Whether the burden is financial, geographical, or simply just lack of time, we are taught that we must serve the underserved. Despite the message of public health dentistry being essential to tackling a majority of caries disease, our dental school is not set up to address most of the access to care issues we face

today. Despite being located in the heart of Aurora, in what seems like one of the poorest neighborhoods in Colorado, our school is just 2 miles from one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Denver. We find ourselves in the dilemma that we are trying to serve a certain population that simply would be impossible to provide for, given the requirements of running a large institution. Though dental school may not directly

provide us the opportunity to provide treatment to all those in need, many students choose to seek this experience extracurricularly. One weekend per year, dentists, hygienists, assistants, certified lab technicians, and hundreds of others with huge hearts gather in a high school gymnasium for the Colorado Mission of Mercy, more commonly referred to as COMOM.

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“MOMs” or mission of mercy events, occur in many states and all follow this same principle. Thousands of dental procedures are performed at no fee to the patient, with materials donated by several supply companies, and time donated by some of the most compassionate people in our profession. For those who have not experienced COMOM, it involves driving to a far away place at an ungodly hour where you are greeted by sweet old women cooking you breakfast and throwing free volunteer t-shirts at you. From this point you go assist in your assigned task. This could be anything from oral health instruction, to sterilization, to assisting in oral surgery. Nearly everyone who volunteers at this event finds it to be an amazing experience and comes back annually. As a dental student, COMOM provides us with a very unique opportunity for education. For many, this is their first patient interaction. This is a place to learn compassion and see just how large a problem access to dental care poses to our community. However, COMOM is also a learning experience that is unparalleled in shadowing or our clinical education. For those who have never 16

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seen a root canal, you can choose from 20 endodontists to observe. For those who have never seen an extraction, you can see 60 in one afternoon. Immediate denture, check. CAD/CAM crown preparation and milling, check. Class 2 restoration, check. The list goes on and on. This year was very unique to me as I got to assist an oral surgeon who had graduated residency just 3 months prior to the event. For the first time, I was able to shadow someone who understood the frustrations of dental school, as he had experienced it recently. I got to speak with someone about what life is like as a resident, and what being employed after over a decade of unemployment feels like. But the most amazing part was I

got a personal teacher for a day teaching me how to perform the oral surgery I would be starting in clinic just two weeks after COMOM. Each year of COMOM you receive a new sticker on your name badge to signify the years you’ve volunteered at the event. Each year you begin to see more and more familiar faces, and notice how many stickers they have on their badge. This first thing people say about COMOM is, “I can’t wait to go back.” Whether you would like to give back to your community, meet awesome local dentists, or just see more dentistry prior to trying it on your own, COMOM is a very simple way to remind yourself why you wanted to be a part of dentistry in the first place. Dental school is exhausting and it’s easy to

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lose focus on the human on the other side of the mouth. That is who weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re helping. Those receiving care at COMOM often show gratitude you will never see in dental school or in your professional life. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s very humbling to spend some time doing dentistry that a patient truly needs to be out of pain or rid of infection. Dentistry that requires no conversation about money. And perhaps most refreshing for a burned out dental student, dentistry without any concern of fulfilling requirements.

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Den

etia, AS â&#x20AC;&#x2122;16 S a iy n a S By ntative e s e r p e R t al Studen n io t a n r e t In

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rowing up with the aspiration to study abroad, I boarded a plane a year ago to live a dream. This was not the first time I was taking this particular flight, but the bag of cookies and Dr. Pepper felt so foreign—yet so my own—for the first time. Just like all of my classmates, I started the International Student Program with a note of great enthusiasm, which I try to maintain every day. We celebrate every moment here, but one thing that undoubtedly exists between all of us, something that lingers unspoken at all of our gatherings, is an amalgamation of fear and joy, fear of acceptance and joy of being able to live this dream. One of my classmates once said, “We are all from different walks of life but all of us have two things in common. We all have a dental degree from our country and we all miss being there.” As I unpacked into my cute little apartment, I experienced emotions of immense sadness to live without my family for the first time ever and excitement to start this new phase of independent living. With the help of constant support from my colleagues, in no time my apartment became home and I

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found a new family—“the ISP family.” I read something very useful when I moved in: “There will always be a part of you that is far away from its home and is lying dormant. Until, one day, it can breathe and live in full color in this new place where it now belongs.” I discovered that every moment, every conversation and experience, challenged the way I looked at the world. Learning the American slang and showing my passport every time I got carded wasn’t easy, but soon became an inspiration to get a status of not being fresh off the boat. Most of my colleagues wonder how it feels to be in dental school for the second time and so I decided to write about some experiences of our class. Living with a blanket of insecurities of being on foreign land is a constant struggle. And yet

removing that blanket every morning and stepping into the dental school is a feeling of sheer bliss and contentment. The practice of dentistry hasn’t changed too much for us but its perception and practice has moved a long way in this program. Seeing your kids grow and your parents getting older over FaceTime and Skype is the biggest challenge for all of us, but the thought that we are here and able to do better for them brings us pleasure. The world seems a smaller place with students representing different parts of the globe in this program. We are one year into dental school 2.0 now and have become “Americanized” in our own way. Looking at it from where we stand now, deep down within we have this base that is our close-knit class of 40

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to fall back on when we miss our loved ones. Each and every one of us has made efforts to push our comfort level at some point. Some of us did it a few years ago when they moved here and some of us are doing it now. But in this endeavor I appreciate that unity and integrity that we have maintained both in and out of class to be beside each other through thick and thin. Our fast paced advanced standing program does not only include high quality dental education catering to all aspects of surgical, restorative, rehabilitative and maintenance therapies, but also fosters a lot of cultural emotions, human-

ity and learning of social and psychological behaviors behind different cultures. That multiculturalism drives the spirit of the AS program. Most of us do fear the future of job seeking, work visas, residencies, providing our dependents a fruitful livelihood, but amidst all of this, no weekend passes by when we do not celebrate our diverse festivals and just the fact of us being here together.

When moving here, I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sure what to pack and what to leave behind at the place I called my home. Denver as a city and everybody at the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;including my friends and colleagues in the dental program, faculty, staff and my patientsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;have made me feel so appreciated and welcomed in this community. I consider myself truly blessed to have moved from one continent to another, across the seven oceans and to be amongst this amazing bunch.

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[Nat]match.com:

More Than Just a Dating Website By Nikki Kumor, ’17, Membership Coordinator

very fall, fourth year dental students across the country can be heard humming about match. Is it that these students realized they are graduating and must find a soul mate on one of the most well-known dating sites? Maybe, however the match they are all referring to is placement in postdoctoral programs. So, what is match? The “Match” is a program designed to organize the way postdoctoral programs accept residents in many of the GPR, Pediatrics, Oral Surgery, Anesthesiology, Orthodontics, and AEGD programs nationwide. The idea of this system is to both allow applicants to attend a program that they prefer, as well

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as allow programs to accept the applicants they prefer. You may be thinking, “This sounds complicated, do I have to do this?” The answer is, well, sort of. There are programs within each of the specialties that do not participate in the match, but the overwhelming majority do. (Take the time now to identify if your preferred program is MATCH or NON-MATCH). The concept of match has been to allot a certain period of time for interviews, where applicants can evaluate various programs (and programs can evaluate applicants) without the pressure of choosing one before having the opportunity to see

others. At the end of this period, each applicant submits a rank ordered list of their preferred program, and each program submits a similar list of their preferred applicants. An algorithm then runs to attempt to match each applicant to his or her most preferred program. The match has its advantages, as well as its flaws. By conducting the interview and acceptance process this way, applicants are not pressured during the interview process to select a program prior to assessing all their options. This process also standardizes an acceptance date. As you can imagine, there are often applicants who

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Here is a schematic representation of how the match algorithm works from natmatch.com

truly would be accepted into any program at which they interview, and this process prevents spots being “held” for one applicant at multiple programs, helping to ensure the maximum number of spots are filled appropriately. However, you must remember through all this that not every program participates in match. For many, this doesn’t matter, as they do not apply to non-match programs; however, there are some who receive offers from non-match programs prior to attending other interviews. This could either be the greatest day of your life or the hardest decision you’ve ever made, depending on your circumstances. Additionally, not all spots are matched and there is a process of post-match, where applicants who did not match have the opportunity to try and obtain an unfilled spot in a program that they may not have initially considered.

process provides a very organized way for applicants to fill residency spots. There are several intricacies in the process, however they vary by specialty. If you’re applying to an Orthodontics or Anesthesiology residency, you can look forward to this process being complete by December of the year prior to your postdoctoral training. If you’re applying to GPR, AEGD, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, or Pediatric residencies, the process is complete in January.

future as the application is now near, good luck. For more information about the “Match”, visit natmatch.com. For more information about whether you need to worry about this at all, search deep inside yourself to determine what you want to be when you grow up.

For most, the Match process involves sleepless nights, struggles of understanding your own selfworth, and Imodium. However, these are all experiences that would likely be encountered in online dating as well. By the time this has been published, those who applied at the time of writing will have “matched” and to those of you, congratulations. To those of you who are now fearful of the

Though complex, the match The Colorado Extraoral Journal

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A Case for Quality Chairside Manner By Jordan Duffey, ’18, Predental Committee Co-chair

often enjoy listening to audiobooks in my car on the drive to school or while completing errands. Several weeks ago, I was in my car listening to Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink: the Power of Thinking Without Thinking. In his book about snap judgments and the psychology of how people arrive at these judgments, Malcolm discusses medical malpractice. According to the National Practitioner Data Bank provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, malpractice in the dental profession was almost at one case of malpractice per dentist in the decade from 2004-2014. Specifically, for the 19,907 dentists practicing, there were 16,854 medical malpractice payments over those ten years. Keep in mind that those statistics are for payments after admission of guilt and settlements, not total cases of grievances brought up

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against people in our profession. From these numbers, it is pretty easy to assume that over a 20+ year career, every one of us will spend some time in court, whether it is warranted or not. I’ve read every one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, and one thing I have come to expect from his journalism is excellent research. In his chapter on malpractice, he did not disappoint. His information came from a study done by Dr. Wendy Levinson at the University of Toronto in 1997. Dr. Levinson is regarded as one of the foremost experts on physician-patient communication. In this study, she created a brilliantly simple design in which she listened to hundreds of interactions between doctors and patients, and then she compared her notes on the interactions to the doctors’ malpractice history. One research group that made up half of the participants consisted of doctors

who have never been sued. The other group was doctors who have been sued at least twice. I will be clear that the study used Primary Care Physicians and Surgeons, but the correlations to dentistry are undeniable. The simplicity of the design led to an answer that was as simply understood: the doctors who were never sued were more compassionate with their patients during their interactions. Four important criteria separated the no-sue docs from the serially sued docs. 1. The doctors who were never sued on average spent 3.3 minutes longer with their patients than their sued counterparts (18.3 minutes versus 15 minutes). 2. Doctors who had never been sued used more signposting comments during interactions. This included temporal indicators

such as order of examination and also deliberately indicating there would be time for any questions the patient may have. 3. No-sue docs averaged more comments indicating active listening (“Tell me more about that,” or “Go on,” for example.) 4. Finally, the doctors without a history of malpractice were more likely to attempt humor and laugh during the meetings. The final piece of evidence is very encouraging for someone soon to be practicing dentistry. When reviewing medical charts and comparing that information to the information the doctors were giving the patients, Dr. Levinson found no difference in the quality of care between the two study groups. This means that while the no-sue doctors made the same amount of errors, patients were less likely to sue them. The implication is that the aforementioned changes in chairside manner, while small, are extremely powerful in lowering a doctor’s risk of litigation.

defense against malpractice is mindfulness during diagnosis and delivery of care, but we are all human. That is one reason why it is so important to have a humanistic approach to interacting with every patient. Developing great relationships with patients works synergistically with increasing quality care and protecting ourselves from malpractice lawsuits.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The power of thinking without thinking. Back Bay Books, 2007. http://www.npdb.hrsa. gov/resources/npdbstats/ npdbStatistics.jsp#contentTop Levinson, Wendy, et al. “Physician-patient communication: the relationship with malpractice claims among primary care physicians and surgeons.” Jama 277.7 (1997): 553-559.

We all need to attempt to perfect our craft. There is no question that the first line of

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Dental School. Four years of living like an impoverished peasant, pretending to be more financially independent than our quarterly FAFSA borrowing reports suggest. Nothing new, we’ve all gone through undergrad. But at least that will all end in a couple years, once we get a real job and start making the big bucks, right? Unfortunately, we have a tendency to convince ourselves that financial independence will intrinsically be donned upon us as soon as we start earning a paycheck. Contrary to popular belief, it is very possible to have a sixfigure income and not accumulate any level of wealth. There are a myriad of financial habits and insights that we must master before financial independence can be achieved. As everyone knows, this is not part of the dental school curriculum. If you indeed want to take charge of your financial situation, it is imperative that you take it upon yourself to develop the skills necessary to do so. Playing soccer in college, our coaching staff always put a heavy emphasis on putting the same amount of effort and intensity in during practice as we would during a game. It was clear that to be successful, we did need to practice the way we wanted to play. It is no different in the world of finances as an owner of a practice. If you are not serious about being the master of your finances in your personal life, chances are that you will not be excellent at managing

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The Sweet Life: Finding Financial Success After Dental School By: John Luke Andrew, '18 Secretary

your finances when it comes to your practice. Therefore, there is no better time than the present to adjust your habits and refine your financial literacy. At this point you must be thinking, “I want to develop good financial habits before I begin practicing, but where do I begin?” I’m glad you asked. A great starting point is to focus on knowing exactly where your money is going at all times. Knowing your expenditures and revenues and using that information to make changes that will increase your overall profit is the basis of any successful busi-

ness; it is also a marquee feature of effective budgeting. Ipso facto, those who are able to budget their personal finances effectively will be better poised to run a profitable practice. Of course, it’s possible that we’re not all inherently well-organized and Spartan in our financial organization. Luckily, there are some really helpful aids out there that can help you get on the right path. A powerful tool that you can employ is a mobile budgeting app, such as Mint, Fudget, or Goodbudget. These apps are easy to use and help you remain organized. Not only do you always know how much you have spent, you will also be able to access a number of analytical

tools that will help you to better understand your spending habits and appropriately adjust them. Secondly, you will need to start making financial decisions based on the information that you now have available to you—learn to play good defense. If you are consistently spending more than you are making (or taking out in loans), you should be able to identify expenses that you can eliminate in order to attain fi-

that culminated in the book “The Millionaire Next Door”, Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko evaluated this disparity. They concluded that a large portion of it could be contributed to lifestyle traps. After attaining a certain level of education and prestige many doctors feel that they have to maintain a certain level of presentation—foreign luxury vehicle, expensive home, and fine clothing. Stanley and Danko’s studies

your means. Make all of your financial decisions in a calculated manner and begin saving early, as your invested dollars are worth much more than dollars spent on any depreciating lifestyle expense. Beginning to save and invest early is a surefire way to find yourself in a secure and sustainable financial position farther down the road. This brings us to our third point. While we all may be brilliant sci-

At this point you must be thinking, “I want to develop good financial habits before I begin practicing, but where do I begin?” I’m glad you asked. nancial sustainability. Learn to be frugal. Being able to consistently spend less money than is available to you is another essential step towards effective wealth management. Literature has shown us that saving is something at which doctors in the US routinely fail to excel. Doctors as a group tend to produce a much higher-than-average income, but their propensity for wealth accumulation (i.e. net worth development) is much lower when compared to other individuals of similar income levels. In a series of case studies

found that purchasing even one of these items often created a sort of obligation to purchase more in order to “complete the look” or ensure that every aspect of their life was congruent with that of a successful professional. In light of this, I am not saying that it is impossible to buy nice things and be financially independent. In fact, if you are enterprising in the dental office and responsible with your finances then you will have the means at some point. However, the essential concept here is to live within

entists and practitioners, very few of us are financial geniuses. Once you begin to make money (especially if you own your own practice) it is essential that you have established a few key relationships with people that are experts in managing that money. Find a good CPA, attorney, and financial advisor. Do not try to reinvent the wheel; utilize the resources that are out there and make sure they are the best that are available. Studies have shown that those who accumulate a large amount of wealth are rather frugal in their

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spending, but do not hesitate to spend on a good investment manager, CPA or financial consultant. The inverse has also been demonstrated; those who earn a high income but do not live frugally— and therefore underaccumulate wealth—are more likely to choose a financial advisor based on how inexpensive their services are. Be very purposeful in your selection of your financial team and recognize that this relationship is a very important investment in your financial well-being. Overall, make sure to value these relationships and do not take the search lightly. These are employees that will work for you for most of your life. Practicing dentistry can be a powerful vehicle for wealth accumulation; however, you must be determined to remain financially independent or the business will end up running your life. Of course, none of us will fully learn how to run a business until we are forced to do so on the job, but there is a lot we can do to prepare ourselves for financial success before we get there. Hopefully you have been inspired to learn more and pursue a higher level of financial literacy and preparation. Below, you can find a list of financial books and blogs that may be interesting to you. They contain great information if you would like to learn more. Good luck!

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Books The Millionaire Next Door – by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko Psychoanalysis of the wealthy ~ Prioritize your priorities!! ~ More to come from John Luke The Investment Answer – by Daniel C. Goldie and Gordon S. Murray Dense, but a good reference for specific questions I will Teach You to be Rich – by Ramit Sethi step by step on how to set your financial house in order Pick what to spend extravagantly on and be frugal with everything else (have a conscious spending plan)

Blogs – great way to get quick tidbits (spend 10 min. on these instead of fb, reddit, twitter, instagram) Get Rich Slowly Financial Samurai The Simple Dollar

tanding almost frozen, I could hear my heart racing. My jaw clenches. Sweat rolls down the back of my shoulder blades. Emotions roll through my head—gratitude, self-astonishment, and fear. It was my first day as an intern at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Undergraduate Pre-Health Program. This internship provided an opportunity for twenty-six lucky local undergraduate students to get a sneak peak into various medical fields. The students that I was surrounded by had a passion for learning, leading, and cherishing each moment provided. The guidelines to be accepted into this program not only include high academic standings and an interest in the health sciences, but

DS2 Summer: From Intern to Student By Natalie Lesinski, ‘17 7JDF 1SFTJEFOU also a history of growing through hardships. It wasn’t until much later in the summer of 2012 that I would learn about each and every other student’s story. My particular story that summer was an eight-week immersion into the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine. Along with this immersion, the internship included monthly “Saturday Academies” (spanning a whole year) on improving communication and access in the healthcare systems. The knowledge I gained from this experience was immeasurable. During the summer, I was assigned a big sister, Christine Goodell, to shadow, assist and follow. This was Christine’s second summer at the dental school.

And yes, it was the summer she first drilled into a real patient’s tooth! It also happened to be the summer that about 50% of the class failed Pain Control, again. Additionally, it was the summer I was applying to dental school. But most importantly, it was the summer that allowed me to discover that dentistry was exactly the career that I wanted. Experiencing this summer for the second time in a row, as a dental student, not an undergraduate intern, was a completely different experience. The first time around I was holding the air suction, attending classes that I could barely grasp and just hoping to become one of the big kids in the blue scrubs. Being the dental student, and having to hold that hand piece, gave me a complete feeling The Colorado Extraoral Journal

of empowerment. Knowing a patient had come to me to improve their oral health was an unbelievable honor. Seeing that the patient was there, trusting me, was my favorite part of this summer. My first restoration was a Class V on #6. I had seen plenty of Class V restorations done throughout my shadowing experience at the dental school and other dental offices. Additionally, I have completed over twenty-five Class V restorations in my simulated pre-clinical course. And of course, I had passed written examinations about this topic. Yet doing my first Class V was different from any of the experience I had preparing for this event. It was such an enriching experience to be part of the Undergraduate Pre-health Program. Being able to experience my DS2 summer of dental school two times gave me a different perception on my education and career. Additionally, reflecting back on my emotions starting the internship, dental school, and my first restoration, there are always mixed emotions. There is always a sense of excitement and distress at the beginning; however, with a little pushing forward, you can complete your task and get that much closer to your overall goal!

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To-Do List:

Denver

By Amanda Hand, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;17 4PDJBM .FEJB %JSFDUPS

The CEJ Denver rocks. We all know this, and so do all of your out of town friends. Sometimes it’s overwhelming playing the host role and figuring out how to show people a unique experience while they’re here. Don't be fooled— downtown Denver may seem like your “typical, go-to, packed-likecanned-sardines, Chads-andAshleys, how-did-my-tab-getthat-high?" fun experience—but, in reality, Denver is SO much more than that (brownie points if you caught that Mean Girls reference). Here are a few things you can do to impress your out of town guests. Top Golf Multi-story golf complex for all ability levels (here’s looking at you, girl whose only experience on the golf course is drinking wine while riding in the golf cart…). There are different scoring games that you can play, so it definitely sets itself apart from the run of the mill driving range. Each group gets their own suite complete with servers, and the complex also has three full-service bars along with daily happy hour food and drink specials. Where: 10601 E. Easter Ave Centennial, CO 80112 How Much: $25-$45 an hour for a group of six, depending on what time you go, and that price includes clubs. More information: topgolf.com Breweries—Knock the socks off of any craft beer snob while you’re here! We live in a HUGE beer metropolis—48 in the metro area alone. It would seem blasphemous to not mention some of the best.

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Free Brewery Tours Coors Brewery—One of the largest distributors of (quality undergrad fraternity party) beer is nestled right here near the Rockies! This self-guided tour allows you to explore the inner workings of the history, factory, and ingredients that make up everybody’s favorite (?) beer. Did I mention at the end of the tour, there’s a tasting room that provides two free beers for each person? BONUS. If you ask for the “college tour” you can go straight to the tasting room from the entrance. When: Thursday-Monday 10am4pm, Sunday 12pm-4pm. Show up early, the wait can reach up to an hour for the shuttle to the brewery because of how popular this tour is. Where: Southeast corner of the visitor parking lot. 13th and Ford Street Golden, CO 80401 More information: http://www. millercoors.com/golden-brewerytour

Wynkoop Brewery—Co-founded by Colorado’s current governor, John Hickenlooper. Even President Obama visited when he came into town last year. They have a wide selection of Colorado beers besides their own, and also have pretty delicious food. This brewery is located in the heart of downtown, so it’s a great place to check out if you do indeed want to experience “Lo-Do” for a night. When: Tours Tuesday-Saturday at 3pm and 4pm. Call ahead to make sure a brewer is available (303-297-2700) Where: 1634 18th St, Denver, CO 80202 More information: http://www. wynkoop.com/brewery Other noteworthy breweries— Beryls, Declaration, Former Future, and Grandma’s House Not a beer fan? Denver wineries also offer free tasting. A couple of great locations include Spero Winery and Balesteri Vineyards. Here’s a website to follow for more! http://www.milehighonthecheap. com/free-wine-tastings-denverboulder/

Dining Experiences—Perfect for the people who love posting their meals to social media! The Source—A revitalized warehouse in Denver’s River North district just north of downtown. The source features 15 merchants that range from a popular sour beer brewery, Crooked Stave, to several shops that sell fresh bread, wine, spices, cheese, butcher, and coffee. This place screams “Denver.” Restaurants within The Source include a city favorite, Acorn, and a delicious taqueria, Comida. Where: 3350 Brighton Blvd, Denver, CO 80216 When: Daily from 8:00am11:00pm More information: http:// thesourcedenver.com/ Avanti Food and Beverage— This multi-story food and drink monstrosity features seven food options that stem from famous food trucks and restaurants from all around Denver. It is nestled in the heart of the popular Highlands area (psssst… check out Little Man Ice Cream while you’re in the area!) and includes an AMAZING view of downtown from the second story.

When: Sunday-Wednesday, 11:00am-11:00pm and ThursdaySaturday 11:00am-1:00am Where: 3200 Pecos Street, Denver CO More information: http:// avantifandb.com/

moderate difficulty. Flat Irons or Chataqua in Boulder, CO. Visit the Rocky Mountains and experience the beauty of Silverthorne, Vail, and Breckenridge!

First Friday Santa Fe Art District for the cultured (cough…. hipster) friend in your life. First Fridays are always a great time with popular area food trucks, complimentary drinks, live music, and free admission to the art galleries. When: 6-9pm, first Friday of every month Where: Santa Fe Street Between 7th and 11th More information: http://www. artdistrictonsantafe.com/events/ firstfriday

Honorable mentions: Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Zoo, Jump street Trampoline Park, Denver Natural History Museum, iFLY Denver Indoor Skydiving, Denver Mint, and Molly Brown Museum

Last but not least, the great outdoors. Embrace your inner Bear Grylls. These are easy hikes that are close to the metro area and give you the most bang-for-yourbuck…especially since they’re all free. St. Mary’s Glacier off of 1-70 west of Denver. An hour outside of the metro area, about 0.75 miles in length. Late spring/ summer recommended. Moderate difficulty. North Table Mountain Trail in Golden, 1.5 miles in length,

But, no matter what you choose to do, downtown/16th street will always be queen bee. So if you're in the mood for an unforgettable experience, then give this Denver mainstay a fair shot.

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Letter from the President

PRESIDENT from the

Ky l e L a r s e n | P r e s i d e n t | C o l o r a d o A S D A

Dear Colorado ASDA, As we transition into a new year, it feels appropriate that I share my thoughts with you on some other transitions that will be happening. It is with pleasure that I announce a new resource that we are creating to help everyone transition into your new courses and clinic experiences: the Colorado ASDA Clinical Database. Our goal is to create resources to not only help

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you transition into clinic, but succeed once you are there. We have started with a few how-to videos for the first years, but are deep in the process of creating step-by-step procedure guides for all students. We are working closely with faculty to make sure that this resource is 100% reliable. Soon, you will be able to access procedure how-to guides, lab processes for sending casts/impressions to the lab for fixed and removable dental prostheses, implant part ordering and procedures, unique protocol for specialty clinics such as OS, screening and Emergency, and much more! Another exciting development/ transition for me personally, is that I have decided to continue my national ASDA leadership journey and run for the Executive Committee (President/Vice President of National ASDA). I hope that I can have everyone’s support as we move closer to Annual Session and my election in

Dallas, TX in March. You can find my letter of intent and platform on the national ASDA website (http://asdanet.org/ec-speakercandidates.aspx). Please feel free to contact me with any questions. The last transition that I want to mention is the transition that we will experience here at our own chapter as I transition from President to Immediate Past President and your new President and President-Elect take over. Treat them well—I know they will do everything that they can to provide the resources that you all need to continue to develop your role in organized dentistry. You all have been a great chapter, Sincerely, Kyle Luis Larsen ‘17 President

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Everything You Need

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