Final Blog Post

Over the course of my time with my mentor at Western Dental. My use of critical thinking helped me througout this project because I was able to understand what tools were used and how they were used unlike before when I didnt know what they were called or used for. This project also helped me break out of my shell and ask alot more questions and communicate with my mentor and patients with their families more frequently. I also felt that I collaborated more with the staff as well, and helped them if they needed it. Lastly, my creativity helped me produce my powerpoint to be effrective and precise to what i was taught.
The capstone project also taught me numerous things such as experiences personally, socially, and intellectually. Personally, this pr
oject helped me become less shy and work to the best of my ability. Socially, this project enable me to ask questions and communicate more with the staff, and just overall with perople in general. Intellectually I felt like I learned alot of new things that were crucial to the making of this project and am very glad I did.
Lastly, I faced some challenges like everyone else during this project that not only posed as threats to my project but helped me overcome these such challenges. Some challenges I faced were procrastination, time constraints, being busy or not busy, and not being able to communicate well enough with my mentor. I overcame these challenges one by one by turning in everything on time, trying to show up more with my mentor, communicating better, and showing ip onmoderate days were i was able to ask my mentor important questions. I am very lucky to have such an understanding mentor and am grateful for her acknowledgement of my being at her work.

Mentor Hours (25 total)

Today was my last day with my mentor. I spent 3 hours with her and must honestlyadmit I had a very fun and educated time with her. I couldnt ask for a better mentor. Today's session with her resulted in a running total of 25 complete hours. As usual, I watched her perform touch ups on patients, give consults, put braces on someone, and fix broken brackets and retainers. Overall, throughout the various stages of this project, I feel like I have really improved my knowledge on what a pediatric orthodontist really does. My thoughts and feeling have to be a little surprised at howmuch work they do, how many years they have to go to school for, how important they are to a business, and how much money they make ! As stated before, I couldnt have asked for a better mentor and am very glad she decided to be my mentor!

Mentor Hours (22)

I was able to meet up with my mentor last Tuesday. However, she was unable to work due to jury duty. Luckily, I was ablr to spend an hour or so with the dental assistants and see what they do while she was not there. So far, I have a running total of 22 hours. Anyways, I didnt really do much other than see what the assistants prepare and clean the tools before use. They also showed me how to clean the tools used for fixing retainers and how to touch up the machines if they arent perfect. Overall it was a pretty cool time!

Mentor Hours (21 total).

On April 15, 2013, I went to my dentist for another visit to see how she was doing, and how things were over there. Upon my arrival, I asked her a few questions about my retainer and about how it felt a little bit loose on the top one, and a little tight on the bottom one. I asked her what was the problem and she said that was normal because my top teeth are still growing so it needed to be a little looser because of my top molars, or teeth in the back, were growing in a weird way so she recommended me to get them removed later on in life. As for the bottom teeth, she assessed it as being normal because I'm missing one tooth in the very middle of my bottom teeth so its better that way. I also watched her perform a number of different tasks on patients like cleaning, helping new patients with braces how to put on rubber bands and use them effectively, and she showed me how to tell how cavities looked like in an x-ray. I hope to see her again soon!

Mentor Hours (18 total)

A couple weeks ago, I had another chance to meet with my mentor even though she had grown incredibly busy over the break because most of her parents patients wanted their children to go see her while on vacation and not during school time. Nevertheless, I was able to stop by for 3 hours for a running total of 18 hours. I did the usual, sit and watch and she quizzed me on the names of the tools she was using and how and when to you them, but didn't actually let me use them on a patient because obviously I'm not certified. Anyways, since I know most of the tools, I was able to help my mentor and her assistants pack and sterilize the equipment because alot of it had been used but unable to be cleaned because it was so full over the break. This was pretty much everything I did that day but it was fun learning the names and the uses of all the tools, she used on me while I had my braces to perfect my teeth little by little. I am excited to meet her again on my next visit!

Mentor Hours (15 total).

Last Tuesday I was able to spend some time with my mentor and shadow her and her colleagues work. I spent a total of 3 hours there for a running total of 15 hours with her. I watched her do her daily routine of checking up on patients, giving new patients consults about what may be needed in preparation for braces, regular cleaning, and emergency appointments. From here, she was able to help me identify what to look out for in consults and what to tell patients what was wrong with their teeth, if anything. Because i was unable to attend some of these consults, due to parent-doctor confidentiality, a dentist assistant was gladly able to show me where they process film from the x-ray machine, and even more advanced things inside the lab, as to how to make and restore broken or damaged retainers. This sums up my day with my mentor.

Mentor hours(12 total)

Over the course of this week, on Saturday I was able to spend some time with my mentor. I spent 3 hours with her just observing her technique with putting on and taking off molar bandings in the wisdom teeth. I also saw her on Tuesday for another 3 hours for a total of 12 hours overall. I watched as she carefully cleaned a patients tooth that had begun to build up with tartar and plaque to cause a nasty cavity. Luckily, she was able to clean it since it was in the early stages of gingivitis. I hope to see her again next week to learn even more about her career!

mentor hours (3)

So today I spent 3 hours with my mentor expanding my knowledge about what shr does as an orthodontist. I was very excited to see her again because i had not seen her in a couple weeks. Anyways,this is my 6th hour in total and I Still hope to see my mentor a couple more times. She showed me how to put on and take off invisalign braces, how to properly take x rays of a patients mouth, and how to print the pictures from a dark room. I cannot wait to see her again to learn even more interesting things about the world of dentistry!

Mentor Hours. (3)

Last Friday I finally got a chance to spend a total of 3 hours with my mentor. To be honest, I had a lot of fun and learned a pretty good amount of information in such a short period of time. I learned about and got a chance to see how braces get put on someone. I also learned that because of all the new technological advancements in the practice, it significantly cut the time it took to put on the braces in half, and with a lesser degree of pain to the patient. Next, I was able to catch a glimpse of how the Lab Technician/Ceramist makes retainers, that help keep teeth straight after removal of braces, and takes x-rays of a patients bone and gums. I definitely enjoyed the time I had with my mentor and hope to see her again very soon and gain more knowledge into the world of Pediatric Dentistry.

Google Assn.

The Republican position during the Fiscal Cliff problem at the end of 2012, is simply in this statement, "Republicans familiar with a new White House offer on avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff say it looks almost exactly like President Barack Obama's budget proposal last February." This quote means that they are against the Democratic position and hope to stop "giving away money" and adding to the fiscal problem, unlike the Democrats. Democrats also support new budget cuts to try and eliminate a vast majority of the fiscal cliff problem, if Obama gets elected. The senate also made a deal to try and stop the fiscal cliff which included an increase in the payroll tax by two percentage points to 6.2% for income up to $113,700, and a reversal of the Bush tax cuts for individuals making more than $400,000 and couples making over $450,000 (which entails the top rate reverting from 35% to 39.5%). Most importantly it gave regular people popular tax breaks.

I conducted my research using googles advanced search, typing words exactly, and excluding words I did not want. One most helpful things in my search was looking to see if the information was up to date and a credible source. I also found it helpful to read a small passage that google offers to get a feel for that the website is trying to show you on the page. Lastly, I tried to narrow search results to exactly what I was looking for and it seemed to be a great deal of help.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/29/fiscal-cliff-2012_n_2214264.html
  http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/01/politics/fiscal-cliff/index.html http://bonds.about.com/od/Issues-in-the-News/a/What-Is-The-Fiscal-Cliff.htm

Mentor.

Got my mentor! Yeeeeeeeeeee!