ah....another practical done and done with. these practicals...man, they used to incite fear and fear in me, but now, it's more of an annoyance. let's just get this over with, man. does that mean i'm going to hate dentistry? nah, don't think so. i think it's just the set-up and getting up awfully terribly early that makes me want to just lie down on the gravel and bawl and go bleeeeeech. i have this huge cart rolling thing that has all my stuff in it, plus, because i carry everything around, i take my tackle box, which has my loupes and dentoforms and burs and stuff in it, plus, i have to make a stop to my second locker to get my trays of handpieces and instruments. i end up rolling a cart half my height, a tackle box, another box full of instruments, and sometimes another container with my curing light in it, making the total height almost taller than me. i get teased about that a lot, but i guess it's better than lugging it all without wheels. anyway, so screwing in teeth takes a lot of time and gives you carpel tunnel, and then i have to set up - meaning take out my loupes, put them on, screw in teeth, rubber dam, putty if i need one, set up handpieces, glove up...sounds simple, and it is, but setting up like that at least 4 times a week is a bit trying. i just made this green curry thing without chicken, and with shrimp and veggies, and it tastes like ass. man, how could green curry ever go so bad? it's only good with chicken and a few select veggies, i think. like, never use 3 onions and garlic and only a handful of shrimp and beta-carotene frozen veggies and another crate of different veggies with carrots and peas. YUCK. smelled good, tasted like ass. oh well.

anyway, two practicals this week. both went decently, i guess. you never know about these things. operative was a veneer prep and a composite MOD restoration...we had an hour and half. i did my veneer prep, probably took 30 minutes. and then i did my composite....thought i had an hour, so i took my time. carved and sculpted beautifully....and then, i only had 10 minutes left. WHAT! !? FREAKIN MINUTES! i still had my matrix band on, and all of a sudden, my hands were trembly, a little clammy, and everything freaking instrument i needed to find, i couldn't find it. i fumbled around, looked for at least 20 seconds for something that was right in front of me...anyway, my occlusal was fine, due to my slow slow prep of it, during layer after immaculate layer (!!! i kid you), so i tore of the matrix band, took out my gold carver, and started working away at the interproximal. one of my boxes went out to the facial, so it wasn't a good idea to carve it - you can chip off composite otherwise. so frantically i stuck in my ET6, but that was ineffective...no time, no patience for detailed work like that. i took out my 3M discs, did a bit of rub rub there, did a but of grind grind over there in that corner, chip chip chip away at flash, grabbed by discoid cleiod and scrape scrape scraped off flash here and there on occlusal...and voila, restoration done! i don't know why i had my clammy hands reaction...it's funny...in practice, a veneer prep takes me 10 minutes, composites takes me 15. i don't know why i had to work right up to the 90 minute-mark for this exam.

fixed exam today. it went...i don't know. my preparations are pretty consistent. this one was pretty, i think. good bevels, nice contour, nice chamfer, modified shoulder maybe 1.2 rather than 1.0 mm, but i think that's ok. provisional - always more risky.

and now i'm studying, after coming home early to do laundry (i'd pay someone to do my laundry) and i have decided that i am never going to buy anything that must be hand-washed. i HATE handwashing....it's annoying as heck. so far, i have a pile of handwashables lying around, probably a month-long now, and i'm thinking i'll just take it home in two weeks or so...

now i'm studying, a little unsatisfied because of my yucky dinner green-curry concoction, and i keep writing and writing and writing to procrastinate....anyay.....back to work...