You Never Know Who Your Next Dental Assistant Will Be.....

Winter break is slowly coming to a close. People are beginning to gear up for another quarter of exams, text books, papers....and for me, teeth! =)

Whenever I tell people that I'm in school for dental assisting, I usually get 1 of 3 responses. It's either
1. Wow! That's such a great job to have! I heard that the job rate is excellent!
2. Now tell me.......why would you want to look in people's mouths all day?! That's so disgusting!
3. Ummmm.....that's great if you like that stuff. I could never do it though.

I have to say that I enjoy it. True, it can be nerve racking and awkward working in people's mouths, but at the same time, there is so much variety and cool things you get to do. (don't worry. I won't go into detail about what those "cool things" entail)

At the beginning of the quarter, we were all nervous about practicing on each other (which is how we learn: 1st on classmates, then on real patients). I'll never forget the week we were learning how to use the "explorer"


If you were there, this is what you would have experienced:

Classmate: decked out with a labcoat, gloves, mask.."Ooh, I'm so nervous!"
Me: (lying down on the dental chair) "Aww, don't be. There's no reason"
Classmate: [Peering into my mouth] "I'm afraid I'm going to hurt you!"
Me: "Don't worry! I'll tell you if it hurts"
Classmate: "does that hurt?!"
Me: "No! I'll tell you if it does"
Classmate: "Ahh!! I made you bleed! I'm sooooo sorry!"
Me: [laughing] "haha..I'm sure we'll all do it to each other somtime. I'm fine...really!"

Thankfully, we are a little more confident now. We would have to be, seeing as how Thursdays and Fridays are official "clinic days" where we assist on actual patients. What brave souls those men and women are! =)

If you had spent a full time quarter learning all about dentistry, the following would probably be true of too: You get excited about receiving a tooth brush for Christmas, flossing every day becomes one of your New Years resolutions, you start asking your family members to "open up" so you can take a peek of what their teeth look like....

As I start preparing for this upcoming quarter and think about the time and energy that it requires, I realize my absolute need to rely on the Lord and his strength to get me through. As much as school is enjoyable, discouragement, weariness, and discontentment can easily creep in. My hope is that we all (those in school or out of school) keep our eyes fixed above; trusting in the Lord each and every day.