14 New Year's Resolutions dental students should make
1. Sit up straight
Remember your posture always! Whenever you find yourself contorted into a paperclip shape to see the distal of an upper 8, remind yourself that back problems are REAL. A 30-year old with a zimmerframe is not a good look.
2. Start doing yoga
This is a great way to stretch out all your joints and muscles, which are bound to tense up after a day of trying to RSD in a patient with 8mm pockets around all their molars. Find a local class or you can join the KCL yoga society, and try it out! If yoga's not your thing, there's also pilates, swimming, or any other sport which is kind to your joints.
3. Stop being a hypocrite and ACTUALLY floss every day
...or at least every other day.
4. Get yourself a swanky diary
We could all do with something to brighten up the day after a long appointment, something to make booking in patients fun! You will spend more time with this diary by your side than most people, so make sure it's a good 'un!
5. Speaking of which - stop double booking!
Your patients get mad, your SLO gets mad, the nurses get mad... stop. Just stop. Double check(in your new awesome diary) and in the clinic diary before booking in a patient, and you can avoid this horror!
6. Invest in some comfy shoes
I'm not sure about you guys, but dentistry has changed me. Every time I go to a shoe shop I'm now immediately drawn to the ugliest, bulkiest, squishiest shoes. In short, I've become my mother. However these ugly, bulky, squishy shoes feel like clouds cuddling your feet, and this is way more important than looking good when it comes to clinics.
7. Buy some trousers for clinics that don't hug your legs like lycra
You may be so fit and toned that it would seem like a crime to cover your bulging muscles up, but please be considerate: your rippling quads may be distracting other people on the clinic. They may be the cause of your patient's blood pressure shooting up just before you want to extract their tooth. For the sake of the hospital, it's time to reserve the lycra for the cycling track.
8. Get on top of your quota sheets
Start taking your quota sheets with you to clinics in that handy little blue folder they gave you. It'll save you the stress of trying to sort out a ton of sheets of paper at the end of the year, and trying to force tutors to sign for an onlay you did 6 months ago.
9. Stop looking people in the teeth instead of in the eyes
While it's inevitable that you will judge everyone you meet purely based on the condition of their dentition, try to look them in the eyes while they're talking to you, rather than trying to figure out what their occlusion is. It's surprisingly noticeable when someone is staring at your mouth!
10. No more getting confused between the lives of your patients
We've all been there haven't we? When we think we'll impress her by being thoughtful and personable and asking how her 3 sons are doing, but she actually only has a cat. I'm sure we'd all like to avoid situations like that in the new year, so maybe jot down some notes in your diary after the appointment, so you can refresh your memory before you next see them.
11. Get yourself or a friend a novelty dental something
To remind yourself that there's NO ESCAPE from dentistry.
Kidding. They're just fun.
12. Love the fact that you're still studying while your friends are out earning already
Yes you are still steadily getting into more and more debt while everyone from college has started work in the city, but really, YOU'RE the one who's winning. You can proudly flash your NUS card to get student discount, you can stay out late on a weekday night (provided you don't have clinics the next day), and you don't have to get your life together yet! You can bet people who are working now miss being a student. So savour your freedom!!
13. Do something new at uni
You've got 5 years in this place. And there are a lot of opportunities here that you won't find at your doorstep once you graduate, so grab them while you can! You can take a whack at kickboxing, add your voice to a choir, or maybe dabble in dance. You can sign up to auditions, competitions and conferences to your heart's galore. Who cares if you don't win or even stick to it for more than a week? At least you tried.
14. Don't forget to relax!
Because we don't live to work, we work to live. Amirite?
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE
