Students Learn What it’s Like in the Chair
On July 1 and 7, third-year DMD students gathered on the 6th floor for what they described as a “right of passage,” the pain control lab.
Leading up to the lab students said they were “both nervous and excited.” To complete the exercise they must play both the role of patient and dentist, administering local anesthesia to each other, while faculty members instruct and supervise.
Said organizer Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Predoctoral Oral Surgery Clinic Dr. Richard D’Innocenzo, “The one-on-one teaching method employed during the pain control lab allows the students to get comfortable with giving injections as the faculty member is there to walk them through the procedure each step of the way and answer any questions that they may have.”
Students are divided up into small groups of three or four. In one group a student joked to another, “Do you trust me?” as he got ready to administer the anesthesia. In another, after they had all taken a turn, they managed to laugh and one said, “I guess it went well, we’re all still friends.”
Though the students joke with one another during the exercise, they take the learning experience very seriously, as this is an important part of their overall orientation, which prepares them to start treating patients in the coming months.
Photos are available on facebook and flickr.