The week in review:

1. The tough "ology" classes have been covering material that is a review for most of us in the class. That will change soon, I'm sure. The first anatomy lab was awesome. I got to make the first incision on our cadaver, a mid-line thoracic cut along with two transverse cuts so we could retract the skin. What a rush!

2. We began our labs for the "Biology of the Human Dentition" (BHD) module of our comprehensive care course. This takes place in the "wet lab" and we work on a typodont (it's a set of fake teeth that can be taken in and out of the fake gums). We take out an assigned tooth, replace it with another that simulates a tooth that is already prepared for restoration and then we restore it with wax. This helps us learn tooth anatomy and structure, instrument uses, hand-eye coordination, etc. My first wax-up was on an incisor and it turned out okay. Fortunately this week our wax-ups weren't graded. I went into lab this afternoon for some practice and by the time I had restored that same tooth again I was really getting the hang of it. In fact, when one of my instructors saw it he said, "Oooh, that looks good, and your incisal edge is really nice". Woo-hoo!

3. My Sister-in-law, Janiene, purchased all my books for me for my first semester of school. How generous is that??!! Thanks Janiene!!

4. John lost his second tooth, this time his left mandibular incisor. That's two lost in one week, I hope this rate slows down because the tooth faery is getting tight on cash.

I'll try to take some pix at school so you can see what my life looks like there.