State of TINation Address

As GMA gives her SONA to review her accomplishments as President, I have my STNA to reflect on my first month back in UPCD.

Yeba! Naka-one month na ako!

I was a little bit hesitant to write about this "teaching stint" since I don't know how my friends would react. Back then, my friends would bet a thousand moolahs that I would never ever try to teach. I admit, I was never the patient type. I would give Simon Cowell a run for his money when it comes to becoming brutal na manlalait (especially after too many San Mig Lights).

I also vowed (after completing my requirements) that I would never ever step in UPCD again, only to come back days after dahil kailangan magpaprint ng TCG kay Ate Mel. But after Boards, I swore (again!) that I'll never be back...following it up with "For real na 'to ha? Promise!"

So happy we're done with dent requirements

But alas, I find myself going up the familiar Dentistry Building steps again. Only this time, I traded my white uniform (with a few ballpen marks) for a white coat (still with ballpen marks) and my feet meet that steep stairs to where the clinics are with heeled shoes instead of my dugyot sneakers.

I thought that after all those FPD discussions with Dr. T, I would never encounter anything so frightening. I realized that getting a job in your old school is much harder than getting a job in any other place. Take the interview, for starters. During my past jobs as an associate dentist, I managed to make pa-impress with my former bosses by having a good resume, flaunting that I came from UP and post-grad trainings and seminars that I attended. But now, I would be seeing my former professors who knew me as a student, or worse, something like this, "Oh Tin's teaching na? Isn't she the one who took the removals in Resto molar exam?" Oh my gas! The ghost of christmas past?!

Fortunately, my former professors aren't that judgmental (or should I thank the fact that some had early-onset Alzheimer's? Hehe...peace.), in fact some were even happy one of their former students even considered teaching. Hay, those kind words from Dr. T & even Dr. B.M. untied some knots in my tummy.

Then came Dr. C., whom I get to be with most of the time since I get to teach her subject. I was so paranoid before that I pictured how shocked she would be when she learns that I will be teaching Endodontics. 

Oral Surgery 31 study nights with Rish & Tan

Endo was one of my so-so subjects back in college. Oral Surgery was actually my best, only to find out that extractions and I aren't destined in real life. Darn that root fragment! Panira ng mga pangarap!

Endo squeezed its way into my practice slowly but surely. It all started with my Occupational Dentistry stint in J.F. Cotton where as a "newbie," I get to have the unwanted RCT cases. I discovered that I found a new love in Endodontics when I traded my pang-rebond funds to buy a set of ProTaper files. (For non-dentists reading this, ProTaper files are just a few of the expensive tools used in root canal treatment.)

I haven't been doing true-blue teaching stuff yet, except helping Dr. C in Endo 31 lab and signing that sheet enabling clinicians to start whatever they're going to do in their patients. I do have the leisure of eavesdropping when someone discuss his/her Endo case with Dr. C and compare if that clinician was worse than me when I discussed my Endo 32 and 40 cases. So far, the 3 clinicians I got to listen to got more "kuyumus ng mukha" from Dr. C (obvious sign na mali yung mga pinagsasasabi mo sa discussion) than what I got before.

Now, if any UPCD student stumble upon this blog, don't plan a massive attack against me with you newly-sharpened-from-perio31-class sickle scalers. I do have my share of boo-boos as a student too. I did get bokya grades in the diagnosis part of my perio chart (ask my husband, he was my patient when Dr. K gave me a zero on that part hehe), I present underfixed and unwashed radiographs much to Dr. C's horror, I grazed my odontec patient's lower lip with my low speed which Dr. E took a picture of (for his slides daw on "What Not To Do During Surgeries") and cried to Dr. T with this dialogue "I know how an ideal prep should look like! Ask me and I'd be able to tell you. I can even draw it but I just can't do a decent mock prep on this @#%! cast!"

I had so many mischiefs as a student and I had this image that the faculty will retain this memory of my shortcomings for as long as I live. Honestly, I used to hate some teachers back in dent since they seemed to me like a bunch powertrippers and perfectionists. My most hated professor na itatago ko na lang sa pangalang Dr. Swabe, I would say that the guy isn't really that bad. If I would take an old Pinoy adage seriously, bundat na bundat na ako ngayon, since I am eating a lot of words I said before.

Dramatic as it may seem, the heaviness in my heart toward my former teachers & my Alma Mater has been lifted. 

Special message to TanyaMac: "Don't worry, I'll remember that I was once a banutik student too!"

Oh and to Dr. Swabe: "I stand firm, the 3rd molar may look like a 2nd molar." I read that in Wheeler's Atlas of Anatomy...or somewhere.

TanyaMac & me: Green shift payatot days