The advantage of living in Psi Omega

I currently live on campus in the Psi Omega house.  Psi Omega is a national dental fraternity with organizations at many dental schools throughout the country.  Our house has 20 live-in members, and over 60 members that do not live in the house.  There is something to be said for being a naive first-year dental student and surrounding yourself with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students.  I get tips on classes, professors, techniques, and most importantly: I have a group that understands exactly what I’m going through.  They’ve been in my shoes, and they know I can’t go out every Monday night for happy hour.  But man oh man, when a free weekend rolls around no one parties like dental students.  This Friday I began working on my wax-up of a maxillary incisor.  They gave us each a tooth that had been drilled on, and we had to build up the tooth back to its normal shape with wax.  Eventually this would be used to make a crown/inlay, but this was more of an oral anatomy exercise for us.  We had to build up the missing tooth structure with correct anatomy, and it had to relate to the surrounding teeth correctly as well.  It took me a long time in class, and I brought it home to start over.

Psi Omega features a fully functional dental laboratory in the basement, very handy for dental students who do not want to make the 15 minute walk to the dental school to use the laboratory.  For me, I went down to use the bunson burner and waxing instruments to work on my tooth.  I was downstairs with two D4 housemates of mine who gave me great instruction, tips, and critiqued my work.  I finished the wax up today and had another housemate check my work.  If I lived by myself in an apartment somewhere I would not have these great resources around, plus I’d be horribly lonely!

This past Friday was our first exam in Anatomy, a class we have 3 times a week for 4 hours at a time.  The amount of material covered on this exam was staggering.  I was studying with my housemates (there are 3 other first-year students living in Psi O this year) 3-4 hours a night for 5 nights in a row prior to the exam. There is another dental fraternity  known as “D-Frat”, and every year they throw a big party the night of the first anatomy exam.  The dress code suggested floral patterns, tight pants, hats, sunglasses, and/or vests.  Combine a lot of kegs, stressed out dental students, and a goodwill run – ridiculousness ensues.  Below are some of the more appropriate photos, haha.

That outfit cost me $11.  BARGAIN!

Another exam, this one Biochemistry, on Monday.  Wash – Rinse – Repeat.  Thanks for stopping by – leave a comment!