News + Issues

#WhatShouldWeCallDental shows we’re all in this together

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Every dental student knows that the four years of dental school are difficult and demanding. From testing schedules to clinical requirements, it is hard to find time to relax and unwind. Fortunately, a fellow classmate introduced me to a Tumblr page that kept me cracking up and helped me understand that dental students really are all going through the same thing.

The Tumblr page #whatshouldwecalldental provides an endless supply of gifs that explain exactly what it’s like to be a dental student. The videos contain snippets from TV shows, movies, or other content that has been posted to the Internet. Along with the gif, there is a description of how that video relates to a situation you might experience when in dental school or interacting with patients. Here are some of my favorites:

This short video describes the frustration of the lab delivering the wrong prescription by showing Hades, from the Disney movie Hercules, bursting into flames.

An incredibly bright firework explodes to illustrate what it’s like when you accidentally look into the curing light:

Another video shows a dog sticking its head out the window of a car to express how you might feel when you give the air/water syringe a little too much power.

A final video shows a baseball player getting bubble gum everywhere to explain what it’s like when impression material goes all over your patient’s face.

The point of these comical short videos is that we endure certain challenges that only another dentist or student would understand. Even though school can be tough, we have to remember that we are not alone and that there are outlets, like this funny Tumblr page, to decrease the stress.

~Laura Nelson, Texas-Houston ’16, communications chair

Laura Nelson

Laura Nelson is currently a fourth year dental student at the UT Houston School of Dentistry. She is Communications Council Chair for National ASDA and the Publications Editor in her local ASDA chapter. Laura will enter a Periodontics residency at UT Houston in the Summer of 2016.

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