Today was an exciting day because we finally got to see the new dental clinic. When I moved out here in August, the clinic was nothing more than a framework in the lemon orchard across the street. Now, we have a gorgeous clinic that will open very very shortly. Today, all the dental students got a tour. I took along my camera. Here are the highlights.
This is the front entrance to the building.
Here is the front desk, where the patients will initially check in.
On the first and second floors, there are several suites that hold about 20 dental operatories each, for a total of around 240 chairs. Each dental student will have their own chair to work on patients. The operatories are small. However, they are separated from the others by a half wall and a piece of glass, so the suite (and whole floor) feels very open. There are large windows along one wall, and the whole room is bathed in Arizona sunshine.
Once we are done treating the patient, our instruments get collected and sent to the ground floor (we are NOT allowed to call it the basement even though that is really what it is). The sterilization area is pretty cool. This is the entrance. The boxes on the countertops are machines that clean/lubricate the dental handpieces (aka "drills"). 
Then, all the dirty instruments go through the dishwasher.
Finally, they get loaded into the sterilizer. This is the "dirty" side. The instruments go into the silver box on top of the cart, get pushed over to the wall, where the little door opens and the instruments go inside. (This room kind of looked like a morgue to me, with the little silver doors on the wall and the instrument carts. Some of my classmates thought it looked like an ER because of the big swinging doors to get into the room and the sinks to wash things.)
To get the instruments out, you need to leave the "dirty" side through 2 sets of doors, go down the hall past a few offices, and through another set of 2 doors. There, the now clean instruments unload out the back of the oven, along with a computer printout of how accurate the sterilization was. (The data includes the temperature inside the autoclave and how long they were in for. According to the professor giving the tour, having this information helps in case someone tries to sue you for giving them an infection with dirty instruments. Lawyers like documented proof that they were sterile...so we have documented proof!) This picture is of Kevin reading the print-out from the autoclave. 
My favorite part about seeing the sterilization area was when the professor stated" you guys will never be down here...the assistants will be doing all this." I am finally moving up in the world! I will no longer be "doing the dishes". I have been promoted! I certainly put my time in as assistant, and spent many many hours sterilizing equipment. It almost seems so weird that I won't be doing that anymore! I hope I don't get too spoiled!
Also on the ground floor are the "specialty" suites. Besides seeing general dentists, the clinic patients will have the chance to see oral surgeons, endodontists, pedodontists, periodontists, and imaging specialists. This picture is from the imaging center. Apparently this type of x-ray machine (I forget what it is...CT maybe?) is worth $250,000. Now I know why my tuition is so high.
This is from part of the pedo area. Each chair had a TV to keep the kids entertained. I NEVER want to be a pedodontist, so I plan on avoiding this area as much as possible. (At the office where I used to work, we referred all the misbehaving children to the pedodontist. I do NOT want to work with bratty kids...nope nope nope.)
The oral surgery suite was also down here. The operatory looked intimidating (almost like an electric chair) with all the straps on the chair. However, the straps are there to keep the patient on the chair while they are anesthetized because oral surgeons operate standing up, and they don't want to patient to fall on the floor.
But, after you deal with the freaky oral surgery chair, you get to go to the recovery room. This is the best room because it had recliners. Install a few big screen TVs, and I know where I'll be hanging out between patients!
So, that is about it for the pictures. There are obviously a bunch more areas I didn't photograph...student locker rooms, conference rooms, treatment planning rooms, offices, lecture halls. It is easy to get lost in that building. Also, we learned a lot of cool stuff about how the clinic is going to be run, and it is going to be VERY high tech. Patients will come in and get an badge that can be scanned to ensure that they end up with the right dental student. The student and the instructor will have to scan their IDs before any treatment is performed. And, all instruments will be scanned in and out as they are used and passed from dispensary, to assistant, to dental student, back to assistant, and finally to sterilization. This is to help with liability and keeping track of all the expensive instruments.
This is from part of the pedo area. Each chair had a TV to keep the kids entertained. I NEVER want to be a pedodontist, so I plan on avoiding this area as much as possible. (At the office where I used to work, we referred all the misbehaving children to the pedodontist. I do NOT want to work with bratty kids...nope nope nope.)The oral surgery suite was also down here. The operatory looked intimidating (almost like an electric chair) with all the straps on the chair. However, the straps are there to keep the patient on the chair while they are anesthetized because oral surgeons operate standing up, and they don't want to patient to fall on the floor.But, after you deal with the freaky oral surgery chair, you get to go to the recovery room. This is the best room because it had recliners. Install a few big screen TVs, and I know where I'll be hanging out between patients!So, that is about it for the pictures. There are obviously a bunch more areas I didn't photograph...student locker rooms, conference rooms, treatment planning rooms, offices, lecture halls. It is easy to get lost in that building. Also, we learned a lot of cool stuff about how the clinic is going to be run, and it is going to be VERY high tech. Patients will come in and get an badge that can be scanned to ensure that they end up with the right dental student. The student and the instructor will have to scan their IDs before any treatment is performed. And, all instruments will be scanned in and out as they are used and passed from dispensary, to assistant, to dental student, back to assistant, and finally to sterilization. This is to help with liability and keeping track of all the expensive instruments. Overall, this clinic was incredibly well planned out, and I am very excited to get in there and see real patients. I would venture to say that we have the best clinic in the nation. I think my gamble of coming to a new dental program is finally seeming to pay off. Last year at this time, I was interviewing to get accepted into dental school. Midwestern had nothing to show for a clinic except for a "future site of" sign. Apparently, good things do come to those who wait!
One last photo...my friend Kat and I in the lobby. We look pretty excited! Also, one of the D2 students put together a video of his tour from this morning. If you have 10 minutes, check it out. The professor giving his tour is a big-wig in the clinic (judging by the size of his office), and gave some cool explanations of how the whole process will work.
And one last thing...I know I promised I would stop talking about anatomy lab, BUT I found out the age of my cadaver. She was 98 YEARS OLD...oldest cadaver in the lab. She definitely didn't look that old, I would have guessed mid 70s. The cause of death was a myocardial infarction (heart attack) due to atherosclerosis, which is pretty common. Hope she had a happy 98 years.
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