Yankee Dental

Heather has been asking me to blog for a while now on my experience in dental school. I am beginning my blogs by writing about the Yankee Dental Conference we went to last weekend. I enjoy going to conferences, since as a student the school pays for our registration and we get to go to some of the classes. So, I am taking advantage of these classes while they are still free for me.

On Wednesday, we went to the student lecture and reception at the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel. I attended the student lecture and Heather joined us for the reception. We of course got free samples from the sponsors, Crest and enjoyed beer, wine, pasta, some bruschetta, and dessert. They had a DJ and my buddy Derrick loves dancing and kept asking to dance all night. I told him I needed some more drinks in me before I would go dance. So as we walked around, we got introduced to the President of the Massachusetts Dental Society, who organized the event. After talking with him, he handed us a handfull of drink tickets. In the end, I ended up dancing the night away. Heather and Derrick's wife, Mel, talked the whole night.

On Thursday, we had a very busy day. First, I attended a CE course taught by our pain control teacher. The class was on oral surgery for the general dentist. Basically, He taught us how to do basic oral surgery procedures in the office and how to manage the complications. We then headed to the Exhibit hall where we ate lunch and visited vendors. In the Exhibit Hall, we tried different instruments, looked at new technology, and picked up free samples. We finished the day by going to a few CE courses on how to buy and sell a practice and also how to start a practice. Since we don't get business training in school, it is great to learn about the business side of dentistry.

On Friday, Heather joined Seth and me in attending the conference. We walked around the exhibit floor and checked out more technology and got more free samples while we waited to head to another reception. We attended the Boston University Alumni Reception which was held at the Seaport Hotel and again enjoyed drinks and appetizers. I got to introduce Heather to some of my professors and classmates. The reception didn't have too much food and we were still hungry, so we ended up going to Olive Garden with Seth and Kirsten.