Mental Dental

In the name of Allah,
Most Gracious, Most Merciful,
Praise be to Allah,
the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds,
and Peace and Prayer be upon the Final Prophet and Messenger. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Quran

I always liked reading notes or posts by doctors even though I am a dental student(dentist-to-be inshaAllah), especially about how to survive in Medical School. Even though I am a dental student(I'm being redundant), I think the same concept applies so yeah, it helped me a lot. Especially since I am now in my second First Year. Yeah long story but let's not go into that.

(insert awkward cricket sound here)

So, with the experience bestowed upon me, I will now share what DENTAL students need to know before entering Dental School, again, 'based on experience' being emphasized.

Being a dental student means, you need to learn to deal with teeth, the head and neck, and of course, a lot of studying. Some people may feel slightly irritated by this statement because it seems in the society, status seems to matter most.

So, first off I am going to have to remind you, that having a Dr. in front of your name ain't gonna make you better than the rest of the people in the world. And also, the fact that you're going to/currently studying to be one ain't proving that your course is way better than the others as well.

One thing that I've learned, the hard way, even if back in the past you used to be one of the Top Scorers/High Achievers, that ain't gonna guarantee that you're going to thrive when you enter Dental School, because everyone ELSE in the class also used to be the High Achievers of their respective schools. And also, if you have thrived in High School by competing with each other, that's not how it is when you enter this arena.(yes, it's a battlefield mind you)

Since everyone is going to study on how to better the health and to better care for others, basically you need to help each other out. If you compete, you will be left behind all alone because yeah, again, based on my experience, I saw those that only think of themselves, failed miserably because they are only focused on aiming to get good grades in exams, and not to grab the essence of the knowledge itself.

It is crucial to know everything(almost) because one day you're going to be a health care professional(oral health care, to be exact) and if you don't want someone to suffer because of your own incompetence don't you?

As Muslims, or even non-Muslims(not yet Muslims inshaAllah), the same concept applies. Always reflect on your intention. If it's about the money, quoting my lecturer "Then go learn how to do business" because in reality, the course that I am taking, and inshaAllah you'll be taking, isn't about fulfilling your needs. It's about the people around you and to tell you the truth, the dental course isn't all about teeth. It's more than that.

Perhaps the knowledge-deficient society will ridicule this profession(well, I used to because I don't know) because dentists are always associated with teeth so they don't see the importance of our presence.

"Well, it's not like the dentists have emergency cases to attend to, right?"

Wrong. The ones that restructured the faces of those who was inflicted with oral cancer(mouth cancer)/accidents causing facial fractures etc, yeah, those are oral-maxillofacial surgeons, in other words, dentists.

Do you know why people need to wear dentures(gigi palsu) when their teeth fall out? It's because the teeth is used to chew(you don't say?) our food and also the teeth is what prevents your face from looking like pitted prune. When you lose your teeth, your alveolar bone(jaw bone) will start to resorp(diminish?) causing your face to look as if it is sucked inward by a vacuum.

And also the reason why I appreciate the dental profession is because I am about to wear braces myself. You can't imagine how miserable I used to be back when I was a child due to my teeth alone. I used to be taunted as a child and sometimes, unexpectedly, that old painful memories came to pay a visit and hurts my self-esteem, deeply. So when I get to do my braces(for free because I'm a dental student, and plus I'm going to have appointments here in my uni so yeah) I was really looking forward for it.


Anyway, enough of this dental talk(I'm starting to feel dizzy myself trying to translate the plethora of dental jargons into Layman's terms), my point is, to be able to survive in Dental school, you have to equip yourself mentally, emotionally and spiritually as well because there will be times, things won't seem to be in your favour so you need a really strong reliance with Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, the God of you and me, so that you won't break down because I hafta admit, it ain't easy.

For those thinking of pursuing their study in this course, WELCOME and be proud.

Again, I'm not a great student myself. I am really a lazy laid back person, and I don't like studying at the last minute because I don't like feeling all panic-y.

So after a somewhat long rambling, I will hereby conclude that, to survive in Dental/Medical school, you will need to constantly RENEW your intention(because sometimes the promising cash reward can turn your eyes into currency symbols $_$), you will need to learn how to cope with a sea of knowledge being stuffed into your head EVERY SINGLE DAY, and you will need to accept that you need to SACRIFICE your time, blood(not literally, okay, sometimes), sweat, money, in order to do so.

BUT,

learn to enjoy your life(and an enjoyable life is subjective. e.g. You might be studying 24/7 but you can still write new blog entries[yeap, I enjoy blogging *winks*] or go ONLINE window shopping on ThePopLook.com).

And this one, is crucial; you need to stop comparing your life with other people.

Yeah, they have time to enjoy watching movies/playing XBox games/reading The Hunger Games/watching Ryan Higa on Youtube/etc without feeling guilty about it, cool, but then, mind you, they also have moments when they're busy with assignments up to their nose.

My point is, learn to enjoy what you're doing and you won't be working for a single day of your life. I bet you're heard that quote somewhere. Yeah, me too but I just can't recall where I saw that. -_-

Oh and last advice, quoting Haymitch of The Hunger Games(the book, obviously),

"Stay alive."

"Sometimes we can't just say "Allah has a better plan for us." 

We have to believe He does."