OK, Fine.

I'll actually post about the first week back this fall.

It wasn't great.  It wasn't horrible. It was school.  BCD clinic in all it's glory.  9 months to go.

How has this week as a fourth year been any different than a third year?  I think if anything, I was given more opportunity to be the one thinking like a clinician.  In third year, you present your patient for diagnosis with what you think, and the professor tells you what they think.  You see how you disagree and learn from it.  Then you repeat with consults in every area (root canals, fillings, crowns, etc).  Once you have the final plan, you just do it. They check every little step and intervene when things get hairy.  This week, there was a lot more consulting away from chairside.  This means that your story was all the professor got before they gave you advice.  No professor looking in the mouth, no professor seeing with their eyes what you were describing.  I had to take the advice and run with it.  One day, all of it led to pulling a tooth.  Today, it all led to saving the day and seating an impossible-to-seat crown.  The crazy part was that each time, I figured out exactly what was going on in a crazy situation and made what turned out to be the right call all on my own before having it confirmed by a professor. 

They have to kick you out of the nest sometime.  And then one day, I'll have to pick up a phone if I need one of those consults.