Northern Virginia Dental Clinic + Taylor Mac

hello peeps,

I hope those of you who were able to make it to the Myrtle NCDS meeting had as much fun as I did. Whoop! I am not much of a shag dancer, though, that's for sure.

I'm now back in Virginia at the Northern Virginia Dental Clinic which is in Falls Church, VA.

I'm staying in Springfield, VA with my parents, which so far has not led me to pulling all of my hair out... not yet anyway. I brought my chihuahua, Scout, with me - she is having fun, too.  But anyway, back to bizness - the clinic is about 15 miles from my parents' house, but it takes me 45 minutes to get to the clinic (boo - D.C. area traffic)! I haven't gotten in a major traffic jam (i.e. no motion) yet, and I hope it doesn't happen.

 The clinic is a bit sketch (see above) I mean it IS a one stop shop - you can get a filling, deposit a check, make sure your life insurance policy is up to date, and then get your hair did. Niiiiice.

It's not quite a free clinic - the way it works is various agencies in certain Virginia counties refer patients to the clinic; then, to schedule appointments the patients pay $40 per appointment (so the pts don't pay for the work itself, but for the appointments... needless to say if that was how the dental school worked they'd be RICH)! It works well to prevent patients from just not showing up, though, which is a problem at a lot of free clinics... so that's good.

I have my own operatory (with a sign - "NCU" haha, see below) that contains a chair very much like the ones we have at school. It's nice, the people are really sweet - only a couple are regulars (the overseeing doctor, and a lead assistant). The rest are volunteers. I see about four patients a day, two in the morning, two in the afternoon - for 1.5 hours each. I do about 2-3 fillings per appt which is cool and way faster than at school, at least for me. One day I got to extract 11 teeth in an hour (it sounds awesome when you say it like that)... but they were seriously "woodsen teeth," i.e. I did not use elevators or forceps... they came out when I used the woodsen periosteal elevator. Just "plop." I'm not a huge fan of my preceptor - she's kind of quiet and not very personable, and isn't interested in "teaching" really... but otherwise, it's alright.

On a funny note, for the first week my signs read "Tyler" and then "Teylor" and finally "Taylor." For some reason despite the fact that I called them and spoke with them on the phone, they thought I was going to be a boy, and that my name was Tyler. Sorry to disappoint, NVDC.

And what time at a free clinic would be complete without the poor patient, who couldn't afford the $40 to schedule her next appointment, checking her schedule on an iPhone 4? Not mine! Also - gotta love that old-school scheduling method, the gigantic paperbound notebook. Shout out to Mary - best front desk person evAAaaar!

Looking forward to seeing you guys again soon (except Kevin). ;) It's lonely up here in VA! I will say UNC is quite well known and the dental school is definitely well respected. I just hate that every other person I tell I'm from UNC smiles and is like "oh, I LOVE the Tarheels!" and I have to smile back halfheartedly and be like "Thanks..."

:-D GO DUKE!

Love,
Tay

P.S. I hope you all didn't get an e-mail every time I edited this sucker and re-posted... it's been like, eight thousand times b/c clearly, I can't shpell.