Yesterday was quite an exciting day in the world of dental extra-curricular activities: we hosted the STATE DENTAL DIRECTOR at the medical school for a lovely dinner talk! Gratifying nerd alert.

Around 35 medical and dental students attended to hear about the current state of oral health promotion in Massachusetts. Ms. Lynn Bethel was a great speaker, and a refreshingly down-to-earth oral health champion despite an unbelievable FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT budget cut this year. SHEESH. I learned a lot about the unique aspects of MA politics, emerging areas of oral health concerns, and impressive ways for MA medical professionals to get meaningfully involved. Over a half-dozen generous and creative classmates helped put on the show, which meant none of us (hopefully) felt any stress in the process. Perfecto.

My friend Jackie was able to land Lynn as the first speaker of the school-year for our dental public health student interest group (O.P.E.N.), which she and I and our friend Carrie helped launch this past spring. We started this year with a collaborative book-sale and used some of the proceeds from that capitalism-gone-right success to fund food for last night’s dinner. HMS student council was kind enough to sponsor the majority of it, as well as an upcoming Resource Card for ALL HMS/HSDM students to use and access low or no-cost dental care in the future. WA HOO!

All good tooth fairies must rest, and since we have an Oral Radiography “final” tomorrow afternoon, bonsoir. Keep in mind that the term “final” is applied to courses with as few as THREE sessions, which is about as many as we’ve had in this topic area. Let’s hope that having taught about x-rays counts as … studying.