Today was my final day with Dr. Siegel. I have had so much fun and have gained so much insight on what is it like to be a dentist. Today I talked to her temporary dental assistant about how she came to be one and what her experience has been like. It’s so cool how many different jobs one can have that would land them working with a dentist or in a dentist’s office. The coolest thing I saw Dr. Siegel do today was put a mold in someone’s mouth to make them a night guard. It was kind of similar to what the orthodontist had to do to make my retainer. I saw her mix some type of powder together with water in order to make the mold them put it in the mouth tray. It is important to pick the right size mouth tray so it fits the patient’s mouth and doesn’t make them uncomfortable. After she has the molds of the top and bottom teeth, I saw her make another type of paste that she pours into the mold. She will them send that off to a lab for them to make the night guard and they will send it to her in about a week! Isn’t that cool? I loved shadowing Dr. Siegel and hope that I’ll get to see her some time in the future! 
Category: Brooke B – Dentistry
Day 7
Dr. Siegel’s office was closed once again because she does not work on Wednesdays. She deserves the time off for how hard she works. Today I watched some videos that gave tips on how to get into dental school. Some of the tips that I found most helpful were to do well on the DAT, focus on your load of classes rather than your GPA, and shadowing! I’m so glad I’ve been given the opportunity to shadow Dr. Siegel, it’s been such a great opportunity. I also learned that community service and extracurriculars are very helpful to get in because it shows that you can be social and have a life outside of dentistry. Dentists have to be very social in order to be successful.
Day 6
Dr. Siegel was still on vacation today so her office was closed. You guessed it, I watched some YouTube videos to try and gather some more information. Today I decided to watch some videos on dental schools to try to figure out what would be some good options for me. I learned that some good schools for dentistry are, UCLA, University of Maryland, UNC, and NYU. I wasn’t too aware of options outside of state so it was helpful to learn what was out there.
Day 5
Dr. Siegel’s office was closed on today so I once again watched some videos on YouTube. I decided to watch some “day in the life of a dental student” videos to get a feel of what it would be like. The students were very busy but enjoyed what they were doing. They knew that their hard work would be worth it in the end. I also look at “days in the life of a dental hygienist” because I wanted to see what their days are like as well. I know that the hygienists get to do less schooling so I wanted to see if I was interested in what they get to do as well! Here are some links to some of the videos I watched since I don’t have any interesting images.
Day 4
Today was an amazing day. I can now say that I have seen Dr. Siegel do every procedure that she does! We have been crazy busy. She did have a dental assistant today, but the assistant had to help the hygienist at some points so Dr. Siegel had to work alone which is VERY difficult to do. She is one of the few dentists that can comfortably work without an assistant because when she first started practicing, that’s what she had to do. It is so impressive watching her work whether it’s by herself or with an assistant. My favorite part of today was watching her fill in someone’s chipped tooth. This man is a psychologist so his appearance is very important to him because he wants to have a good impression on his patients and wants to look professional. She used a technique called bonding in order to fix the tooth. She did this procedure without an assistant! It looked like a brand new tooth by the time she was done, it was amazing. He walked out of the office confident, ready to take on new patients. Her work continues to remind me of why I want to become a dentist/orthodontist. I want to make people feel better and help them feel confident in themselves. It seems so rewarding!
Day 3
Dr. Siegel’s office is closed on Wednesdays, so I did not get to go in. Instead, I watched some educational videos on Youtube on how braces work. I learned that the wire that goes in the braces is a certain temperature outside of the mouth that allows it to bend and move and be formed to fit the structure of a person’s set of teeth. Once the wire is connected to one’s braces in their mouth, the wire temperature cools causing it to move back to its original structure bringing the teeth with it which makes the teeth look good. It was really informative and interesting!
Day 2
I had a very busy and exciting day today. In the morning, I had the amazing opportunity to tour the UNC Dental School with Dr. Mac and four other students doing dentistry related work experiences. My favorite part was doing the SIM lab with orthodontist, Dr. Frazier, where we got to put the rubber bands on fake sets of teeth! It was so cool to be doing hands-on activities. We got to ask lots of questions to an admissions worker and got to eat lunch and go on a tour with current dental students. It was so amazing getting to see what their lives are like and the amazing facilities they get to learn in.
The second half of my day I was back in Dr. Siegel’s office. Once again, it was very busy. The most interesting part was seeing not one, but two patients get numbing shots in their gums with pretty big needles. They both were getting cavities filled so they needed numbed gums to not feeling the drilling. It was pretty scary looking but Dr. Siegel was very reassuring to the patients the whole time which made me feel better. We ended the day with some charting which is very important to see because patients’ charts need to be correctly updated for the next time they come in.
Day 1
During my first day shadowing Dr. Siegel, we saw five patients. It was a very busy morning especially because Dr. Siegel doesn’t have her assistant this week so she is doing a lot of extra tasks. We definitely got our steps in today juggling the patients. We saw patients of all different ages so it was very cool to see how different ages get different treatments. The most intriguing case for me was an older woman, probably in her 70’s, that came in because she was experiencing some pain caused by her denture. It turns out that she has extremely weak gums that are very sensitive. The denture was a little too long on one side and didn’t fit quite right so it was rubbing against her gum causing the discomfort. Dr. Siegel was able to remove the denture and use a sharp tool to shave down the longer side of the denture. Once she got the shape just right after a few tries, the patient felt instant relief and was so much happier with the denture. It was amazing seeing patients feel more comfortable and confident in such a short time. Also, something that I really enjoyed witnessing was the close relationships Dr. Siegel has with her patients. “That’s what happens when you work at the same practice for 30 years”, she says.
Intro Post
Over the next two weeks, I get to work with/shadow Dr. Cheryl Siegel who is a local dentist in Raleigh. I am so excited for this opportunity and to share what I learn and see!
https://cherylsiegeldds.com/about-us/