Student memories

This rather ugly example of classic 1970's concrete architecture houses the Leeds Dental Institute (as well as the medical school and other related courses). Of course, when I started as an undergraduate dental student in 1989 it was two separate entities, the Dental School and the Dental Hospital.

It might not be the most attractive building but I have very fond memories of this place, having spent a significant amount of my adult life here. After as four years and one term as a dental student I worked for nine months as a house officer (this post no longer exists!), returned to do some weekly teaching in oral surgery 1997-1999, and became a full time student and specialist registrar in orthodontics from 2002 to 2005.

This year marks exactly 20 years since I graduated as a dentist. It's hard to believe I've really been a dentist for that long, but I've checked the maths, and can't find an error, so it must be true! The actual date I graduated is sometime in December, maybe the 11th, but my memory isn't *that* good!

Two weeks ago I returned to the Dental Institute take attend the Alumni Day, organised by the reformed Leeds Dental Alumni Association. There was a full day of lectures by past graduates or staff on a variety of topics, from current student teaching, to 3D technology and some of the latest dental politics. Sadly only a handful of my year could make it, but it was brilliant to see those that could.  There were other familiar faces too, people from years who were there at the same time as me, and local dentists I have met or worked with over the years.

There was a lot of 'oh you haven't changed at all', which really was true, it was not difficult to recognise anybody! The same couldn't be said for the Dental Institute. Of course it has changed a lot in 20 years, but even in the 8 years since I was last there is looks and feels very different. I thought, perhaps for the  benefit of past students, I'd run down the obvious changes.

Outside the building itself is much the same. The surroundings, however are very different. New buildings have sprung up, most notably the Jubilee Wing of the LGI and the multi-storey car park, but also the research building right next to the Worsley Building. Further away, if you take a short walk into Leeds you'd find Millennium Square, new shops and shopping centres, and loads of new bars and restaurants.

Enter the Worsley building on level 4 (this being the ground floor!) and the porter's desk is still there, but I wonder where all those cheerful porters, with their weekly 'buy a square' raffle went? The dental students are now clothed in maroon pyjamas, no own clothes any more, and no button-down-the-back tunics, it's more traditional front fastened ones now.

The dental common room on level 6 is still present, but smaller, the part that had the pool table is now a seminar room, and the pigeon holes orange seats are long gone (RIP). Even the lecture theatre has been refurbed (more than once I think), no orange there either, and of course proper digital projection, none of those slide carousels anymore. Which must mean less problem with upside-down or back-to-front slides, or dual projection getting out of sync!

I'll come back to the rest of the dental school in a bit. We were lucky to have a tour of the Dental Hospital. This was the bit that most astounded me. It had already been upgraded since I was an undergraduate (I remember Cons being refurbed while I was there, we thought it was state of the art then), but it's recently undergone a major transformation. So much that I got disorientated and couldn't really work out where I was! Walls have been moved, clinics combined (no separate Perio, Cons, Pros any more, but 'Restorative South' and 'Restorative North'), even Ortho has totally changed. However, it does look great, the digital radiography must be a real boon, but when will they get rid of those yellow note cards and go fully digital?

The biggest change is in the labs on the 5th floor. The phantom head room and the lab room where we spent hours sitting round benches with bunsens and wax knives are gone. Where 13 students used to crowding round one demonstrator, who tried to show us the finer points of drilling a cavity in a an extracted tooth technology has taken strides forward. The demo can now be seen 'as live' on a screen, and screen show in detail the student's work. The bit that impressed us all was the 'Simodont' room.

These make use of 3D and virtual reality technology, and can teach good posture while the student is learning, as you have to sit at the correct focal distance. A touchscreen selects the tooth you want to 'treat', and wearing 3D glasses, like those at the cinema, you can see it through the window. Select the instrument you want to use and you can not only see it in the window (this picture doesn't convey the 3D-ness of it all!) but feel like you're holding it in your hand. The foot pedal turns the drill 'on', complete with the appropriate noise, and when you 'drill' the tooth it looks and feels like real tooth. This is the really amazing bit, it really does feel just like drilling a tooth.

The student showing us round watched me, and commented that it was good to watch how a 'real dentist' drilled a tooth. Little did she know that I haven't removed any decay or done any fillings for 11 years since I started orthodontics full time!

Whilst this is still no substitute for real patients, with real teeth, tongues, lips and saliva, the students will be much better prepared when they do reach that stage. They need to be, with more student numbers than in my day (90 per year, we had about 50) there is less overall time for treatments, and 'totals' no longer exist. Sadly I missed the lecture on current student teaching as I was giving my own lecture to postgraduate orthodontists, but the staff did acknowledge that current students leave with less experience than we did (the people who qualified in 1973 probably said that about us). However the postgraduate training pathway is now more structured to take account of this.

In the evening there was a black tie dinner and disco, which was even better attended than the daytime. There were 7 of us in total from our year, we managed to find time to get a picture taken. From L-R Rav, Rachel, Rob, Bea, Me, Andy, Sarah.

The evening provided a less formal means of catching up with all the people I knew, and a few I didn't,  plus some boogie-time on the dance floor. I did decline to join the more recent graduates at a nightclub in Leeds, with the excuse of not being able to walk in my heels.

Hopefully with the new committee in place and earlier notice we will get more of Year of 1993 along next year, or we'll be waiting for the next major milestone in four years time.