It's Beginning to Cost A lot like Christmas

It's that time of year again when chestnuts roast on the open fire, Jack Frost nips at your nose, Yuletide carols are sung by a choir and folks dress up like Eskimos. Yes...everybody knows 'tis the season for family, close friends, snow and lots of spending!

Since I've become a broke Dental Student my Christmas Wishlist or every Wishlist for that matter just seems to be growing longer and longer. Did you know that during the Christmas season the average person anticipates spending $556 in gifts alone?! and I thought the Country was still in a quasi-recession.

Anyhow, I have a dilemma. I have to buy gifts for the family and friends but have a very limited budget. Can you help me out?  Using the numbers 5,5,5,1, and the four basic arithmetic operations, see if you can derive the number 24. See, $24 is the amount of money I'll be spending on gifts for each member of my household. Hey! don't judge me it's the thought that counts :)

And yes, you guessed it - It's Mental Monday! Solve Away!

My First Set of Wax-Ups

Just a couple more days before the end of my first semester in Dental School and I must say Occlusion has been one of the more fun, stress free classes. If you recall I had my "Initiation" into Dentistry through this class when I carved my first tooth out of wax. As the semester went on and we learned more and more about each tooth's anatomy and intricate details we had to do a little bit more than just carve teeth. We had to do what is called a wax-up/wax drop.

Waxing up teeth involves wax, a colored marking pencil, a tooth peg, dentoform/typodont, bunsen burner, specialized instruments, knowledge of dental anatomy, a good eye for detail and nylon :) for the sparkle. The actual waxing skills are developed on the way.




Essentials


 Waxing up is in essence building a tooth from wax. Now this may sound easy but keep in mind that this has to look like an actual tooth and actually be functional, i.e the aim is to reproducibly relate the maxillary (upper) and mandubular (lower) teeth; they must contact each other (not too long, short, thick or thin). This ordeal includes placing and removing wax, making marginal ridges, sealing margins, shaping the tooth, establishing occlusal contacts, and evaluating the final wax-up.

 

Facial View:
Maxillary Right Central Incisor - #8. Also photographed:
Maxillary Right Canine#6 and Left Canine #11

 Lingual/Palatal View:
Maxillary Right Central #8 and Canine #6

Facial/Buccal View:
Maxillary Right Canine #6. also photographed:
Mandibular Right 2nd Premolar #29 and Mandibular 1st Molar #30

Occlusal View:
Mandibular Right 2nd Premolar #29 and 1st Molar #30

BONUS!!

Facial View:
Maxillary Left Canine #11. This is a wax-up of my Final Exam.

  Now if I should say so myself, the pictures do not give these wax-ups justice. They look a lot better in person. Now that this phase of Occlusion is over, I'm looking forward to the next phase which brings more fun and more challenge. Bring it on Second Semester!

**On another note, it's Mental Monday! Go here for today's trivia and to see last week's answer and winner**

Work it, Own It!

Thanksgiving with the family and close friends was great! I blame it all for the lack of a post last week. Not to worry though, I'm now back from my mini vacay and naturally, it's back to the grind as finals are well on their way. Sometimes all we need is a little break so we can dive back in, full throttle. With that being said, dive into this Mental Monday trivia. It's a tough one so the first person to come up with the correct answer(s) gets a $10 iTunes gift card! (no joke).

First person to come up with the correct answer(s) gets $10 iTunes gift card!

On Saturday, 6 marriages are due to be performed throughout the day at the local church. However, the details of the brides and grooms have been inadvertently mixed up in the planner. Although each name is in the correct column, only 1 name in each colum is correctly positioned.

	Groom 1st	Groom 2nd	Bride 1st	Bride 2nd
1	Abe	Goliath	Minnie	Stephens
2	Bill	Holdernes	Nina	Tallis
3	Colin	Idi	Olive	Underwood
4	Doug	James	Pauline	Vitori
5	Eddie	Kite	Alice	Wells
6	Fred	Leonard	Rosie	Yates

Here are the facts that are certain about the correct order:

1. Yates is 2 places below Goliath
2. Colin is 1 place below Idi
3. Fred is 3 places below Nina, who is 2 above Underwood
4. Vitori is somewhere below Olive who is somewhere below Kite
5. James is 1 place above Pauline who is 2 places above Doug
6. Rosie is 1 place above Abe who is one above Stephens
Give the first and last names of the groom and bride for each position.

You know what time it is!

PS answer might be easier to send in table form. Feel free to send a table with correct answers to patrice@stu-dentdiaries.com or copy & paste table you made in the comment section.

♪♫ Let's Get Physical, Physical ♪♫

 It's Mental Monday! Put on your thinking caps.

Look at the following:

1 + 23 - 4 + 5 - 6 + 78 + 9 = 106

Notice that the digits 1 through 9 are used in order to arrive at 106. Using 1 through 9 in order, and using only addition or subtraction, create equations that equal 100.

Come on, give me at least 2 equations! Post your answers in the comments section.

♪♫ Let's get Physicaaaal ♪♫

Train Your Brain

It's Monday! and I'm here again to give you your weekly brain work-out with   

Mental Monday.

I had a pretty relaxed week last week, and not to toot my own horn but I must thank my own Mental Monday post (and my relaxed school/study schedule) for putting me in that frame of mind. Now that it's time for another work/school week let's pick up the pace.

How good is your memory, problem solving skills, flexibility, attention and processing speed? You may have a general idea but how can you really tell for sure? A couple weeks ago I came across a website geared towards improving all those mentioned above, it's called Lumosity. What's on it? GAMES-geared toward enhancing cognition!
It was designed by neuroscientists and game developers; research shows where these games, as simple as they appear, help in ones overall cognition.

I'm a true testament that lumosity works. In just a couple days after visiting lumosity in my down time, I have seen improvement in my memory and Brain Performance Index (BPI). For example, I have to draw teeth for my Occlusion class - it's a way of studying and knowing our teeth's anatomy and morphology. Before starting lumosity I would have to repeatedly refer to my laboratory manual for the dimensions of the teeth, even when drawing the same tooth more than once. After a couple training sessions with lumosity, I was able to draw all my molars, from different views by having only looked at the laboratory manual once.

Lumosity does work and is free for the most part, but you must make an account in order to participate in the exercises. Another good thing about lumosity...there's an app. for it! Check it out on your iPhone or any other smart phone. This way you can train your brain on the go.

Click the link below and find out your brain grade and start a training program to improve your memory and congnition.

Come back and share your progress!

Relax...

It's Monday again, and I must say it has been a mentally taxing weekend for me. So this week for Mental Monday, I'd like to slow the pace a little.

Let's RELAX...
You can't avoid all stress but you can counteract it's negative effects by evoking a relaxation technique. For example, practice deep breathing, yoga, meditate, listen to classical music, etc. All these in the end leaves the body more relaxed and enforces mental clarity.

Listen to Classical Music:
Investigations at University of California, explained that kids who studied music by learning an instrument or learning to sing, were greatly superior at solving puzzles, and when examined, scored 80% higher in spatial intellect than the non-musical crowd. In a different study, 36 students were prearranged three spatial analysis experiments on a typical IQ test. Just before the primary examination, they would listen to Mozart’s sonata two piano sonatas, K. 448 over a period of ten minutes. Prior to the subsequent test, they listened to a relaxation recording. Prior to the third, they did not listen to everything. The standard scores for all 36 of them: 1st examination: 119. 2nd examination: 111. 3rd examination: 110. A Student who listened to classical music saw an increase of nine points. (mindcafe.org)

So not only will you be more relaxed but you will also be increasing your cognitive abilities.



Answer to last week's Mental Monday riddle: 1113213211

Riddle me this...

It's Mental Monday y'all, where we post activities geared towards enhancing your cognitive abilities.

Riddle me this, riddle me that...Did you know that a great way to exercise your mind is by doing puzzles, lateral thinking puzzles or just some odd riddles? The good thing about this is, you can do it anytime or anywhere. Just a few minutes while waiting for a doctor's appointment or riding the bus can help significantly enhance your problem solving skills. So are you ready? let's go!

What row of numbers come next in the series?

1
11
21
1211
111221
312211
13112221

Respond with your answers. Surprise for you at the end!

Mental Gymnastics

I'm starting a new trend here on Stu-DENT Diaries - Mental Monday, where every Monday I share an activity geared towards enhancing your cognitive abilities. Who's with me? (Lets just hope I can keep this up).

Due to the gazillion amount of information I receive everyday from my classes, it seems my brain is continuously working - even in my sleep! However, the brain cannot function at optimal capacity without exercise and of course, hydration. Water is extremely important to the brain's function. Did you know that the brain is approximately 90% water? Many parts of the brain draw much of their energy from water and also uses it as a communicator between nerves for neuro-transmission.  Physical exercise is also important as this increases circulation and consequently oxygen and glucose to the brain, which in turn enables mental clarity.

As physical exercise strengthens your body, exercising your mind strengthens your brain. I like to refer to this as brain-ercise or simply, mental gymnastics. We should all try to engage ourselves in small activities such as Sudoku, puzzles, drawing, and math quizzes as all these stimulate the brain, helping to create and maintain important neuronal connections critical to cognitive abilities.

Now, our first activity for Mental Monday...Write with the opposite of your dominant hand. It may be difficult initially, but with a little practice and some neuronal connections, you will get the hang of it.

My practice: