WREB

Last weekend I challenged the Western Region Examining Board.  It was a nerve wracking and exciting weekend.  The exam consists of a written portion, and doing 2 root canals, 2 fillings and a deep cleaning.  I took the written portion at a testing center a few weeks before.  The weekend of the exam was for the clinical portions.  The exam was on Friday, Saturday and a half day on Sunday.  The only part of the weekend that was scheduled was the root canal portion.  It is done on extracted teeth on manikins so there is limited space for the this part.  I was unfortunate to have it scheduled on Saturday, the day most of my patients could come in.  I worked things out with my patients so that I could seen one Friday afternoon, one Saturday after the root canal exam and one on Sunday morning.  I lost the leeway since I could get anything lined up for Friday morning so everything needed to go smoothly.   Fortunately for me, I have a wonderful wife.

My lovely assistant and I in our garb.  (Sorry for the low quality phone pictures)
I think that I tried to smile for this picture.

The my assistant for the weekend ended up being my patient on Friday.  EmmaLee first saved me by being my clinical assistant that day.  Everything was going fine until Saturday afternoon.  My patient for the deep cleaning didn't show up and I couldn't get a hold of him!  When he finally called back he said that he had been to the hospital but promised up and down that he would be able to come in the next day.  I called my patient that I was going to treat on Sunday to come in, but he out of the city and wouldn't be able to make it on time.  It was the same case for the other patient that I had screened for the exam.  I started asking my classsmates if they had any back up patients I could use for either a filling or a deep cleaning to no avail.  EmmaLee had a really small cavity that I was afraid that the examiners would not accept, but I had run out of options.  She totally saved me again by dropping what she was doing and coming in to be my patient.  The examiners approved her as a patient and I was able to get the filling done in time.  Sunday went smoothly because my patient did make it in and I had an assistant.  I also need to thank the Van Dusen family for their help.  I couldn't do it without them either!

Hard at work saving the world!

The Jury is still out on whether I passed or not, but I think it went well.  At least I didn't have any automatic failures (like not having a patient) but only time will tell.  I did, however, find out that I did pass my national boards.  If I did indeed pass the WREB, the only thing I need to do is finished my requirements for school.  Thank you so much for the love and prayers from everyone.  Please keep us in your prayers.