I have been teaching dental students at the Dental Faculty, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, for the past eight years. This is the place where students are trained to become one of us, the dentists.
I supervise them in the Restorative clinic. This clinic is in a large room with about twenty cubicles. Each cubicle has a dental chair. Dental treatment here is free and is open to public. A registered patient will be treated by dental students, who usually work in pairs. Most of the Year Four students are good and eager to learn. They remind me of my dental student's days. This is the time when you feel like a 'sponge' and you are required to absorb as much knowledge as your brain can take. Glad that this chapter of my life have ended. My duty is to guide them and check their work, step by step. I always tell my students that it is better to make a mistake here in dental school than when they are out on their own because they can learn from their mistake and I will be there to help and rectify it. That's the purpose of supervision.
Eight years is a long time. Perhaps, I should tell the Deputy Dean, who is a good friend of mine that it is time for me to close this chapter of my life too....
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