Muhlenberg athletes are spending the summer of 2024 enjoying fantastic experiences on campus, in their hometowns, across the country and even around the world. Rising junior men's basketball player Nate Hoffman wrote about his experience working with a dentist in his home state of Indiana.

I am a neuroscience major with plans on pursuing dental school. This summer, I was exploring many dental offices around my hometown of Bloomington, Indiana, in order to get the required shadowing hours that are necessary for dental school. One office, Millikan Smiles, was looking to hire prospective dental students to aid in everyday office activities. Luckily, Dr. Daniel Millikan was generous enough to offer me an internship to help me better understand how a dentist's office operates and to build foundational knowledge that is useful within the field of dentistry.  

I chose to pursue this opportunity to gain experience in a field that I am interested in making a career out of. Not only does this internship give me insight into how an office runs, but it allows me to start learning some of the basic skills and information that are needed by successful dentists. By working in the office, I have learned the names of important instruments and their uses. I have also learned the numbering sequence used to identify teeth and how to examine x-rays. Most importantly, this experience has allowed me to better understand how to dictate the flow of an office to be as efficient as possible to best serve patients needs. 

Most days, I am tasked with helping to prepare and clean up rooms, sterilize instruments that have been put to use and assist as much as I am allowed to. Throughout the day, I am able to watch Dr. Millikan perform procedures and soak up as much information as I can. His knowledge and expertise has been invaluable for me to learn from. So far, I have learned many new tips and tricks that I am excited to put to practice.

During procedures, tidbits of information are discussed, which helps me reinforce some of the concepts that I have learned in courses that I have taken at Muhlenberg. My biology, chemistry and physiology courses have been very useful and have allowed me to better understand real-world applications of the information I learned in the classroom. 

My favorite experience so far has been using an extracted tooth to learn how to prepare a tooth for a new crown placement. After Dr. Millikan extracted a decaying tooth and it had been sterilized, he helped me put it into a cement mold. I was tasked with removing the crown off of the extracted tooth and filing it down in preparation for a crown. This process allowed me to simulate, for the first time, the hand skills that are required to perform such a delicate task. It was a great first experience, but I'm sure that if it had to be used, the patient would not be very happy with my work.

Overall, this is a great learning opportunity, and I am excited to continue to learn more about the field of dentistry as the summer continues!

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