DTUK1610

11MSc BlogJune 14-20, 2010United Kingdom Edition I am delighted to announce that I am up to date with my course work – all lectures so far have been listened to and the critical reading has been printed out and read – well, skimmed anyway! We have left Unit 1 behind, except for the end of unit assess- ment which is due in a week’s time – five short answer ques- tions on topics ranging from the characteristics I would seek in a new caries diagnostic device, to how I would choose between a conformative or reorganised ap- proach to the occlusal scheme in a patient requiring multiple posterior restorations replaced. Sounds like a day in the life of a general practitioner...Still, putting my thoughts down in a succinct yet organised manner will re- quire some effort! I haven’t re- ceived the results from the first assessment where I really did struggle to answer the questions within the word allocation which makes me slightly nervous... Unit 1 covered the Founda- tions of Clinical Practice, leading us into Unit 2 entitled Aesthetic Foundations. This is much more familiar territory for me, hav- ing spent the last eight years of my professional career involved in the British Academy of Cos- metic Dentistry. I would clas- sify my learning style as ‘highly impatient’ or ‘cut to the chase’ – I can’t abide waffle, and I was concerned that as I have spent many years learning about smile design, aesthetic evaluation etc, I may become frustrated with having to revisit these areas. All credit goes to Chris Orr – not only was his presentation a work of art (must be a Mac thing) – but he did keep my attention and pulled the information to- gether in a very logical and sci- entific method. His excellent use of actual cases served as real- life examples to describe smile evaluation, which can often be a tedious subject to teach as it so often turns into a long list cover- ing lip line, embrasures, contact points, connector lengths, golden proportion etc. Included in the lectures was an e-learning unit on photography which was ex- cellent. Even as a regular user of digital photography, I gained some useful insights into how I could further utilise photogra- phy on a daily basis. As I write this, the next thing is our first residential learn- ing course in London. More on hands-on photography – yippee! I have spent years teaching my team how to take excellent pho- tographs (which they do!) so that I don’t have to and now I have to turn up with my camera! What goes around comes around. My team are looking forward to me showing myself up in a subject I used to teach in the early days of BACD! We’ll see – I am looking forward to meeting my fellow stu- dents who have so far just been a list of names and comments be- side the webinars. DT Cut to the chase learning In this issue of her blog, Elaine Halley discusses the latest developments in being an online MSc student Visit mscinfo.smile-on.com for details About the author Elaine Halley BDS DGDP (UK) is the BACD Immediate Past President and the principal of Cherrybank Dental Spa, a private prac- tice in Perth. She is an active member of the AACD and her main interest is cosmetic and ad- vanced restorative dentistry and she has studied extensively in the United States, Europe and the UK.