Why Passing The FPD Practical Exam Is Such A Big Deal To Me

Have you ever settled with the idea that you simply weren't meant to be good at something, only to realize much later that you've always had the power to change your own mind?

I've passed my FPD Practical Exam, yay! I don't see myself shutting up about it anytime in the next 12 hours, because I'm just so happy about it!

There's a reason why FPD has a special place in my heart. It's actually a place that used to be occupied by shards of broken glass, actually. Okay, I know that I'm rambling here, but since it's Thursday anyway, maybe we can throw it back a little bit.. When I was in Second Year (DMD2), and studying in Manila, I failed Prosthodontics 1 (FPD). Seriously. I failed it, and really badly, I should add. I'm not talking about a 9.25, I mean a 10, or a 10.25-- I really failed it, big time. That was my first ever 5.00, and it will always be on my permanent record. At that time, I wanted to be a professor (no, actually, I wanted to be a Dean), but then, my then-school doesn't accept teacher applicants who've incurred failing marks, so it means that my 5.00 has automatically closed a door for me-- a door that I really wanted to enter. Lately, I've (unfortunately) been using the term dream-killing pretty loosely, but at that time, that 5.00 of mine was the epitome of a killed dream.

I can't really say that there's a single reason why I failed the subject, but if I had to do a quick post-mortem, I'd have to say that the setting wasn't conducive to the way I learn (by the way, this turned out to be a recurring theme in my education-- at least until I moved to my beloved UPHSD), and I didn't really do anything to compensate. I hated FPD with passion, really! I think I was in such a spiral of misery and a general loss of hunger for learning that I just completely lost motivation. I took the subject again that summer, and fortunately passed-- but not in the way that made me feel like a newly-refilled cup. I felt like I just passed, and that was it. ..and then I went to UPHSD. What I love about my school is the low student to teacher ratio, meaning that more people can get individual attention. I was lucky enough that the FPD Dad recognized my difficulty almost instantly, and helped me through it. He also gave me a typodont tooth for me to "study" so that I'd learn how to do it properly-- and then I later found out that the model typodont was actually that of my friend, Ofela Zapa. By the way, I find that prepping typodont teeth is a lot more difficult than prepping natural human teeth in patients. Am I the only one who feels this way..? I was encouraged to practice, practice, and practice! FPD Dad made me to one correct bridge a week, and called me out when he'd see me lounging around and doing nothing. Yes, all the practices were financially straining, and that's why I eventually decided to buy my typodont teeth abroad. I was always made to practice, that there were times that I'd whine, but then I'd do it anyway.

I've only passed the Practical Exam. I haven't lost sight of the fact that the real battle is still ahead of me.. but oh yes, that 87.5 feels hella good. The credit isn't really mine.. Most of it belongs to FPD Dad, actually, because he never gave up on me. I came into the kingdom with a less-than-wonderful skill set from a teaching style that didn't completely resonate with me, but he never lost patience with me, and he kept pushing me to persevere.

I can't believe how much I've grown, FPD-wise. When I was in Second Year, my preparations were very unfortunate-looking to the point that they looked like toothpicks.. and now, I'm an outgoing Senior Clinician, and my preps earned me an 87.5-- still with a lot of room to improve, but hey. I'd like to believe that it's something. What happened to the shards of glass..? They've been loved off, not by FPD Dad, but by me. I loved them off.

#PracticalExams #FPD #Prosthodontics