La Crete Dentistry Student Rotation - University of Alberta

1812 Views · June 6 · Filed under dentistry, North rotations

On Wednesday, May 24, 2006, we finished our 2 day stay in La Crete and headed back to High Level. There are 2 things I learned in La Crete.

1. Do NOT call your patients with their last names. La Crete is a small town, and there are many people with the same last names. At a given time, there could be more than 4 people with the same surname showing up in the dental clinic. They may be related, but are not in the same family!!! So, call your patient’s first name instead.

2. The pediatric patients in La Crete are super cool. They let you do any dental work without any resistance. When you do local anesthetic injections, those pedo kids may show some uneasiness (eg, hands turn into fists), but…they do not kick their legs, punch people, or cry out loud. You can do any dental work very smoothly on a 7 or 8 year old kids without even their parents being there at the chair. Occassionally you may see tears running down from their eyes, but they do NOT scream! They are totally different from those spoiled City kids who cry out loud even before getting the needle. When I was in La Crete, I even got to see a 3-year-old kid. What a contrast. Those kids are so well behaved and show so much control. I wonder how those La Crete kids are raised in their families.

Top left: a bridge over Peace River
Top right: Peace River
Bottom left: Thomas was extremely happy. Why? See below.
Bottom right: Susi & Claire

In La Crete, there is no liquor store. There are no drunk dudes on the streets. The town is very peaceful and people are friendly. So…once we got back to High Level, the first thing we had was BEER.