All the federal services have ADA accredited specialty training programs. Each service does their training a little differently. The Army has their specialty programs spread throughout different Army bases. The Navy has all of their training programs located at their post-graduate dental school at Bethesda. This building is the location of the Navy programs. Just inside of the lobby is a room dedicated to FDR and the history behind the creation...read more

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I'm not sure how many of you have ever seen a flag raising on an Army base, but it happens every morning. Reveille is typically broadcast on speakers around the base for the whole community to hear :) This was taken at Ft. Myer, Va. When Reveille starts everyone on post is supposed to stop, face the flag and salute. If you are driving you should stop the car and get out and salute.

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I had a little bit of an exciting time on a recruiting trip up to Columbia School of Dentistry this past week. I was flying out of Reagan National Airport and I had checked in at home. I made it through security and all the way to the gate when I checked the monitor and saw that my flight had been canceled due to mechanical issues (picture below is the airport). Normally if I were flying on my own I would have had to find the next available flight and sit around the...read more

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I haven't talked about cases that have been going on in the clinic much. I guess there is a couple of reasons: 1) Not being able to connect my camera to government computers at work means that I have to try to do the pictures at home - a little more effort 2) Seeing so many things each day - I sometimes forget to grab the camera. Today I had a new experience. I was seeing a foreign officer from a Latin American country. In that country they use a type of metal in...read more

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Although we didn't celebrate it on Thanksgiving, last week we had a Fort Belvoir Dental Clinic Command (Fort Belvoir and Fort Myer) get together to celebrate Thanksgiving and also get some training done. The training took up most of the morning and covered such exciting topics as cold weather injury prevention, and infection control. The afternoon was spent enjoying a Thanksgiving potluck and a game of charades. Although I won't regret my deployment...read more

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With the recent realignment that occurred Fort Belvoir and Fort Myer now fall under the command of the Fort Meade DENTAC. Recently our commander sponsored a continuing education day for all the dentists within his command (Maryland, N. Virginia, and Pennsylvania). We had presentations in Periodontics/implants, Prosthodontics, and Oral Pathology. Even learned how the different specialties compare to general contracting

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One of the things I have enjoyed while being in the Army is the activities that the Army sponsors. Although I have never lived on an Army base in my 10 yr career, activities like the 4th of July, regular athletic competitions, sports programs, camp outs, hikes, and other activities add an additional aspect of events we can participate in. My daughter and I decided to participate in the Fort Belvoir Turkey Trot. This was a 5k/10k race today (we did 5k). At 11...read more

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Recently SPC Bell and I decided to see how well our dentistry skills stacked up in other areas of the dental clinic...like carpentry. Although we have a new clinic being built - we have some things that have to get us by until we move. One of those items were our chairs in the waiting room. We had some not so flattering comments about the "esthetics" of our waiting room and decided to do something about it. Many of our chairs had springs, wires,...read more

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This picture clearly demonstrates why we wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) - masks, glasses, gowns, etc... Unfortunately I got the picture after his mask was off - but you can see all the splatter on his glasses and forehead.

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It was time once again for our semi-annual right of passage - the Army physical fitness test (APFT). In reality you end up doing 4 a year because they also like to do a diagnostic test the month before. I think I will be smarter next time and just use the diagnostic test as my APFT that counts - thus cutting out 2 a year :) Like most Army units we take our test early in the morning. We began at 0630 (which is actually later than many units I have been in) other...read more

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