My white coat ceremony!!!

As you can see in the pictures, the "yang" before receiving white coat and after receiving white coat...
Today, Friday, Oct 08, 2004 is going to be a fairly important day in my dental career... ( sounds so professional now! haha)
It's the day for all of us D1 (dental first year) to receive our pre-purchased white clinic coat. ( btw, each of them is $15.25 + tax + embroidery $4.00 each )

Anyways, UM dental school started to have this ceremony since three years ago, the D4s arrange the white coat ceremony for the D1s and welcome us to join this dental community.
I think it's really neat and thoughful, and it does make a little meaningful for us.

So, basically, each of us ( there are the total of 108 students in my class) got up to the stage, the D4 class president helped us put on our own white coat, shaked hands, and took a picture from the photographer.

The most remarkable thing of getting the clinic coat is that we are actully going to be in the clinic helping out patients starting next week!!!! Even though we are just the dental assistents for the D3 or D4 upper classmates, it is still exciting. I don't know if I am ready since I've only been in school for about 1.5 months. I hope I don't screw things up :-D

The last thing, I'd like to share our oath with all of you... so you people will know that I will oneday deliver the "best" dental treatment to all of you... or at least I won't harm you intentionally :-)

The University of Michigan School of Dentistry
---Oath of Aspiring Dental Professionals---

Upon entering the honorable ranks of the dental community, I swear to uphold,
to the best of my ability, the following oath:

I will administer sound, ethical judgment in the treatment of my patients while remembering
that I am treating a human being not a symptom or an illness.

I will not let vanity or greed interfere with doing what is just and right. I will remember that the practice of dentistry is a right that I must earn and hold myself to the highest standard of care.

I will have the courage to admit when I do not know and to defer when a better treatment has been presented.

I will pracitce to prevention and continue to learn the latest methods of treatment in order to give my patients the best possible care and confidence in my ability.

I will, at all times, act in an ethical manner and never abuse the privileges I have been granted. I will remember that I reprsent a noble class of skilled professionals and will never willingly tarnish their reputation.

For if I uphold this oath, I will be able to practice the art of dentistry with pride and form a legacy that will be followed for many years to come.