Kirsten Burkholder – Dental Internship

I’m Kirsten Burkholder and I have been interning at Storb Orthodontics in Terre Hill since the start of the school year. At my internship, my daily routine as well as my duties are observing many different forms of dental work. For example, I watch over dental hygienists cleaning teeth, root canals being performed, as well as crowns being made or braces being put on.

During my experience at Storb Orthodontics, I am not able to physically touch the patient’s mouth, however, I observe and learn from my observations while I am there. As I previously mentioned, I see many different forms of dental work, which allows me to get a better understanding of the dental field and further explore the career possibilities in it as well. With that being said, I do not necessarily have any job duties that need to be done, but I do have a daily routine of observing as many  different dental services being done as possible.

Moreover, I have experienced many successes, but some challenges too while interning. This experience enables me to get a better idea of the type of career I would like to pursue, which is dental hygiene. Although, if I would not have interned, I may not be as sure  about my decision as I am now. Another success for me was being able to learn how different machines, tools, etc. work because I had no clue before I began interning how everything was used or what it was used for. On the other hand, I faced the difficulty of watching a tooth extraction because I get nauseous while watching that taking place.

This internship has helped me grow by authorizing me to gain knowledge of the dental field in depth by experiencing it and observing it first hand at Storb’s  Orthodontics. Also, it has influenced my future career goals by aiding me in my final decision of the position I want to become in the dental field. I learned a great amount of knowledge just from the few months I have been shadowing, which makes me want to go to college to learn even more and become a dental hygienist. This experience at Storb Orthodontics has been very good so far and I know it will continue to get better.