NDA Journal 6 Dr. Orr practices Anesthesiology and OMS in Las Vegas, is an Adjunct Professor (Surgery) at UNLV SM and Touro University SM (Jurisprudence), Professor Emeritus at UNLV SDM, and a member of the CA Bar and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Featured Article Daniel L. Orr II, DDS, MS (anesth), PhD, JD, MD EditorNDA@nvda.org From the NDAJ 17:1, 2015 The DAT’s Lost Art At a recent Eagle Scout Court of Honor, one of the speakers talked about “rites of passage,” in which young people participate in a culture’s ceremony in order to progress to adulthood. His example was that of the Mandan Indians’ Okipa—wherein young men refrained from food, water, and sleep for four days before incisions were made over their pectoral and trapezius musculature. Wooden skewers were then placed beneath the muscles and the initiates were hung from the ceiling via ropes attached to the skewers. After that, the little finger of one hand was cut off. The last Okipa ceremony was in 1889, but it was revisited in the 1970 movie “A Man Called Horse.” Another rite of passage, the Dental Admission Testing (DAT) Dental Aptitude Chalk Carving was last practiced in 1972, after having been an integral part of the DAT since its inception in 1945. Fortunately, I entered dental school in 1971, thus earning the title of a true chalk carving (CC) dentist, unlike later post-modern pretenders who probably have no comprehension of the gold foil restorative ideal either. Carving, albeit with soap, has been revisited recently with a study published in JAMA.1 Shockingly, the soap carving exercise some ENT programs require during residency interviews appears to have no correlation with surgical skills. Maybe that’s because soap gets slippery when handled and chalk is designed to keep hands dry—just ask Mary Lou Retton or Olga Korbut. Imagine what would have happened to them if they’d tried soaping up instead of chalking up at the Olympics. Silly ENTs… Another problem with the ENT paradigm is the object carved…a hollowed out shark fin…are you kidding? Why would they want to carve a functional curved shape when they could demand the imaginative ‘whatever it was’ that the DAT used to require? True chalk carving dentists, who have not repressed the event, will joyfully recognize the figures shown in the sidebar (page 7); younger dental aspirants can only envy those upon whose shoulders they stand. (See Steps 1–4) So, since chalk carving is obviously superior to soap carving, why did the DAT discontinue this valuable exercise (was it simple coincidence it was right after receiving my most excellent carving?)? (Figure 1) Offcially, the ADA states that they found pencil-and- paper test scores were as valid as the Chalk Carving Test in predicting performance.2 Humbug, I say.
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