Practicing Your Knowledge

Last summer I did a short internship at a family friend's dental practice.  Though I wasn't allowed to actually do anything hands on due to insurance issues, I watched procedures such as putting braces on, taking them off, x-rays, and dental moldings.  I learned a lot in this experience about what everyday work in the field is like.  Though I have done a decent amount of research on the subject, I learned a lot more in an internship because I got to communicate with the customers as well as professionals.  While learning from writing offers a lot of data and raw information on the subject, doing an internship teaches you what the field is actually like and allows you to understand the field in a broader sense.