At the Chemist’s.

On receiving prescription from a doctor all of us need medicines which are ordered or bought at a chemist’s.

There are usually two departments in a large chemist’s. At the chemist’s department one can have the medicines right away. Other drugs have to be ordered at the prescription department.

At the chemist’s all the drugs are kept in drug cabinets. Every small bottle, a tube or a box of medicine has a label on it. The color of the label indicates the way of drugs’ administration - externally or internally. The dose to be taken and the directions for administration are also indicated on a label. Indicating the dose and the name of any medicine is necessary for chemists, nurses, doctors and patients themselves. It prevents confusing different remedies, some of which are poisonous.

To avoid untoward reactions every patient must know well that he is taking the right medicine and in a correct dosage.

At the chemist’s one can find small parcels of different powders, ampules of solutions for injections, tablets for internal and sublingual use, tubes of different ointments, vitamins and sleeping pills, sedatives and tonics and so on.

There we can also get various subjects of personal hygiene and things for taking care of patients. These are hot water bottles, thermometer, dressings, ice-bags, mustard plasters and so on.

Dental Education in Russia.

There are a great number of medical schools in Russia. Almost all of them have dental faculties. Applicants have to pass 3 entrance exams to get into dental faculty of a medical school. Usually they are chemistry, biology and Russian literature. The entrance exams take place over 10 days in July. Students who fail at these exams can reapply the next year.

Medical education at dental faculty takes 5 years in Russia. The first two years are pre-clinical – students study anatomy, physiology, physics, histology and also philosophy. The third year is a transitional year between the pre-clinical and clinical years. The fourth and the fifth years are clinical. Students have tutorials in the mornings, then see patients and have lectures in the afternoons. Apart from general medical disciplines they study therapeutic stomatology (cariology, endodontics, periodontology and oral medicine), oral surgery (traumatology, oncology and anesthetics), pediatric dentistry (pedodontics, orthodontics) and orthopedic dentistry.

Teaching is arranged in 2 semesters with examinations in the end of each. There is an additional month of clinical practice in summer at the end of the third year (students are working as nurses) and at the end of the forth year (students are working as doctor's assistants).

Upon completion of the fifth year, having passed state exams, graduates get a diploma. After one year internship they receive a certificate of specialization. After qualifying students do one or two years of residency. Postgraduate training includes 3 years of research and leads after defending a thesis to a Candidate of Sciences (Medicine).