What is the biggest threat to dentistry?
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Frank22
Corporations and opening of flimsy schools decreasing the quality of care for patients, as well as making the field less rewarding for dentists. They are not pervasively hurting dentistry now, but they are becoming more of a danger as the years proceed.
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Which schools are flimsy?
I ask this out of genuine curiosity because if there is sufficient evidence to believe that a school cannot help me become a decent dentist, I should really avoid it at all costs.
I tried searching on my own, but all I found was just speculation, hearsay, unsupported claims, etc. I'm searching up dentaltown right now, maybe something to find there.
I guess I'm looking for personal experiences from actual dental students/ recent graduates... now I'm really curious haha.
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Hasn't been accredited yet. Maybe it never will be. Everyone should calm down about Touro
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I don't hear good things about Howard. There was a video on YouTube that showed how...lacking...their facilities are. I just tried searching for it and couldn't find it. Maybe it was taken down.
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Frank22
You would be amazed at how fast the opening of flimsy schools can absolutely decimate a field for the people practicing in it. It wasn't too long ago that lawyers were guaranteed well paying jobs when they graduated; nowadays, there are many graduating attorneys with hundreds of thousands in debt and having difficulty findings jobs that pay over $20 an hour. There is nothing in the law of economics that says dentistry can't go the same way.
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Is it "flimsy" dental schools or is it "flimsy" applicants?
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Frank22
There have always, and will always be, flimsy dental school applicants (and the same applies to medical school, pharmacy school, optometry school, law school, and the like). The danger occurs when a large percentage of flimsy applicants gain admission. At the moment, this is not an issue; less than 1% of dental school applicants with GPAs below 3.0 gain admission, but the quality of applicants accepted can be protean under a laissez-faire economy.
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The "flimsy" factor has more to do with why applicants are pursuing dentistry and less to do their metrics.
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Are applicants now days pursuing dentistry for different reasons than dentist 40 years ago? Considering how 30+ years ago applicants didn't even need dental shadowing or excessive extracurricular activities to get accepted means that the field as a whole has been focused on finding applicants genuinely passionate about dentistry. With many blue collar jobs outsourced the push for a college education is higher than ever and the competition is greater than ever. With greater competition comes higher standards from schools, one of the reasons the average age for matriculates continues to rise.
I do believe corporations and new dental schools leads to saturation which only weakens the overall dental industry as a whole.
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"Shadowing and excessive extracurricular activities" are not a measure of genuine passion for the profession.
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Okay, so that makes it safe to assume current dental applicants are less genuinely interested in dentistry than past applicants?
The same motivations and desires exist within every generation.
But hey... I'm just a flimsy dental applicant, what do i know
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Okay, so that makes it safe to assume current dental applicants are less genuinely interested in dentistry than past applicants?
The same motivations and desires exist within every generation.
But hey... I'm just a flimsy dental applicant, what do i know
Where does doc suggest that applicants today are 'flimsier' than they were 40 years ago? His point, it seems to me, is that the quality of graduates from dental schools has more to do with the kind of people entering those schools than anything those schools can provide their students. If top quality applicants decided they no longer wished to pursue a career in dentistry, then there is little that any school can do to make less-than-stellar applicants into great dentists. Top quality and less-than-stellar in this context refers largely to a student's passion for the field, their eagerness to learn and thrive in the profession, and their personality -- are they compassionate? Empathetic? Sociable? Grades and DAT scores don't measure these attributes well, and I believe that doc's point is that you are judging programs based upon figures which don't necessarily represent the quality of a dentist. Being smart does not make someone a great healthcare practitioner, it is merely one of many important personality traits which determine what kind of dentist you will be.
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I just didn't get the memo that top quality students that have compassion, are empathetic, with very outgoing and sociable personality, along with stellar DAT and GPA marks are not seeking dentistry as rigorously as they were in previous decades.
Arguing that the biggest threat to dentistry is somehow the lack luster or incapable bunch of students that now are seeking out dentistry is a stance anyone can make. It's just not a perspective I agree with.
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I majored in economics. I am well versed in the subject. I did not say anything that opposes what you just wrote. Touro planned to open its application in October. Today is the 28 and it's not open yet, so there's probably some issue with its accreditation, which is probably a good thing.
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Idiots are the biggest threat
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Frank22
Okay Adam Smith I see you...
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Cavities.
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...2 years later:
"We interrupt this program for this breaking news"
"Touro School of Dentistry has just moved up to the top of the list, being named the BEST dental school across the country. Researchers say they would have never thought that this would be possible, but it looks like Touro is a huge success" "Talk about getting your teeth shaking!"
"We interrupt this program for this breaking news"
"Touro School of Dentistry has just moved up to the top of the list, being named the BEST dental school across the country. Researchers say they would have never thought that this would be possible, but it looks like Touro is a huge success" "Talk about getting your teeth shaking!"
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somehow i see you invisibly mentions the OP in your comments.
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Saw that video on yt, looked bad lol
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I am not pointing fingers on anyone in particular
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In case any adcoms are reading this, as a URM I would gladly accept an interview here, despite these conditions. PM me for personal details
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Wow... that's quite awful. With all that stone everywhere, it would be easier just to take off the entire table and get a new one. So unsanitary and so unethical...
The lab I saw in my interview was very clean, just like the lab at my work. That's not just a good thing, it's a necessity.
And wouldn't the school have some kind of insurance to fix up that building?? I feel bad for anyone having to endure being a student there...
Nice! They have to accept you if you're willing to take on those conditions, haha. But then again, doesn't every interviewee get a tour of the building? Or do they purposely hold it somewhere else? XD
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It really takes a lot to get me angry but when stories like Howard Schneider's patient abuse comes out on the news.. Man, I get really pissed.
Still makes me angry thinking about that guy choking children and doing 16 crowns on a kid to abuse medicaid.
I hope that the number of these psychos are few but when stories like this hit the news.. it negatively affects dentistry as a whole.
I toured HUCD at an Impressions Day program in 2014, the same year that video was taken. I didnt see any equipment/lab space as dirty as those in the video, likely because the tour guides didn't take us there. HUCD's classrooms and equipment looked like they were built decades before I was born.Wow... that's quite awful. With all that stone everywhere, it would be easier just to take off the entire table and get a new one. So unsanitary and so unethical...
The lab I saw in my interview was very clean, just like the lab at my work. That's not just a good thing, it's a necessity.
And wouldn't the school have some kind of insurance to fix up that building?? I feel bad for anyone having to endure being a student there...
Nice! They have to accept you if you're willing to take on those conditions, haha. But then again, doesn't every interviewee get a tour of the building? Or do they purposely hold it somewhere else? XD
USC dental school has a level of clinic time that is absolutely shameful, where I went had probably double what they give students and I still felt that was the bare bones minimum to be a competent dentist. It's hilarious that education then costs at least 400k. Dentistry was a great profession for the past two decades but reimbursements are rapidly declining from insurance as dentists get cranked out. If you can't get into a cheap state school in the south, don't enter the profession, it's not worth it. College students read that some journalists ranked dentistry the number one profession in us news and figure they'd be crazy not to pursue that. If they went on dentaltown and read about the malaise and stress that real life practicing dentists have many would go a different route. For some reason those guys don't post on here. Probably because they have enough stress in their life than to listen to underinformed pre dents mock them. This is a tough profession physically and mentally and if you're looking for a profession with a nice lifestyle go psychiatry or a niche in business like actuary.
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why don't you drop out of dental school (assume you are in one right now) and then some of us will do it.
MD, DOs, complain about insurance and problems associated with middle level providers like NP, PA, etc. but in those fields, its pretty much all insurance-managed. In dental, at least, some patients still pay out of pocket.
I think it is ridiculous to tell people to pursue different route because of insurance and the stress.
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I agree with a lot of that, but I absolutely refuse to go onto DentalTown. I'm sure there are a lot of respectable dentists on there but for the most part it is made of of struggling dentists complaining. I have four cousins who are recently graduated dentists, two of which have dentist spouses, and guess what? They're all doing fine. You will ALWAYS have the members of a profession who just aren't good at it, and in this day and age they will make a forum where they complain and blame everything else but themselves.
Am I saying money doesn't matter? Not at all. I would suggest going to the cheaper school in 4/5 cases.
Am I saying that everyone will be able to do what one of my cousins did and pay off all of his private school loans after only four years of hard work? Nope, I'm still amazed at how well things worked out for him.
What I am saying is you have to know yourself play it smart, work hard and be willing to compromise. Don't take DentalTown as a totally true representation of what it is like to be a dentist. I can assure you that most of the successful dentists who have figured it out aren't spending their time on a forum, they're out enjoying their lives.
I think that the biggest threat to Dentistry is the shortage of dental educators. In order to keep this profession alive and well, we need to increase the number of faculty.
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SXCoronado
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Thanks for sharing this information.
I'm an active member on DentalTown. I don't see much malaise and stress when I browse the active topics...perhaps I'm not looking in the right place...Which categories do you find these cases in? Could you link me 4-5 examples?
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I'm always on dentaltown.. not really sure I've noticed much of the stress you've read on there.
Of course I've come across couple complainers, but it's definitely the minority not the majority.
There's so many interesting cases to read about there, I love SDN for the pre-dental stuff and I love dental town to see a lot of content relevant to help me as an assistant.
Of course I've come across couple complainers, but it's definitely the minority not the majority.
There's so many interesting cases to read about there, I love SDN for the pre-dental stuff and I love dental town to see a lot of content relevant to help me as an assistant.
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For me, the biggest threats are twofold. First, students are increasingly willing to neglect the business aspect of the profession. They can't be bothered with running a practice. Enter coporations. Second, which could be an offshoot of the first, is access. There are 300+ million Americans and maybe 200K dentists. There are a lot of patients out there for everyone, and if dentists fail to tap this opportunity, corporations surely will. Corporations in themselves are not necessarily bad, but when so much ground is yielded to them, it devalues the profession on a whole.
Biggest threat to dentistry today is dental therapists and mid level providers. Minnesota and Alaska was the first state to allow dental therapists to practice. They can do a lot of the bread and butter procedures that dentists rely on. Right now they have to practice under the supervision of a dentist, who knows how much longer that restriction will last...
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Because of wisdom teeth I was facing very much pain in my both sides of jaws. I visited 3 to 4 doctors but none of them has given me any suitable medicine and still the pain exits. This clearly shows that these dentists are getting their degrees on fraud basis. If this position persists , patients will get remain untreated. This problem is needed to overcome.
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You did not get narcotics because you were showing a drug seeking behavior and your pain could have easily been controlled by an OTC medication.
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Not true. You can open a law school with four walls and some books.
You need no cadaver lab, no expensive equipment, no pool of real-life clients who need real treatment; I'm not saying there's zero potential for saturation but these requirements do impose some limitation on the number of dental schools that can be opened as compared with law schools where there truly is no limit.
