To folks in Dental School: ...what's dental school like?

[organichemistry]

I know medical school is crazy. Bombarded with an impossible amount of lecture material to know the first 2 years... and the 2nd 2 years are clinical rotations where you may be at the hospital 18+ hours a day. And after school, there is a residency where a typical workweek is 70-90 hours for relatively little pay.

How does dental school stack up? Are you in class all day? Just all morning? Labs? How many hours per day do you have to study?

I've taken a look at some curricula but that doesn't really give me an idea of how time consuming dental school is. I suspect it is very time consuming, but some wise words from people who have been there and done that would be helpful to me.

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[45540]

class and lab 8-5, finish up labwork after class or have to study sometime.

It's as hard as it is. I may not think it's that hard, but others think it's miserable. who knows.

basically, it's your job for 4 years. 2 years academic, 2 years clinical.

 

[shopaholic]

At my school, the med students have class until noon. We have class all day long from 8-5. Your labs and didactic courses are thrown at you for the first 2 years. Then it's mostly clinic and then classes from 8-9 and 1-2. The classes are more practice related and are pretty repetitive. After the part 2 boards, there are only a couple of classes left. The first 2 years are terrible. You don't get time to study during the day unless you skip class or finish your lab projects early. Unless you've worked in a lab before you won't finish early. The amount of studying time depends on what you want from dental school. If you want to specialize, i'd say 1-2 hours a day plus all weekend before. If you don't care, I'd say all weekend before the exam. I take back what I said about medical school. I think med school is harder during the last 2 years, but dental school is still tougher during the first 2 years.

 

[zdaddy08]

Here's the breakdown.... Classes usually from 8-1:30ish, then lab until "5ish" during the week... There is plenty of time to get work done in lab, atleast in the first year... As far as studying goes...depends on how well you want to do. If you just want to survive and get your DDS, dental school is NOT tough.. However, if want to specialize, the cutoff between getting B's and A's is enormous. The amount of time that my friends spend studying to get A's vs. my amount of studying to get B's is HUGE. Hope this helps....

 

[Extraction]

Having completed dental school and currently enrolled in medical school, I'd have to say dental school was the more difficult of the two. Medical School has less class hours, no lab work, and the faculty tends to do a lot of hand-holding rather than the daily ridicule of dental school. The only harder thing about medical school is the larger numbers of gunners, who all want to get into cushy residencies like radiology, dermatology, anesthesiology etc so they can work four days a week without call and make good money (ironically, kinda like a general dentists schedule)

 

[JMJRDH1]

Having completed dental school and currently enrolled in medical school, I'd have to say dental school was the more difficult of the two. Medical School has less class hours, no lab work, and the faculty tends to do a lot of hand-holding rather than the daily ridicule of dental school. The only harder thing about medical school is the larger numbers of gunners, who all want to get into cushy residencies like radiology, dermatology, anesthesiology etc so they can work four days a week without call and make good money (ironically, kinda like a general dentists schedule)

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but could you please tell us what led you to complete dental school and now pursue medical school!

 

[nothen2do]

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but could you please tell us what led you to complete dental school and now pursue medical school!

he/she is probably in an oral surgery residency, thus the reason for having to go through med school after dental school.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Dental school is, in many ways, a throwback to high school or even to elementary school.

Unlike undergrand, you are in your classes with the same group of people, which means that little social groups will develop. Amongst those groups there will be confrontations, rumors, etc.

It's unfortunate, but it's human nature.

 

[dientesfuertes]

Every day is better than the next.

 

[KY2007]

I know medical school is crazy. Bombarded with an impossible amount of lecture material to know the first 2 years... and the 2nd 2 years are clinical rotations where you may be at the hospital 18+ hours a day. And after school, there is a residency where a typical workweek is 70-90 hours for relatively little pay.

How does dental school stack up? Are you in class all day? Just all morning? Labs? How many hours per day do you have to study?

I've taken a look at some curricula but that doesn't really give me an idea of how time consuming dental school is. I suspect it is very time consuming, but some wise words from people who have been there and done that would be helpful to me.

If you think that med school is hard I wouldn't even consider dental school. The first 2 years we take classes with the med students and they go home at noon and have LOTS of time to study. We go 8-5 and then come back to work on lab projects, then study as much as we can when we get home. The last two years of med school are even easier than the first two. I have several friends that are med students and none of them are there 18 hrs per day. In fact it is quite possible to have a part time job while you are in your last two years of med school.

 

[Extraction]

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but could you please tell us what led you to complete dental school and now pursue medical school!

OMFS resident 6yr MD integrated program

PS the mouth is a nice orifice compared to those physician examine

 

[unlvdmd]

PS the mouth is a nice orifice compared to those physician examine

I know! Can you imagine doing "body" exams on each other? I mean... I am worried about anesthetic, but I will take a shot in the mouth anyday over "Student Bob" fiddling around in the anal region!!!

I have heard PERSONAL stories about this portion of med school. They actually do this!

 

[Brutus0725]

I know medical school is crazy. Bombarded with an impossible amount of lecture material to know the first 2 years... and the 2nd 2 years are clinical rotations where you may be at the hospital 18+ hours a day. And after school, there is a residency where a typical workweek is 70-90 hours for relatively little pay.

How does dental school stack up? Are you in class all day? Just all morning? Labs? How many hours per day do you have to study?

I've taken a look at some curricula but that doesn't really give me an idea of how time consuming dental school is. I suspect it is very time consuming, but some wise words from people who have been there and done that would be helpful to me.

Are you kiding..... I guess you don't know because you are not going through it. Our classes are 8-5. The med school, they are out at 1pm on MWF and 3pm on TTH. They have an exam like once every 6weeks. We have them almost every week and sometime 2 or 3!! Then they don't evey have a lab to go to after school, just to catch up. It is not a fun exprience, but it is rewarding. I have changed a lot of my med school friends thoughs on dental school. They look at it differently now. And, this is my second experience at a dental school. I got my master at UT-Houston. I spent half of my time in the Med school and half in the dental school. The students there would have the same disscussion about how much time you spend in school, in class, and after class.

 

[AUG2UAG]

PS the mouth is a nice orifice compared to those physician examine

why stoop so low?

 

[gryffindor]

If you think that med school is hard I wouldn't even consider dental school. The first 2 years we take classes with the med students and they go home at noon and have LOTS of time to study. We go 8-5 and then come back to work on lab projects, then study as much as we can when we get home. The last two years of med school are even easier than the first two. I have several friends that are med students and none of them are there 18 hrs per day. In fact it is quite possible to have a part time job while you are in your last two years of med school.

Ditto my experience as well. I had a roommate who was doing med school while I was in dental school. She had lots of time to go to the gym and socialize on the phone for hours. When you're done with classes at 12, you have 12 hours (assuming you go to bed at midnight like I do) to do LOTS of things, including a few hours of studying a night.

Dental school was 8 - 5 everyday for 2 years, then 7:45 - 4 for the last two years. The very last semester it was 9 - 4, but you had to come in on your own time at some point at get all your lab work done for your patients. Once in a while, there would be a semester where we wouldn't have to come in till 9 on Wednesdays or we'd get to leave at 3 on Mondays, but not too often.

 

[dentist_to_be?]

Okay, the maryland class schedule says there is independent study on tuesdays and thursdays... and it starts after lunch (1pm)... so is that free time to study or are we catching up on lab work??

What do you guys do during independent study?

 

[dookiester]

so, close to 9 hours of lecture a day for 4 years, plus study and labwork on the outside?

whenever i read that I get so intimidated. is it as bad as it sounds, is it a hard 9 hours, and do you still have free time to enjoy this thing called life?

 

[organichemistry]

to the guy who said it is possible to have a part-time job the last 2 years of medical school....

are you nuts? rotations??? they have to be at the hospital at 4am for pre-rounds!

 

[toofache32]

Having completed dental school and currently enrolled in medical school, I'd have to say dental school was the more difficult of the two. Medical School has less class hours, no lab work, and the faculty tends to do a lot of hand-holding rather than the daily ridicule of dental school. The only harder thing about medical school is the larger numbers of gunners, who all want to get into cushy residencies like radiology, dermatology, anesthesiology etc so they can work four days a week without call and make good money (ironically, kinda like a general dentists schedule)

I've also done both dental and medical school and I agree with this post. The first 2 years of med school (at least where I went) only had about 18-20 hours of lecture per week, similar to college. Dental school was 8-5 just like everyone else has said. Then you have the evening hours to catch up on lab work and try to study the lectures that day.

I'll also add that the stress level is much higher in dental school, at least is was for me. This is probably due to the fact that people are made to repeat any year if they don't meet their clinical requirements (i.e., your patients don't show up). In med school you will at least pass as long as you show up every day and act interested. And the med school stress level was lower for me because in a team of 10 people caring for a patient, you're number 10, at the bottom of the totem pole. So if you didn't show up it wouldn't even matter.

There is also much more free time in med school. I worked as a general dentist 20-30 hours a week while in med school, while I could never have managed that in dental school.

And I don't think I ever showed up at 4 for pre-rounds. The earliest was probably 5:30.

 

[Zurik5]

My schedule is about the same as all the others here. Some weeks are tougher than others, just because i'm at the gym more or on my bike. I don't want to specialize, so i'm not giving myself a hernia trying to score 2% higher on tests than the kid who never sleeps and is annoying....you know what i'm saying.

 

[unlvdmd]

What we have to keep in mind about med school being less stressful... i would think it would be that way "post match." The oms residents are at the end of the road (for the most part) and the other students are still in phase 1. just a thougt? i dunno... haven't been there nor done that

 

[45540]

What we have to keep in mind about med school being less stressful... i would think it would be that way "post match." The oms residents are at the end of the road (for the most part) and the other students are still in phase 1. just a thougt? i dunno... haven't been there nor done that

I dunno, my roommate's an M1 while I'm a D1. I can't really say either of our schedules is easier though. When I'm going crazy with tests/projects, he's sitting his ass on the couch. When he's doing blocks or has a crazy load, i'm pretty much free for a while.

The nice thing for him is that he has 4 weeks of lecture, a week of tests and a week of clinical training. He may have class from 8-2 most days, but he can relax and study for about 4 hours at night and do whatever else.

I end up being in class and lab from 8-4 or 8-5 and have one or 2 tests a week along with a ton of lab work i've got to get done while finding time to study. He and I talked about it this morning and they do have much harder tests. Their MBOD, Immunology, Endocrine Phys tests this week were over 35 lectures each spread over a month. Our tests were only over 10-15 lectures on average but we're taking 10 different classes apparently.

I can see how med students have more free time, but that doesn't mean it's not stressful. They all have to do residencies and must compete to get the one they want whereas the majority of dental students can cruise by with B's and 80's on the boards.

I'm stressing out for the current moment, ie getting the work done and making A's for the most part; but if i make some B's, oh well. Whereas he is worrying about getting in the program he wants later down the road and will do most anything to make sure it happens.

So as for hardness: Dental school is more work, but Med school is more indepth for a lot of stuff. But they're both hard in their own way. People wanting competitive specialties are definitely not going to have it easy in either program.

 

[nburp001]

Dental school is like..this: