do dental students have to take anatomy?

premedrocks · Apr 9, 2009

do dental students have to take gross anatomy like students in med school do? if they do, why? isnt that such a general class? why should a dentist care about the anatomy of the foot?

mamelons · Apr 10, 2009

At UTHSCSA we cover everything but the extremities in our gross anatomy class. So we do head, neck, thorax, abdomen.

NyCzPeter · Apr 10, 2009

premedrocks said:
do dental students have to take gross anatomy like students in med school do? if they do, why? isnt that such a general class? why should a dentist care about the anatomy of the foot?

Yes they most certainly do and why is that? Because its important to know alot of crap outside of your designated body part if you expect people to call you doctor.

Northside · Apr 10, 2009

NyCzPeter said:
Yes they most certainly do and why is that? Because its important to know alot of crap outside of your designated body part if you expect people to call you doctor.

👍

The Anhedonia · Apr 13, 2009

Honestly, i used to hate the idea of having to dissect cadavers, but now, think about it; what a priviledge it is that we has health professionals get to take apart and explore the construction of our future patients. who else gets to do that?

Besides, do you really want to perform your first extraction of a living person who has active neurons in their mouths? i'd rather my first patient not give a damn 🙄
(read tufts dental curriculum and you'll see that they do their first extractions in gross lab)

tooth hurty · Apr 13, 2009

I think most dental schools tailor their anatomy course so that it's not the full detail that med students do. When I interviewed at Tufts they said they went down as far as the thigh 🙂

allstardentist · Apr 14, 2009

yes anatomy is the worst class for most D1 students at my school

promolion · Apr 14, 2009

how about invertebrate or vertebrate anatomy?

UCFpremed · Apr 14, 2009

Dental students do take anatomy but most schools do not teach about the extremities. Anatomy is a basic science that is required for any health professional to have a detailed knowledge base in order to properly treat a human being. You could be the first to identify a calcified carotid atheroma by looking at an extraoral xray. You can be the first to identify basal cell carcinoma during your initial head and neck exam.

The anatomy programs differ from school to school but from what I know there are 2 main types of anatomy labs in dental school:

Dissections - traditional old-school style where dental students get assigned bodies and dissect them in groups. Pros include a more interactive learning experience. Cons might be staying in lab for longer hours and if a student cuts an important artery, nerve, or vein, you may be tested on the body in the "non-textbook" layout.

Prosections - The newer schools are leaning more towards this style where masters/medical students perform the dissections and then teach to the dental students. Pros include decreased amount of time in lab. Cons include a less interactive experience. But if the masters/med student cuts an important structure you can blame it on them.

I also know of the plastinations type of lab that they have at NYU. This is similar to the way the bodies at the BODIES exhibit are preserved. The organs are manipulated in a certain form and are then injected with a cureable polymer that sets the organ into the desired form. I've heard a lot of great things about this.

WannaBeDentist · Apr 14, 2009

At our school we had to learn everything from the inguinal area and up, this meant we did learn the anatomy of the hands. It was a pretty interesting class, although when you're going through it you'll probably hate it.

visbimmer79 · Apr 15, 2009

No dissection. 👍 GREAT!

However, I still don't know if we will cover lower extremities.
Does anybody know NYUCD covers lower parts? 😳

Waitlisted2009 · Apr 15, 2009

Lopyswine · Apr 15, 2009

take anatomy? heck no! At UIC they just let us loose in the clinic with no anatomy background. we just pick a spot and stab at it and hope we anesthetized the correct nerve.

why would we ever need to know anatomy? all we need to know about are those 32 white things. They're just blocks of hard stuff, nothing to complex.

besides, what's the worse thing that can happen to a tooth? Cancer? I think not! Maybe in the mouth or systemic manifesting in the mouth, BUT we only treat TEETH!

these kids today. thinking a dentist would need to take anatomy....

killer thread op. 👍👍 maybe next time use the search function and find the hundreds of threads about anatomy in dental school.

GonnaDoIt · Apr 24, 2009

allstardentist said:
yes anatomy is the worst class for most D1 students at my school

The last (and first) three quarters for me here at Loma Linda was made so much more bearable by my anatomy class/faculty. Loved the class: hands on, less "book" learning, and ended up just craving that formaldehyde smell on my clothes. To the OP, spend some free time in lab with some friends and you will really help to solidify a lot of the concepts presented in lecture. Good luck.

old-school · Apr 25, 2009

LOL... Last time I checked DDS was for doctor of Dental Surgery
Surgery = the art, practice, or work of treating diseases, injuries, or deformities by manual or operative procedures. Very few professions are allowed to perform surgical operations, why would gross anatomy be a suprising pre-rec?

Masseter · Apr 25, 2009

I was in Physical therapy before switching to DMD. And let me tell you that it does help a lot. I had already covered the cervical plexus, full neck anatomy + basic face anatomy on cadavers. We also had the possibility to dissect them like we did in DMD.

Greensalad · Apr 27, 2009

It must suck to be in med school.

Enso · Apr 27, 2009

Lopyswine said:
take anatomy? heck no! At UIC they just let us loose in the clinic with no anatomy background. we just pick a spot and stab at it and hope we anesthetized the correct nerve.

why would we ever need to know anatomy? all we need to know about are those 32 white things. They're just blocks of hard stuff, nothing to complex.

besides, what's the worse thing that can happen to a tooth? Cancer? I think not! Maybe in the mouth or systemic manifesting in the mouth, BUT we only treat TEETH!

these kids today. thinking a dentist would need to take anatomy....

killer thread op. 👍👍 maybe next time use the search function and find the hundreds of threads about anatomy in dental school.

I know one thing they don't teach in dental school and its looking pretty clear: effective communication classes. Relax sunshine, the OP had respect so consider returning the favor.

Anna.V · Jul 19, 2016

Of course they have to . We are speaking about medicine they have to be familiar with everything. At some dental schools people learn about gynecology and else because in fact its all connected

Advance · Jul 19, 2016

Anna.V said:
Of course they have to . We are speaking about medicine they have to be familiar with everything. At some dental schools people learn about gynecology and else because in fact its all connected

Your necromancy skills are legendary.

do dental students have to take anatomy?

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