My Arizona Experience (DS-1)

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
ItsGavinC

ItsGavinC

Full Member
Moderator Emeritus
Verified Member
Dentist
Verified Expert
20+ Year Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2001
Messages
11,749
Reaction score
24
Points
4,716
Location
Arizona
  1. Dentist
Members do not see this ad.
CAVEAT: I'm posting this thread because so little is known about Arizona. Of course, that is to be expected given that it is a brand new school. Other schools, such as Penn & Harvard, may have a foundation of 125 years upon which they stand. The application process can be expensive, so hopefully I can assist some people in making decisions. My goal is not to boast or brag, but to inform applicants about the school. And of course I hope to excite people about the school. If this doesn't interest you then don't read it. If it does interest you then hopefully I can be of assistance.
--------------------------------

? We had an open-house party this evening at the home of one of our deans. It was an awesome event and loads of fun. We have a diverse class, and it looks as though the male/female ratio is about 50/50 (although don't quote me on that).

? The President of the medical school was in attendance, as were the provosts of the other schools under the A.T. Still University system (Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine).

? Also in attendance was the dean of UOP, as well as deans for Buffalo, Louisville and Baylor! It really is awesome to see faculty from OTHER schools come out to support this new school. It is also a great symbol of how much faith administrators from other schools have in our new curriculum and our new method of dental education. After all, since when do deans from other dental schools attend welcoming parties for another school (especially if they have never taught or attended that school)?

That's all for now. More updates will be posted in the coming days. Orientation is on Monday, and classes will be following that.

I get lots of PMs asking about the curriculum, so here is a link to it from a previous thread where I explained it:
http://www.studentdoctor.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68741

I'll be sure to let you know how the curriculum works out.

Feel free to PM me anytime. Take care everybody!
 
So Gavin, you met Dean Buchanan from Buffalo? He used to be at Baylor and came to us last year. He is really supportive of us at Buffalo and apparently progressive too, if he is attending your open-house-warming parties at Arizona.

Good luck to you Gavin. Dental school is what you make of it, regardless if your school has a 100 year history or 1 month history. Arizona will be awesome.
 
Griffin,

I'm not sure what the deans name was from Buffalo. Early in the evening everybody was introduced and gave brief speeches, and I made it a point to remember their names. As the evening wore on they slipped my mind.
 
? This evening we had a brief 2-hour social at the dental school. The President of the American Dental Association, Dr. Eugene Sekiguchi, was present. Also present was the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Both of these gentlemen will be speaking to us tomorrow at our orientation.

I appreciate all the PMs I've gotten. More to come...
 
? This morning from 8-10 we had the inaugural ceremony for the school and from 11-1 we had our white coat ceremony. There were close to 400 people there and many were dignitaries from other schools.

? The governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, named July 21 the "Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health Day"... no school on this day in the future, right? 😀

? We had several deans present from schools around the nation (those mentioned in my first post).

? We also had several academic deans from other dental schools present, the most notable of which was Harvard (Dr. Dillenburg, our dean, is a Harvard distinguished faculty member).

? Also present were the President of the American Dental Association (ADA) and the President of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA).

? We received our white coats and rehearsed the oath, in a ceremony that was written by the Dean of UOP. The Dean of UOP shook our hands, Dr. Dillenburg read our names, and the president of the Arizona Dental Association helped us into our coats.

? We start tommorrow at 8am and are excited! We truly have a diverse class full of excellent people!
 
Hey Gavin, I could recognize my friend Jess in the pix. She stands on the far left, third row, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You guys are so lucky to have her. She is a gem for AZ.
 
Tink, yes, I believe that is her! I'm amazed by everybody I've met so far!

BTW, Dr. Dugoni was a huge help at our orientation yesterday! He's a great guy and such an asset to the profession. You're lucky to have him as dean!
 
Well, today was an interesting day. We got all of our software loaded on our computers, got our IDs, lockers, mailboxes, fitness passes, etc.

Then came the rude awakening: we learned just how difficult (but satisfying!) our curriculum will be. Here are some facts:

? We are using the VitalSource DVD as our texts, however we have a special version developed just for our school. It requires no DVD and has the books listed according to our courses. Because of this, each of our instructors have chosen the books they want us to use.

? Dr. Todd Watkins, the inventor of the VitalSource DVD, is our first professor. His module of instruction begins tomorrow and our first exam is on Monday.

? In the next 3 weeks we will be instructed by Dr. Tom Hart of the Pitt. Dental School, as well as full-time professors from USC, Kentucky and the University of Texas.

? Our curriculum features a strong didactic component, and also "case studies", but not the traditional ones feature in PBL-schools. For example, at Harvard the average dental graduate only completes a total of 8 full cases, we will have a simulated patient load of 420 cases.

? Our curriculum also features Grand Rounds.

? Our first semester was called "hell" by Dr. Todd Watkins because we are essentially learning the first two years of medical school in the first semester.

? This education truly is "dental medicine", and our courses confirm this. We are taking some classes that aren't taken by other dental students, for example: genetics, psychiatry (mind & cognition) and OB/GYN.

All in all my classmates and I were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning--but now we are fully aware of the task that lies ahead of us.
 
Sounds like your school is going in an innovative approach in teaching methods and dental curriculi. Perphaps with your new curriculi style, the new Board Part I amendment will be a perfect suit for your training.

I particularly like your Grand Round integration. By participating in grand rounds and exposure to patients, it really makes you feel more like a dental doctor. I had experienced my first grand round experience at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery this past April, it is truly an amazing rewarding experience.

DVD Vitalbook, I'll have to ask you again at the end of your first semester to see if you truly enjoy that technology or not. I've heard many with the earlier version of that technology and they simply can not stand it.

Your school is not only the newest dental school in the country, but its curriculi is the first of its kind. It will be truly interesting to see how well your school thrives in the next 4-5 years! I wouldn't be surprised that many dental schools will follow suit if graduates of your school excels in the Boards. It must be nice to have the full attention of all faculty, Deans, and staff since your class is the only dental students in the building. They all must just treat you like celebraties!

Remember, since you guys are the first class of the school, there are a lot of the opportunities for your classmates and you to be involved in.

1) start an ASDA Chapter
2) start Student Government
3) Start a dental fraternity (big three: Psi Omega, Alpha Omega, and Delta Sigma Delta)
4) start an exam bank for future classes (great fundraiser)

Sounds like you'll have your hands full this academic year. Also, when you hear people (your classmates and/or other dental students from other schools) bitching and moaning about why you should learn about OB/GYN in your dental curriculum since you're "only" a dental student, be sure to tell them that you pay $30K for tuition and you expect to be trained as a doctor since you're going to be a doctor.

Enjoy the rest of your first week of dental school! By the way, I like to see more pictures of your classmates? Any single attractive non-Morman ladies? That will be your first Andy Mission for the month! :laugh:
 
Thanks for the generous and kind words, Andy.

Not only should we learn OB because we paid a hefty sum, but remember that we will be doing LOTS of clinical rotations and off-site rotations during our 3rd and 4th years.

In some instances we will be in areas where we are accompanying the only primary healthcare provider in a 90 mile radius. If he/she has to deliver a child, we are right there alongside them.
 
to Gavin:

Best of luck on the next four years! While there will certainly be times of frustration, anger and anxiety to come, I'm sure you will find the rewards and satisfaction worth it.. Especially when it all pays off 4 years from now (just 1 more for me, hopefully heh heh).

Now, my comments on Vitalbook...

My school was among the first to use the Vitalbook in 2000. It is expected that there would be lots of bugs, useability issues and gnashing of teeth (heh) during that time (my class was pretty much unanimous in giving it the thumbs-down).

To be fair, the useability of Vitalbook has indeed been much improved over the years, but for certain courses you still can't beat a paper book, such as gross anatomy. Much easier to look at the diagrams in a paper atlas like Netters where you can see the entire picture, rather than having to scroll around and see only parts of a picture because the screen on your computer is not large enough/have the resolution. Even if you have a display that does 1600x1200, oftentimes it will not show you an entire anatomy image at its intended resolution.

Then there is the issue of having to pay upwards of $1000 PER YEAR for the Vitalbook, which I think is an absolute waste of our money. New textbook editions don't come out THAT fast to justify having to buy a new Vitalbook every year. The scheme smacks of a racket/scam.

I myself run Vitalbook on Windows XP... On which Vitalbook seems to have more functionality than on the Mac PowerBook-- You can quickly switch between open panels and books using CTRL-TAB in Windows rather than having to do that annoying click-and-close-window-to-see-the-one-behind-it dance on the Mac. So for those of you who have a choice on which computer to buy for using Vitalbook, Choose A Windows-Based PC if you value your sanity. 😀

Just my $0.02 on Vitalbook..
 
Tom,

Thanks for your words. I agree with your points, except for one, which is the content licensing fee. We are paying a large chunk of change but our content actually is/will be updated quite frequently. Because we have instructors/professors flying in from all over the country, they are often updating their courses to suit our needs. Because of this they are changing the texts they feel we ought to have.

For example, our content was finalized on Friday, but we received an update today because one of the professors decided he needed to add another text to the module he'll be teaching.

Any way, I've read several chapters already, and here are some of my general thoughts:

One negative for me personally is that there isn't a great way to track how much I've read. I'm an English major, and so I often find VERY thick books manageable if I can see the page numbers. Knowing I've read 495 of 600 pages makes me feel good. With the Vitalbook edition that ASDOH has, there are no page numbers (and I'm sure that all versions are this way, regardless of the school). All I know is that I've read some, a little, quite a bit, or x out of y chapters. I'd like page numbers, even if those page numbers cannot be flipped.

One positive is the plethora of material that is available. Although this can be a negative in some respects, it is nice to have 10 (that's right!) anatomy books available to me. We also have books on OB, Derm, Peds, Radiology, Psychiatry, Medicine, Urology, Oncology, Orthopedics, Gastro, Geriatrics, etc, along with all the standard dental texts, human science texts, and specific ASDOH texts required by each of our incoming professors.
 
Sorry for asking you to do this again Gavin (since I'm sure you've done it before), but can you give us a year by year rundown of how Arizona's curriculum is different and as you say innovating compared to more traditional schools? I remember something about 3rd and 4th years being spent out of the school at community clinics but not much more than that. Thanks
 
Gavin,

UB Tom, my classmate, summed up our Vital Sources view nicely. You can't even believe what the first version we got looked like, nothing like the one now. One of the first things we complained very loudly about was the lack of page numbers. They gave us some bs blow off answer about how "new technology does not conform to page numbers, they are non-existent in a technological world" blah blah blah. But they did finally make the change. The page numbers are in tiny numbers on the right side of your text screen. You can also keep track of how much you read by following the outline format, that's what I do.

As far as the "frequent" updates go, it's not really that glam. They could just give you all the books in the beginning, regardless of whether you use them or not, b/c after a while having to update all the time will get annoying. I try not to touch those VitalViewer updates unless I absolutely have to for fear that it will upset my moody Macintosh.

I have to agree with Tom, save yourselves the aggravation and buy a paper atlas for Histology & Anatomy. Anatomy is such a dense subject, you won't possibly have time to consult the 10+ books they give you.

Let us know how that class with Dr. Todd Watkins goes, b/c the song-and-dance he and his crew gave us first year with Krispy Kreme donoughts to keep everyone happy...well, let's say now as a senior, I just ignore the VitalBook unless absolutely necessary (and I'm not alone in this). And our class was lucky that our class officers were able to lobby the administration and VitalBook to lower our licensing fees b/c of all the trauma they made us go through. I'm really curious as to what Dr. Watkins will be telling you guys.
 
Griffin,

Thanks for your response. I've always valued your opinion, along with Tom's, very much.

We're actually receiving another update to the content this afternoon.

Our first course which will require some SERIOUS study time is Genetics, which is being taught by Dr. Tom Hart. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to go about studying using the Vitalsource. When we asked Dr. Watkins what material from the book Dr. Hart was going to hold us responsible for, he said "every word, so start reading".

Dr. Watkins is actually teaching our first course, which is the History of Dentistry. It's not a difficult couse, and above all is aimed at getting us familliar with the Vitalsource as well as the curriculum here at AZ.
 
Originally posted by Blue Tooth
Sorry for asking you to do this again Gavin (since I'm sure you've done it before), but can you give us a year by year rundown of how Arizona's curriculum is different and as you say innovating compared to more traditional schools? I remember something about 3rd and 4th years being spent out of the school at community clinics but not much more than that. Thanks
Click to expand...

Blue Tooth,

Our courses are condensed into "modules" and each mod lasts for one week, with the exception of a couple mods. In that period we will have 30+ hours of lecture time, plus any lab work that pertains to the course.

Each module is taught by a professor from ANOTHER dental school, or by researchers and clinicians who are the top of their field. For example, in these first few weeks we are being taught by a practicing dentist, and full-time faculty from U of Pitt., U of Texas, USC and Kentucky. Each of those professors will take one week to cover their material, and we will have an exam on the material the following week.

The curriculum is HEAVY, especially the first semester which is extremely basic science oriented, as well as deeply medically oriented. We'll be having mods on OB/GYN, psych., and genetics, to name a few.

Clicking on this link will take you to a thread where I previously explained the curriculum: http://www.studentdoctor.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68741
 
We had a busy day today, which included getting set up for our patient cases. Tomorrow we'll receive 8 patient cases which we are responsible for. The prognosis/diagnosis is due on Monday, and these should take quite a bit of time. I'll post a sample patient here tomorrow if I have time.

We also had a bit more of the curriculum revealed to us. All exams and quizzes will be taken online.

I'm tired so I'm gonna study and fall asleep, not necessarily in that order!
 
Before I go to bed I thought I'd casually post a thought I had in passing:

Often we see posts on the forum where people are asking about the reading comp. section of the DAT, or how good they need to be at reading.

I can't respond for all schools but I *can* respond for Arizona: if you have trouble reading vast amounts of material, have trouble comprehending, or don't like to read, then you're in trouble here. The reading we have available to us is enormous and we are responsible for the texts assigned to each course. To truly do well on these exams, however, we need to go outside those texts to alternate texts. To handle our patient cases correctly we also need to be serious students and delve into the materials we've been given.

I have an English degree (which equals LOTS of reading) and I can't imagine being very succesful without a strong grasp of the essentials of reading. Just my 2? about my program.
 
Gavin, I was wondering if the Arizona school has a residency requirement? I know it's a private, but does it prefer in-state and WICHE residents? I am a Californian.

Thanks
 
I also wanted to post that because all of our quizzes and exams are electronic and taken online (using our laptops while we sit in the classroom, NOT at home), the format is somewhat limited.

Questions can be either multiple choice or matching. I know some people thrive with these question types, so I thought I'd post them.

Also, one of the creators of our curriculum stated yesterday that when we are finished we should "be able to take any physician to the low block and post them up" (a basketball reference for those who aren't interested in sports).
 
Whats it like so far, and what your days like while at D-school.

yah you should be able to do the dream shake and take it to the hole.

A much better reference would be you be able to score top shelf where ma keeps the peanut butter. baby hockey rulz
 
hockey,

Days are long and hard! Class is from 8-5 M-F, but I'm at the school every day at 7am studying and trying to get caught up on reading.

We are just receving our patient caseload, so that will tack on some serious time requirements.
 
Today we received a sample patient case, took a sample exam, and started our first module. I'll deal with each of these in turn.

Patient case - We will be in charge of hundreds of patients throughout each year, so we got a jump start on it today and were able to see what the scenarios are like and what is required of us. These patient cases are *somewhat* similar to what is seen in PBL curriculums, except for the fact that we will juggle 10 patients a week, and are responsible for the final outcome of the patient.

For example, the practice case we had today dealt was matched up with our Genetics mod. that we start in 2 weeks. It dealt with a pregnant woman who through the course of our examination found out she was going to have twins. We then explained to her the molecular basis for twins, the molecular causes for monozygotic and dizygotic twins, how DNA replication ensures fidelity in the case of monozygotic twins, and what her odds are of having each respective type of twin.

Following this we presented the case to our colleagues (our faculty and fellow students): "Mrs. X, a 23 year-old pregnant female presented to the clinic for her normal gynecologic examination. Through examination it was determined that Mrs. X was carrying twins..." etc., etc.

Pretty fun and interesting stuff. For this first semester we are combined in groups of 6 students, and our group will handle 10 patients a week. I'll talk more about this as the semester progresses, but needless to say we will learn ALOT after having 400+ of these cases and seeing them through to resolution.

Sample Exam Dr. Tom Hart of the U. of Pitt. Dental School will be teaching our genetics mod to us in a couple of weeks. We were all really curious to find out what the exam would be like, and the level of depth required for the exam. Remember that we only have professors with us for a week, and we only have ONE test for each unit, so it is important to get a feel for the professor's testing style prior to the exam.

Let me put it this way: the level of knowledge that will be necessary to do well on the Genetics exam will far exceed ANY knowledge I've previously had of genetics. The questions were difficult and most of them dealt with specific diseases/syndromes associated with genetic mutations. The first chapters of our genetics book literally lists 100 of these diseases, so being responsible for the entire book will be crazy. This was really an eye-opener to us. I had a fairly difficult/competitive undergrad experience, but this was insane.

First mod Our first professor was Dr. Conn from the UT-San Antonio Dental School. No complaints from me in this area! The module is pretty interesting as far as trivia type stuff goes. Today we learned about dentistry in various parts of the world from the Mayans to the Middle Ages. Tomorrow we'll cover modern dentistry and have our first Grand Rounds.
 
I wanted to post a general thought to all those pre-dents out there who are preparing for dental school.

Perhaps during undergrad you might have found yourself looking at certain people and thinking to yourself "they don't look smart" or "they aren't pre-dent so I'm not competing against them for positions" or something of this nature.

Let me forewarn you that such notions are gone by the wayside in dental school. EVERY single person who is there is qualified to be there.

Even more to the point, I knew people in undergrad who WERE pre-dent and would sit in their science classes and base their effort off the effort of people who didn't appear to be very capable. For example, one of my friends always felt good about studying for only 30 minutes in a certain subject because he was sure that the skaters who sat on the back row weren't studying at all, which meant he would never do worse than them.

That notion is also gone in dental school. As I said, everybody who is in your class has been qualified by the admissions committee. I only say this so you don't assume that if somebody appears to be a slacker or has a type-B personality then they must be a slacker. This type of outlook will leave you surprised on exam days.

These thoughts don't have anything to do with specifics at my school, they are just general thoughts I've had as I've met all the awesome people in my class and experienced the wide range of diversity we all carry with us into dental school. Dental school (& medical school) is where you can go from an undergrad 4.0 and top of your class to a dental school 2.8 and middle of your class with the blink of an eye.
 
People have PMed me asking for more pictures of the dental school, specifically the inside and our lecture halls, etc. I'm planning on taking some photos on Monday to post.

I just finished studying some Genetics, which brings my grand total to six hours spent yesterday and 4 hours spent today. To give you an idea of the depth that is required of us, my typewritten notes on the first four chapters of our book are 15 pages long in single-spaced 10-point font. There are fourteen chapters we are responsible for, so I'm expecting about 50 pages of total notes for the material.

The notes read in general something like this: "HNPCC can be caused by a defect in the Methyl-directed mismatch repair. HNPCC affects 1 in 200 people in the US and accounts for 15% of all colon cancers. The hallmark of cells with NHPCC is microsatellite (di, tri, or tetranucleotide sequence) instability, and the Methyl-directed mismatch repair system fails to correct these.

"Trichothiodystrophy (TTD) is an autosomal recessive disorder where patients display brittle hair, short stature, mental ******ation and some neurologic problems. They do NOT develop skin cancer at an increased rate and also have a defect in coupling to transcription.

"Ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) individuals have a 100-fold incrase in the development of cancer when compared to the general population. Cells from AT patients have been shown to have a defect in the G1 checkpoint and are unable to use the p53 pathway."

Etc., etc.

I hope everybody is having a good weekend!
 
ItsGavinC,
hi, it seems like you're doing well and on top of things..
thanks for sharing your experiences.
how would you compare the level of difficulty of dental school to undergrad.? are the materials "incomprehensible"? or do u think dental school is hard because of the amount of material that you have to learn? when i start dental school next month, i'm afraid that i would not understand what i will be reading. for example, on your last post, i have no idea what u wrote. 😕
 
emporio,

Dental school is very doable, but that doesn't mean it won't take signifigant work. The sheer magnitude of the material is the killer -- none of the material itself is very difficult!

I suppose it is sort of like Biochemistry in undergrad: the material wasn't difficult, I mean, it didn't involve any complex calculus equations or any deep scientific hypothesis, it was just that there was so much to memorize!

Based on this, I could say that dental school is easier than undergrad conceptually. After all, because we have all taken the science prereqs there really aren't any topics that we haven't delved into already in undergrad. The amount of material is another matter, however. I have no doubt that in 2-3 weeks we will have covered an entire semesters worth of undergraduate material.

I didn't know what any of those genetic abnormalities were either until I studied them this weekend! Don't sweat it, you'll do fine -- just expect to put in some time to do well!

By the way, not all dental schools are equal! Just because we are reading vast amounts of material doesn't mean you will.
 
We had a good day today!

Monday is exam day at ASDOH, so this morning we had an exam on our History of Dentistry course. Because this course was mainly to get us comfortable with using all of the technology, the professor gave us the exam questions as he was lecturing to us last week. I suspect that everybody got an A on this course.

Today we also began our second course, "Public Health and Epidemiology". It's pretty interesting stuff and also important stuff. It is being taught by Dr. Christine Watkins of the University of Iowa Dental School.

Every Wednesday from now until 9/3, we'll spend the later half of the day in our Radiology course. Because of this we received a brief reading assignment list for that course today, and a note that this Wednesday will be our first day in our sim-lab. That means we get to become familiar with the lab and our KaVo units--very cool!

All-in-all things are going very well! My case group (for the super PBL portion of the class) is busy working a case that involves tuberculosis and is related to epidemiology. We received 10 news cases this week and they all relate to Epi. So far I'm really enjoying the cases.

Our final grade in Public Health & Epidemiology will be 70% of the points we get from our didactic exam (which will be next Monday) and 30% from the points we receive in our cases. The cases are graded as HP/P/F, while the didactic exam is graded in the traditional A/B/C manner. A 70% is a C and is the minimum grade that is requied on the exam to pass the course. This applies to ALL courses we'll have this year.

No pictures today because I was too busy. Time to go study!
 
Keep up the great posts Gavin, I really enjoy them. Good luck this year and take care.
 
Our dental hx exam is tomorrow...along with our ethics exam, a medical terminology exam (quick: if you diagnose someone with hyperangiorrhexis, what's wrong with them?), an anatomy lecture exam, and an anatomy lab practical. What? Bitter? Where do you get that impression? 🙄

We got the same arrangement...Dr. Christen has a collection of 300 questions to choose from, and we were given them. Some of the knowledge we're responsible for...well, "trivial" is a generous assessment. I hope yours is a little more relevant! 😉
 
Another fairly good day today. We're moving right along with our Public Health & Epi. class. Right now we are in midst of epidemiology and doing quite a bit of bio-statistics.

People have asked me how many credit hours we are taking this semster. The answer is 36! Here is our first semester course listing (and also the order they go in!) for those who have missed it before.


  1. History of Dentistry
    Public Health & Epidemiology
    Introduction to Health Disciplines
    Genetics
    Microbiology
    Musculoskeletal Systems
    Integumentary Systems
    Nervous System
    Mind and Cognition
    Endocrinology
    Hematology
    Cardiopulmonary System
    Immunology
    Metabolism
    Digestive System
    Urinary Systems
    Reproductive Systems
    Dental Radiology
    Dental Materials and Instruments
    Dental Pain Control
    Grand Rounds
    [/list=1]

    Our second semester schedule also comes out to 36 credit hours, and is comprised of the following courses:

    1. Pharmacology
      Compartments of Neck
      Compartments of Head
      Trigeminal
      Masticatory System
      Orthodontics
      Dental Hard Tissues
      Oral Soft Tissues
      Dental Pulp
      Exodontia
      Clinical Medicine I
      Grand Rounds II
      [/list=1]

      Lots of classes = lots of studying! Remember that each of those first-semester courses is had in a one week period, with the exception of Musculoskeletal Systems and Nervous System, which are two-week courses. I'm not sure which second semester courses are going to be two weeks.

      Each week equates to 35 hours of didactic lecture, 6-10 case studies, Grand Rounds, any pertinent lab exercises, and one exam.
 
Another stellar day today! We had more of our Public Health lecture, and also began our Rads course.

Today was especially exciting because we also got to become familiar with our simlab! We'll be spending a portion of each Wednesday this first semester in the sim-lab.

Good stuff and brand spankin' new top of the line equipment, including electric handpieces!
 
I was at school today from 7am-5pm and again from 6:30pm-10pm. That makes for a long day, but I feel as though I got quite a bit accomplished.

Tomorrow we wrap up our Public Health course (exam on Monday) and then we have Grand Rounds in the afternoon, which should be a nice break from the norm.

On Monday, following our Public Health exam, we begin our next module which is "Introduction to Health Systems". It is basically a broad course that is designed to bring us up to speed for the courses we will have for the remainder of the year.

The textbooks for the course are all BRS books. For this one week course our texts are:

? Cell Biology & Histology
? Embryology
? Gross Anatomy
? Microbiology & Immunology
? Neuroanatomy
? Pathology
? Pharmacology
? Physiology

Sounds fun, doesn't it? The creator of the curriculum said this coming week would be "hell". I'll let you know...
 
What follows is the four-year dental program curriculum at ASDOH. Many have PMed me asking about the courses, so here they are (sorry about the long length of this post!):

First year
First semester
History of Medicine & Dentistry
Public Health & Epidemiology
Intro. to Health Sciences Disciplines Genetics
Microbiology
Integumentary system
Musculoskeletal system
Nervous system
Mind & Cognition
Neuroendocrine system
Cardiopulmonary system
Immunology
Metabolism
Digestive system
Urinary system
Reproductive system
Radiology
Materials & Instruments
Pain Control
Grand Rounds I

Second semester
Compartments of Neck
Pharmacology
Comparments of Head
Trigeminal Nerve
Masticatory system
Temporomandibular Joint
Dental Hard Tissue
Oral Soft Tissue
Dental Pulp
Orthodontics
Exodontics
Clinical Medicine I
Grand Rounds II

Second year
Third semester
Removeable Prosthodontics
Fixed Prosthodontics
Implant Dentistry
Clinical Medicine II
Grand Rounds III

Fourth semester
Primary Care
Dental Communities
Oral Medicine and Diagnosis
Treatment PLanning & Sequencing
Clinical Experiences I
Grand Rounds IV

Third year
Fifth semester
Evidence based dentistry
Dental business models I
Clincial Dentistry I
Clincial Experiences II
Grand Rounds V

Sixth semester
Clinical Dentistry II
Dental Business Models II
Clinical Experiences III
Grand Rounds VI

Fourth year
Seventh semester
Clinical Experiences IV
Grand Rounds VIII

Eighth semester
Clinical Experiences V
Grand Rounds VIII


As you can see, our first semester science classes comprise what most dental schools do in the first year, and our second semester courses comprise what most schools do in the second year. Our clinical experiences began during our DS2 year and carry throughout the end of school. The hours for each type of learning are as follows:

Didactic lecture: 1262
Case Presentation: 818
Sim-lab Experience: 779
Clinical Experience/Rotations: 2332
Exams: 123

Total: 5314 hrs
 
Where did your instruction in Pedo go? Kids are probably a huge part of your clinical experience if you guys will be out in the AZ community doing clinic stuff while still in dental school.
 
Well, the aforementioned "hell week" has officially begun.

But first...Today we took our Public Heath & Epidemiology exam (remember, all exams are on Mondays and cover the previous weeks course). The consensus among the class is that it was HARD! I studied and knew the subject matter, but I knew I was in trouble when 15-20 questions into the exam I had already made an educated guess on 5 or 6 questions. We'll get our exam results on Wednesday, so then we'll officially know how we did.

This afternoon we began our Intro. to Health Disciplines module, which is a crash course in various subjects in order to get us up to speed for where we need to be at for the remainder of this first year.

Today, in a 3 hour lecture period, we covered four chapters of Embryology and four chapters of Cell Biology.

I wish I could write more but I've got to get back to learning about cytotrophoblasts, syncytiotrophoblasts, urogenital ridges, mesonephric excretory tubes, tertiary chorionic villi and the like....
 
We had a good day of lecture today, and I am really impressed with the quality of our professors.

Today, in an eight hour period we were introduced to Physiology, Microbiology, and Pathology. Tomorrow we'll have more lecture on Path. These lectures are a basic outline of the material we are to know, and it is up to us to use our curriculum books to read/learn all the information.

Needless to say, it is a TON of information that has to be learned. The material we covered today alone would probably be covered in a 2-3 week period at my undergraduate school.

I'm going to try to post more pictures, especially some of our beautiful SimLab, but I've got to get a good handle on this material first.

Hopefully everybody is doing some partying on my behalf, since I surely can't! 🙂
 
Gavin:

Looks like the curriculum is running you guys hard! Well, Thanksgiving is only about 3.5 months away. 😀

Seriously though, you (and Bill at IU!) won't be alone much longer in your suffering. Here at the University at Buffalo, the freshmen report next week. We upperclassmen follow two days afterwards, all diving right back into the thick of things.

Keep on truckin'! :clap:
 
Thanks Tom. We have a full week break in October that EVERYBODY is looking forward to!

Today was another good day, although it was once again full of material. This morning we finished up our pathology lecture, and then we moved into general gross anatomy of the head/neck region, and the skeletal system. Following that we had our Rads course, which is always a blast.

After the Rads course, we kicked it in the sim-lab for a little bit, and became more familiar with the equipment. We have sweet Kavo units, along with Kavo desktops, flatscreen monitors, etc., and they took a bit of messing around with to figure out. Our setup is seriously sweet, as can be attested to by those SDNers who have stopped by the school in the last couple of weeks to check out the simlab. Really rad stuff, and it should be a lot of fun!

After the simlab, we were done for the day, but several of us headed to the gross anatomy lab to help our prof. with dissection of some cadavers. These cadavers will be used tomorrow and Friday as part of our Intro. to Health Disciplines module. Remember, that is the module we are in right now, and it's goal is to get us up to par for when all of our out-of-state professors come pouring in.

This semester we'll have professors from UNC, U Pitt, and U Minnesota, to name a few, and ASDOH wants to make sure we'll be prepared for their modules we they get here.

So, our Intro. to Health Disciplines module covers most of the basic sciences. This week we've learned: Cell Bio & Histology, Embryology, Physiology, Microbiology & Immunology, Pathology, Head/Neck anatomy, Endocrine system, Lymphatic system, Skeletal system, and Repro. system.

Of course we are not delving completely into these subjects, but the material is still HUGE! I'd say that over half the class still has not completed the assigned readings for the material, much less studied it. It isn't that we are slacking off, it's just that we are responsible for an insane amount of material in this module.

I've been in school from 7-5, and then heading back to school to study from 6-10 every night this week. Two of the nights this week I've continued my studies at home from 10:30-12:30, and I'm still several chapters away from completing the reading that will get me caught up to the lectures we had today.

Now don't get me wrong, dental school is an amazing place! It is such a cool thing to be able to learn and to be in an environment that fosters learning. Very few people in society will ever have the opportunity to be in an environment that dental & medical students are in, and although it is stressful it is also a real blessing. It's also cool be surrounded by such great people, both in the faculty and fellow students.

We got our results from our first module exam, Public Health & Epidemiology today, and I scored a 91. Not as high as I had hoped, but much better than I felt I was going to do. It was a TOUGH exam!

Time to hit the books again. Wireless connections can be a blessing and a curse ...😀
 
Gavin,

Your attitude toward dental school is amazing, all the more so since you're obviously operating under such constant, intense pressure. IUSD is obviously an entirely different curriculum than yours, and I'm finding myself immensely glad I don't have the stress you're under. IUSD has a pretty distinguished history, and our workload is nothing to scoff at; but I can tell you pretty confidently that it's barely a patch to what you're trooping through.

It's getting to the point that whenever I'm tempted to grouse in my head about certain aspects of IUSD's curriculum, I just think about you juggling 200 hours a week of studying and still sporting a positive attitude; it's usually enough to guilt-trip myself out of my bad mood :laugh: Keep on keepin' on!
 
Bill,

Thanks for the props. I simply don't have time to slack off around here. The exams every Monday keep me motivated. If I don't get a 70% on the didactic exam I have to retake the course. Retake enough courses and the faculty wonder why you are in dental school. That isn't a good situation to be in.

By the way, I'm extremely tired right now but I've got to gain a better understanding of how the embryoblast differentiates into the epiblast and the hypoblast. And on and on and on...
 
I've gotten lots of PMs today asking about how hard dental school is and what my schedule is like. I'm posting here my response to those PMs so everybody can view it. It is quite lengthy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is my answer in a nutshell: dental school can be as easy or as difficult as you want it to be! Seriously! Nobody forces you to study, although it you bomb several courses you'll have to remediate and at most schools if you have to remediate several courses they will then begin to evaluate if you should be there at all, so I suppose in a round-about way there ARE inheriant motivating factors for studying.

The degree to which you put forth effort is up to you. At Arizona, we have to get a 70% on our didactic exams to pass the course. Meaning, we can ace the case presentations, but if we get a 68% on the didactic exam we have to take the course over again.

So, for many students the question might be "What effort to I have to put forth to earn that 70% grade?" My impression after these first three weeks is that the effort I put forth at my undergrad institution to earn an A would only equate to a C-/D+ here at Arizona. As you can see, the same old same old from undergrad isn't going to cut it around here.

Now I know that we have a different curriculum here, with different professors and the newest high-tech toys, but I don't think the effort needed to suceed varies *much* from school to school. It may vary some, but no dental student should believe he/she can rest on the same efforts that got them through undergrad.

I'm not content with asking myself how to get a 70% grade, for several reasons. First, what if I studied only to where I felt I would get a 70% (what I need for passing), and then ended up getting less than that -- say a 67%? Unfortunately, I would have to remediate the course, which certainly doesn't save me any time or effort. So in regards to that method, how does one know when enough is enough? If there was a gauge that told you when your brain had enough information to get a certain grade then this method might work better.

Secondly, I'm not content to just get a passing grade, which is why the first method would NEVER work for me! I'm not trying to set class records or be the top student. I can honestly say right now (and everybody can quote me on this) that I will *NOT* be the top student in my class. My honest opinion is that I won't even be in the top 10. There are too many people here who have vast amounts of knowledge that I don't have. And, to be honest, there are too many geniuses here. Having said that, I do hope that I'm in the Top 20 (or upper-half) of the class, and I don't think that goal is unreasonable.

The other reason that method #1 would never work for me, is that regardless of grades, I'm here to learn as much as I can! After all, I'm paying for the education! That is a big part of what motivates me to study as I do. I honestly WANT to learn about OB/GYN, radiology, pathology, neuroanatomy, geriatrics, and internal medicine. Dentists and other students can say that it won't matter once I graduate, and I have no problem with them saying that. That more or less reflects their attitudes towards the type of practice they wish to run. My goal is to know as much as I can about the human body, NOT just the oral cavity, so that I may provide a more complete method of health care to my patients. Will I give them physicals when they set into my office? No, but I will give them a soft-tissue examination to determine if there is any systemic infection they may not be aware of. Will I be on the lookout for disease that manifests in the oral cavity and the head/neck region? Absolutely. Limiting myself to just teeth is limiting the care I can provide to the patient.

Hopefully this sheds some light on the factors as to why I study the way I do. And, I'd like to note, that I'm not alone in this methodology. Our curriculum focuses on us being primary care providers, and it really becomes engrained in our thoughts and actions. When the day comes that I have to call an MD because I've noted something signifigant in a patient examination, I need to be able to clearly communicate with the MD. There isn't anything lesser about dentistry than there is about opthomology, radiology, or gastro. We are all part of a health care team working for the benefit of our patients, and dentists should be able to effectively communicate with ALL aspects of health care providers.

We have lecture/class time from 8-5 every day, so that is a given. I'm usually at school at 7:15 every morning and I do this to try to get a good solid 30 minutes of studying in. I try to get back to school at 6 or 7 in the evening, and then I ALWAYS study until 10. Some nights I push it to midnight or later if I feel the material needs it.

There are always exceptions to this. For example, I've hit the books HARD this week and feel I'm doing okay, so I took last night off after studying for a total of 45 minutes. I hung out with my wife and son, ran two miles, and just chilled in front of the TV. It was refreshing and good!

Hopefully this answers some questions!
 
Well folks, my Intro to Health Disciplines exam is on Monday. I feel like I'm ready, but I don't know that I really am. I suppose I'll find out soon enough. I've been studying my butt off and I think I have a strong grasp on the material. There are still lots of details I don't know, though. I think I'm coming to realize that there will ALWAYS be lots of details I don't know. I can only cram so much info. into my head in a week's time.

I've read all the required text several times, and reviewed my personal notes multiple times. I'm now reviewing the PowerPoint presentations from the lectures. Just to give you an idea of what that entails, each of the following are the lectures we had this week and the accompanying presentations I need to review:
? articular system
? cardiovascular
? cell biology
? cell physiology
? digestive system
? embryology
? endocrine system
? intro to anatomy
? lymphatic system
? microbiology
? muscular system
? nervous system
? pathology 1
? pathology 2
? pharmacology 1
? pharmacology 2
? pharmacology 3
? reproductive system
? respiratory system
? skeletal system
? urinary system

I know people think I'm exaggerating this, but I'm not. Wish me luck!
 
man gavin...i feel your pain...they're really pushing you guys out there....is there any kinda support service or anything they have in case someone is struggling with getting 70%'s? Also, i was looking over your curriculum and i couldn't find any endo or perio classes either.....when do they teach that? =oP Do you guys have to do wax ups or anything preclinical yet? =o) Just curious. good luck!!!:clap:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
  • Locked
AADSAS Experience Clarification
Replies
2
Views
2K
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
Spring 2025 Applicant Experience Survey Open!
Replies
1
Views
669
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
FALL 2024 Applicant Experience Survey
Replies
0
Views
769
Mr.Smile12
Mr.Smile12
D
AADSAS App Experiences Section
Replies
0
Views
2K
drjackdaw
D
ms64
Switching my major
Replies
3
Views
735
ms64
ms64
Top Bottom