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- Thread starter TheSandlapper
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Here's a little insight. You have made it this far in DS and it's not a bad thing that you've struggled, a lot of people do whether you believe that or not in some shape or fashion. I had several classmates who had to remediate different skills because something dumb happened or it wasn't there day in sim lab....they turned out to be great and competent dentists. You CAN do the same.
A little tough love coming your way because its good for the soul....
Pick yourself up by the bootstraps and gain some confidence. DS will show you a lot about who you are based off how you react to different situations. D4 year is tough, you have to finish requirements, some have boards, licensing exams, finding a job and signing a contract, etc, etc. You need to find a way to set yourself up for success, idc what it is. Go talk to people and communicate. Do whatever it is that you have to do in order to get patients that have what you need to graduate (I am not saying this may or will be easy) but this is an absolute must. Have some pride in what you have accomplished and keep moving forward, you CAN make it happen if you choose to do so. Don't fall by the wayside and feel sorry for yourself because you've had some bumps in the road and things haven't gone exactly like you've wanted them to. Be prompt, have a sense of urgency, have some pride, and be confident moving forward and I think your luck will change my friend. Also, for those in your class that are doing well and appear happy, go talk to them. Tell them you are struggling and figure out what they are doing that works, people are going to be willing to help you if you have a sense of urgency and show that you do need help.
This was not meant to beat up on you but give you a little ooomf to get things going in the right direction. You have time to get your requirements done for graduation but you have to make it happen. So do it! Much respect from one colleague to another - good luck. You can do it.
A little tough love coming your way because its good for the soul....
Pick yourself up by the bootstraps and gain some confidence. DS will show you a lot about who you are based off how you react to different situations. D4 year is tough, you have to finish requirements, some have boards, licensing exams, finding a job and signing a contract, etc, etc. You need to find a way to set yourself up for success, idc what it is. Go talk to people and communicate. Do whatever it is that you have to do in order to get patients that have what you need to graduate (I am not saying this may or will be easy) but this is an absolute must. Have some pride in what you have accomplished and keep moving forward, you CAN make it happen if you choose to do so. Don't fall by the wayside and feel sorry for yourself because you've had some bumps in the road and things haven't gone exactly like you've wanted them to. Be prompt, have a sense of urgency, have some pride, and be confident moving forward and I think your luck will change my friend. Also, for those in your class that are doing well and appear happy, go talk to them. Tell them you are struggling and figure out what they are doing that works, people are going to be willing to help you if you have a sense of urgency and show that you do need help.
This was not meant to beat up on you but give you a little ooomf to get things going in the right direction. You have time to get your requirements done for graduation but you have to make it happen. So do it! Much respect from one colleague to another - good luck. You can do it.
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Were you forced into dentistry by your parents?
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C'mon this is not the right time to ask this question. Why kick someone when they are down? even if this is true it is irrelevant at this point.
OP I am so sorry you are in this situation. Dental school can be terrible. But if the school didn't believe in you they wouldn't have let you get this far. You have passed hundreds of tests and clinical situations to get where you are.
Make an Excel sheet with all your requirements and exactly what you need. Then reach out individually to people in your clinic group and ask for pts. Also I guarantee you there are plenty of people struggling. No one ever wants to admit it. There were plenty of people who in public seem like they are killing it and always want to look like they are doing well, but then if you talk to them in private it turns out many are struggling quite a bit. That being said, it doesn't matter. The unanimously agreed upon 'best' dentist at my school did not graduate near the top of his class at all.
You can move on. Remember that dental school does not define your self worth. Hopefully you have at least one faculty member that you can reach out to and talk with them and ask their advice. Worse case scenario you have to stay a little after graduation. Not a huge deal, plenty of people have had to do that and with COVID it is much harder since you missed so much clinic time.
Then get out there and find some good mentorship with real dentists and try to eliminate all the bad memories of dental school from your brain.
You are not alone.I feel exactly the same way.I am also a D4, we were on our winter break and this final semester started 2 weeks ago. I always think how would all of this end smoothly? would I be able to make it? Why am I the only one in my batch that keeps complaining and worrying about my clinics? will the patient show up or not?
What I am trying to do is to take it a day at a time. Or even a clinic at a time
Thinking about what will happen one or two weeks ahead , you will just worry more and consequently do worse
When I feel overwhelmed and that no one is understanding my struggles, I watch some realistic motivational videos for Julia Kristina. I highly recommend her, will teach you many ways to deal with stress, self worthiness, comparison with others.
Again I will say it: you are not alone,,, It is common for university students to only show the bright side of their lives.. this is called the duck syndrome, describes students struggling to survive the pressures of a competitive environment while presenting the image of relaxed California chill.
You will pass, I believe in you!!!
What I am trying to do is to take it a day at a time. Or even a clinic at a time
Thinking about what will happen one or two weeks ahead , you will just worry more and consequently do worse
When I feel overwhelmed and that no one is understanding my struggles, I watch some realistic motivational videos for Julia Kristina. I highly recommend her, will teach you many ways to deal with stress, self worthiness, comparison with others.
Again I will say it: you are not alone,,, It is common for university students to only show the bright side of their lives.. this is called the duck syndrome, describes students struggling to survive the pressures of a competitive environment while presenting the image of relaxed California chill.
You will pass, I believe in you!!!
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Where did you see a kick? Advice for people for whom dentistry route was chosen differs from advice for someone who chose it for themselves
In any case it is hard to cope, when everything is hard. It helps to find the reason why it is hard and work on it. Unfortunately the cost of education is so high it makes it impossible to just do something else. I know of some dentists, who became lawyers later, if that helps
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Okay I might have misread things.
What advice do you have for the OP assuming they chose their own profession? What different advice do you have if their parents encouraged them?
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I agree with your post except the part I quoted. Patients exercise a lot of trust by coming to a health care provider. As a dentist you work on people’s bodies and can do permanent harm. Although the stakes are not as high as in neurosurgery, preventable mistakes and harm are a huge deal and can be of significant consequence to the patient. Don’t take advantage of your patients trust.
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Let me clarify. OP should do their best to prepare and prevent mistakes. But when honest mistakes happen, especially as a student dentist, OP should see mistakes as learning opportunities rather than dwell on the fact that he/she is making mistakes imo
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Absolutely. Don't dwell on things. Try your best to prevent anything from happening but if it did learn from it and move on.
I hate a D4 classmate who was absolutely miserable after perfing a tooth.
The thing was he did not really do anything wrong. Sometimes **** just happens. The decay was super deep. He did not intentionally do anything. The tooth was already screwed up, and that is why it needed an RCT. It sucks. But it is what it is.
I find the other thing that is helpful is that you should always tell pts of the worst possibility. e.g doing a deep filling - this will most likely be a pulp exposure ⇒ RCT. Versus you just tell them it is a filling, then they need an RCT they think you completed effed up.
I am FT faculty at a D school, and I truly feel bad reading your posts. Where did WE fail YOU? We must have, as I know the school has a lot of resources and you simply slipped through the cracks. Reach out to a faculty you trust and talk to them. I KNOW that many would help you if you asked. You need guidance....right now, so that you can graduate and feel good about becoming a dentist. Someone in school will help you.
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I would ask parents to pay my tuition and therapy costs, if they forced me into something I didn't like.
If it was my mistake, I would just suck it up and figure out what else I can do with my life, after I graduated and took care of my loan or at least part of it. But that's me
When he/she started college, he/she was already an 18 yo adult. Therefore, he/she could do whatever he/she wanted. He/she didn't have to listen to his/her parents.
I will gladly pay for my kids' college tuitions, if they choose either dentistry or medicine because I think it's a good financial investment. But if my kids decide to pursue another career (or switch to a different major while in college), I will immediately cut the funding and make them take out student loan to pay for their own education. And I then use the money that I save (for not having to pay for their education) to invest in something else. This investment money will be used to help my kids in case they struggle (because they pick a wrong career) in the future. If they hate dentistry (or medicine) so much, they can just work 1-2 days/wk...and w/o any student loan, they should be able to live comfortbably. They can use the other free days in the week to do things that they love. They have to be able to pay the bills and feed themselves first.
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I plan to assist my children in whatever makes them happy, because I saw the results of pressuring children into careers which require passion
To enjoy the job, it has to be there long-term for them....and will not eventually be replaced by AI (ie pharmacy, optometry etc) or by someone else (ie enginering) in the future. It's no fun when you constantly worry about getting laid off, losing your house, and can't find another job with similar pay and similar level of enjoyment. Living in America where the cost of living is very high, you have to be realistic....gotta be able to pay bills and feed yourself first.
I love listening to classical music. I admire the musicians who play their instruments beautifully. But it's sad for me to see them having to work another job that they don't like in order to support the music job that they like. It's sad that the population of classical music lovers is shrinking.
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Not a struggling D4, but watching my struggling classmates is painful. It’s not the faculty that failed the students, it’s the schools. And it makes me feel bad when faculty think they are at fault. Reducing chairs, reducing time in clinic, increasing lectures, refusing to acknowledge that a global pandemic is scaring away patients and ruining their finances, yet holding requirements (or even raising them in other schools) and threatening students with moving graduation dates - that’s what killing us. You guys have been accommodating and we owe you all.