3rd/4th Year of Dental School

[chrisski]

One always hear about the terrible hours and lifestyle of 3rd year medical school. However, I personally have not heard anything about the last two years of dental school. Are these years the same as the first two? I am under the assumption that you don't do clinical rotations like in medical school. Thanks so much for the help! (any insights on Indiana University in particular would be great)

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[Maygyver]

In general, the first two years involve more didactic learning. The 3rd and 4th years are when you get involved in the clinic. From most of the dental students I have talked to, the 3rd year is the most relaxed. The 4th year seems pretty good after you are done with your boards. You might want to try posting this in the dental forum to get some D student's perspectives.

 

[chrisski]

Thanks for the response. Good idea about the other forum, but I don't want to duplicate post. Maybe some of them will wonder over here.

 

[jenbruin]

The 4th year I talked to at USC said 3rd/4th years are pretty stressful, too. Which surprised me because I've generally heard they are easier than the first half of dschool. I guess it varies school to school.

 

[RCT PC CRN]

I agree with Maygyver. Medical school rotations are bit different than dental school clinics. I have couple of friends graduated from dental school recently (with in last 2 years). I hardly seen them during first 2 years of their D school but 3rd and 4th year were so different. They had plently of time after clinics. They were out hanging with freinds often.

First 2 years are didactic as Maygyver mentioned. Dental students tend to spend lot of time at home/lib during first two years. Amount of time student spend during normal week in classes (mainly 1st n 2nd year) and clinics (3rd n 4th years) are pretty much same through out the four years of D school. However, it's not the class/clinic hours kills you, it's the extra time that students usually have to spend studying at home/lib during first two years.

Bottom line what I have observed and heard so far, 3rd and 4th year of D school is bit relaxing than first 2 years.

 

[chrisski]

Thanks. Sounds good.🙂

 

[IdahoDoc]

The third and fourth year are just a different kind of stress. There is more free time after hours. With being in the clinic every day for at least half the day you have to get things signed off by professors and they all go home at 5 pm so there isn't much you really can do after hours. But sometimes this adds to the stress and could make it worse than D1 or D2 because you may have a ton of things that you need to get done but the thing that is holding you up is no longer your amount of time like in D1 or D2 but waiting for professors time.