Anatomy Class

[jes1ca]

Hello all you dental school folks,

I will be attending Nova Southeastern Dental School this fall. I have taken a lot of pre-dental courses, but I have never taken anatomy because my undergraduate school did not offer the course. I know anatomy is essential for dental school and I see several options that I might have.

1. Stress myself out by taking a quick summer anatomy course.
2. Buy an Atlas of Human Anatomy from the bookstore and flip through the pages.
3. Not think about anatomy at all until matriculation to dental school.

Please let me know what you think. Keep in mind that I was a biology major in college and have taken Biochem, Cell Bio, Genetics, Development, etc.

Jessica

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[ItsGavinC]

Not thinking about it until you matriculate is probably your best bet. Here is my reasoning:

Option number one would give you some good experience with anatomy, but it might be overkill. You can probably come up with better things to do during the summer before you begin dental school.

Option number two wouldn't be much benefit at all because you don't know exactly what material is covered in your dental course, and even if you did, the odds that you could remember even a minimal portion of it until school starts, are minimal. For example, I had head and neck anatomy just a month ago, and already I've forgotten probably 60% of the material I learned. I had Gross Anatomy last semester and remember *very* little of what I learned.

 

[speter33]

Gavin don't you think the information will conjur up quickly once he takes an anatomy class for a second time in dental school. Even though u think u have forgoten anatomy it's still in the back of your head. If a person who never took anatomy and you had to study for a test you would be much more efficient because you'd only be reviewing.

I'm taking anatomy right now in undergrad and I'm also using the BRS review book, my class notes and the book are virually identical. I can't wait to only have to review the stuff in D-school while everyone else is killing themselves.

As far as taking the summer class, that's entirely up to you. If you feel burned out or want to do something fun that you always wanted to do go for it. However if you have nothing else to do and want to take the class I think you should go for it. Reviewing the atlas by yourself I don't think will do much good. This is one of those subjects where you actually have to take the class to learn it.

 

[dragonfly9]

I didn't worry about it until I actually took the class in dental school. While I was taking it, I found Netter's flash cards to be really helpful. It has illustrations from the Netter atlas, but they are in flash card form. There are numbers and arrows on the illustrations and on the back the numbers are identified and explained. Good luck!

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

Netters are good but they only cover around 20% of the material they teach in lecture (at least here).

Netters are just a good overview...so it would be good for you if you want to read some before you start

 

[gryffindor]

I went into Gross Anatomy knowing nothing. I had taken all those courses you mentioned and Histology as well.

In retrospect, with the choices you give, I would have done option #3. If I had tons of time on my hands the summer between college ending and dental school starting, I might have done option #1. But if taking a summer anatomy course will be stressful, I would stay away from it. If you think you'll be so bored over the summer and this course would give you something to do, take it but don't stress yourself out over it - maybe you could just audit it.

I wouldn't do option #2 because you won't have any idea what to focus on for Gross. Anatomy atlases are way overloaded with structures; every fiber in the body has a name you really will not learn every single one of them in your dental course.

speter33 - I wouldn't treat Anatomy in dental school as "just reviewing." I had a good Histology background prior to dental school and I still had to put in quite a bit of effort to do well in the course. Same goes for Biochemistry. Courses differ from school to school. Here at Buffalo, our Anatomy course never touched the BRS book. Studying it would be completely useless because our exams were all practical bell-ringers with absolutely no multiple choice. The answer sheet was just a bunch of numbered lines and you had to come up with the answers to the questions on the bodies from the top of your head. All the notes you needed were provided in a lecture manual and even if you memorized the manual, you still wouldn't pass b/c you had to go in extra times and study the structures on the body.

Brocnizer - are you talking about the book or the flashcards? I assume the flashcards b/c the Netters book has like 800 times the amount of information you'll ever need.

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

yeah...flashcards. I should have clarified. Sorry about that.

The book has crazy amounts of detail!

 

[ItsGavinC]

Originally posted by speter33
Gavin don't you think the information will conjur up quickly once he takes an anatomy class for a second time in dental school..

My honest answer is: no. I guess this varies from school to school, but we did the entire body (with a few exceptions) and I don't see how learning it the summer before would have helped much. That's my honest answer. Anatomy is twofold difficult because not only must you remember the terminology, but also the location. It doesn't do any good to memorize one without the other. Knowing the general area that a muscle lies doesn't help much in the lab practical.

 

[Beagle]

I took anatomy two summers before entering dental school. I think it might have helped a tiny tiny bit, but not much. The detail that the anatomy was taught during the summer was not nearly like it is right now in dental school. It was 8 weeks long during the summer--about the same amount of time for anatomy at NYU, but the material covered here is much much much more.
I think it's wise to take the summer off before you start dental school.
Travel or do something fun!

 

[dientesfuertes]

I agree with Gavin. Dental school is hard enough. Why stress yourself out before you even get started? I think there is much more to lose in taking an extra class (i.e., getting burned out quickly) than there is to gain.
Enjoy your summer and start dental school refreshed.
If you were supposed to already know everything after undergrad, why come to dental school at all?
-Andy

 

[drPheta]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I agree! You barely get breaks in dental as it is, why take away the best one you have? (ASDOH does not fall into this factor...damn you Gavin and your two week Thanksgiving break!!!)

And yeah, how much can a couple months of summer course teach you to the extent of dental/med school? Literally, the amount of material you learn in two weeks at dental school easily rivals some months in undergrad.

Take a break and enjoy your time. You'll do enough learning during dental school.

 

[PERFECT3435]

man i am taking anatomy right now and really not liking it that much.

1. because there is just soooooo much memorization and i know i won't remember too much of it.
2. because we talked about the head and cranial anatomy for about 15 mins and thats it. we won't have anything on the skull, face, or head and neck on our exam. this is not gonna help me prepare for dental school anatomy.
3. because i just did not like touching and playing around with the dead bodies last week (my 1st time). it was either really working on them or i wouldn't have learned the muscles, bones, and nerves.


i really hope i end up liking the course before i start dental school.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Originally posted by PERFECT3435
man i am taking anatomy right now and really not liking it that much.

1. because there is just soooooo much memorization and i know i won't remember too much of it.

Exactly. TONS of stuff to know (very little of which is actually clinically relevant).

 

[PashaJ]

I like option 2. Just buy the book (you'll need it anyway) and review it for leisure maybe 1-2 hours a week. One of the hardest things about gross is the terminology and if you buy the book and glance through it, when you take the real class some of the words would look familiar to you and it will not be as difficult. Next best option is to do nothing since you really can't prepare for it without know what to expect. Maybe get Yah-E to send you some old exams just so you can get a feel for the course.

 

[PERFECT3435]

by the way, i have this book by Netter and it is incredibly awesome. i will definitely go over the dental anatomy part of it every now and then for the next 2 months.