Best way to spend year before dental school

[beautiful1]

What is the best way to prepare/spend your time during the year before dental school?
I was considering to perhaps take a dental assistant training program? Would this experience help me during dental school? And later work as a dental assistant before beginning dental school?
What books can I study in order to prepare for the massive amount of material needed to learn? Any suggested reading material?
Any other tips/advice for spending the year before dental school (other than relaxing)?
Thanks

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[flyingforever]

What is the best way to prepare/spend your time during the year before dental school?
I was considering to perhaps take a dental assistant training program? Would this experience help me during dental school? And later work as a dental assistant before beginning dental school?
What books can I study in order to prepare for the massive amount of material needed to learn? Any suggested reading material?
Any other tips/advice for spending the year before dental school (other than relaxing)?
Thanks

Research work...volunteer...shadowing.

 

[MrWilson]

Any other tips/advice for spending the year before dental school (other than relaxing)?
Thanks

I know my attempt to answer this question is futile, but coming from friends I know in dental school, the only regret they had about their year before dental school is they didn't vacation/relax enough. Not one said they wished they had reviewed this subject or that before. Well one did say that he had reviewed some gross anatomy in the head and neck to at least be comfortable with the terms and to give himself a lighter load (take gross anatomy if your school offers it). Something that wouldn't be a bad idea is to take a waxing course if there is one offered at your nearby community college, or shadow a dental technician. The technician may allow you to get some hands-on work. The only other courses that you may want to take in college would be physiology or biochemistry, but it's not absolutely needed. Other than that, enjoy the free time of your last year, it'll be hard to do so the next four. In the spring, I'm taking many trips to the beach, catching up with long lost friends, spend lots of time with my family, and do a lot of things I've never done before. Hope what I've said helps.

 

[Baylor2011]

Don't do anything related to do Dentistry...there's plenty of time for that in the next 4 years and after that...

Get a job, make as much money as you can, you'll be hurting for money in DSchool I'm assuming haha, and RELAX...go vacation like the person above me said - I'm planning to go to Israel.

 

[redchesus]

I was going to say the same thing. Relax (as much as you can during the app process). You won't get much of it during and after D school.

 

[DATkiller]

Don't do anything related to do Dentistry...there's plenty of time for that in the next 4 years and after that...

Get a job, make as much money as you can, you'll be hurting for money in DSchool I'm assuming haha, and RELAX...go vacation like the person above me said - I'm planning to go to Israel.

Cool man. I'm going to Israel too. Are you going with birthright?

 

[TK2006]

I just graduated in May so this question applies to me directly.

I'm gonna be working 50+ hrs a week to stay afloat.

Also, I'll take Gross Anatomy, since I haven't taken it, so I won't be so far behind when I start.

Other than that, I was planning to play lots of Starcraft 2, but my computer CAN'T run it.

 

[DrReo]

What is the best way to prepare/spend your time during the year before dental school?
I was considering to perhaps take a dental assistant training program? Would this experience help me during dental school? And later work as a dental assistant before beginning dental school?
What books can I study in order to prepare for the massive amount of material needed to learn? Any suggested reading material?
Any other tips/advice for spending the year before dental school (other than relaxing)?
Thanks

Don't think about the school part. Consider reading books regarding business, marketing, customer service etc.

The millionaire next door, rich dad poor dad, the list goes on and on. I would enjoy my times as much as possible because once you start, it's beast.

 

[Mazmel]

if you did really well on the DAT, I hear that Kaplan Test Prep pays pretty well

 

[JBieber]

just let loose, party, and make some bad decisions. but make sure u keep that background check clean.

 

[shiftypoptart]

I'm definitely taking a break my year off. I realized that dental school is 4 years and if later I want to specialize in ortho or omfs its gunna be another 3-6 years... So seeing as how Ima be stuck in school for at least another 4 years I'm definitely taking a break and playing some halo reach till my eyes burn.

 

[beautiful1]

What the best kind of job that would take a Bio major... in order to make the most money so that you can help pay for dental school? lol

 

[shiftypoptart]

I was looking around for bio tutoring jobs, that way you can keep all the knowledge fresh in your head and it pays decently well. You wont really be able to get much from your bio major since most biotech jobs require more than a year commitment to the company so the best you can do that doesn't require that commitment is probably tutoring or teaching. I was also told you could become a substitute teacher pretty easily by passing the CBEST which will be cake compared to the DAT. That's what I'm planning on doing but for now I'm just taking it easy.

 

[beautiful1]

Where are you looking for tutoring jobs?
Where can I find potential biotech jobs though? Perhaps some wont require the 2 year commitment?
Thanks

 

[Maygyver]

What do you need to do to teach for Kaplan? Do you just call them up and say "here are my DAT scores, can I teach?" Would you teach all of the subjects or just what your major was?

 

[shiftypoptart]

Where are you looking for tutoring jobs?
Where can I find potential biotech jobs though? Perhaps some wont require the 2 year commitment?
Thanks

For biotech jobs you can search on monster dot com but you will find most will require experience of 2 years. For tutoring I've just been looking around nothing in perticular. My high school offered Avid tutoring but unfortunately only to people who still attend college but I've already graduated. So I'm probably just gunna go with the substitute job, it pays about 120$ a day for showing up but its mostly on call and not stable i guess.

 

[PhoebeAZ]

@Shiftypoptart, your username just made me laugh out loud. I don't know how you came up with that.

 

[beautiful1]

I know my attempt to answer this question is futile, but coming from friends I know in dental school, the only regret they had about their year before dental school is they didn't vacation/relax enough. Not one said they wished they had reviewed this subject or that before. Well one did say that he had reviewed some gross anatomy in the head and neck to at least be comfortable with the terms and to give himself a lighter load (take gross anatomy if your school offers it). Something that wouldn't be a bad idea is to take a waxing course if there is one offered at your nearby community college, or shadow a dental technician. The technician may allow you to get some hands-on work. The only other courses that you may want to take in college would be physiology or biochemistry, but it's not absolutely needed. Other than that, enjoy the free time of your last year, it'll be hard to do so the next four. In the spring, I'm taking many trips to the beach, catching up with long lost friends, spend lots of time with my family, and do a lot of things I've never done before. Hope what I've said helps.

What is the official name of a waxing course? What do you do in the course exactly?