board exams

[init4damoney]

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I'm a predent, and I had some questions regarding board exams.

1. How much does it matter where you go to school to where you want to practice? For example, if I went to school at Nova does that have an affect on my ability to practice in California?

2. Does a school in one state prepare you solely for that region's board exam, or would you be able to take any board and pass it?

Thanks for any help you can give me!!

 

[RaiderNation]

Man, I love it when someone posts a question that might actually be useful...and nobody repies. C'mon fellaz!!!!

 

[dr_benj]

Theoretically you should be able to pass any board by going to any school. However I have heard that some are harder than others such as California? ( correct me if I am wrong). It doesn't matter what school you go to, however, sometimes you have to ship potential patients for you board halfway across the country and pay for their hotel and airfare so you can take the exam. This is the only problem that I could foresee, but is really quite trivial in the whole scheme of things.

 

[Dante60]

The biggest trick is getting patients to that region for the boards.

But for somewhere like California where out of staters rarely do better than a 30-40% pass rate, they offer a course that is almost required to pass. Even with it, pass rate is still something ridiculous like 60%.

As far as getting patients, you can fly them and put them up in a hotel at your expense, or if you know people/dentists in that region, you can ask them to get patients for you. In either case, you're likely to be paying the patient to show up for you.

Lessee... Theoretically, you *should* be able to pass any board, but that isn't generally the case, notable for the Cali and Flor boards. But they both offer their own courses that might as well be mandatory. For most regional boards, however, they are transferable. I'm pretty sure anyways (I remember seeing something like that). Ie. If you take the NERBs, you'll be eligable to practice in the South East or North West, or whatever.

They are in the process of allowing boards to be transferable across the country, but that hasn't been 100% accepted because it's the regional licensure boards that lose money with something like that.

In any case, I hope that helped a little.

 

[gryffindor]

Attending school in a certain region may help you pass the boards in that region. For example, my school has a mandatory NERB prep course we have to take next semester. Every member of the senior class has to practice the typodont exercises (3 unit bridge prep & temporary & anterior endo) so many times exactly the way it is done on the NERB to pass the course. This is just forced practice to help us go in there and be comfortable on the actual NERB. Someone coming from a WREB state wouldn't necessarily have practiced those exercises so many times if they were coming to take the NERB. This course is required for all seniors, even if they are taking other regional board exams, the California exam, or not even taking the NERB (b/c in NY state now, you don't have to take the NERB if you do a post-grad program).

Dental school will theoretically teach you all the skills you need to pass any boards. If you are dead set on going to a certain region/state outside of your dental school after graduation, you will pass the exam at some point. It might take more than one try. These board exams are so subjective you have to go in thinking that you might not make it, unanticipated things can happen with live patients (like they don't show up, get sick, get denied by the examiner, etc.)

 

[ItsGavinC]

Originally posted by Dante60
The biggest trick is getting patients to that region for the boards.

Beginning in 2005, the WREB will NOT be using live patients anymore--they will be using mannequins. Yaaaaaay!

 

[ShawnOne]

What states are included in the WREB?

(does this stand for West regional board?)

 

[ItsGavinC]

Shawn, yes, it does stand for that.

Member states are:

Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Alaska.

States that also accept WREB results, however, are:

Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

PLENTY of states, as you can see.

More info can be found on their website: www.wreb.org

 

[ShawnOne]

thanks,

Darn California!