Burn out, general lack of care

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apicalforamen

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Im sure I’m not the first and I won’t be the last - but does anyone else feel like their day-to-day is p.o.i.n.t.l.e.s.s.? I’m in my second year (no clinical experience yet) and every day I feel less and less inclined to care. Our classes have nothing to do with anything and the ones that are dental related are so poorly taught that I don’t learn at all. I’m top 15 in my class of 120 so it’s not for reasons such as ‘it’s too hard’...I’m just over it.

Any other D2’s feeling this way? Does it get better with patients?

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M3 and I feel this way, it's just part of the process. Once you get more responsibilities you'll start to enjoy it more.
 
Im sure I’m not the first and I won’t be the last - but does anyone else feel like their day-to-day is p.o.i.n.t.l.e.s.s.? I’m in my second year (no clinical experience yet) and every day I feel less and less inclined to care. Our classes have nothing to do with anything and the ones that are dental related are so poorly taught that I don’t learn at all. I’m top 15 in my class of 120 so it’s not for reasons such as ‘it’s too hard’...I’m just over it.

Any other D2’s feeling this way? Does it get better with patients?

Burned out after the first year. When I was busy in physiology or some human anatomy learning about the liver nonsense...that it was just irrelevant towards general practice. Realized that doesn't matter if you finish top 1 or bottom 5 of the class...as long as you get a DDS degree it doesn't really matter. So aimed for C's get Degree's and had fun the rest of the year. I always thought that Dental School was EASIER to coast by...as they rarely failed anyone...but it was WAY harder to be top of the class. Undergrad was WAY easier to be top of the class...and way harder to coast by with C's. Just my experience.

Btw class rank means nothing in the real world when you own a practice or associate.

Unless you want to specialize...that is a different story. Better keep them grades up!
 
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Think long term. 4 yrs is nothing. Maybe pick up a hobby. I played golf and tennis in dental school. I also had a small part time job on the weekends.

+1...Time flies! I barely even remember dental school and it was 4 years ago..

I barely even remember all the things I worried about when I graduated school.... I remember staying up all night worried about open margin or whatever...

So bottom line...don't worry...just live life =)
 
D2 in a very similar position. I am so tired of sitting down and SHOVING INFORMATION INTO MY BRAIN. Some of my classmates still seem very motivated but they wont be high enough to specialize so whats the point? I want to focus more on things that will make me a good dentist like hand skills. Learning what a fibroblast looks like and reading all the time is a real pain in my gluteus maximus.

Maybe I'll get a cat

Or a Girlfriend

Help
 
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Same... I'm so burnt out. I don't listen in class, I go home and sleep until 8pm, I don't study until 1-2 days before exams... I literally just trade stocks and watch YouTube videos all day while sitting in class.
I lost all motivation to specialize and just want to finish now... Getting into clinic doesn't make anything better especially when you can't finish any of the procedures in the time allotted, it's quite stressful.
But think... in 2 years, we'll be done!
 
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Same... I'm so burnt out. I don't listen in class, I go home and sleep until 8pm, I don't study until 1-2 days before exams... I literally just trade stocks and watch YouTube videos all day while sitting in class.
I lost all motivation to specialize and just want to finish now... Getting into clinic doesn't make anything better especially when you can't finish any of the procedures in the time allotted, it's quite stressful.
But think... in 2 years, we'll be done!

Username checks out
 
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Same... I'm so burnt out. I don't listen in class, I go home and sleep until 8pm, I don't study until 1-2 days before exams... I literally just trade stocks and watch YouTube videos all day while sitting in class.
I lost all motivation to specialize and just want to finish now...

I think that the most liberating thought I could have had was that I didn't want to specialize anymore. It just sucks having mandatory class attendance. I really only focus on trying to hone my hand skills now.
 
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I think that the most liberating thought I could have had was that I didn't want to specialize anymore. It just sucks having mandatory class attendance. I really only focus on trying to hone my hand skills now.

Thats the best feeling in the world where you can just be like "meh" and circle "abcd" on multiple choice and go home and not care. But that being said...don't overdo it!!! lol. C's get degrees.
 
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Im sure I’m not the first and I won’t be the last - but does anyone else feel like their day-to-day is p.o.i.n.t.l.e.s.s.? I’m in my second year (no clinical experience yet) and every day I feel less and less inclined to care. Our classes have nothing to do with anything and the ones that are dental related are so poorly taught that I don’t learn at all. I’m top 15 in my class of 120 so it’s not for reasons such as ‘it’s too hard’...I’m just over it.

Any other D2’s feeling this way? Does it get better with patients?
I’m a current D2 I feel the same way. I’ve pretty much been in a “whatever” mood about Dental school since D2 started.
 
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Isn't it hard though to know you have a c level of knowledge before the test though?
 
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Isn't it hard though to know you have a c level of knowledge before the test though?
No.
On your first day of orientation, everyone you meet will tell you they are going to be an OMFS or ortho. But D2 hits like a ton of bricks because it’s more of a test of resiliency. The nonstop exams and lab work lead to burnout, so stressing about getting an A turns into just focusing on passing the class.
You’ve got folks from a number of schools in agreement here, so it’s mostly universal. D2 sucks.
 
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Even if you don’t make a C just do better on the next exam.
Also, getting a C on an exam does not necessarily mean you are going to be a below dentist. Those who smoke their exams generally just memorize the bullets from the lectures and then data dump them to make room for the next exam.
 
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Also, getting a C on an exam does not necessarily mean you are going to be a below dentist. Those who smoke their exams generally just memorize the bullets from the lectures and then data dump them to make room for the next exam.
Oh I totally agree. My buddy is in the top 3 and that’s all he does. He’s not a dental genius or anything; he’s just really good a memorizing stuff on a PowerPoint. I don’t really care what my grades look like at this point I stopped checking my GPA after D1 year :laugh:. I’m just trying to graduate.
 
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I'm about 15 months away from graduating.... Been counting every single day lol. I wish I could get to the things I need to do already (like RPD, C/C, C/P, crowns, bridges, endo, CAD/CAM, veneers, alveoloplasties, nitrous sedation, etc.) I've been doing a whole lot of perio maintenance not even SRPs and restorations.
 
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How do students at P/F schools feel about burnout?
 
I'm about 15 months away from graduating.... Been counting every single day lol. I wish I could get to the things I need to do already (like RPD, C/C, C/P, crowns, bridges, endo, CAD/CAM, veneers, alveoloplasties, nitrous sedation, etc.) I've been doing a whole lot of perio maintenance not even SRPs and restorations.

Where do you go?
 
No.
On your first day of orientation, everyone you meet will tell you they are going to be an OMFS or ortho. But D2 hits like a ton of bricks because it’s more of a test of resiliency. The nonstop exams and lab work lead to burnout, so stressing about getting an A turns into just focusing on passing the class.
You’ve got folks from a number of schools in agreement here, so it’s mostly universal. D2 sucks.

I think it's a skill to understand and assess you're own knowledge level before an exam- which I don't think I've acquired yet. That's what I was asking about... I agree that mental health is the number 1 priority.
 
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I think it's a skill to understand and assess you're own knowledge level before an exam- which I don't think I've acquired yet. That's what I was asking about... I agree that mental health is the number 1 priority.
It is.

Also, knowledge and grades are not mutually exclusive. Alot of the curriculum is just volumes of information to memorize which has no clinical relevance. It's stressful when you have to adjust your occlusal rim AGAIN because you had anterior open bite and in the process of fixing it you created a posterior open bite. Oh and you need to get home and memorize all the branchial arches for one class and memorize the classification and pathogenesis of all the STD's, or the species of mosquitos associated with their viruses. Some people are just good at memorizing but it doesn't mean they learned anything. I can read a Spanish newspaper perfectly, that doesn't mean i understand what I'm saying (I don't :p) It's alot pressure, so people keep their sanity by getting to a point where they just say I'm over this.


IMO the current dental curricular model needs a Spring cleaning. By getting rid of the material that's just grossly unnecessary, it would free up time to focus on concepts that are clinically relevant like treatment planning, which requires more critical thinking and application of theory. Or simply just getting into the clinic earlier. It doesn't matter, as long as it's something that actually contributes to clinical competency.

*exhales*
 
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It is.

Also, knowledge and grades are not mutually exclusive. Alot of the curriculum is just volumes of information to memorize which has no clinical relevance. It's stressful when you have to adjust your occlusal rim AGAIN because you had anterior open bite and in the process of fixing it you created a posterior open bite. Oh and you need to get home and memorize all the branchial arches for one class and memorize the classification and pathogenesis of all the STD's, or the species of mosquitos associated with their viruses. Some people are just good at memorizing but it doesn't mean they learned anything. I can read a Spanish newspaper perfectly, that doesn't mean i understand what I'm saying (I don't :p) It's alot pressure, so people keep their sanity by getting to a point where they just say I'm over this.


IMO the current dental curricular model needs a Spring cleaning. By getting rid of the material that's just grossly unnecessary, it would free up time to focus on concepts that are clinically relevant like treatment planning, which requires more critical thinking and application of theory. Or simply just getting into the clinic earlier. It doesn't matter, as long as it's something that actually contributes to clinical competency.

*exhales*

Will you be my Dean?
 
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really glad we bonded over this, good work folks.
 
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grinds+my+gears.png
 
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If you guys didnt go to other dental schools, You remind me of some people in my class lol and its just d1. Im so far just data inhaling and dumping along the way. But on weekends I really do feel like not doing anything all day.
 
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As an MS-II I totally understand your original post. Lists of drugs we will never prescribe, pathologies we will never see, microbes that only exist in test tubes on the other side of the planet. All in the name of THE BOARDS! Every term I’m told I have to do 90% or better in every class or I will not be competitive on THE BOARDS. What I’ve yet to see is a correlation between THE BOARDS and good doctors (dentists are doctors!). So maybe you are not stellar in the books (I am not). Maybe, just maybe you have something they can’t teach, like being able to walk into a sick room and respond to the fear in the eyes of a patient or a family member. So maybe stuffing 300 drugs in your head every two weeks only to forget them the minute the exam is over isn’t your skill. Maybe, just maybe you really want to understand the patient and understand what happens when this drug that has 1000 side effects hits their CNS. But nope! That digging too deep for THE BOARDS. If I wasn’t a quarter mill in the hole I might just tell someone to stick it. Cause this is just about as artificial as it gets. We spent two hours on the ills of polar bear liver consumption, grizzly bear jerky and walrus meat. Why???? Because it is a on THE BOARDS!!!!! Can’t test you on something that is useful because that is too common, everyone knows that. THE BOARDS is just a exam of tricks, traps and ethnic profiling (4yo Asia male with red tongue is? Come on you all know it!)
 
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i'm a general surgery resident and i feel this way :hungover:
i've done hundreds of general surgery procedures that have zero bearing on my future as an OMFS (in the most direct sense, but surgery is still surgery). Mid-rectal exam I ask myself the metaphorical question "why the hell am i doing this" (of course, we all know the literal answer of a rectal exam is to check (a) sphincter tone (b) rectal vault contents (c) presence of blood (d) prostate/vaginal septal disease) but i'm so stoked to be coming back on to OMFS service to do what I started training to do - so just slog through the resident of D2 keeping in mind your end goal
 
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I have found myself recently understanding why everything is the way it is in dentistry....MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! Dental school is worthless, we all know that - give an experienced practitioner a kid out of a high school who has a will to be a great dentist and I all but guarantee that kid will be more competent by the time traditional students get out of dental school. Dentistry is a craft, it is art meets science and it should be an apprenticeship (I will die on this hill). Why is it not? Think about how much money the schools, ADA, etc. milk out of you before its all said and done...and then get sad again.
 
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An easy way to get yourself to care is to work with general dentists.

They work very, very hard after they graduate.

It's easy to convince yourself to work hard in dental school after that.
 
d2 made me fat. I didn't choose to eat those 40 donuts, D2 MADE ME.
 
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An easy way to get yourself to care is to work with general dentists.

They work very, very hard after they graduate.

It's easy to convince yourself to work hard in dental school after that.

Yep I miss the days of 2 fillings three hour clinic sessions and go get coffee afterwards. Multiply that by 10x and you have a real working day. Enjoy it while it lasts its def a good memory to not care.

Used to go finish a filling and then have two hours off and go chill in the city with friends or go hit the Xbox at home. Good times.
 
i'm a general surgery resident and i feel this way :hungover:
i've done hundreds of general surgery procedures that have zero bearing on my future as an OMFS (in the most direct sense, but surgery is still surgery). Mid-rectal exam I ask myself the metaphorical question "why the hell am i doing this" (of course, we all know the literal answer of a rectal exam is to check (a) sphincter tone (b) rectal vault contents (c) presence of blood (d) prostate/vaginal septal disease) but i'm so stoked to be coming back on to OMFS service to do what I started training to do - so just slog through the resident of D2 keeping in mind your end goal
All OMFS residencies have a GS component. If you did not want to do GS as part of your training, you could have been a general dentist. We all do things during each phase of our training which seem inconsistent with our end goal. It is all there for a reason, you just don't see it yet.
 
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As an MS-II I totally understand your original post. Lists of drugs we will never prescribe, pathologies we will never see, microbes that only exist in test tubes on the other side of the planet. All in the name of THE BOARDS! Every term I’m told I have to do 90% or better in every class or I will not be competitive on THE BOARDS. What I’ve yet to see is a correlation between THE BOARDS and good doctors (dentists are doctors!). So maybe you are not stellar in the books (I am not). Maybe, just maybe you have something they can’t teach, like being able to walk into a sick room and respond to the fear in the eyes of a patient or a family member. So maybe stuffing 300 drugs in your head every two weeks only to forget them the minute the exam is over isn’t your skill. Maybe, just maybe you really want to understand the patient and understand what happens when this drug that has 1000 side effects hits their CNS. But nope! That digging too deep for THE BOARDS. If I wasn’t a quarter mill in the hole I might just tell someone to stick it. Cause this is just about as artificial as it gets. We spent two hours on the ills of polar bear liver consumption, grizzly bear jerky and walrus meat. Why???? Because it is a on THE BOARDS!!!!! Can’t test you on something that is useful because that is too common, everyone knows that. THE BOARDS is just a exam of tricks, traps and ethnic profiling (4yo Asia male with red tongue is? Come on you all know it!)

Oh my goodness, yes. Thank you.

I am so tired of the, “Well, current research has said that clinically you should expect to see this result, however your boards will want you to know it used to be this.”

I get they want to highlight those things, but what about giving us classes we need clinically and then a specific BOARDS PREP class where they just teach us what we need for boards and have us memorize it then?
 
Fail an exam, and that feeling of burnt out will get scared out of you real quick :laugh:
 
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How do students at P/F schools feel about burnout?
I’m halfway through D2 and we’ve basically finished our med school didactics. At a certain point last semester I was starting to feel like this (2 Neuro blocks and a GI block pushed me to the brink) but now that we’ve finished Part 1 and moved to dentistry 5days a week (operative, perio, prosth, ortho, endo, etc.) I feel re-invigorated and excited for Clinic in June.

To be fair I think I can’t even compare my experience to gpa / class ranking schools. That sounds very stressful. We have an honors option for several classes but I stopped taking it seriously when upperclassmen and grads told me it doesn’t mean much (our transcripts are really hard to read anyways) and I’m taking the cbse in August. I’m actually enjoying studying at my own pace on my own time rather than cramming for days straight like I did the past year and a half.

I’m sure not at P/F experiences are like mine. YMMV
 
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All OMFS residencies have a GS component. If you did not want to do GS as part of your training, you could have been a general dentist. We all do things during each phase of our training which seem inconsistent with our end goal. It is all there for a reason, you just don't see it yet.

bro i see it, as i'm knee deep in stool in the OR for an ex-lap, i see those sweet sweet third molars ready for me to schlep when i finish
 
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D2 in a very similar position. I am so tired of sitting down and SHOVING INFORMATION INTO MY BRAIN. Some of my classmates still seem very motivated but they wont be high enough to specialize so whats the point? I want to focus more on things that will make me a good dentist like hand skills. Learning what a fibroblast looks like and reading all the time is a real pain in my gluteus maximus.

Maybe I'll get a cat

Or a Girlfriend

Help

I'm only a D1 but I'm honestly just counting down the days to the classes that really interest me - so basically 3rd year (5 DMD Program).

Histology really didn't help at all - the way it was taught in my school was absolutely horrible.

On the plus - we started our first class in the sim lab - preclinical prosthodontics which is honestly the best.
 
All OMFS residencies have a GS component. If you did not want to do GS as part of your training, you could have been a general dentist. We all do things during each phase of our training which seem inconsistent with our end goal. It is all there for a reason, you just don't see it yet.
Man, I enjoyed doing 70 lap appys over 14 months while taking part in x rated banter and listening to Anthrax in the OR.
And the nurses on the transplant, thoracic and surg onc floors were hot as f--k. Looking back (fondly I might add), getting married now seems extraordinarily inconsistent with a certain end goal.
 
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