I'm required to collect 100 teeth before I begin D-school at the end of Sept, but I have not been in the country. I am just starting now. A lot of the offices already have jars from other students. How hard was it for you all to collect 100 teeth in an area where they are in demand? I'm thinking of putting out over 6 jars, but not sure if it is enough.
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Collecting teeth
Started by pearlywhites32
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Go to several oral surgeons office and ask them if they would start collecting for you. That's usually much faster than asking GPs for teeth. I think you should be able to make the deadline. If you still don't have enough by then, you can also try your school's OS department.
Thank you!
You could also try a public health clinic or Native American service clinics. They end up doing quite a few extractions from what I have seen.
If there are some small towns around where you live, try taking the 30-45 min drive to hit some offices there. Odds are, if it's a small town, they may be one of the only (or the only) dentist in that town. Then you don't have to worry about other people nabbing all the teeth, you'll have them all to yourself!
For the collecting teeth requirement at some schools, does anyone know whether they will allow you to use synthetic teeth? (I already have some).
What type of solution are we supposed to store them in?
50:50 bleach solution
Glad my optometry school isn't requiring me to collect 100 eyes. 😀
I was told mouth wash is better since bleach makes the teeth very brittle.
Doesn't that increase discoloration?
I started collecting some and plan on using diluted bleach and glycerin.
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Kitty, you are going to Buff right? We don't have to do this, do we?
Color means very little when you're practicing drilling, but CONSISTENCY and hardness factor matters more. And Crest has clear mouthwash 😉
I must kill you now that you know where I am going. lol
PM me if you want to talk.
Why do schools make you collect real teeth by the way? Why can't we just use synthetic teeth?
Your tactile sensitivity to acrylic teeth vs real teeth are quite different.
At least at Buffalo, we use the real extracted teeth to practice root canals in pre-clinic during 2nd year. We also mounted a few teeth in stone to practice direct preps on during first year, and I think we placed a sealant on one extracted tooth. They do make synthetic teeth but as KittySquared said, it just doesn't give you the same feel. Still, typodont teeth are the only way they can really 'standardize' preclinic technique courses so they are widely used for most preclinical courses.
I would venture to guess that most schools require the teeth for the same reasons. That being said, a majority of the teeth are used for endo. You will want a variety of teeth rather than a bunch of 3rds from an oral surgeon. The more the better because its all about tooth selection for endo.
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This sounds ridiculous to me. It's like asking kids to sell candy bars or magazine subscriptions to raise money for their soccer team. $50K a year and they can't have a system in place to get teeth for you??
They end up doing quite a few extractions from what I have seen.
