Cost of Books and Instruments

[KSDental]

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I notice that a significant percentage of the estimated cost of dental school is for books and instruments. Is there any way to save money in this area or are these costs set in stone? Is it necessary to purchase all of the books? Is it possible to get instruments at a cheaper cost?

 

[Daurang]

Yes and yes but little problem. You can find the exact same but cheap books from oversea sources but it is time consuming when you have no time. You can buy really cheap equipment ($50 brand new hi-speed handpiece) but your school already bought the $500 Midwest for you and charged it to your tuition.

 

[Doc Smile]

I notice that a significant percentage of the estimated cost of dental school is for books and instruments. Is there any way to save money in this area or are these costs set in stone? Is it necessary to purchase all of the books? Is it possible to get instruments at a cheaper cost?

Books cheaper? YES
Books Necessary? NO
Instruments cheaper? NO
Instruments Necessary? YES, duh

For us, they just have our drawers at your bench down in the sim lab stuffed full of fun toys that are tuition paid for. As far as books, first semester i was a total n00b and bought all the books - half of which are still in the original shrink wrap. So D1 sem2 and D2 I asked upper classmen which books to buy and bought 1/8th the 'required' book list. Let's face it, every professor -or nearly every one- will use ppt slides to teach and will test from said ppt slides. Dental materials was about the only class that I had to read from the book to get a better understanding of what was going on, but that might be because every time i heard wettability or %shrinkage my mind seemed to wander.

Get your books from half.com or amazon.

 

[jeffity]

If your school hands you (included in tuition of course) a DVD with every textbook you'll need for 4 years on it, then you're just out of luck. Maybe you can save on scrubs somewhere.

 

[SoulPower]

If your school hands you (included in tuition of course) a DVD with every textbook you'll need for 4 years on it, then you're just out of luck. Maybe you can save on scrubs somewhere.

Nice scrubs are surprisingly expensive. I was pretty pissed when I realized the $20 cherokee set I bought off amazon was **** and then proceeded to get 3 $50 sets of grey's anatomy scrubs because they actually felt like clothes and were comfortable.

 

[Doc Smile]

Nice scrubs are surprisingly expensive. I was pretty pissed when I realized the $20 cherokee set I bought off amazon was **** and then proceeded to get 3 $50 sets of grey's anatomy scrubs because they actually felt like clothes and were comfortable.

They make male Greys Anatomy scrubs? I only thought the girls wore them...

 

[SoulPower]

They make male Greys Anatomy scrubs? I only thought the girls wore them...

Nah they have a men's. And they are extremely comfortable. I bought them after finding a uniform shop to try a bunch of different outfits on.

Also, I never watch the show. But I do assume there are males in it who are wearing scrubs which are undoubtedly made by them.

 

[Neutrophilomfs]

The best piece of advice I can give is to ask an upperclassman about which books to use. I too bought nearly all the books D1 first semester and totally regretted it. Wait a week or 2 into the semester to figure it out. And always try to buy online rather than from the money grubbing bookstores. I would recommend buying the key dental books like operative, oral surgery, fixed/Removable to have as a reference down the road though.