Could you help me plan out a Pre-Med plan?

[TurtleTeef]

Hello everyone and Good Morning

I am having two major issues regarding my plan, because I do not know how to approach it, could you guys help me out?

Clinical Experience:
I am currently a dentist (no student loans, no debts), in my second year of practice. I have 2 more years to commit as a dentist, and then I would like to start my Med-Journey. I work in public health and do **a lot** of Oral Surgery (1 surgical extraction a week at least, and ~6-7+ avg extractions a week, I also work in a hospital) will this count as clinical experience?

How do I go about asking to shadow at the local hospital? Do I just call the hospital and let them know that I would like to shadow a doc for medical school? Is there anything I need to do beforehand?

MCAT Studies:
How did you guys start this? I have taken almost all of the core Pre-Reqs, and some of the additional classes like psych, but I have forgotten a lot of the older material that we didn't go over in Dental school. What would be the best study program (cost is no issue what so ever) for the MCAT? Is there one that you can relearn all the topics on 1 site and then tackle the question banks after?

Edit: Please for the sake of my sanity, please do not ask me why I am switching from dental to medical. I have heard this question almost quite literally a hundred or hundreds of times. I already have this question sorted out, and would really appreciate help with this topic instead.

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[Rapsidy]

I think the bigger question you’ll have to answer more than anything else is why are you switching from dental to medical? You have no debt and are arguably successful considering what you have posted. Many schools are going to ask why the change? Are you running from dentistry? Will you run from medical if you don’t find it to your liking and fall back to dentistry?

Convincing schools that you aren’t running from dental is arguably going to be a greater challenge for you than the MCAT will be since you’ve demonstrated you’re ability to make it through dental school.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Is there a reason you could not apply to an oral surgery residency program?

 

[TurtleTeef]

Is there a reason you could not apply to an oral surgery residency program?

You are not answering my question. Please stay on topic.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You are not answering my question. Please stay on topic.

But you need to answer mine. Most people I know who do an oral surgery residency ultimately get an MD because they have to pass the USMLE in order to stay in the program. That is how most people I have admitted to dental school get their MD's after they completed dental school. And THAT was not easy to pass. Now, you may have a totally different motivation in that you don't want to do extractions or have the hospital privileges of an oral surgeon. You could just say this.

I will say from my admissions experience on the medical school side, there will already be a fair amount of skepticism of why you would want to tack on more debt to your dental school debt, going through at least another 5-8 years of penance as a student or resident. If you are that lucky that you aren't carrying debts from your dental school education, will you be able to use this mechanism for medical school cost of attendance?

Whether you like it or not, you will need to have that answer down solid without getting reflexive or emotional about it. It will be a question you will need to answer. I already have a pretty good idea how hard it will be for you to convince adcoms that you are sincere with a change from dental to medicine. You might as well try your answer out.

To what you want answers for:

Your questions are simple enough that you should already know because you had to do similar work to get into dental school. Arranging for shadowing is just as challenging as networking with current MD's, but your work as a dentist should count a bit towards your clinical experience a little, but you still need at least 100-150 hours of clinical experience that is completely different from dentistry or oral surgery. The fact that you have connections to current healthcare providers should not make it that difficult, and -- as mentioned before -- many oral surgeons probably know of general surgeons and other hospital MD's who you could shadow or talk to.

MCAT study is also fairly cut-and-dry. You can go to our forums and get some ideas, download the SDN MCAT Study Schedules or others that we have in the MCAT forums, and focus on the content materials from AAMC, including full-length exams. Practice questions are the most important thing to focus on.

Obviously you can also go into the vendors section and sign up with an admissions consultant if you are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars towards that goal. You again say money is not a concern for you, so shopping there would likely be your best fit.

 

[TurtleTeef]

> You could just say this.

> Edit: Please for the sake of my sanity, please do not ask me why I am switching from dental to medical. I have heard this question almost quite literally a hundred or hundreds of times. I already have this question sorted out, and would really appreciate help with this topic instead.

 

[Moko]

Moderator Note:
Tensions are running high. Multiple posts in this thread have been edited and/or deleted due to personal attacks. This thread is being closed as a result.

Here is a picture of a cool dog to cool things off: