Curious question to all dentists

[DentalLonghorn2014]

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Hello!

How much of the "sciences" do you actually retain when you start practicing and throughout the years? I understand that in dental school, courses like biochem, histology, micro, etc are thrown at you at a rapid pace (that may be an understatement). I'm just curious to see if any of y'all actually retain all the sciences and have applied them in your practice. Hope this wasn't a dumb question to ask... Thank you!

 

[DocJL]

Probably about as much as an orthopedic surgeon does.


A pathologist or nephrologist or neurologist or infectious disease specialist might have need to retain and use some of that knowledge.


But anyone doing a largely procedural specialty (which pretty much sums up ALL of dentistry) isn't going to spend a whole lot of time revisiting the basic sciences.

(waiting for dental school faculty to flame me........)

 

[Newgoalsdentdoc]

Probably about as much as an orthopedic surgeon does.


A pathologist or nephrologist or neurologist or infectious disease specialist might have need to retain and use some of that knowledge.


But anyone doing a largely procedural specialty (which pretty much sums up ALL of dentistry) isn't going to spend a whole lot of time revisiting the basic sciences.

(waiting for dental school faculty to flame me........)

Good response. I don't think I have recalled any Biochem, Histology or other basic science in all the years that I have practiced dentistry. I would have to say when I first started to give injections after dental school, I "walked myself through" the anatomy of landmarks when giving an inferior alveolar block, lol. When I started to write prescriptions, I thought about certain things involving nomenclature but then I realized every resident or dentist carried a pocket sized PDR to resort to everything. Certain things do come to mind if you see a lesion on a patient, or recognize something suspicious on a radiograph, but you're not always "consciously" thinking about basic sciences when you practice. A lot of times, things just come to you. When I started to teach residents, I found myself resorting back to a lot of things in order to teach them, reading more. and applying some of that knowledge because I had to help them to understand.

 

[DentalLonghorn2014]

Good response. I don't think I have recalled any Biochem, Histology or other basic science in all the years that I have practiced dentistry. I would have to say when I first started to give injections after dental school, I "walked myself through" the anatomy of landmarks when giving an inferior alveolar block, lol. When I started to write prescriptions, I thought about certain things involving nomenclature but then I realized every resident or dentist carried a pocket sized PDR to resort to everything. Certain things do come to mind if you see a lesion on a patient, or recognize something suspicious on a radiograph, but you're not always "consciously" thinking about basic sciences when you practice. A lot of times, things just come to you. When I started to teach residents, I found myself resorting back to a lot of things in order to teach them, reading more. and applying some of that knowledge because I had to help them to understand.

I see!
Thank you Dr.s!