DDS vs MD Curriculum

[FutureDoc2019]

So of course everyone hears about how hard med school and dent school are but I was recently researching the didactic curriculums at Iowa (school I'm closest to) and was surprised at how many more classes the dent students had to take. I couldn't find any details about length of classes, other than "semester hours," so is there a certain reason? You would guess that med students would have more simply because they have a broader topic to study (but of course they also have mandatory residencies). Just wondering. For myself, I feel more classes would make dental school even more impossible!

Dental Curriculum
http://www.dentistry.uiowa.edu/missions/education/curriculumD1.shtml

Med Curriculum
http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/osac/curriculum/documents/Curriculum_2010_2011.pdf

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[dentalWorks]

I haven't attended either school... and I don't know anyone whos done both schools (except a few OMFS MDs/DDSs). So everything Im gonna say here is just based on pure opinion.

I think medical curriculum is more challenging than dental. Few reasons I can think of are:

-their student body is naturally more of a "gunner" type. Many students in the class will try to aim for high marks, every MD has to specialize, the better you do in school, the better ur chances are at specializing at something competitive (plastics, radiology, ophthalmology, dermatology, etc).

-this is coming from a few OMFS guys who are dual degrees. Their USMLE step 1 is pretty hard when you compare it to NBDE 1. How is that so? I have no idea, I haven't looked at either test....

-Dental curriculum is designed to also build your hand-eye coordination, this probably takes away from focusing too heavy into the basic sciences. I am guessing that med students cover biology in more depth than dental because well... they don't have much labs, they can push all their time into it.... This means more time spent studying out-side of classroom....

 

[bing12]

I haven't attended either school... and I don't know anyone whos done both schools (except a few OMFS MDs/DDSs). So everything Im gonna say here is just based on pure opinion.

I think medical curriculum is more challenging than dental. Few reasons I can think of are:

-their student body is naturally more of a "gunner" type. Many students in the class will try to aim for high marks, every MD has to specialize, the better you do in school, the better ur chances are at specializing at something competitive (plastics, radiology, ophthalmology, dermatology, etc).

-this is coming from a few OMFS guys who are dual degrees. Their USMLE step 1 is pretty hard when you compare it to NBDE 1. How is that so? I have no idea, I haven't looked at either test....

-Dental curriculum is designed to also build your hand-eye coordination, this probably takes away from focusing too heavy into the basic sciences. I am guessing that med students cover biology in more depth than dental because well... they don't have much labs, they can push all their time into it.... This means more time spent studying out-side of classroom....

+1

Also, to the OP, why DOES IT MATTER AT ALL? Both will be challenging, just because you have more classes does not necessarily mean it will be more difficult or vice versa. In the end, its up to the teachers discretion on whether the class will be difficult or not.

 

[housegambler]

FWIW,

My OMFS personally told me that the USMLE STEP 1 was the HARDEST test he has ever taken in his life. He studied 10-12 hrs a day for an entire month and just scored within the top quartile of the med school.

This is comming from a guy who went to a very reputable dental school, finished 1st overall in his dental school (with proof), and completed his 6 year OMFS residency at LSU-New orleans.

 

[Machiavelliansm]

FWIW,

My OMFS personally told me that the USMLE STEP 1 was the HARDEST test he has ever taken in his life. He studied 10-12 hrs a day for an entire month and just scored within the top quartile of the med school.

not saying usmle isn't hard but c'mon..top quartile is pretty good no? lol. and most of us studied more than a month for the DAT

 

[Mackchops]

My sister-in-law is in med school. My take FWIW is dental school is more time-consuming the first two years (note: not necessarily harder) while med school is worse over the 3rd and 4th year. In my second year when I was putting in 12-hour days daily PLUS studying, my sister-in-law was working part-time as a waitress to help pad the slush fund...

 

[321931]

My sister-in-law is in med school. My take FWIW is dental school is more time-consuming the first two years (note: not necessarily harder) while med school is worse over the 3rd and 4th year. In my second year when I was putting in 12-hour days daily PLUS studying, my sister-in-law was working part-time as a waitress to help pad the slush fund...

Yes. It's my understanding that Dental Students learn pretty much an enormous amount of material comparable to Medical Students; however, Dental Students also have enormous amounts of LAB.

We can all study for 10 hours and eventually understand the material but hand skills are totally different. There are some that get it right away (dexterity/naturals) and others who practice for 10 hours and still have trouble with it.

Dental first 2 years>Med first 2 years. After that Med becomes way tougher.

 

[FutureDoc2019]

Thanks everybody. Thats what i was wondering. The schedules just surprised me since i had never heard any of this before. I dont have any biases/preferences or anything. i was just wondering why there were so many more classes. and OBVIOUSLY theyre both very hard...duh

 

[FutureDent020]

Thanks everybody. Thats what i was wondering. The schedules just surprised me since i had never heard any of this before. I dont have any biases/preferences or anything. i was just wondering why there were so many more classes. and OBVIOUSLY theyre both very hard...duh

Med students also don't have to go to class. They all just chill in the library listening to recorded lectures. After blocks, they also get a week off basically. For example, last week, our med students had a standardized patient smoking cessation counceling session and that was it. Every week, we have quizzes, exams, competences, or practicals. We also have mandatory attendance. It's crap and I am bitter. You waste a lot of time. I agree with what others have said, the 1st 2 years of dental school are harder i.e. more time consuming, less free time, more graded work to worry about. And operative in a non pass/fail grading system is TOUGH. As for difficulty of didactic exams, I say med school is harder throughout. But they do have more time to study, at least at our school.

 

[drhobie7]

I generally agree. The first two years of dental school have a lot of mandatory hours. The last two years of medical school have a lot of mandatory hours. USMLE1 was harder than STEP1 because it requires multi-step reasoning. Honestly, medical and dental school are so different. Dental school teaches you next to nothing about medicine. And medical school teaches you nothing about dentistry!

 

[DREDAY]

First 2 years of dental school were more challenging than first 2 years of medical school. Medical school goes into more depth with didactics than dental school but dental school works you harder in first 2 years.

The biomedical information given in first two year of medical school and dental school is identical courses except for 2 courses: Physical diagnosis and pathophysiology. Path, microbio, biochem etc were all the same. In dental school you get out of school at 5pm. In medical school you get out at 12. There is alot more time to read and study in Medical school to accommodate for the pathophys and physical diagnosis courses.

Basically, The meat and potatoes of first two year of medical school is pathophysiology and physical diagnosis. The meat and potatoes of first two years of dental school is preclinical lab. The rest, is the same.

Third year medical school and dental school are about the same in terms of time consumption. In dental school your schedule is about 8-6 daily (sometimes till 9pm if you do your own pros lab work). In medical school some rotations you are there 14-15 hours per day (surgery and internal medicine), others you are there 4-6 hours/day (neurology, psychiatry, family).

Fourth year medical school is vacation time.

Don't get me wrong, I value my medical education. There is alot in medicine that I did not learn in dental school. But, there is alot in dental school that is not taught in medicine. One material is not harder than the other, you are just learning different information.