dental faculty

[cluelessdr]

idk how it is at your dental school, but where i go i feel like the professors have favorites. we have "secret" numbers, and grading is so subjective when grading preps, etc but it just seems like they still know who is who. im a d2 and nervous for when i get to clinic they will be worse there and will make me more stressed out than it has to be if they are rude to us as well.
how is it at your school and how do you deal with this? its frustrating when you see the people who are very good with hand skills the docs love them and are so nice towards them.

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[oralcare123]

I would advise you to start learning early to deal with different types of people. Dentistry involves a lot of "people" skills, including not showing your emotions when you absolutely want to smash that face
Observe how others interact with faculty and do the same. Dental school is about survival with the least amount of limbs lost

 

[Ivy.ch]

idk how it is at your dental school, but where i go i feel like the professors have favorites. we have "secret" numbers, and grading is so subjective when grading preps, etc but it just seems like they still know who is who. im a d2 and nervous for when i get to clinic they will be worse there and will make me more stressed out than it has to be if they are rude to us as well.
how is it at your school and how do you deal with this? its frustrating when you see the people who are very good with hand skills the docs love them and are so nice towards them.

Congrats, you’ve realized dental school sucks. Yes, there is favoritism and weird grading none sense. Just do what you can and get Out of there with a degree.

 

[knewstance]

Just focus on perfecting your hand skills on your own and don't worry about what the grades say. It will all click eventually. Also drilling on plastic teeth with amalgam prep designs is completely different than real teeth with enamel, dentin, and decay.

 

[Mauricio45]

I definitely noticed this too. Sadly, I think politics plays a major role.

I remember reading a post on DentalTown where students did an "experiment" where 2 students submitted the exact, same project to same faculty member but the student who was better liked received a passing grade and this instructor failed the other student.

I distinctly remember certain male instructors would go out of their way to help out young attractive female students but then completely ignore the guys. And the male students would often get more harsher feedback than women.

 

[deleted994703]

wow where do you go to school👀

 

[PerioDont]

wow where do you go to school👀

I would guess this is true in every school

 

[Rfrosty]

I really can't tell you how I've observed the same thing.

It's easy to feel victimized by the faculty and feel like they're out to get you. They do probably still have a good idea of who you are despite arbitrary numbers (how would they enter your grades otherwise?) But I've come to accept that most faculty don't care enough to go out of their way to screw you over (unless they REALLY hate you and you're actively a pain in their rear constantly).

Faculty certainly do have favorites. But again, grading sucks so most faculty really just want to get through it quickly with as little headache as they can. They're seldom going to sit there wondering who they're grading. Asking for points later is another story (that's when how much they like you starts to matter more).

Unfortunately, it's not helpful to think you didn't get the grade you want because the faculty don't like you as much as your peers with good hand/brown nosing/flirting skills. It will likely work against you to worry about it even if it is true. It sucks but it will improve your skills a ton if you take their criticism as a learning opportunity.

Wish I could provide some advice for how to deal with the situation beyond just to put up with it for the next few years but that's just how dental school/life in general is. What you can do is observe the students the faculty like, learn the game, and play it with your hand as best you can. I can say that I've won over quite a few faculty with initially poor impressions of me by doing that. Didn't improve my grades but now they actually teach me what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it instead of just telling me something is wrong and giving a vague tip like "oh just don't angle your bur so much and you won't overtaper." You don't say doc, I sure couldn't have figured that one out on my own lol.