Dental Hygienist as Pre-Dental Major

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wasanbaloch

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Hi Everyone! I am currently a freshman Pre-Dental student, I was wondering if doing dental hygienist major in my undergrad along with dental school requirments would be a good idea to get into dental school, or should I just stick with the normal bachlors in science track?

thanks.

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Hi Everyone! I am currently a freshman Pre-Dental student, I was wondering if doing dental hygienist major in my undergrad along with dental school requirments would be a good idea to get into dental school, or should I just stick with the normal bachlors in science track?

thanks.

I would stick with the normal biology, pre-professional track. Good luck.
 
do not do the hygenist program, most hygenist programs don't have the prereqs of dental school. The norm for hygenist programs include classes like intro to organic, inorganic and biochem.
 
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Rule of thumb: major in whatever you want, as long as it is not another pre-professional major, such as dental hygiene, nursing, business, etc. Pre-professional majors are just that; they are preparing you for a career in that area. In my opinion, it demonstrates divided interest and ambivalence about dentistry, 2 things adcoms definitely do not like.

In short, don't major in Dental Hygiene unless you want to become a dental hygienist. Find something you are interested in, it'll make college a helluva lot better.
 
Rule of thumb: major in whatever you want, as long as it is not another pre-professional major, such as dental hygiene, nursing, business, etc. Pre-professional majors are just that; they are preparing you for a career in that area. In my opinion, it demonstrates divided interest and ambivalence about dentistry, 2 things adcoms definitely do not like.

In short, don't major in Dental Hygiene unless you want to become a dental hygienist. Find something you are interested in, it'll make college a helluva lot better.

sorry but i have to disagree with you, i know a couple of people who went through the hygiene route at usc, and finished their prerequisites at the same time, and they also got into some of the good dental schools in California. so as a matter of fact when you actually do have experience in the dental field it looks better in my opinion, plus you can make money on the side pt and still go to dental school.
I don't think its a bad idea,look on predents you will find people who got in with low gpa's because they have experience either being an rdh or an rda.
 
Yep- totally agree with moldovanits. Being a hygienist indicates you do have a real interest in dentistry- as long as you STILL complete the dental school requirements. You will waste time and money if you do the hygiene bachelors without the dental school requirements. And if it takes a couple tries to get into dental school, you can get experience and money doing hygiene.
 
Thanks for the replys!!

My opinion is that if I do a Dental Hygiene major, it will show I'm interested in the Dental field, I will get loads of experience in my undergrad.

Im brainstorming on a plan to do a bachlors in Dental Hygeine, and take all required and suggested pre reqs for Dental school while im doing my undergrad.

I would appreciate more replys! Let me know what you think of this route!
 
I am a dental hygienist and at my NYU interview last friday, the interviewer told me that beind a RDH illustrates that I am both interested in dentistry as a whole as well as having real experience. I see it only as a plus, but only if you can complete all of your prereqs at the same time.

See if you can take Chem 1 and 2 instead od the intro to chem, Ogro 1 and 2 insteas of intro t organic and so on. If this works, you will kill two birds with one stone and make some nice cash on the side as well.

Good Luck!
 
Why not major in something you are genuinely interested in?
 
"Rule of thumb: major in whatever you want, as long as it is not another pre-professional major, such as dental hygiene, nursing, business, etc. Pre-professional majors are just that; they are preparing you for a career in that area. In my opinion, it demonstrates divided interest and ambivalence about dentistry, 2 things adcoms definitely do not like."

So, it's probably not a good idea to major in Nutritional Sciences as it can be seen that I want to tread into the field of nutrition and become a nutritionist? I'm unsure of my major right now, looking to major in either Nutritional Sciences, Integrative Biology, or Molecular Cell Biology.
 
Hi everyone!

I called Southern Illinois school of Dentistry and NYU school of Dentistry, said that I should major in a science, and that Dental Hygiene is not congruent to Dentistry. At the southern illinois they offer a bachlors in science with a major of Dental Hygiene, so shouldnt that work?

Hmmm, lets see, guess i'll have to stick with a major in science, I thought a Dental Hygiene major would be a positive, not a negitive...dont understand why....
 
Hi everyone!

I called Southern Illinois school of Dentistry and NYU school of Dentistry, said that I should major in a science, and that Dental Hygiene is not congruent to Dentistry. At the southern illinois they offer a bachlors in science with a major of Dental Hygiene, so shouldnt that work?

Hmmm, lets see, guess i'll have to stick with a major in science, I thought a Dental Hygiene major would be a positive, not a negitive...dont understand why....

In my opinion it is a positive, rd h's get alot of on hand experiences why not do it and be more ready when you enter dental school, plus make money.
 
Hi everyone!

I called Southern Illinois school of Dentistry and NYU school of Dentistry, said that I should major in a science, and that Dental Hygiene is not congruent to Dentistry. At the southern illinois they offer a bachlors in science with a major of Dental Hygiene, so shouldnt that work?

Hmmm, lets see, guess i'll have to stick with a major in science, I thought a Dental Hygiene major would be a positive, not a negitive...dont understand why....
Maybe the person you spoke with (probably a secretary who wanted to get back to her paperwork) didn't understand that you would still be taking the prereqs and have a bachelors instead of just an associates. You should talk to your undergrad advisor face-to-face at a scheduled meeting so you can have her undivided attention.
Look at JMJRDH1's post- just had an interview at NYU and they said being an RDH was a good thing.
BTW, it might take you an extra year to get the dental hygiene BS if you take all the prereqs for dental school. I think the prereqs are one semester courses instead of two, but I'm not sure since I just have the associates in hygiene...
 
In my opinion it is a positive, rd h's get alot of on hand experiences why not do it and be more ready when you enter dental school, plus make money.

One reason why is that dental hygiene is four years, two years pre-reqs, two years of the program. There are also additional pre-reqs required for dental school, so you would have to do hygiene on top of pre-reqs. Then you would have to study for hygiene boards and DAT at the same time. Then, you finally graduate as a hygienist, but wait, you can't work because you just got accepted into dental school. So now, all your hygiene time is really all for not (sure you have some dental experience, but it is hygiene, which is good, but different than what the dentist does. In my opinion, you have two 'offices' in your practice. You cover restorative, prostho, oral surgery, endo and ortho. Your hygienist takes care of perio. She is the specialist in the office in that area.)

I don't think you would have time to make money as a hygienist in dental school, so basically it is a lot of work for being in the exact same position as your fellow dental students that have a lot of time shadowing dentists. Maybe you will have an increased appreciation for hygiene though. And get A's in perio....
 
One reason why is that dental hygiene is four years, two years pre-reqs, two years of the program. There are also additional pre-reqs required for dental school, so you would have to do hygiene on top of pre-reqs. Then you would have to study for hygiene boards and DAT at the same time. Then, you finally graduate as a hygienist, but wait, you can't work because you just got accepted into dental school. So now, all your hygiene time is really all for not (sure you have some dental experience, but it is hygiene, which is good, but different than what the dentist does. In my opinion, you have two 'offices' in your practice. You cover restorative, prostho, oral surgery, endo and ortho. Your hygienist takes care of perio. She is the specialist in the office in that area.)

I don't think you would have time to make money as a hygienist in dental school, so basically it is a lot of work for being in the exact same position as your fellow dental students that have a lot of time shadowing dentists. Maybe you will have an increased appreciation for hygiene though. And get A's in perio....

agreed but what if you don't get in dental school right away? at least you have something to fall back on and gain more experience.
 
agreed but what if you don't get in dental school right away? at least you have something to fall back on and gain more experience.

Yeah, but if you don't get in, you will be spending your time trying to improve your scores, gpa, post bacc, etc. Will you really have time to work? If you want to be a dentist, going through hygiene, while not bad, just seems excessive to me.
 
Yeah, but if you don't get in, you will be spending your time trying to improve your scores, gpa, post bacc, etc. Will you really have time to work? If you want to be a dentist, going through hygiene, while not bad, just seems excessive to me.


you don't have to do it, its just an option.
 
Yeah, but if you don't get in, you will be spending your time trying to improve your scores, gpa, post bacc, etc. Will you really have time to work? If you want to be a dentist, going through hygiene, while not bad, just seems excessive to me.

It can be done! I work 2 days a week doing hygiene and am taking 12 hours (one 300 level course, three 400 level courses) right now. +pity+ But if you try to do a masters (why would you need it if you're already working in dentistry and hopefully have good scores) they probably won't let you work on the side.

I think we're all over-thinking this! Do whatever floats your boat.
 
"Rule of thumb: major in whatever you want, as long as it is not another pre-professional major, such as dental hygiene, nursing, business, etc. Pre-professional majors are just that; they are preparing you for a career in that area. In my opinion, it demonstrates divided interest and ambivalence about dentistry, 2 things adcoms definitely do not like."

So, it's probably not a good idea to major in Nutritional Sciences as it can be seen that I want to tread into the field of nutrition and become a nutritionist? I'm unsure of my major right now, looking to major in either Nutritional Sciences, Integrative Biology, or Molecular Cell Biology.

Don't worry about majoring in NutriSci. That should be fine. If you have a genuine interest in the program then go for it.
 
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