.What do you think will be the hardest aspect of dental school? in other words what kind of .. challenges do you think will you experience during dental school?.
hardest aspect of dental school
- Thread starter iloveu
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One of the most common things I hear from actual dental students is that the classes themselves are hardly (if at all) more difficult than undergrad courses, it is just that we are taking probably twice as many of them at one time. Thus, all of us procrastinators will need to get our time management skills in order!
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Getting enough sleep???
twice as many of them, and they are twice as fast
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Keeping the motivation up to study for test after test. Not letting yourself say "oh forget it i'm tired" and blowing off studying too often.
the hardest part is other people trying to bring you down with them..be it students who dont study enough or people outside of school bugging you that you aren't "social" enough to their liking. ugh it gets annoying. so dont you bring me downnn today
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Developing extremely accurate manual dexterity would be the answer for the majority of people I would think (except those who are naturals) - If you got into dental school you have the intellect to do well in all the didactic components, but clincally it is something totally different that many of us have never had any experience with whatsoever.
I think, since I'm a non-traditional student, having to take out loans and live on a tiny amount of money again will be the hardest part. When I look at how much debt I will be in when I'm done I am so shocked I don't even have words...
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Us traditional students also have to live with the loan, actually it's worst, we have to convince our family to take out the loan for us...
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and trad students have more time to pay off the loans, us non-trads are getting a late start, granted it's our fault, lol, but I really wish I had figured this out sooner, I'd be sitting a lot prettier right now if I had already been practicing for 8 years 🙂
It is possible to obtain a loan for dental school without a cosigner, correct? Anyone?
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if you plan to specialize - giving up your social life and make studying your life. and no i don't mean facebook/study/twitter/study/group study with friends/AIM/study....i mean sit in a room and study all the time. yea, you can have a family, but all the students in my class that have families that are doing really well don't spend much time with them.
if you don't plan on specializing - same schedule except you get to add in 8 hours of sleep and either a relationship/family or use that time to make quality friends.
some of the very few brilliant students are the exception, but that's my 2 cents on what the hardest aspect of dschool is.
if you don't plan on specializing - same schedule except you get to add in 8 hours of sleep and either a relationship/family or use that time to make quality friends.
some of the very few brilliant students are the exception, but that's my 2 cents on what the hardest aspect of dschool is.
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Yes, for dental school you're considered an independent student. You can provide your parents' info to qualify for a specific type of loan, but it's not required
Definitely agree. I do well in my science classes, but operative is new territory. Luckily UofL offers tutors in every subject, including my pre-clinical operative dentistry class. I have an upperclassmen who basically shows me what I'm doing wrong and suggests better techniques. Some people are definitely naturals, but for the rest of us practice makes perfect.
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as much as you think youre good at managing time in undergrad, i agree w/ time management as a pretty tough part of dschool so far. the classes aren't particularly difficult, just heavy on volume. on top of that you just have so many of them/credits to keep track of.
you have to juggle classes with getting enough sleeptime, finding time to study, and getting a good meal
you have to juggle classes with getting enough sleeptime, finding time to study, and getting a good meal
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agree with the above dental students...just to add - you have to take time to do your projects (wax-ups etc.) and that's the time you'd spend for hitting the books...but you need to gain manual skills b/c they are very important...
N
NAVY DDS 2010
I agree that the classes in d-school aren't really that more difficult than in college. if anything, as one person stated, they might be a little easier in some degrees. The biggest thing is the sheer volume of material you must learn and the number of classes you take each semester. This is done with multiple lab courses. So, yes, time management is a critical thing to have to adjust to. Trust me, you do adjust to it and you will make it through. Now, everyone has her/his strengths and weaknesses. Some people will find the didactic courses challenging and others will find the opre-clinical courses more difficult. The biggest thign you must adjust to is learning how to manage your time and to succeed. Now, this applies to the first two years.
The 3rd and 4th years have their own stressors that soem actually find to be worse than what is faced in the first two years. You still have didactic classes (although not as many), but you also have patients you must handle. Different schools handle their patients differently. We pretty much do everythign for our patients. We are the secretaries, we are the bill collectors, we are the office managers, we are the assistant, we are the dentist, etc. We are responsible for making sure we have the patients we need. We are responsible for contacting our patients and setting up the appointments. We are responsible for making sure we complete our requirements. To me (and many others I have discussed this with), 3rd and 4th years are very stressful because of the patient management. It is a different type of stress from the 1st and 2nd years, but it is still a very stressful time. No matter what, most people get it all done and find themselves crossing the stage in the end and are called Dr. xxxxxx.
Don't worry about what is hard and what is not. You'll find out soon enough. What is hard and stressful for one may be easy and relaxing for you. Just enjoy life as much as you can now because once school starts ..... well, you can have fun there too!
The 3rd and 4th years have their own stressors that soem actually find to be worse than what is faced in the first two years. You still have didactic classes (although not as many), but you also have patients you must handle. Different schools handle their patients differently. We pretty much do everythign for our patients. We are the secretaries, we are the bill collectors, we are the office managers, we are the assistant, we are the dentist, etc. We are responsible for making sure we have the patients we need. We are responsible for contacting our patients and setting up the appointments. We are responsible for making sure we complete our requirements. To me (and many others I have discussed this with), 3rd and 4th years are very stressful because of the patient management. It is a different type of stress from the 1st and 2nd years, but it is still a very stressful time. No matter what, most people get it all done and find themselves crossing the stage in the end and are called Dr. xxxxxx.
Don't worry about what is hard and what is not. You'll find out soon enough. What is hard and stressful for one may be easy and relaxing for you. Just enjoy life as much as you can now because once school starts ..... well, you can have fun there too!
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The Health Professions loan you get (if the Stafford loans don't cover everything) requires you to submit your parent's income from their tax returns. It doesn't matter if you have lived on your own for decades, are married with your own family, etc. They also require you submit names and contact information for 2 other people who do not live in the same household as references. Aside from that, only loans secured at a private lender (ie: your bank) will require a co-signer.
As for the original question, I agree with the previous posters that dental school didactic classes aren't any harder than undergrad. There is just an extreme amount of material to learn/memorize very rapidly. I'm a D2 now and we have on average 3 any mixture of exams, quizzes, or practicals a week. We also are in class about 7 hours a day. Much different than undergrad! Preclinic classes can be challenging if hand skills don't come easily.
Overall though, the biggest challenge for me has been learning how to balance my life. Pre-dent mentality is straight A's or death. I have had to learn to be ok with getting B's some of the time. Still break out in hives on occasion! Early in dental school I wasn't getting enough sleep to stay healthy and my husband had to re-introduce himself because I was so busy. Had to re-evaluate where I was at and where I was going. Decided for me, straight A's aren't worth as much to me as my family or my health so I realigned my priorities. I am MUCH happier AND will still end up a quality DDS.
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$8500 unsubsidized and 32000 subsidized per year.
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depends on what you took during undergrad.
I'm a D1 and I've took all these courses during undergrad.
I have enough time to go on trips during the weekend or be on sdn for no reason right now.
If I could give any advice, take some of the courses during undergrad which you will eventually be taking at DS.
For ex. Anatomy, human physiology, pharmacology, immunology
Some of my friends are studying more because they didn't take those courses. But i took all those.
Since DS has to cover a lot of information during 1st and 2nd year, you would never go in depth as you did during 3rd and 4th year of undergrad.
You will learn some new stuff but human physio is human physio.
I've heard from 3rd and 4th years students that you don't really stress because there's a lot of work/study. They get stress from the patients giving you hard time. Other then that, DS shouldn't be something that takes all of your life (4 years). Good time management is what is needed. I find facebook/youtube a waste of time. maybe that's why i have soo much free time on hand to do other things lol.
I'm a D1 and I've took all these courses during undergrad.
I have enough time to go on trips during the weekend or be on sdn for no reason right now.
If I could give any advice, take some of the courses during undergrad which you will eventually be taking at DS.
For ex. Anatomy, human physiology, pharmacology, immunology
Some of my friends are studying more because they didn't take those courses. But i took all those.
Since DS has to cover a lot of information during 1st and 2nd year, you would never go in depth as you did during 3rd and 4th year of undergrad.
You will learn some new stuff but human physio is human physio.
I've heard from 3rd and 4th years students that you don't really stress because there's a lot of work/study. They get stress from the patients giving you hard time. Other then that, DS shouldn't be something that takes all of your life (4 years). Good time management is what is needed. I find facebook/youtube a waste of time. maybe that's why i have soo much free time on hand to do other things lol.
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I have a question though. I have taken Histology, Biochemistry, Physiology, Microbiology, Cell Biology, Molecular Medicine and Immunology in my undergrad and I am a senior now in undergrad. I took all of these courses because I know that they are also courses dental students take. However, I received a C in Physio, Micro, and Histo. Do you think that since I have taken these courses already even though I received C's, that it will still help me in dental school when I take them again?
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definitely i think it should help.
these materials are covered during DS to give you an idea and help you to understand rather than for ex. memorize all the molecular pathways of one reaction.
So if you got some idea of this material already, it must be "easier" for you.
It's easy to panic when you hear all these new definitions/words during one lecture but if you were exposed to it previously, it shouldn't give you panic attack.
Some of my friends are panicing because of all these random words come at you during lecture. For example, it took about 2 weeks to cover action potentials and its mechanisms/alterations in detail during undergrad. We covered all that in 2 hours at DS. If you know what is more important in the topic, you will ace it.
these materials are covered during DS to give you an idea and help you to understand rather than for ex. memorize all the molecular pathways of one reaction.
So if you got some idea of this material already, it must be "easier" for you.
It's easy to panic when you hear all these new definitions/words during one lecture but if you were exposed to it previously, it shouldn't give you panic attack.
Some of my friends are panicing because of all these random words come at you during lecture. For example, it took about 2 weeks to cover action potentials and its mechanisms/alterations in detail during undergrad. We covered all that in 2 hours at DS. If you know what is more important in the topic, you will ace it.
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Personally getting used to studying again after a year off was really difficult. Also adjusting to the fact that im no longer the smartest person in the class and i will have to work harder than others to do just as well (dam some of these asians are smart lol, and some people also study morning to night with no fun in their lives). Finally if you arent naturally good at teeth waxing, its gonna be hell for you lol.
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How many teeth do you guys wax up for waxing lab at Stony Brook? At Pitt, we've done 12 thus far. I haven't found it that difficult to keep up with the waxing lab work. It is just difficult to keep up with all of the didactic courses, while juggling sleep and meals.
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I think it will end up somewhere around 11 teeth plus 4 or 5 practical exams. Ugh i hate waxing, maybe cuz im just not very good at it.
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Wax ups?? A dental student will explain it better, but you make wax models of teeth to help learn tooth anatomy and I guess help build manual dexterity..
I've done a couple at a dental lab. It's taxing, but fun
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You also do wax ups to make crowns.
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this is why many dental schools recommend that you take a sculpture class. it can help you acquire the required skills and dexterity to create wax-ups of teeth using only a typadont (plastic teeth) and some wax 🙂
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I think a sculpture or pottery class would be really fun, but unfortunately my undergrad's sculpture/pottery classes are art majors only and no seniors. =( Ohh well.
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typically 1st semester wax ups include prepping a tooth, whether anterior or posterior and "filling" aka waxing it back up.
You can do any class prep on it and then fill it back with wax to restore anatomy and funcitonality. In the first semester you probably wont have to worry about occulsion but generally just getting the tooth to look like it was before (i.e. triangular ridges, mariginal ridges, development grooves, etc.)
Some schools also have carving of teeth from wax blocks. If you want to practice at home, get a bar of soap and carve a tooth out of it.
You can do any class prep on it and then fill it back with wax to restore anatomy and funcitonality. In the first semester you probably wont have to worry about occulsion but generally just getting the tooth to look like it was before (i.e. triangular ridges, mariginal ridges, development grooves, etc.)
Some schools also have carving of teeth from wax blocks. If you want to practice at home, get a bar of soap and carve a tooth out of it.
Yes, it all seems fun now, but then there comes a day when you have two midterms plus 3 wax ups, plus 2 home projects, 2-3 preps and restorations and a practical within 3-5 days and then it doesn't seem all so fun, the hardest part of Dentistry is being able to manage time and still have a life, trust me.
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My cousin is a dentist and he had a life when he was in DS.
N
NAVY DDS 2010
realistically, you don't need an art/sculpture class to do fine in dental anatomy class. You either have the skills to wax well or you don't right away. If you don't, then ONLY practice, practice, practice waxing a tooth will make you better. You could take almost every art class there is and they wouldn't really prepare you for the very fine movements you need when carving the anatomy on a tooth or the delicate placement of a small layer of wax needed to be added so you have a contact point interproximally or occlusally.
