Hardest class at your school (for yr 1 and/or 2)?

[ckow]

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Hi All,

I'm thinking of brushing up on some material (maybe taking a few classes, or reading some books) to try and make my transition into dental school a little smoother. (I wasn't a science major undergrad and want to lessen the deluge of new information during first year).

Can you all please list the hardest courses at your dental schools (or at least, the courses that we pre-dents could brush up on to make our first year a little less stressful)?

I'm esp. interested in UPenn and Columbia, but I think it would be helpful for everyone on the forum if we could do the same for all schools.

Thank you!

~ ckow

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

Anatomy is a bitch, try and do some of that in your spare time.

 

[blankguy]

Why is it difficult? Is it because of the amount of memorization? I was talking to somebody who was taking anatomy and physiology course at UMass-Boston, he showed me a packet of 6 pages of names of bones to be memorized in 3 weeks. It contained several hundred names.

 

[StarGirl]

physiology was harder than anatomy for me....

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

You got it...it is just a HUGE amount on info!!!

 

[blankguy]

How long is the anatomy module in dental school?
Which systems are covered in anatomy class?

 

[drPheta]

I'd say Gross Anatomy, Histology, Physiology, and Medicine are the hardest of our first year.

Dental Anatomy is no cake walk either, but you can't really prepare for that before dental school.

For Gross Anatomy, most schools teach the entire body except for areas below the perineum. A few schools teach the entire body. However, all schools strongly emphasize the head and neck...ridiculously emphasize it.

We only have gross for 1 semester...which seems to be the norm.

 

[aphistis]

Occlusion. Pain in the ASS. Waxing 2 3-unit bridges to 12-micrometer accuracy has definitely been the biggest waste of time so far. Though, in fairness to the instructors, I think it has more to do with its location within the curriculum than with the course material itself.

 

[scandalouslj]

For Penn I would say Histology/embryology becuase it is the first class we take. Anatomy woont help you that much becuse it is a year long here and the way the course is set up the anatomy director has packets which you basically have to memorize word for word. I guess if you want to brush up on it and see where everything is it will help. The other classes "first" semester are biochem, Physiology, Intro to med, community oral health, Radiology..um i think thats it, I cant really think right now. But we dont really have semesters its more years, as we stop and start classes at different times. Ex Histology is like the frist 8 weeks, we just started Physiology and had 1 test before christmas break, etc.

 

[ItsGavinC]

It all sucked for me (at least that's what my memory says).

My first inclination would be to say anatomy.

My second inclincation would be to say physiology, but we had physiology in every single frickin' course (we are systems based), so to be specific I would say renal physiology (from our Kidney module) and physiology from our Cardiopulmonary module.

Those were wickedly difficult. But anatomy is sure a kicker (mylohyoid, omohyoid, sternohyoid, sternothyroid, thyrohyoid, stylohyoid...)

 

[PashaJ]

Histo was probably the most difficult for most in the first semester because of the amount you were responsible. I did ok in it simply because I knew what I had to do to be successful. Physio was more difficult for me because I actually had to understand the material very well. It wasn't the understanding that made it very difficult but because it was so different from the other classes where it was straight up memorization so I had to approach the subject differently.
In the second semester it seems like Gross will be tough, but I guess I just have to put the time in. Surprisingly a course named Biomaterials is the one that most people do poorly in since it requires some physics.

 

[ckow]

If it's not in your signature, could you guys also include the school that you're referring to? and thanks for the info...keep it coming 🙂

 

[blankguy]

I noticed some of the dental courses are 1 credit, 2 credits and 4 credits? Which courses tend to have what amount of credits associated?

 

[ItsGavinC]

Blankguy,

That distribution of credits is going to vary from school to school, but nearly always the credit number is in a ratio of the amount of hours spent studying the subject.

I think that at most dental schools, the highest credit class (at least in the beginning) is anatomy. I've seen this be 6 credits at a number of schools.

We had our anatomy divided into several sections. Our Musculoskeletal module and Neuroanatomy modules combined for 7 credit hours. We are now currently doing Head & Neck (which has a large portion of anatomy), and it will also be heavily weighted.

 

[blankguy]

What about classes in clinics?

 

[ItsGavinC]

Towards our later years, all our school has are clinical rotations and Grand Rounds. So, our grades would be comprised of those two classes.

I believe, though, that most schools place the emphasis on completing a certain number of procedures, and those procedures are directly tied to the clinical grades.

 

[larryt]

Gavin !

Where is your anatomy lab at ? Do you folks dissect the cadavers or they're all prepared?

 

[ItsGavinC]

Our cadavers are prosected, but we dissect the Head & Neck.

The anatomy lab is upstairs in the anatomy lab.

 

[mmapcpro]

The anatomy lab is upstairs in the anatomy lab.

lol...makes sense 😛

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

I wish ours were prosected...we have to cut the whole thing up. Waste of time in my opinion.

 

[drPheta]

I like doing the actual dissection. It seemed to make me more aware of the important landmarks, and it also helped orient me around the cadaver.

 

[ItsGavinC]

I think having to dissect the entire body is a waste of time for dental students, but dissection of the head and neck is important.

 

[3rdMolarRoller]

Fully agree with you Gavin.

Sometimes I see the benefit bec you really see the intervations and origins and stuff...but hell it takes so much time and I could be stuyding other things.

Head and neck important for us to do on our own...rest of body, NO!!!