Help/Insights for Dental Anatomy & Occlusion?

[ItsGavinC]

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I studied DAO today pretty hard-core, and then finished the day off by taking a released DAO NBDE exam.

I had a hunch that DAO would be my worst subject, and even after my study efforts I think that is true. I passed the released exam, but not by much.

But to be fair to myself, several of the questions were just ridiculously worded (ie, I had no idea what they were even asking). Another couple were ones that I knew the answers to but didn't read the questions carefully enough (so it wasn't subject matter that I didn't know, which is somewhat relieving). Still, those extra points didn't raise me as much as I'd like.

My dental anatomy scores are my lowest, and I'm not sure what to do to raise them. It seems like everybody around here usually scores very well on DAO, which makes me feel even more like an idiot.

My other scores are pretty high: 95+ in Biochem/Phys and 93+ in Micro/Path. It's depressing to only pull an 80 in Dental Anatomy.

Anybody have any ideas (especially those who have recently taken the exam)?

 

[ItsGavinC]

I realized that my post was fairly generic. I'd like as much help as possible, so here are more specifics:

I understand occlusion and mandibular movements, and I got all of those right on the practice test I took (1996).

I know all of the crests of curvature, as well as other common knowledge items like numbers of roots, numbers of cusps, cusp sizes, geometric shapes from incisal/occlusal, proximal, and facial/lingual.

Going into my DAO studies I thought that if I got a test that covered all the basic stuff with only a couple seemingly random questions, I'd probably do fairly well. But I also knew that if I got a test that had more than the norm (or what I consider the norm) of weird questions, that I'd be screwed.

I'm hoping the 1996 test was out of the norm, but there isn't any way that it is.

One of the worst things is that I've been through the 2001 Decks over 6 times for DA/O. I know all the stuff on the back of those cards, and although I know those cards don't cover everything, I thought they could at least get me a solid score in this section.

Ho-hum.

 

[kato999]

Gavin,

Are you using the Dec '98 score converter to estimate your DAO score? I looked at that earlier and realized it is pretty far off base for the July '96 DAO. The minimum passing score on the Dec '98 is like a 62% and the average was 78% while the minimum score on the July 96 exam was a 42% and had a national average of a 63%.

So the July '96 dental anatomy was quite a bit harder than the Dec '98.

At first I thought i scored an 80 but it turned out to be closer to a 90.

I hope this makes you feel better. it did for me

 

[ItsGavinC]

Kato,

Yeah, I'm using the 98 score converter, but only as a rough estimate. Where can I get a copy of the 96 score converter?

 

[kato999]

I dont have that scale converter either, i was just using the fact that the mean will be pretty much a scaled score of 85. I am pretty much fudging it from there 😎

Does anyone else have a way to scale the old released exams?

 

[gpg]

Gavin

go to the International dental forum.....click on the Tutorials sticky...and have a look at mt tut in there on DAO....might be useful....also feel free to ask any ques u have to me...had a 94 in DAO the first time I took NDBE I.....am taking it again to up my score.

gpg

 

[organic]

I studied DAO today pretty hard-core, and then finished the day off by taking a released DAO NBDE exam.

I had a hunch that DAO would be my worst subject, and even after my study efforts I think that is true. I passed the released exam, but not by much.

But to be fair to myself, several of the questions were just ridiculously worded (ie, I had no idea what they were even asking). Another couple were ones that I knew the answers to but didn't read the questions carefully enough (so it wasn't subject matter that I didn't know, which is somewhat relieving). Still, those extra points didn't raise me as much as I'd like.

My dental anatomy scores are my lowest, and I'm not sure what to do to raise them. It seems like everybody around here usually scores very well on DAO, which makes me feel even more like an idiot.

My other scores are pretty high: 95+ in Biochem/Phys and 93+ in Micro/Path. It's depressing to only pull an 80 in Dental Anatomy.

Anybody have any ideas (especially those who have recently taken the exam)?

Hi GavinC

I don't know how clinical your D2 courses are, but I just want to let you know that I had exactly the same experience as you have the first time I took dental anatomy & occlusion and dental material class. The extreme details, concavities, grooves, pits, little tiny bits of differences, this material, that chain reaction, the procedures drove me nuts. 1mm 1.5mm 2mm, why is it so important! I didn't do well for DAO, not to mention my miserable dental material final . But after starting seeing patients, preping crowns, doing root canal, having clinical rotations, all the dead information and trivial stuff turned out to be extremely important and meaningful. By then, when I studied again the dental anatomy textbook, I found that everything made a lot more sense and very easy to remember.

I might be wrong, but I think your scores reflect a very solid and strong academic background. ( biochem/physio, path..) do not worry about Dental anatomy, you will have it all figured out after you start full time clinical work. I scored 99 in DAO in NBDE1, but only because I already had clinical rotations and work experience ( licensed in my country), if I were to take that exam straight after dental anatomy course, I don't think I'd even get a score close to 80!

I think they should put DAO in part 2

I think ASDA exam reprints have some ambiguities in their questions. What you scored from the practice reprints doesn't necessarily tell you what you will score in the real exam. The most important thing is to learn from the questions. If you only memorize the answers, you might find all the questions in real exams seem familiar, but somehow different.

good luck, no worries
😀

 

[ItsGavinC]

Thanks for all the responses guys!

 

[ItsGavinC]

I took the 98 DA test today and didn't do much better (even using the correct score converter)!

It's back to the books for me.

 

[gryffindor]

Hey Gavin,

At our school they got all concerned after the Dental Anatomy average dropped when the class of 2005 took the boards. The July 2003 exam was apparently significantly harder than any of the previously publisehd exams. So starting with 2006, they began weekly quizzes out of a Dental Anatomy book. I think it is this book:

Fuller JL, Denehy GE, Schulein TM, operative dentistry: a book, Concise Dental Anatomy and Morphology (fourth edition), July 2001.

From what some of the class of 2006 tells me, this book is not an easy read and there are some tough review questions in there too, b/c they made them review stuff out of this book recently in preparation for the boards in July.

I know it's too late now, but for all the excitement of getting the boards out of the way after first year, I really don't think I would have done well in Dental Anatomy (98) if I had taken the boards after first year. It really took all the pre-clinical dental courses in second year to make the Dental Anatomy stuff second nature to me when I took the boards. Doing those crown wax-ups definitely made Dental Anatomy very real.

So for you, I'd say go back and read/relearn from the Dental Anatomy textbook. I'm sure there are plenty of them available to you on VitalBook. My class used Woelfel & Scheid book. There is a table in there that has all the eruption times and root formation times and stuff (it used to be Table 3.4 in the edition I bought in Fall 2000, but there is a new edition of the book out now); memorize it cold b/c those are the "easy points" on this exam. I mounted and used the ideal tooth dental models that came with my articulator to study occlusion and the cusp movements. I also had my pedo typodont & regular typodonts to better visualize some of the anatomy questions. There were a few questions on dental anomalies on my exam (gemination vs. fusion, taurodont, stuff like that), so I would review that as well, I don't recall those being in the Decks.

You may already do this, but I wouldn't just use the old exams as a diagnostic to see how much you know. Rip into each question and use the exams as a study tool, b/c you can really learn a lot from the right as well as the wrong answers.

Good luck!

 

[gpg]

Hey people

Don't you all have to carve the teeth in wax blocks.....here in India we have to carve all teeth from Central INci to 2nd molar,all types on rectangular wax blocks...I was BAD at that and used to hate it,but that is what has helped me master the subject....Gavin relax.....you will do well......gpg

 

[ItsGavinC]

Dr. Griffin,

Sweet post, thanks for the advice. I'm getting some of the questions correct just by remembering the preps I've done in simlab, or the wax-ups I've done--but like you said, I haven't done enough of them at this point!

 

[Athene]

Gavin

go to the International dental forum.....click on the Tutorials sticky...and have a look at mt tut in there on DAO....might be useful....also feel free to ask any ques u have to me...had a 94 in DAO the first time I took NDBE I.....am taking it again to up my score.

gpg

are those dots contagious........lol

 

[ItsGavinC]

Hey people

Don't you all have to carve the teeth in wax blocks.....here in India we have to carve all teeth from Central INci to 2nd molar,all types on rectangular wax blocks...I was BAD at that and used to hate it,but that is what has helped me master the subject....Gavin relax.....you will do well......gpg

I checked out your tutorial, and it did help refresh things for occlusion and movements, but those aren't the questions that I'm missing 🙁

 

[gpg]

Hey Gavin

Thanks for the compliment....could you specify which topics you find a little tough...soI could help you out with them ....also please have a look the the "Nice Case" thread in the Dental forum....I would really like to hear what you feel about it....gpg

P.s.I have always used dots....

 

[health]

Hi GPG,
I saw your editorial in sticky and it really helped.I pretty much understood about the working side and non working side movements with arrows.

I am very confused regarding such movement like when maxi or mandi teeth move in lateral movements which cusps which contact or pass bet which teeth , which is the best way to determine such things.any help is appreciated i m very confused

in an ideal intercuspal position, when the mandible makes a right lateral excursion, mesiolingual cusp of permanent maxillary right first molar opposes the
1. sulcus bet mesiofacial and distofacial cusps of mandi first molar
2 sulcus bet distofacial and distal cusps of mandi first molar
3. embrassure bet mandi first molar and mandi second pre molar
4. sulcis bet lingual cusps of mandi first molar
5. embrassure bet mandi first and second molar

Thanks in advance
Vij