Hey guys
- Thread starter USArmyDoc
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There are only 2 or 3 schools that the first two years are (almost) identical to medical school. (Harvard is one of them. I think Columbia is similar, as well.) Most have their own curriculum, which is actually busier and more difficult during the first two years. However, during 3rd and 4th year, when medical students start working longer hours on rotation, dental students usually have less studying and are in clinic more, (8-5). (We had clinic all day, but very few exams the last two years. I was able to watch a lot of TV.)
Every school is a little different, but most do gross anatomy and head and neck. We only dissected the trunk. (Did not study appendages.) After anatomy and histology, we never saw the medical students again, unless we were dating them. 2 out of 2 courtships did not progress to marriage. But again, every school is a little different.
Again, I emphasize that my curriculum is the very traditional DDS curriculum, but every school is different. And the differences can be significant.
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Hi USArmy Doc,
http://www.temple.edu/dentistry/admissions/academic_year.htm
http://www.dental.washington.edu/education/ddsadmissions/index.asp
Above are the academic schedules for Temple and Washington. The number of credits appears different, but it's about the same amount of work at every dental school, and it's a lot of work. The above doesn't show specific schedules, but Temple does list courses by semester and UW lists courses by year. Good Luck at PCOM and good luck to your girlfriend.
http://www.temple.edu/dentistry/admissions/academic_year.htm
http://www.dental.washington.edu/education/ddsadmissions/index.asp
Above are the academic schedules for Temple and Washington. The number of credits appears different, but it's about the same amount of work at every dental school, and it's a lot of work. The above doesn't show specific schedules, but Temple does list courses by semester and UW lists courses by year. Good Luck at PCOM and good luck to your girlfriend.
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I think the difference is night and day. Not even comparable.
My first 2 years of dental school involved me arriving at school between 7-8am to be in class. They took role and had pop-quizes so you HAD to be there. I would sit in lecture and lab until 5pm Mon-Thurs, but on Fridays we often were done around noon. Averaged 25-35 lecture hours per week. Then after 5pm I would sit in the lab to finish my lab work for maybe 1-3 more hours. Then I would go to the library and study until they closed at 11pm in case there was a quiz the next day on the previous day's material. I studied anywhere from 4-12 hours per day on weekends, depending on if we had any exams coming up. Becuase we took so many courses (as many as 11 at once my first year) there was always an exam approaching. When I did the second year of med school, we only took 2-3 courses at once, had only 15-20 hours of lecture per week, and didn't even have to go to class. And it was much more spoon-fed.
The biggest difference between the 3rd/4th years is the stress. In med school, all you have to do is act interested and stand around to watch other people work. As long as you show up on time everyday and pay attention, you'll pass. Read a little and you'll do well. Everyone graduates. There was no stress or real responsibility in med school for me. In dental school, graduation is dependent on getting all your procedures/requirements met, which depends on getting good patients who will show up to their appointments. About 10% of my class didn't graduate on time because of this. The stress is because these things are out of your control and the school doesn't care because it's YOUR responsibility to get patients to show up. I had one patient that could always get a ride to the school, but I had to take him home after every appointment. And I was glad to do it. Dental students want to cry when a patient doesn't show up because it's that much harder to graduate. Med students want to cry when a patient DOES show up because you don't get to go home early. And if you don't show up for med school one day, patient care isn't affected because the residents are responsible for doing all the work. But in dental school you are the only one treating the patients. I would lay big flaps on the maxilla exposing the infraorbital nerve to take out a canine root and I was the only one in the room, while in med school you hold retractors or MAYBE get to place some stitches.
For me, the difference was the stress and the level of responsibility. But that's only one man's experience with where I went to dental school compared to where I went to med school.
My first 2 years of dental school involved me arriving at school between 7-8am to be in class. They took role and had pop-quizes so you HAD to be there. I would sit in lecture and lab until 5pm Mon-Thurs, but on Fridays we often were done around noon. Averaged 25-35 lecture hours per week. Then after 5pm I would sit in the lab to finish my lab work for maybe 1-3 more hours. Then I would go to the library and study until they closed at 11pm in case there was a quiz the next day on the previous day's material. I studied anywhere from 4-12 hours per day on weekends, depending on if we had any exams coming up. Becuase we took so many courses (as many as 11 at once my first year) there was always an exam approaching. When I did the second year of med school, we only took 2-3 courses at once, had only 15-20 hours of lecture per week, and didn't even have to go to class. And it was much more spoon-fed.
The biggest difference between the 3rd/4th years is the stress. In med school, all you have to do is act interested and stand around to watch other people work. As long as you show up on time everyday and pay attention, you'll pass. Read a little and you'll do well. Everyone graduates. There was no stress or real responsibility in med school for me. In dental school, graduation is dependent on getting all your procedures/requirements met, which depends on getting good patients who will show up to their appointments. About 10% of my class didn't graduate on time because of this. The stress is because these things are out of your control and the school doesn't care because it's YOUR responsibility to get patients to show up. I had one patient that could always get a ride to the school, but I had to take him home after every appointment. And I was glad to do it. Dental students want to cry when a patient doesn't show up because it's that much harder to graduate. Med students want to cry when a patient DOES show up because you don't get to go home early. And if you don't show up for med school one day, patient care isn't affected because the residents are responsible for doing all the work. But in dental school you are the only one treating the patients. I would lay big flaps on the maxilla exposing the infraorbital nerve to take out a canine root and I was the only one in the room, while in med school you hold retractors or MAYBE get to place some stitches.
For me, the difference was the stress and the level of responsibility. But that's only one man's experience with where I went to dental school compared to where I went to med school.
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I have to agree with the above statement (I´m not a graduate of a US dental school but I guess it´s pretty much the same where I come from). In the clinical part of dental school, you really are put to work. You HAVE to attend clinic and perform a certain amount of procedures. Your very graduation depends on co-operative patients.
From what I´ve observed after I started working in a university hospital, the clinical part of studying medicine is pretty much just hanging around, watching the residents and attendings work. No real obligation other then just showing up and passing exams.
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Integrated schools are basically identical the first 18 months (examples include harvard, columbia, uconn, mcgill). dissection, gross anatomy, histology for the whole body. after first 1.5 yrs dents are 8-5...stay after 5 for lab work, etc. my med colleagues were having a tougher time end of 2nd yr and beginning of 3rd - dents had lectures and clinic stuff. b/f starting rotations, etc the meds were apparently getting toasted with requirements, etc. from mid-3rd and all of 4th i'd say by far more stress for the dents. b/c as mentioned above we're seeing and coordinating patient visits, and of course requirements...not a whole lot of observing going on w/ us. key of course is the huge amount of responsibility on our shoulders.
but whenever the usmle's came arounds the meds were shi!!ing bricks i tell ya.
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Yes, 3rd and 4th year you have to coordinate your patients and guilt them into showing up. And you are busy all day long. And you may have less energy at the end of the day. But I still think it was WAY less stressful because once you went home you could forget about it until the next day. You just had to be organized at school. But you didn't have to study every night or weekends. Whereas 2nd year is THE most difficult, because you are in preclinic all day long, and you still have a ton of exams and lab projects.
However, we did not have to do our own labwork at our dental school. If any school has to do their own labwork during 3rd and 4th year, then yes, that would be much worse and very horrible.
Although, we had to set teeth for dentures, so while I was doing that it was no fun. But I still insist that 2nd year by far sucks the most.
However, we did not have to do our own labwork at our dental school. If any school has to do their own labwork during 3rd and 4th year, then yes, that would be much worse and very horrible.
Although, we had to set teeth for dentures, so while I was doing that it was no fun. But I still insist that 2nd year by far sucks the most.
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