Hidden costs

[imayemeni89]

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I was looking at the tuition of some schools and some were cheaper than the rest. But when I looked at instrument, fees etc. the tot cost became a lot more than the tot costs of other schools. For example, nova has instrument fees at 14k while Louisville is only 7k. I was shocked to see this!

 

[art777]

Price difference is usually because some schools make u buy the instruments while others make you lease them... Both options have their pros and cons I guess

 

[Duriel]

http://dent.osu.edu/admissions/COST of ATTENDANCE - 2011.pdf

Cost of attendance is the info you want

 

[r2thekesh]

I can't think of a single school that makes you buy equipment any more. I think one of the main differences is how many typodont teeth you get for sim labs (some schools make you pay more up front but unlimited or high number, others you pay less up front and have to pay for additional), whether or not you have to do gold crowns, what kind of fillings you're doing (some schools don't do amalgam), and other variations.

 

[budentite]

I can't think of a single school that makes you buy equipment any more.

You're kidding, right? BU's kit costs $16,000 split over the first 2 years. In addition to the hand instruments, drills, burs, attachments, kavo jaws, fixed/remo/and operative typodonts, surveyer, articulator/facebow, buffing wheels/compound, putty, acrylic for temp crowns, shade guide, etc, they make you purchase their mediocre point and shoot digital camera. The school doesn't even provide burs and diamonds for treating patients, so you could easily end up spending an additional $2,000 on burs for your patients.

What's the point of purchasing a perio hand instrument kit that you only use a few times during 2nd year, when the school provides those instruments in clinic? It's all so the sterilization people have an easier time for your perio pre-clin class - instead of running several batches of cassettes, they can throw the students instruments in bags that take up less space and sterilize them all in a single run. If they did that for patients it would be a potential infection control nightmare (sharp instruments piercing bags aren't sterile anymore), but I guess not when those instruments are being used on the students.

The most rediculous item is the curing light they make you buy, which is only used sparingly during 1st and 2nd year pre-clin operative dentistry, you're prohibited from using in the clinic during 3rd and 4th years because of an infection control issue. They couldn't afford to maintain the small inventory of curing lights for the pre-clin course so they make every single student purchase one.

You can't opt out of any item in the instrument kit. And all of this stuff is worthless/useless once you graduate.
Where do you think the line should be drawn, between what the school is expected to provide, and what the student needs to purchase/own? Some of these just unnecessarily waste student's money, because the school is pinching pennies.

 

[r2thekesh]

Sorry, didn't know about BU. I've been to about 10 schools and none of them made you buy (there was special extra stuff you could buy but didn't have to). They all said they recently (within 1-10 years) had switched to renting.

 

[budentite]

Renting makes financial sense for everyone, but it requires that the school be financially healthy enough to make the initial purchase. The school could even get a nice return on the investment, which makes BU's way of doing things even more rediculous.

Making your students spend $100,000 every year for curing lights, which can't be use on patients, just to save the institution $5,000, is the definition of wasting money and irresponsibility. That's just one example. But who cares, when it's someone else's money?

 

[SoulPower]

I'm sure we lease all our tools and instruments (hand piece and cassettes). But we buy the rest of the stuff. Articulator/Burs/Teeth/Alginate/Impression trays/ etc., an articulator alone is like $600. I think over the whole first year they charge us around ~10k for all this stuff that takes up a whole locker plus your preclinic desk. 2nd year it goes down but dunno by how much.

 

[SoulPower]

Renting makes financial sense for everyone, but it requires that the school be financially healthy enough to make the initial purchase. The school could even get a nice return on the investment, which makes BU's way of doing things even more rediculous.

Making your students spend $100,000 every year for curing lights, which can't be use on patients, just to save the institution $5,000, is the definition of wasting money and irresponsibility. That's just one example. But who cares, when it's someone else's money?

I agree about them making us buy stuff that becomes valueless once in clinics is stupid and a waste of money on the student's behalf. I also have a curing light, it wouldn't be bad if it was wireless to use once i'm in practice but it is wired and I would definitely upgrade to a wireless one in practice.