How many procedures have you done at school this semester?

[Quinque]

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Now that the semester is over, how many procedures have ya'll done this semester with covid and all that?

I am D3 and entire semester I have done:

4 fillings
4 extractions
~10 combined: new patient exams, cleanings, denture adjustments
0 Fixed, 0 removable, 0 RCT
Rest of time spent assisting D4

Starting to worry I might not be competent when I graduate 🙁

 

[deleted923283]

Now that the semester is over, how many procedures have ya'll done this semester with covid and all that?

I am D3 and entire semester I have done:

4 fillings
4 extractions
~10 combined: new patient exams, cleanings, denture adjustments
0 Fixed, 0 removable, 0 RCT
Rest of time spent assisting D4

Starting to worry I might not be competent when I graduate 🙁

You will not be competent when you graduate. That’s the reality at any dental school nowadays. This is why most people go to residencies. As long as you are somewhere around average, they will push you out of school.

 

[sobertiger]

You will not be competent when you graduate. That’s the reality at any dental school nowadays. This is why most people go to residencies. As long as you are somewhere around average, they will push you out of school.

Like we talked about in the other thread, it is location dependent. As a whole, only 35-40% of US dental school graduates pursue residency and the rest start working.

 

[frozenicecreamDMD]

Now that the semester is over, how many procedures have ya'll done this semester with covid and all that?

I am D3 and entire semester I have done:

4 fillings
4 extractions
~10 combined: new patient exams, cleanings, denture adjustments
0 Fixed, 0 removable, 0 RCT
Rest of time spent assisting D4

Starting to worry I might not be competent when I graduate 🙁

I sympathize with you but this is pathetic. please tell me at least these 4 fillings are class II with adjacent teeth with indirect vision so at least you have some experience.

 

[Quinque]

I sympathize with you but this is pathetic. please tell me at least these 4 fillings are class II with adjacent teeth with indirect vision so at least you have some experience.

I wish they were, one class II

 

[oralcare123]

Waw

 

[frozenicecreamDMD]

I wish they were, one class II

sigh, so what is your plan next?

it doesnt look like it will get any better soon.

 

[Quinque]

sigh, so what is your plan next?

it doesnt look like it will get any better soon.

Not sure, not much I could do tbh, except hold on until I graduate

 

[Quinque]

D3 as well - only done 4 fillings this entire semester... NEVER in ALL of dental school done any extractions, removable, fixed, or endo. We are getting hardcore screwed. Haven't even had a SRP patient.

Dang your experience sounds exactly like mine 🙁 . Wonder if we go to the same school .. jk😢

 

[LaughingGas]

This sounds like mandatory GPR/AEGD and/or work at DSOs

 

[frozenicecreamDMD]

This sounds like mandatory GPR/AEGD and/or work at DSOs

I don't think DSOs will be even forgiving that you can't be proficient at fillings and exams. to be honest, you can't make money spending 45 min on a class II. it should be 3 MOD for 1 hour.

 

[Quinque]

This sounds like mandatory GPR/AEGD and/or work at DSOs

Yeah I realized I probably will have to do an AEGD. I'm kind of afraid I wont get into a decent one or one in general though.
My grades are good (above 3.9gpa top 10%), but I don't really have any extracurriculars to put on a CV, and I know those were
important for dental school applying, so not sure how they are for AEGD... 🙁.

 

[LaughingGas]

I don't think DSOs will be even forgiving that you can't be proficient at fillings and exams. to be honest, you can't make money spending 45 min on a class II. it should be 3 MOD for 1 hour.

A lot of times, either you adapt or get out situation, and dentists are pretty adaptable. Or even medicaid office for half a year.

Yeah I realized I probably will have to do an AEGD. I'm kind of afraid I wont get into a decent one or one in general though.
My grades are good (above 3.9gpa top 10%), but I don't really have any extracurriculars to put on a CV, and I know those were
important for dental school applying, so not sure how they are for AEGD... 🙁.

Not sure if you are specializing , but you will be fine. Everyday since I graduated, I became faster the first few months. Same thing will happen with you guys. The only sucky part is that schools are charging same or more money for less training but that’s whole different topic.

 

[Quinque]

Not sure if you are specializing , but you will be fine. Everyday since I graduated, I became faster the first few months. Same thing will happen with you guys. The only sucky part is that schools are charging same or more money for less training but that’s whole different topic.

I don't want to specialize, but I am thinking of the AEGD, so I have some sort of working knowledge about general dentistry to be able to work as a dentist. Because right now, like you saw with my procedure count, there is just no way I will can without one. But I'm afraid I won't get into a good program, I just dont know how competitive they are

It just sucks with covid, at my school students can only be in clinic every other week. At my school they changed our curriculum before covid to where 2 students are paired to 1 dental chair. So the week I am at clinic you have 2 students sharing 1 chair - while one is doing the procedure the other can only shadow/assist.

 

[AnneSoul]

I don't want to specialize, but I am thinking of the AEGD, so I have some sort of working knowledge about general dentistry to be able to work as a dentist. Because right now, like you saw with my procedure count, there is just no way I will can without one. But I'm afraid I won't get into a good program, I just dont know how competitive they are

It just sucks with covid, at my school students can only be in clinic every other week. At my school they changed our curriculum before covid to where 2 students are paired to 1 dental chair. So the week I am at clinic you have 2 students sharing 1 chair - while one is doing the procedure the other can only shadow/assist.

This is exactly the situation at my school.Seeing very few patients and so less procedures are done.
I am D4 and only have done: 1 restoration, started endo molar but did not finish it yet, 5 extractions, 2 perio patients,1 removable patient.
But as LaughingGas said, and many other dentists here suggested, once we start practicing outside school we will improve fast hopefully.

 

[triathlonman59]

D3 here, same boat as you.
At this point, I've basically accepted that our school is making us dentists in name only, and it's up to me to get an education. As a result, I've been looking up procedures that other students are doing and asking them if I can assist. I've been reading through case discussions on sites like DentalTown to get better at seeing common problems people experience and how to overcome them. I try and talk to faculty in the clinic about specific patient scenarios and what they do in that situation. Basically I try and insert myself into as much clinic/patient/treatment planning interface as I can.
Is it as good as actually doing the work? Of course not. Will it make me faster? Probably not. Will it help me understand different ways to approach clinical situations and plan how to resolve problems? I hope so. Will I feel that much more justified when I hysterically laugh and hang up on the school when they ask for me a donation in the future? You bet.
I'd welcome other suggestions people have to make the best of a crappy situation.

 

[MLC45]

Now that the semester is over, how many procedures have ya'll done this semester with covid and all that?

I am D3 and entire semester I have done:

4 fillings
4 extractions
~10 combined: new patient exams, cleanings, denture adjustments
0 Fixed, 0 removable, 0 RCT
Rest of time spent assisting D4

Starting to worry I might not be competent when I graduate 🙁

How are you stats compared to your classmates? Is everyone in your school in the same boat or are you more behind than the others? I'm a D3 and I was feeling bad about my chair time until reading this post (sorry).

I've done:
2 extractions
7 fillings
2 crowns
4 SRP's
10 cleanings
1 interim partial and 1/2 way through C/C appointments
3 FMX's
I've also assisted in 6 or 7 perio surgeries (which was fun to watch).

Granted not everyone in my class has done this much. I believe it depends on how much we talk with the schedulers. I'll admit this summer I was lagging in clinic chair time. I finally made sure the schedulers knew who I was and even did some sucking up with holiday goodies to make sure I'm one of the first ones to have my patients called in January. I also let the schedulers know that I was available on short notice if an emergency came in and needed to be seen.

 

[Quinque]

How are you stats compared to your classmates? Is everyone in your school in the same boat or are you more behind than the others? I'm a D3 and I was feeling bad about my chair time until reading this post (sorry).

I've done:
2 extractions
7 fillings
2 crowns
4 SRP's
10 cleanings
1 interim partial and 1/2 way through C/C appointments
3 FMX's
I've also assisted in 6 or 7 perio surgeries (which was fun to watch).

Granted not everyone in my class has done this much. I believe it depends on how much we talk with the schedulers. I'll admit this summer I was lagging in clinic chair time. I finally made sure the schedulers knew who I was and even did some sucking up with holiday goodies to make sure I'm one of the first ones to have my patients called in January. I also let the schedulers know that I was available on short notice if an emergency came in and needed to be seen.

everyone in my class has done around the same as me, some less, some a little more.

 

[frozenicecreamDMD]

A lot of times, either you adapt or get out situation, and dentists are pretty adaptable. Or even medicaid office for half a year.



Not sure if you are specializing , but you will be fine. Everyday since I graduated, I became faster the first few months. Same thing will happen with you guys. The only sucky part is that schools are charging same or more money for less training but that’s whole different topic.

I agree dentists are very adaptable but you need a foundation to be adaptable on. medicaid office with deep and wrap around class II, III or even composite crown will be a massacre.

it is just sad. dental schools should be raining with restorations now. it is the least they can do

 

[P7898]

First semester of D3:

12 ext (2 surgical) (15-20 more left before D4)
25 fillings (about 40 more left before D4)
2 crowns (about 5 left before D4 could realistically get done)
1 implant
1 complete denture (in process)
1 Upper and Lower Interim RPD (in process)
cleanings and SRP abundance (ain't counting those but maybe like 20)

Things were slow initially with tx plans but ramping up in the spring... Times are tough but just like anything you gotta push through it and be an entrepreneur of your education.

 

[Cavity_Search]

First semester of D3:

12 ext (2 surgical) (15-20 more left before D4)
25 fillings (about 40 more left before D4)
2 crowns (about 5 left before D4 could realistically get done)
1 implant
1 complete denture (in process)
1 Upper and Lower Interim RPD (in process)
cleanings and SRP abundance (ain't counting those but maybe like 20)

Things were slow initially with tx plans but ramping up in the spring... Times are tough but just like anything you gotta push through it and be an entrepreneur of your education.

How much clinic/chair time are you getting every week? Our D3 class is being made to ASSIST 20-30 hours per week... and we only get one or two 4-hour patient blocks each week. Some weeks we get 0 patient blocks.

 

[P7898]

How much clinic/chair time are you getting every week? Our D3 class is being made to ASSIST 20-30 hours per week... and we only get one or two 4-hour patient blocks each week. Some weeks we get 0 patient blocks.

same. We have to assist roughly the same as well. We just have a lot of patients that need a lot of work so our appointment times are as productive as possible. We started back last week in July.

 

[Kouneko]

First semester of D3:

12 ext (2 surgical) (15-20 more left before D4)
25 fillings (about 40 more left before D4)
2 crowns (about 5 left before D4 could realistically get done)
1 implant
1 complete denture (in process)
1 Upper and Lower Interim RPD (in process)
cleanings and SRP abundance (ain't counting those but maybe like 20)

Things were slow initially with tx plans but ramping up in the spring... Times are tough but just like anything you gotta push through it and be an entrepreneur of your education.

Similar to what I have, also a D3, the semester started early September for us, I've done:

5 new patient exams, 2 more next week
25 restorations (3 class II amalgam, 3 class II composite, few class Is and class Vs, most were class IIIs)
~20 SRP and cleanings and cleaning re-eval
~30 exts (2 surgical, most were from a full-mouth EXT case for dentures)
Started an upper CD + lower RPD case, will deliver next semester
Started a crown, delivering next week
A couple of denture adjustments

My school does it differently. We don't have a set number of hours that we need to assist. We only assist if we're not seeing patients, so someone with patients coming in all the time will assist less than someone with patients canceling all the time. Also at my school, D4s' requirements got cut down significantly so they don't even need to be in clinic that often, resulting in D3s getting a lot of patients from D4s (D4s got lazy from clinic turning into P/F and were only doing what they need to graduate).

 

[Awisdomtooth]

To me I would say GPR is a must for many dental students graduating from dental schools. Even before Covid during the past couple of years not all the dental students had a great opportunity of working on different cases. Dental school will give you the license and permit to work as a dentist however, the real learning cycle starts right after graduation. And thats a very sad reality that many face despite all the tution that was paid towards dental education. Save money for many good CE courses out there 🙂

 

[2TH MVR]

To me I would say GPR is a must for many dental students graduating from dental schools. Even before Covid during the past couple of years not all the dental students had a great opportunity of working on different cases. Dental school will give you the license and permit to work as a dentist however, the real learning cycle starts right after graduation. And thats a very sad reality that many face despite all the tution that was paid towards dental education. Save money for many good CE courses out there 🙂

Do you think a GPR will provide more patients, reps for the residents as compared to an AEGD? Which is better for real world dentistry in the trenches?

 

[Awisdomtooth]

Do you think a GPR will provide more patients, reps for the residents as compared to an AEGD? Which is better for real world dentistry in the trenches?

Highly depends on the programs. Don’t blindly choose a GPR or AEGD program. Not all are the same. Do your research in advance. Some AEGD programs are better than others and same thing goes for GPR programs.

 

[mrdeez]

How are you stats compared to your classmates? Is everyone in your school in the same boat or are you more behind than the others? I'm a D3 and I was feeling bad about my chair time until reading this post (sorry).

I've done:
2 extractions
7 fillings
2 crowns
4 SRP's
10 cleanings
1 interim partial and 1/2 way through C/C appointments
3 FMX's
I've also assisted in 6 or 7 perio surgeries (which was fun to watch).

Granted not everyone in my class has done this much. I believe it depends on how much we talk with the schedulers. I'll admit this summer I was lagging in clinic chair time. I finally made sure the schedulers knew who I was and even did some sucking up with holiday goodies to make sure I'm one of the first ones to have my patients called in January. I also let the schedulers know that I was available on short notice if an emergency came in and needed to be seen.

Does your school have lots of specialties on site or no?

 

[MLC45]

Does your school have lots of specialties on site or no?

I'm not specializing so I actually haven't looked, but I know we have Grad Ortho, Grad Perio, Oral surgery, and AEGD. I know we don't have Prosth and I don't believe we have Pedo.

 

[aubreyjokes]

For us - even preCovid - D3 year was meant to be a ramp up and get you working with pts and doing resto mostly. We weren't even allowed to do Endo until the end of the year I think nor removable really. You could do a crown but it was kinda frowned upon because the D4s needed them to graduate (same with endo/bridges/RPDS). So we passed all that stuff upward and in return D4s gave us most of their resto (which is what we were graded on D3).
D3 just feels sorta lame covid or not - because you're raring to go after spending 2 years staring at power points - but there is still a clinical heirarchy. That being said I really felt pretty incompetent until D4 summer when we started doing off campus clinical rotations and you grow exponentially there because of the reps you're getting in.

Point being it all worked out. And presumably covid might chill out and you will be able to get a lot more clinic time come late spring.

 

[PerioDont]

Do you think a GPR will provide more patients, reps for the residents as compared to an AEGD? Which is better for real world dentistry in the trenches?

It is highly variable program to program, and sometimes even year to year as staff changes occur so frequently, but I would think AEGDs are almost always better.

Often times GPR residents are first call on trauma cases, even if they are gunshot, car accidents etc where they do nothing but page OMS/plastics/ENT residents. lots of medically complex pts, sedation cases, hospital dentistry. I think more AEGDs allow you to do a lot more real life dentistry that is relevant to private practice.

For anyone planning to apply in the future make sure to ask the current resident what procedures they have done in the past few months, and ask if there is any plan for the PD to change in the next year as that will completely turn around your experience.

 

[averageasian]

D3 here.

just doing exams and cleanings for now. Have to Get all of that out of the way before going into endo, pros, operative etc.

Literally impossible at a school of my size to book more than a few appointments a month. I got a late start too since I opted to take boards part 2 super early.

I’ve done 0 restorative, pros etc.