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Is dental school as tough as medical school? I've heard that med school is like drinking from a fire hose. Is dental school the same?
Is dental school as tough as medical school? I've heard that med school is like drinking from a fire hose. Is dental school the same?
In general, no. They do teach you a lot of information, but it's not at the level of detail that it is in medicine. The rigor of each profession's board exams (and entrance exams--DAT and MCAT) reflect this.
That said, you will be studying a lot and also spending a lot of time working on hand skills, etc.., that medical students don't have to worry about.
Forget which OMS resident that is a frequent poster talked about this, but as I recall, yes the didactics are not as in depth (at most dental schools anyway) but dental school is worse/harder since we have all the lab work, more patient care, and all the dental classes on top of the same subjects that med students cover in the same time span of four years.
The competition within medical school is probably fiercer. You have to strive much harder to be the best in your medical class, where everyone is aiming for top specialties and has type A personality. Majority of people in dental school just want to be GP and get by with minimum. Detail of medical school is much greater and rightfully so. I think dental school is a different kind of difficulty than the difficulty that medical students experience. I don't know exactly how they're different because I was never a medical student but I would think it's a different kind of difficulty.Is dental school as tough as medical school? I've heard that med school is like drinking from a fire hose. Is dental school the same?
I don't really know because I was never a medical student. I live with medical students and they're always studying. I go out to lectures and lab, sometimes really long hours at the lab, and when I come home, they're still studying. I'm exhausted from all the manual dexterity crap on top of studying that I have to do...They're probably tired from studying all day. We're both tired but probably for slightly different reasons. Sure I'm not studying as much as them but that's because of the lab crap I have to do. I don't know what upperclassmen medical students do (I know of clerkships and rotations with surgical rotation being the most grueling) but upperclassmen dental students have to schedule their own patients, do all the paperwork, and do actual dentistry on patients. I don't know how to compare them.SGV, can you elaborate on how it is a different kind of difficulty? Is it the hand-skills that makes it make more difficult?
SGV, can you elaborate on how it is a different kind of difficulty? Is it the hand-skills that makes it make more difficult?
I don't really know. I know there are some really competitive applicants out there but where you draw the line of "yes you'll probably get in" and "no you'll probably not get in" is a mystery to me. At least with dental specialties, specifically OMFS, I believe we tend to be a little more forgiving by allowing applicants with low numbers to compensate with high CBSE score and year long internships. I'm not an expert.Also how hard is it to get a dental residency? I heard it is extremely tough because spots are limited?
Yeah, I have the same experience where dental students can get away with dumping almost everything they learned the day after the exam. I don't know why but it won't necessarily hurt you at the moment. At least it hasn't for me. Obviously you want to retain information for when you graduate to become a competent dentist. Not everyone is perfect. I think we can get away with it because dental patient management, general knowledge, and critical thinking skills is far less demanding than that of medicine.With exceptions given to certain subjects (like head and neck anatomy) DS seems to cover a wider breadth of material at a fast(er?) pace, but with a fair amount less depth. I think it is probably easier because you can still get away with cramming, regurgitating and forgetting a lot of material in DS whereas medical students need to learn and retain more of the material moving forward in their careers.
Yeah, I have the same experience where dental students can get away with dumping almost everything they learned the day after the exam. I don't know why but it won't necessarily hurt you at the moment. At least it hasn't for me. Obviously you want to retain information for when you graduate to become a competent dentist. Not everyone is perfect. I think we can get away with it because dental patient management, general knowledge, and critical thinking skills is far less demanding than that of medicine.
You're right. I think my mistake is equating dental school with real world dentistry. Not even dental school just D1...I think you may be selling dentistry far short with comments like this.
Maybe the reason you are bored with dentistry already is that you haven't begun to explore the critical thinking skills and creativity it will take to properly diagnose and treatment plan complex cases while working within constraints demanded by real patients. A mediocre dentist that just wants to mindlessly perform a series of procedures that simply address the 'problem of the day' could be a poor critical thinker, but an excellent dentist that solves problems the patient can't articulate or may not be aware of will need to be an excellent critical thinker.
The two most competitive specialties, omfs and ortho, have been using the cbse and gre which have numerical scores. The other specialties tend to weigh other things on the application more heavily. I don't know what those other things are.So dental board exams are only pass/fail, right? (Unlike the USMLE where you get a certain score and that score largely determines what specialty you match into). And if the dental boards are only pass/fail---how they choose candidates for dental residencies?
So dental board exams are only pass/fail, right? (Unlike the USMLE where you get a certain score and that score largely determines what specialty you match into). And if the dental boards are only pass/fail---how they choose candidates for dental residencies?
Dad said same thing. He does colonoscopies all day. To each their own I guess? LolLOL, a dentist was telling me someone asked him how he would like looking in peoples mouths all day and he said "well doctors stick their fingers in more places than mouths"
I think dental exams are not much tough as medical exams.
The sad thing is only <15% of patients report of having had a head and neck exam done on them by their dentist...I think dental exams are not much tough as medical exams.
The sad thing is only <15% of patients report of having had a head and neck exam done on them by their dentist...