Is the hardest part over?

[MandalorianDMD]

Getting through dental school is way harder and more sucky than getting in. Certain schools trim the herd more than others, but you're going to have to work harder than undergrad for sure no matter which school you attend.

Also, imagine this: you filter the best students in the country and put them into 1 class. Then, you give them a class ranking and tell them to go at it.

Don’t listen to this guy. It’s a cake walk. Getting in is hard. Once you’re in, you’ll be eating snacks and watching Netflix majority of the time.

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[MandalorianDMD]

D2 is a lot harder, you are just more equipped to handle it, so it's easier if that makes sense.

D1 was more psychologically challenging, and you will see how bad you struggle with doing ideal class II preps, or crown preps, etc.. Then by D2 year you will be humbled and your expectations of yourself will be lower. You will "let more stuff slide" etc.

If someone asked me, I would say D1 was the hardest year.. Despite knowing that D2 was actually much harder as far as taking more credits and more difficult classes (I think we had 24 or 26 credits our D2 fall semester). But in D2 I just knew how to "roll with the punches better".

What was surprising to me was how difficult D3 year was in certain aspects. It's a real eye opener when you see how difficult it is to try to get that patient with irreversible pulpitis numb for an extraction... Or even how hard it is to do your first crown prep and final impression on an actual patient.

D3 is way harder than D2.


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[saydental]

D3 is way harder than D2.


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Can you please elaborate why?

 

[MandalorianDMD]

Can you please elaborate why?

Courses were harder. You have more clinic on top of didactics on top of labs and practicals and a **** ton of wetlab duty for those labs, practicals, and patient case work.


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[sobertiger]

D3 is way harder than D2.


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I guess it depends. Most D3s and D4s I talked to said it gets much better after D2.

 

[MandalorianDMD]

I guess it depends. Most D3s and D4s I talked to said it gets much better after D2.

It honestly depends on the school. If you’re school does not mix didactics and labs D3 year, then I would agree. But if they do, just realize that many of those D3 classes are harder and build on courses from D1 and D2, you have less time to study, and you still have labs and practicals. No one is going to do your patient work either but you. So that’s how D3 becomes worse. But if you’re school doesn’t give classes D3 year and labs and practicals, then I see no reason why it doesn’t get better after D2.


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[WithLove]

D2 is a lot harder, you are just more equipped to handle it, so it's easier if that makes sense.

D1 was more psychologically challenging, and you will see how bad you struggle with doing ideal class II preps, or crown preps, etc.. Then by D2 year you will be humbled and your expectations of yourself will be lower. You will "let more stuff slide" etc.

If someone asked me, I would say D1 was the hardest year.. Despite knowing that D2 was actually much harder as far as taking more credits and more difficult classes (I think we had 24 or 26 credits our D2 fall semester). But in D2 I just knew how to "roll with the punches better".

What was surprising to me was how difficult D3 year was in certain aspects. It's a real eye opener when you see how difficult it is to try to get that patient with irreversible pulpitis numb for an extraction... Or even how hard it is to do your first crown prep and final impression on an actual patient.

Thank you makes sense

xoxo

 

[New_Vegas]

It honestly depends on the school. If you’re school does not mix didactics and labs D3 year, then I would agree. But if they do, just realize that many of those D3 classes are harder and build on courses from D1 and D2, you have less time to study, and you still have labs and practicals. No one is going to do your patient work either but you. So that’s how D3 becomes worse. But if you’re school doesn’t give classes D3 year and labs and practicals, then I see no reason why it doesn’t get better after D2.


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What school did you go to? I've literally never heard of any school anywhere who still has to take practicals as a D3

 

[pookey123]

What school did you go to? I've literally never heard of any school anywhere who still has to take practicals as a D3

tufts has practicals D3 year

 

[New_Vegas]

tufts has practicals D3 year

Like non-patient, pre-clinic lab practicals?

 

[piratewow]

Honestly, it's not that uncommon...My school (south public) and my sister's school (Mid-west private) both have mannequin/sim-lab practicals D3. Also with COVID sticking around, I wouldn't be surprised if more schools add more practicals.

 

[pookey123]

Like non-patient, pre-clinic lab practicals?

yeah those. and clinical competencies on patients too

 

[New_Vegas]

yeah those. and clinical competencies on patients too

Your school must be horrible. Like my school is pretty terrible, and I dislike most things about it, but wow yours might be even worse.

 

[MandalorianDMD]

Your school must be horrible. Like my school is pretty terrible, and I dislike most things about it, but wow yours might be even worse.

I’m not aware of any schools that don’t have simlab practicals and competencies in 3rd year. 4th year no practicals but still have competencies and board exams.

 

[New_Vegas]

I’m not aware of any schools that don’t have simlab practicals and competencies in 3rd year

If you count the summer between D2 and D3 years, then yes I had to do that. But as far as going all into clinic fall D3 year, I haven't heard of a single school who still does those after the students transition all the way into clinic. If you have to deal with that, I'm sorry. You school really sucks.

If it's any consolation I hate my school too.

 

[MandalorianDMD]

If you count the summer between D2 and D3 years, then yes I had to do that. But as far as going all into clinic fall D3 year, I haven't heard of a single school who still does those after the students transition all the way into clinic. If you have to deal with that, I'm sorry. You school really sucks.

If it's any consolation I hate my school too.

So you didn’t have any labs, practicals, exams, or competencies after D2? That is amazing. I haven’t heard any school do that. That makes life a lot better.

So all you do/did is clinic and then board exams? Are you graded in clinic or is it Pass/Fail?

 

[New_Vegas]

Are you graded in clinic or is it Pass/Fail?

Definitely graded in the clinic, and graded harshly. There were practicals after D2, but only in the summer of D3 year. I think this is much more common than not at most dental schools. Board exams were taken in the winter break in D2 year, so definitely lots of pre-clinic lab after that. I think that's changing to the integrated boards though - which will be combining of NBDE1 and NBDE2, taken in D4 year I believe.

We had classes D3 year, but like it would be go to class at 7:30-8:30, then the rest of the day you are in clinic. One day of the week we had classes from 7:30-11:30 in the morning. So we still had to study, but no practicals at all outside of working on real patients. The only competencies we had were on real patients in the clinic.

 

[Dentist500]

What school did you go to? I've literally never heard of any school anywhere who still has to take practicals as a D3

NYU has practical on 3rd year and competencies on 4th year