Hey guys, I am interested in a health-related career that requires both manual dexterity and organic chemistry. I am wondering how is organic chemistry related to the field of Dentistry.
Organic Chemistry and Dentistry
- Thread starter tpwelie34
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well lol.... all the orgo reactions and mechanics you studied will... never be seen again in upper level biology courses (rare exception biochemistry, you'll probably have to know a few things here and there).
how does this translate to dental school + dentistry... I dunno, I haven't started yet 🙂 But I think... its safe to assume, all my general chem, orgo, physics, and math knowledge will never been seen again especially since I wanna be a clinician
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A complete guess on my part, but I assume that O-chem prepares you for biochem, and biochem prepares you for pharmacology, and pharmacology prepares you to not kill patients. So O-chem saves lifes? Haha, might be wrong on that...but saving lives will be good motivation to study hard.
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I've taken both upper level Biochems and pharmacology courses. there is very little ACTUAL ORGANIC chemistry involved.
Biochem, yes, how enzymes act on substrates, it would be helpful to know the Orgo 2 reaction groups, helps you memorize the steps better, but defiantly, not too much orgo there.
Pharmacology is more concerned with Pharmacokinetics and brute memorization of drugs and their interactions, side effects, therapeutic thresh holds and how they'r broken down. There is also alot of physiology involved (duh, you can't understand what a drug does until you understand first how the body works).
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HAHA I agree!
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I'm sure we will have to understand some simple things like others have posted. I have to agree that it is pretty much a gatekeeper to dental school. I have heard a LOT of people say that they want to be a dentist, but they don't want to go through all of the chemistry. Yah for o-chem!
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It would not hurt to know the chemical nature of the organic compounds used as pharmacological agents. Who knows; there might even be some correlation between structure and pharmacological activity.
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Man, what a bummer. I loved ochem (see username), so sad that it has little relevance to actual dental school.
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I assume it has to do with having fundamental knowledge of chemicals and interactions as a Dentist. Although you won't actually be examining the drugs used on your patient, it helps to have some clue what you're using.
Ochem also required critical thinking....perhaps it's not the material, but how it taught you to think differently that'll help you in dental school?
I asked the same question in junior high while taking Geometry...doing proofs.
