Really passionate about dental but fail at math and chemistry

[bennewill]

I have been wanting for years to pursue a career in dentistry. I'm graduating with a 3.8 GPA

This may sound like a cliche, but particularly endo work. I have shadowed a dentist and endodontist. I watch videos online from the Dental Minute and other dentists that give lectures and consume it daily. I would do it for free!

I have learned a ton but my one downfall is STEM. I chose a non STEM degree because I have always done terrible at math and sciences. I was a C and D student when it came to calculus and chem. From my understanding dental school has minimal calc and chem. Got abysmally low scores on the SATs and decided to go to a college that didn't require them.

It is unfortunate there is such a math and science barrier to entering the field. I feel like I shouldn't waste time pursuing it and choose something else, if I know the sciences are not my strong suit. I am fascinated by dentistry but not the academic requirements.

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[Ryxndek]

The academic requirements are somewhat there for a reason. They need to know you’ll be able to manage the workload. In college you had a say in your courses, when you took them, how many. You don’t get to decide that in dental school, and you’re taking a lot of science courses your D1 and D2 year. I took more classes in my first 2 years of dental school than all of undergrad.

So if you struggle in understanding basic sciences you are really going to struggle in dental school. Yes, we barely use any chemistry and I have yet to use calculus, but we have had tidbits of chemistry, organic chemistry, physics come up in our classes. We aren’t tested on it like we were in undergrad but understanding the importance of how those things affect dentistry is important. There’s a lot of chemistry in biomaterials and that’s quite important, but again, you don’t need to know the fine details, there’s some physics in tooth mechanics, you have to do minimal math to calculate local anesthesia doses; these are just some examples.

Again, it’s not like you have to be an expert at these things but they’re there. If you can study biology just fine, and do fairly well in your biological science classes like molecular biology, biochemistry, anatomy and physiology then I’d say you can manage dental school and you’d be more than fine. You don’t need a strong chemistry or math background, but you do need to meet the mimimim grade requirements. If you’re heavily organized it will help too.

But if you struggle with biological sciences, I’m not sure how you’d do, because there’s a lot of biology in dental school. If dentistry is a field you’re passionate about, don’t let past experiences dictate your future. I wasn’t great at a lot of things but I worked hard to understand why I wasn’t doing well and how to improve. I asked for help when I could. There’s a lot of resources online too that can help you. If you want to do it, might as well try if this is something you really think you’d enjoy.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I have been wanting for years to pursue a career in dentistry. I'm graduating with a 3.8 GPA

This may sound like a cliche, but particularly endo work. I have shadowed a dentist and endodontist. I watch videos online from the Dental Minute and other dentists that give lectures and consume it daily. I would do it for free!

I have learned a ton but my one downfall is STEM. I chose a non STEM degree because I have always done terrible at math and sciences. I was a C and D student when it came to calculus and chem. From my understanding dental school has minimal calc and chem. Got abysmally low scores on the SATs and decided to go to a college that didn't require them.

It is unfortunate there is such a math and science barrier to entering the field. I feel like I shouldn't waste time pursuing it and choose something else, if I know the sciences are not my strong suit. I am fascinated by dentistry but not the academic requirements.

I'm not sure how your can say you are a C/D student in calculus and chem but still have a 3.8 overall GPA. I'm missing the link. Are you just talking high school?

As pointed out, you have to take the chemistry sequence (gen/intro chem + organic chem and maybe biochem as encouraged). Most of the intro chem work is based in simple algebra (balance stochiometry at least). There's no calculus in this chemistry sequence.

I personally think calculus is a great way to understand how volume of irregularly shaped objects is calculated. This is important if you want to understand how to take out the minimum amount of decayed enamel from your preps. But you won't have to integrate functions to do this. You won't be taught calculus in your dental school classes (to the relief of everyone).

Statistics is more preferred over calculus nowadays since you will be asked to make inferences from peer-reviewed papers and systematic reviews. What does "significant" mean as a scientific buzzword? You have to know this. It will involve math.

If you didn't want such a high STEM barrier but stay in dentistry, have you checked out the other professions like dental hygiene or dental assistant (expanded function)? I don't want to touch the debate over dental therapists. You don't have to have the math/science skills as long as you have good hand skills, spatial understanding, and a sense of following instructions. (There are more competencies, but I won't digress here.)