Should clinical experience be the deciding factor in choosing a school? (Cost not a huge concern)

[LidocaineMane32]

I’ve had interviews at Univ of Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Dental College of Georgia, & Roseman. Although no acceptances have been announced yet; I like to plan ahead. I’m from Georgia and will end up practicing I’m Georgia once I graduate. To pay for dental school, I will be using my GI bill for the first 2 years, which will allow me to have in-state tuition for all 4 years; so out-of-state costs won’t really be a factor when it comes to cost.

My question is: would going to a school out of state for a more advanced clinical experience be worth it? From my research, it looks like UK allows you to do a lot of different/advanced procedures that your typical dental school doesn’t expose you to (I.e. implant placement, molar root canals..). I don’t really plan on specializing but I’d like to be a GP that does it all. Is it worth it to move out of state to get this experience or can all of this be learned with CE courses and maybe AEGD?

I loved almost every schools interview experience and would love to stay in state and attend DCG but I’m also willing to move out of state if itll give me a better opportunity to get more advanced clinical experiences.

Thoughts?

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[sobertiger]

From what I've read and experienced, even the best dental schools can only offer limited clinical experience. Dental school is really more for licensure than anything else. If cost is not a factor, I would just choose a school based on geographic preference, which in your case would be DCG.

 

[schmoob]

DCG hands down. Placing 1 or two implants while someone is holding your hand or doing one or two upper first molar endo over 4 visits is not enough of a deciding factor. Besides, UK has Perio, OS, and prosth programs, I don’t see how pre-doc will be placing any implants. Do yourself a favor and stay at DCG and save the money.

 

[erinnnnn]

DCG hands down. Placing 1 or two implants while someone is holding your hand or doing one or two upper first molar endo over 4 visits is not enough of a deciding factor. Besides, UK has Perio, OS, and prosth programs, I don’t see how pre-doc will be placing any implants. Do yourself a favor and stay at DCG and save the money.

Actually although UK does have OMFS and Perio residencies (no pros), there is a dental student implant clinic and multiple required implant courses (including digital placement planning and associated CAD/CAM crown design). Is this enough to feel confident in placing implants right away in private practice? Definitely not, but it provides the basic language of the implant and digital design world. I think this is a benefit at UK but agree that it should not be a deciding factor.

 

[Sweet_Tooth]

Actually although UK does have OMFS and Perio residencies (no pros), there is a dental student implant clinic and multiple required implant courses (including digital placement planning and associated CAD/CAM crown design). Is this enough to feel confident in placing implants right away in private practice? Definitely not, but it provides the basic language of the implant and digital design world. I think this is a benefit at UK but agree that it should not be a deciding factor.

And who's to say that those options are not offered at a GA dental school? I feel like this technology is becoming more and more mainstream to the point that almost every dental school will at least provide some sort of exposure to it. The differences between dental schools re: tech offered are becoming more and more negligible.

Honestly, with COVID it is better to decide a school based on the amount of PPE they stockpiled and how much clinical experience their students are getting rn--so try asking current students at the schools about that situation. But even that should be taken with a grain of salt because those factors can change very soon and the situation may very well look different by the time you actually enter clinic, so I'd say to decide based on geographic location. Remember even if your tuition is getting paid for, (and even that you said was only your first two years...) there's still living costs.

 

[Saddleshoes]

Don't underestimate the value of instate networking.

 

[New_Vegas]

Clinical experience at all dental schools will suck. Just go to the one closest to home.

 

[Peon.]

Short answer is NO. "clinical experience" is a marketing ploy used by some schools to get you to believe their price tag is "worth it." I'm looking at you midwestern.
Even if you are able to do 50% more (already a big if*) than the average dental student, that still doesn't amount to much. You will do more in a couple months in an actual practice than you do in all of dental school. Also, you're also basically funneled into general dentistry at these schools, something else you may want to consider.

 

[LidocaineMane32]

Short answer is NO. "clinical experience" is a marketing ploy used by some schools to get you to believe their price tag is "worth it." I'm looking at you midwestern.
Even if you are able to do 50% more (already a big if*) than the average dental student, that still doesn't amount to much. You will do more in a couple months in an actual practice than you do in all of dental school. Also, you're also basically funneled into general dentistry at these schools, something else you may want to consider.

Thanks for the feedback. Would you say that schools with every residency vs schools with only a few residencies would possibly offer better clinical experiences or does that not matter either? I ask bc Id like to learn a lot of endo while In school. between my top 2 schools 1 has an end scholar program and the other has a full endo residency. I feel like if I went to a school with every residency all those “experiences” would get sent to the residencies. Correct me if I’m wrong please

 

[Ivy.ch]

Thanks for the feedback. Would you say that schools with every residency vs schools with only a few residencies would possibly offer better clinical experiences or does that not matter either? I ask bc Id like to learn a lot of endo while In school. between my top 2 schools 1 has an end scholar program and the other has a full endo residency. I feel like if I went to a school with every residency all those “experiences” would get sent to the residencies. Correct me if I’m wrong please

You won’t get a good Endo experience at either. They will both baby you through 2 or 3 easy cases then call you a competent graduate. You’re overestimating how much actually gets done in dental school. You could do more Endo your first week of work than in 4 years of dental school.

 

[Peon.]

I second what @Ivy.ch says and say a marginally better endo experience is possible but I wouldn't pay for it. Endo tends to be in short supply at most schools and you will be worrying about finishing your requirements in other areas. You could though go to your endo department, assist and show interest at which point you can speak to the faculty about letting you do some other endo. This would be on an individual basis. In regards to having residencies, I think that's a good thing because it opens more doors to specializing and networking. Yes they will take the molar endo, but you have to realize that molar endo isn't exactly easy, the canals can get pretty curvy, have lateral canals and a poor endo will lead to failure. Anterior endo is hard enough to do properly; this is why endo is a 2 year specialty. I believe I saw a study that showed something like 50% of endo done by dental students failed compared to 10% done in private practice. Don't quote me on the exact numbers but there is a drastic difference and this gets my point across. Which is why molar endo is traditionally referred to the specialty clinic as it should be.

 

[pookey123]

Unless one of those schools is significantly cheaper it sounds to me like you should go to Georgia if you know for sure that is where you want to be practicing at