Temple Students

[drnpp]

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I had some questions for dental students currently attending temple university. I wanted to know how they like the school so far? Do they get really stressed out? Do you have to pay the fees for your patient if they are unable to pay? What are some good and bad things about the school? What is the average number of students who drop out every year? What advice would you have for me about the school if any?

I would greatly appreciate any input i can recieve about the school!! Thanks 🙂

 

[GTchick]

Hi, I am a third year at Temple. I'm not a huge fan of Temple but I know a lot of other schools have some of the same problems we have. My patients stress me out because they don't seem to understand that I am also a student. Luck of the draw there and I just got some bad patients. If your patient doesn't pay you have to pay for them. One of the worst parts of the school is that we have to deal with all the billing and insurace stuff that some schools don't make the students do. I would say one of the bad things about Temple is that the dean is a ghost. We never see him and I have friends at other dental schools that know their deans very well. I don't like having to schedule my patients and deal with billing - some schools take care of that for you. I like the volume of things we get to do in the clinic. I like that we don't have to take classes with med students.

 

[drnpp]

Thanks so much for the input!! 🙂

 

[Dentcraze]

I am a third year dental student at Temple as well. Temple is stressful you have to do alot of things that other schools do not have to. Plus you have to do alot of procedures (which I like). But when you have to

1. Be student which means studying for classes, attending lectures, and everthing else
2. Be a dentist perform all the procedures
3. Be a lab tech do almost 90% of all the lab work, which is alot of time
4. Be a secretary schedule all your appointments. At Temple the school is a ladder system. So you start in one clinic and move to another in the proper sequence. You have to schedule chairs on the computer. Lets say you want to do Perio. There are 25 chairs and there are 250 students do the math sometimes it is difficult to get chairs.
5. Be a bill collector you are totally responsible for every procedure you do if there check bounces its on you. If you some reason they didnt renew there insurance policy and it comes back denied. Its on you. Im mailing out unpaid bills already if they dont get paid I pay for them. Or I dont get credit for the procedure.
6. Be the dental assistant since we have no assistants. BUt I dont think many schools do have them.

Temple did something that just made me mad. They changed the curriculm very significatly. We now have to do 45 days of outreach. Which we knew nothing about untill the start of our junior year. I have talked to some seniors who say it is awesome they get to do alot of stuff see 8 patients a day etc.. and others who do nothing but waste time. We have to do a minimum amount of Amalgams which is wierd since alot of dentists dont even do amalgams. We have to do 11 archs of removable dentures. Oh yeah and Temple last year was the second from the bottom on average part 1 board scores.

All this being said and the ****ty location of the school in the ghetto. You come away form Temple with good clinical skills compared to other dental students. Temple students are generally alot faster at procedures than other schools.

 

[dort-ort]

I am a third year dental student at Temple as well. Temple is stressful you have to do alot of things that other schools do not have to. Plus you have to do alot of procedures (which I like). But when you have to

1. Be student which means studying for classes, attending lectures, and everthing else
2. Be a dentist perform all the procedures
3. Be a lab tech do almost 90% of all the lab work, which is alot of time
4. Be a secretary schedule all your appointments. At Temple the school is a ladder system. So you start in one clinic and move to another in the proper sequence. You have to schedule chairs on the computer. Lets say you want to do Perio. There are 25 chairs and there are 250 students do the math sometimes it is difficult to get chairs.
5. Be a bill collector you are totally responsible for every procedure you do if there check bounces its on you. If you some reason they didnt renew there insurance policy and it comes back denied. Its on you. Im mailing out unpaid bills already if they dont get paid I pay for them. Or I dont get credit for the procedure.
6. Be the dental assistant since we have no assistants. BUt I dont think many schools do have them.

Temple did something that just made me mad. They changed the curriculm very significatly. We now have to do 45 days of outreach. Which we knew nothing about untill the start of our junior year. I have talked to some seniors who say it is awesome they get to do alot of stuff see 8 patients a day etc.. and others who do nothing but waste time. We have to do a minimum amount of Amalgams which is wierd since alot of dentists dont even do amalgams. We have to do 11 archs of removable dentures. Oh yeah and Temple last year was the second from the bottom on average part 1 board scores.

All this being said and the ****ty location of the school in the ghetto. You come away form Temple with good clinical skills compared to other dental students. Temple students are generally alot faster at procedures than other schools.

Quit crying like a baby. When you get out into the real world who do you think is going to be ultimately responsible for collecting and dealing with the insurance and making sure you get paid? YOU! --- so get used to it. At least the school is forcing you to get a firsthand experience of how it is to be in private practice. So quit crying.

 

[Dentcraze]

Quit crying like a baby. When you get out into the real world who do you think is going to be ultimately responsible for collecting and dealing with the insurance and making sure you get paid? YOU! --- so get used to it. At least the school is forcing you to get a firsthand experience of how it is to be in private practice. So quit crying.

LOL!! are you an alumni of Temple or something didnt mean to hit a tender spot for you. I was just answering the above post. Are you a student? If so where do you go to school?

First of all its not a first hand experience since most all of the above post will be delegated to your staff. You will be responsible in as much as you have to make sure that they do there jobs. You will not have to do there jobs for them.

 

[SMC2UCLA2_]

Hi, I am a third year at Temple. I'm not a huge fan of Temple but I know a lot of other schools have some of the same problems we have. My patients stress me out because they don't seem to understand that I am also a student. Luck of the draw there and I just got some bad patients. If your patient doesn't pay you have to pay for them. One of the worst parts of the school is that we have to deal with all the billing and insurace stuff that some schools don't make the students do. I would say one of the bad things about Temple is that the dean is a ghost. We never see him and I have friends at other dental schools that know their deans very well. I don't like having to schedule my patients and deal with billing - some schools take care of that for you. I like the volume of things we get to do in the clinic. I like that we don't have to take classes with med students.

While it sounds like you have your plate full, dont you think that since you are doing all this stuff, it will ultimately result in an efficient general practice (if you go that route).

You have to learn about insurance at some point and while you hopefully wont be the one doing this in the future, its always necessary to know whats going on. After reading what you said, I get the impression that Temple may be the best school for someone looking to get into general practice.