I disagree, but I may be biased as a MWU-AZ student. I was accepted to 5 programs (including 3 public and 1 with a scholarship) and this was the best of them in my opinion. I don't mind paying more for things when I receive actual value for my investment. We do things at this school that no other program offers and it is largely thanks to that busy clinic and an accelerated academic schedule which makes us competent dentists by the end of the 3rd year. Our 4th year is intended as a built-in residency. Basically, MWU-AZ is UoP + 1 year for enhanced clinical competence.
If you are going to pay a lot for dental school (which you almost certainly will unless you live somewhere like Texas or Mississippi and can get into those schools), then make the most of it and go to a great school. I know of many dentists who have to fork over THOUSANDS for CE in Cerec, who have done very little work with veneers, who take CE for Invisalign, etc. I have heard of some programs (which are also very expensive) where students fight for chairs in the clinic, where students are punished for no-show appointments, and where students fail to graduate on time because they can't complete the minimum number of procedures. Some of these same programs give their students experience with only a handful of crown preps before they graduate, a few extractions, and the complex stuff gets passed off to the specialty programs. We have no specialty programs, and when we get a complex case to be seen by OMFS we don't refer out like some schools which advertise that they also lack specialty programs. Instead, we take the patient to the advanced clinic ourselves and our staff OMFS assists us on the procedure. The same is true for endo, perio, etc.
Students here extract hundreds of teeth, we are certified in Invisalign, implants, laser (hard and soft tissue) at the end of our 2nd year and we have 20 Cerecs to share unlike most schools which have 2 or 3 if any at all. That means we don't need to take CE just to learn how to use Cerec. I know a couple of dentists who had to do that and it cost them a lot (travel, lost wages, plus the cost of attendance).
Is it expensive? Yes. Are we receiving the best clinical education in the nation? I believe so. I attended 9 interviews and asked students which school they would go to if not the one they were at. The school which received the most praise by far was MWU-AZ.
There are so many things wrong with this post, it's pretty clear you don't know how MWU clinic operates. What year are you there? Probably 1st, maybe 2nd? I'm a 4th year there.
70% of the clinic has not done a single veneer. This is a dental school clinic, cosmetic work is mainly for the wealthy.who have done very little work with veneers
We have no specialty programs, and when we get a complex case to be seen by OMFS we don't refer out like some schools which advertise that they also lack specialty programs. Instead, we take the patient to the advanced clinic ourselves and our staff OMFS assists us on the procedure. The same is true for endo, perio, etc.
The OMFS assists us? No we have several OS residents who do the work and WE ASSIST THEM while the OMFS teaches them how to do the 3rd molar extraction, implant, flap etc. Do you seriously think the endodontist will assist us while we do a complicated root canal? Or the periodontist will allow us to do the distal wedge procedure? We are not trained to do these! Why on earth would they let you do procedures that you do not have training in? This is a school not a science experiment. Things are referred out for a reason. Now certain medium difficulty may be done by us with the OMFS guiding us but best believe the OS residents are first in line to do any procedure they want.
100s? No the average might be 20. Maybe 30 but that's really pushing it. Still a good amount of teeth but not 200+ as your post suggest.Students here extract hundreds of teeth
We receive bicon training but we are not certified to place implants. Very few students have ever done an osteotomy (where you drill the hole for the implant to go into) and no way should it be an expectation that you'll be allowed to do one. Perhaps 5 out of 140 will get to do 1 osteotomy under very strict supervision. These 5 are allowed to do it because they took an actually implant training course in Colombian (yes the country) or Las Vegas where the forked out their own money 10-15k to get the training. The implants are for the OS residents to do. So yes you will have to take implant CE to do implants when you graduate. Again, this is a dental school, not a science experiment.we are certified in Invisalign, implants, laser (hard and soft tissue) at the end of our 2nd year
Is it expensive? Yes. Are we receiving the best clinical education in the nation? I believe so.
I agree with this. We receive a lot of clinical experience. BUT the amount of work that the average MWU student does here is equal to about 2 months of private practice. The general understanding in this school is we do twice as much work as other schools. So that gives us 1 month head start in terms of experience in private practice and also a few CEs. Is this worth the extra 200k or so?
Our 4th year is intended as a built-in residency.
No just no.