What to do until dental school?

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dentalschool123

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hello!

I am looking for some advice on what to do until I start dental school in July. I dropped all my classes and now just working as a substitute teacher until school starts. I know this has probably been asked before, but I feel like I have soooo much time off before starting that I’m going to forget everything. Do you think I should spend my days refreshing my mind on everything I studied for the DAT?? Or should I not worry about it too much? I just don’t want to get to dental school and have to work extra hard because I forgot everything. Thanks!

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hello!

I am looking for some advice on what to do until I start dental school in July. I dropped all my classes and now just working as a substitute teacher until school starts. I know this has probably been asked before, but I feel like I have soooo much time off before starting that I’m going to forget everything. Do you think I should spend my days refreshing my mind on everything I studied for the DAT?? Or should I not worry about it too much? I just don’t want to get to dental school and have to work extra hard because I forgot everything. Thanks!

if you really want to... you can start looking at the head and neck anatomy... (which I think can also wait till school because when you learn them at the school with cadaver it makes more sense and you will learn faster.) My real recommendation would be take it easy until July. July will be here sooner than you think...
 
Just chill. Enjoy the down-time. You will probably hit the ground running and do better being refreshed and rested. Reviewing things ahead of time will probably have minimal yields of results as you don't know what information is going to be emphasized in your course.

If you can, try to schedule some shadowing time with dentists or find some hobbies.

Congratulations on your acceptance and best of luck!
 
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At least at my dental school, all classes are taught from the ground up, and the depth of topics covered is different from what was covered on the DAT (and even my undergrad). Therefore, I do not believe that memorizing DAT materials before school started would have helped me for the courses in dental school.

We had to memorize SO many pathways in undergrad for biochemistry (like all 10 steps of glycolysis, for example), and our biochemistry instructor here at the dental school emphasized other new pathways that we weren't exposed to, and only had us know 3 of the glycolysis pathways. Just an example.

I do believe that having been exposed to things like waxing would've been useful. If I could go back, I would've just gotten familiar with how to manipulate wax just because I was slow at picking it up - don't worry about the specifics of dental anatomy...just how to add/smooth/blend wax. Try building a bicycle or something. But really, even learning to wax wasn't necessary before school - I was slow to pick it up and still got through it.

But other than that, enjoy. I spent a ton of time with my cousins and went on many hiking trips, late night pizza feasts, played football, etc. Made some great memories.
 
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Just relax bro. I was a super gunner and read anatomy for months, memorizing as much as I can. It probably got ahead of 2-3 weeks of lectures, but then I would have focussed on things that were not important, and I had time to study for it anyways during dental school.

You have people from different backgrounds coming into dental school, and teach like no one has even heard of a tooth before.

If I had to go back, I would just start an MMORPG like Final Fantasy XIV and play it 16 hours a day until school started.
 
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