What's the hardest course for D1 students?

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Gross anatomy lab (the practicals are, IMO, B.S)..... this is especially true if you go to a dental schools thats got a VERY disorganized cadaver lab (the only thing I don't like about Detroit Mercy)
 
I agree with dentalWorks: Gross Anatomy Lab. It is just a lot of info to absorb in a short period of time.
 
so far gross anatomy (histology a close second)...but i hear pharmacology is going to be pretty rough though...so i'll withhold my judgement until then.
 
Right now, we are doing Gross, Embryo, Histo, and Neuro in a combined class. We're mainly doing gross now, and it SUCKS! So much info it's just absurd. Med Physio is very challenging for me as well. As the guy above said, waxing has been a hard adjustment for me, but I'm getting a lot better with practice. It used to take me four hours to do a crappy looking premolar and now I can do four-five molars in that amount of time. It's definitely something you can get better with. It's sort of dumb that they never TEACH you the different methods/strategies of waxing before they start drilling you every lab period with wax quizzes and waxing projects. I've never been the naturally gifted artist, as lots in my class are. The Restorative Dent I class (Dental Morphology/Anatomy) is very hard to get used to at first as well. By that I mean interpreting the drawings (mesio, distal, incisal/occlusal/, facial/buccal, and lingual outlines and views)...along with the jargon. The professor just blazes through it like you already know what he's talking about and you've been a dentist for 30+ years. They sort of just throw you in there and let you learn to swim on your own. It's so much fun, but at the same time it sucks so bad...it's a very weird feeling lol!
 
Greeting to all and Happy Holidays!

While I was in dental school 20 years ago, there were some classes that majority of people struggled just to get passing grades. I strongly believe that is not the student's but the professor's fault. It is either due to unrealistic expectation (too much volume at one time) or ineffectiveness of his/her ability in teaching. There were few where I left the classes and wondered what the heck that was about! I believe that if the professors convey their thoughts effectively, provide students with clear, concise materials to study from and ask fair questions, then the students should not struggle at all. When I taught at UT Memphis in 2001, I made sure my students get the proper material to study from by proof reading their class notes and made correction/addition as needed. I was once scolded by my chair by giving out too many As and Bs in my occlusion and fixed courses! DP
 
Dr. Dai Phan said:
I believe that if the professors convey their thoughts effectively, provide students with clear, concise materials to study from and ask fair questions, then the students should not struggle at all.
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Can I get an amen!

Dr. Dai Phan said:
I was once scolded by my chair by giving out too many As and Bs in my occlusion and fixed courses!
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I find it very sad when the idea of an entire class learning the material well is frowned upon by administration.
 
Fixed Partial Prosth (crowns crowns crowns all kinds of crown preps). The level of perfection expected is stunning. It is super demanding but if you put in the time practicing many many many times outside of class, you will quickly develop the hand skills. I averaged 15 practice teeth for each practical (less towards the end of this semester as my hand skills grew). That may be a little excessive and a little on the high end of things, but hey, I'm happy where I am sitting in that class!
 
dentalWorks said:
Gross anatomy lab (the practicals are, IMO, B.S)..... this is especially true if you go to a dental schools thats got a VERY disorganized cadaver lab (the only thing I don't like about Detroit Mercy)
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Could you be more specific on how it is disorganized?
 
DesertSonata said:
In your opinion, what has been the most difficult course in the first year of dental school?
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Path. hands down the hardest course in first year.
 
You take path the same time you are taking histo during 1st year? Also, I saw someone up top in this topic saying they took fixed prosth. Does anyone else take that during 1st year? j/w because we don't take that until 1st semester 2nd year
 
I was surprised about that too.... pathology and even wax ups in my school don't come around till DS2
 
dental anatomy ... waxing was a breeze, but memorizing trends, and eruption times, etc, and learning the vernacular was a little tough for me.

disclaimer: i didn't have a whole lot of exp in dental offices prior to school (hence the lack of obvious terminology) but i worked in a lab waxing teeth (as why waxing was easy)
 
Dental anatomy by far....i hated it with passion.
 
bigstix808 said:
dental anatomy ... waxing was a breeze, but memorizing trends, and eruption times, etc, and learning the vernacular was a little tough for me.

disclaimer: i didn't have a whole lot of exp in dental offices prior to school (hence the lack of obvious terminology) but i worked in a lab waxing teeth (as why waxing was easy)
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Spee said:
Dental anatomy by far....i hated it with passion.
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I HATED dental anatomy as well.... but I hate gross anatomy more :/

And the thing with dental anatomy, you can't prepare for it in undergrad, but with gross you can (by taking cadaver lab)
 
Buckarue said:
Could you be more specific on how it is disorganized?
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Well, our class (*crying*) is the last class that will deal with human cadavers.... next year I believe they are bringing in the plastic models.

I believe this will make things ALOT simpler and much more organized to study.

FYI, every plastic model costs $35,000 (expect tuition to go up boys and girls)... I think they'll be getting like 20
 
TuckerT21 said:
You take path the same time you are taking histo during 1st year? Also, I saw someone up top in this topic saying they took fixed prosth. Does anyone else take that during 1st year? j/w because we don't take that until 1st semester 2nd year
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We take fixed pros during our 1st year here at OHSU. In our first term, we learned how to do crown preps on anterior and posterior teeth. I think next term we'll learn how to make & place crowns on preps. It's probably my favorite class so far in dental school...
 
dentalWorks said:
Well, our class (*crying*) is the last class that will deal with human cadavers.... next year I believe they are bringing in the plastic models.

I believe this will make things ALOT simpler and much more organized to study.

FYI, every plastic model costs $35,000 (expect tuition to go up boys and girls)... I think they'll be getting like 20
Click to expand...

That's interesting. Does anyone know if UofM uses cadavers?
 
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