Who are dental school professors?

[redchesus]

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So I was pondering this question and realized I don't actually know much about it. Who becomes the professors at dental school?

Are they retired dentists? People who did DDS/PhD programs? I've also heard some are dentists who have not had much success starting their own practice so they come back to teach, but I'm sure that cannot be true for all.

So who are they and how did they get to teaching dentistry instead of practicing it? I'm simply curious and I figured current dental students would know a bit about their teachers.

 

[omaralt]

few different types:

1- Retired dentists who are bored with life and want something to do. these can be good or bad; some actually love to teach and want to give their knowledge to the next generation of dentists. some are bitter and didnt save up enough and now need to work

2- young dentists who sucked at private practice (cant do, teach philosphy) or who couldnt get licensed for whatever reason (failed licensing exams, international dentists, etc). these usually suck as well; since they really dont want to be there. the ones who sucked in private practice are going to teach you from an academic standpoint (ie, NEVER do a crown without a 2mm ferrule, etc, etc). they have no real world knowledge and have tunnel vision

3- part time professors who have successful private practices and come 1 day/week just for the fun of it. in my opinion these are by far the best. they're not doing it for the money (most dental schools = $50-100 for the day), and they have real world knowledge that they dont mind sharing. i spent most of my clinical time with these professors and tried to avoid the first two

*all professors, regardless of which type they are; are horny and will mess with the hot chicks in your class. that is to be expected and accepted. i was lucky in the sim lab to sit next to the hottest girl in my class, so i had my pick of professors who seemed to constantly hang around my area*

 

[redchesus]

*all professors, regardless of which type they are; are horny and will mess with the hot chicks in your class. that is to be expected and accepted. i was lucky in the sim lab to sit next to the hottest girl in my class, so i had my pick of professors who seemed to constantly hang around my area*

LOL! Note to self: make friends with the hot chicks

 

[dentalWorks]

*all professors, regardless of which type they are; are horny and will mess with the hot chicks in your class. that is to be expected and accepted. i was lucky in the sim lab to sit next to the hottest girl in my class, so i had my pick of professors who seemed to constantly hang around my area*

now the question becomes.... do the hot chicks "respond" ? If yes, I guess I know which area in dentistry I wanna end up in 🙂

 

[Fedekz]

now the question becomes.... do the hot chicks "respond" ? If yes, I guess I know which area in dentistry I wanna end up in 🙂

*switches from pre-med to pre-dental* yeah - me too!

 

[cmcner]

LOL! Note to self: make friends with the hot chicks

Note to self: Already had this noted.

 

[puncho]

few different types:

1- Retired dentists who are bored with life and want something to do. these can be good or bad; some actually love to teach and want to give their knowledge to the next generation of dentists. some are bitter and didnt save up enough and now need to work

2- young dentists who sucked at private practice (cant do, teach philosphy) or who couldnt get licensed for whatever reason (failed licensing exams, international dentists, etc). these usually suck as well; since they really dont want to be there. the ones who sucked in private practice are going to teach you from an academic standpoint (ie, NEVER do a crown without a 2mm ferrule, etc, etc). they have no real world knowledge and have tunnel vision

3- part time professors who have successful private practices and come 1 day/week just for the fun of it. in my opinion these are by far the best. they're not doing it for the money (most dental schools = $50-100 for the day), and they have real world knowledge that they dont mind sharing. i spent most of my clinical time with these professors and tried to avoid the first two

*all professors, regardless of which type they are; are horny and will mess with the hot chicks in your class. that is to be expected and accepted. i was lucky in the sim lab to sit next to the hottest girl in my class, so i had my pick of professors who seemed to constantly hang around my area*

Good list, but you forgot the foreign trained dentists. There seems to be a lot of them and for the most part they are great and nice until the dental school environment slowly chips away at them.

 

[omaralt]

Good list, but you forgot the foreign trained dentists. There seems to be a lot of them and for the most part they are great and nice until the dental school environment slowly chips away at them.

na i didnt forget about them; mentioned them under #2 🙂

 

[rarm1]

You may be correct for many of our professors - BUT not all.

I decided to go into a speciality and mentor other, from my mentors...

My younger brother was dying of cancer and I wanted to me with him and drop out of school. The Dean at Penn - Lester Burket, started to mentor me, had me stay in school, then I followed in his foot steps in Oral Medicine/Oral Diagnosis. In the program I had great mentors... not just teachers... We all love what we do.

I started "teaching" at Louisville - 76-80; I am glad to say the students I mentored graduated and many stayed in education... some became deans, assoc deans, chairs, etc... It is for a love of the profession, desire to help others (many, like me, have traveled international to help developing schools - at our own cost).

I love what I do, I love to mentor, I love the difficult patients..