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Are your D4s getting enough patients?
 
barely, they are just reducing requirements to push everybody out. they're only in clinic 2.5 days a week.
 
You’ll get plenty in 4th year, just enjoy the ride and appreciate that it’s ultimately not the school that is choosing to limit clinic time.
 
You haven't seen patients AT ALL since you've been D3?
 
plusalpha said:
You haven't seen patients AT ALL since you've been D3?
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we've been assisting D4s starting this semester 2x a week. not doing much all week. lots of free time. too much actually
 
kashyranz said:
we've been assisting D4s starting this semester 2x a week. not doing much all week. lots of free time. too much actually
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I'm sorry to hear your situation 🙁 which region is your school located?
 
That is wild and I would not be very happy with that. I am also D3 and have been in clinic working on patients since June and have been doing 5 days/week since August.

These limitations are determined both by your State and the School. If you and your classmates are wanting to get experience, you need to make sure your voices are heard.
 
I am sorry to hear about everyone's experiences. It is truly heartbreaking to see what's going on right now in dental schools.

So out of curiosity, I started a little project reaching out to current dental students regarding their experience in dental school due to the pandemic.

Obviously, the whole world has been impacted and dental schools are no different. I question what kind of impact these changes will have on the profession and on the young dentists graduating from school.

Some hypothetical questions I’m pondering.
  • Will it be hard to sell your practice to young dentists because of the lack of clinical experience they gained in dental school?
  • Will lack of clinical experience cause more dental students to consider residency training (GPR, AEGD, etc.)
  • Are some schools managing the problems better than others?
  • What graduating class (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) will be most affected

So I put together a questionnaire and started sending it out to dental students. I am still waiting on a number of responses, but even in the initial data gathering stage there have been some interesting responses.

“They have not communicated or shown us how they are putting effort in to hire faculty to get the clinic to full capacity, and have rejected and lied to us about all our legitimate and respectful questions concerning where our thousands of dollars of tuition has gone that is supposed to go to faculty, that, since returning to school after quarantine, is either invisible or nonexistent. “- Marquette University School of Dentistry Student

“We have to fight for chairs to see patients with no adjustment for requirements.”- Dental College of Georgia at Augusta University Student

“Right now the school is focusing on giving the 4th years all the patients so they can graduate. By the end of Spring semester I should have over 50 prophy’s, 40-50 fillings and at least 1 crown done. I currently have about 15 prophy’s, 10 fillings and 1 crown finished, and I’m in the top 10% of the class for clinic experience. Some of the 3rd years have only done 1 or 2 fillings.”- Anonymous third year dental student

“Communication is nearly non-existent. Forcing ~65 students into a small wet lab during preclinical labs in order to meet deadlines seems like a bad plan during a pandemic.”- University of Kentucky dental student.

I am also seeing a few other things from the data.
  • The situation in dental school, for the most part, has not changed the post-graduation plans of students
  • Lack of transparency and communication from administration is a recurring theme
  • Professors not able to use Zoom/virtual technology properly has interfered with the education.
  • No dental school has discussed tuition reimbursement for missed clinical time.

As I receive more responses, I am going to do a larger write up on this and I can share it with whomever is interested. And, if you have any specific questions you would like me to add to my questionnaire, I am open to suggestions.
 
stumpdentist said:
“Right now the school is focusing on giving the 4th years all the patients so they can graduate. By the end of Spring semester I should have over 50 prophy’s, 40-50 fillings and at least 1 crown done. I currently have about 15 prophy’s, 10 fillings and 1 crown finished, and I’m in the top 10% of the class for clinic experience. Some of the 3rd years have only done 1 or 2 fillings.”- Anonymous third year dental student
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If 15 prophys, 10 fillings, and 1 crown put you in top 10% for clinic exp (even 50 prophys, 40-50 filllings) this is sad to hear.
 
At least your not paying hundreds of thousands for such a poor education. /s
Dental school in the US is such a corrupt and pathetic situation.
 
A little SDN stalking would have me believe the OP is at NYU. I couldn’t imagine paying $600,000+ for this type of education.

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Big Hoss
 
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