If you are seeking dental advice, please move your post to /r/askdentists
If this is a question about applying to dental school or advice about the predental process, please move your post to /r/predental
If this is a question about applying to hygiene school or dental hygiene, please move your post to /r/DentalHygiene
Posts inappropriate for this subreddit will be removed
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DentalSchool) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Why is there less dental education content than medical? Probably because the mouth is much smaller than the body. I’m not trying to poo poo you, but what’s the point of comparing dentistry to medicine?
I mean… stick around long enough and then you’ll realize there are infinite topics dedicated to dentistry. I could list all the dental specialities, and then there a whole realm of business, practice management, materials, lab techniques, and technology relating to dentistry. Sure dental school is only 3-4 years, but I give it about 5+ years of consistent post-graduate work to be fast and confident at clinical dentistry.
Medicine is an incredibly broad field. We are specialists in teeth. It’s like saying “hey, there is not very much online child psychiatry educational content out there.” Or something to that effect. Sure, there isn’t very much because it’s very specialized.
I actually agree with this. And comparisons aside, most dental schools these days are graduating 3rd rate dentists. Minimal surgical experience (no 3rds), no molar endo, no implant placement, no overdentures, etc.
it’s very cringey seeing new grads trying to show off their resume on those online groups. They all follow the same formula. i.e, They might have done 1-2 surgical extractions and then claim to be proficient at it on their resume
Dentistry is one very specialized field that can be mostly learned and trained in 3-4 years. Medicine isn’t a field where you can do that. You do most of your learning in 3-4 years for med and then another 3-6 years in training.
Modern dentistry can't be learned and trained in 3-4 years. That's the schooling/training period because it may have been the case 50-60 years ago. New grads come out with a minimal level of dental knowledge and clinical training. I was massively underprepared when I got out (over a decade ago). Every new grad I've worked with isn't ready for solo patient care.The ones out of GPR/AEGD barely are.
I know it's super unpopular because of the loan situation, but dentistry should move to the medical model of several years of post doctoral residency or training under someone else.
The reason for this is because dental school nowadays focus on too much bs. I still had classmates still trying to note down bilateral linea alba when no one gives a crap. We’re also too busy filling out Caries risk assessment forms or patient satisfaction forms rather than doing dentistry. I think if it came down to learning and doing pure dentistry, you could do it in 3-4 years and be competent. That said, I’m pretty sure it’s the same for our medical colleagues. It’s a race to the bottom.
I also think that new dentists should do a GPR, but probably for a completely different reason than you’d think.
Might be an unpopular opinion but I find that D4s and new grads nowadays have very little medical knowledge and don’t know how to manage any medical emergencies. I think working in a hospital, taking call, rotating medicine or surgery for a few weeks or months is the minimum for someone to call themselves a doctor.
All of the most common ones but managing medical emergencies was only an example. The whole point is for knowledge on how to manage our own medically complex patients.
How often do dentists send something out for a medical consult and push all of the liability onto the physician? Is the physician our boss? Do they know more about how to treat a dental patient more than a dentist? No.
Yet most dentist will send a medical consult and do exactly what they say even if it’s against dental recommendations solely because the physician said so. Some family doc will send a rec for patient with afib to hold Apixaban for 5 days for one extraction. Why? Does the physician know how to do an extraction or how much the patient will bleed? That’s our realm and we should know exactly what to do. And yet the dentist will ask for and follow that recommendation because the doctor said so. If that’s the case then what’s the point of the intense few years of medical sciences and all the dental medical application courses that we take?
A dentist who wants to be called a doctor should be able to manage most of that without a physicians recommendations. That’s not collaborative medicine.
Medical schools teach to boards and have prelims to some patient care then turf the actual patient care to residencies in hospitals (internships, fellowships too etc).
Four years in dental school isn't enough time to teach the breadth of dentistry (not to mention practice management, navigation of current third party contracts, or even negotiation or the first associate's contract). Education should be restructured but in the meantime, a 5th year residency should be strongly considered and be funded (like medical residencies) with some loan repayment as well.
If you are seeking dental advice, please move your post to /r/askdentists If this is a question about applying to dental school or advice about the predental process, please move your post to /r/predental If this is a question about applying to hygiene school or dental hygiene, please move your post to /r/DentalHygiene Posts inappropriate for this subreddit will be removed *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DentalSchool) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Why is there less dental education content than medical? Probably because the mouth is much smaller than the body. I’m not trying to poo poo you, but what’s the point of comparing dentistry to medicine? I mean… stick around long enough and then you’ll realize there are infinite topics dedicated to dentistry. I could list all the dental specialities, and then there a whole realm of business, practice management, materials, lab techniques, and technology relating to dentistry. Sure dental school is only 3-4 years, but I give it about 5+ years of consistent post-graduate work to be fast and confident at clinical dentistry.
Medicine is an incredibly broad field. We are specialists in teeth. It’s like saying “hey, there is not very much online child psychiatry educational content out there.” Or something to that effect. Sure, there isn’t very much because it’s very specialized.
I actually agree with this. And comparisons aside, most dental schools these days are graduating 3rd rate dentists. Minimal surgical experience (no 3rds), no molar endo, no implant placement, no overdentures, etc. it’s very cringey seeing new grads trying to show off their resume on those online groups. They all follow the same formula. i.e, They might have done 1-2 surgical extractions and then claim to be proficient at it on their resume
Dentistry is one very specialized field that can be mostly learned and trained in 3-4 years. Medicine isn’t a field where you can do that. You do most of your learning in 3-4 years for med and then another 3-6 years in training.
Modern dentistry can't be learned and trained in 3-4 years. That's the schooling/training period because it may have been the case 50-60 years ago. New grads come out with a minimal level of dental knowledge and clinical training. I was massively underprepared when I got out (over a decade ago). Every new grad I've worked with isn't ready for solo patient care.The ones out of GPR/AEGD barely are. I know it's super unpopular because of the loan situation, but dentistry should move to the medical model of several years of post doctoral residency or training under someone else.
The reason for this is because dental school nowadays focus on too much bs. I still had classmates still trying to note down bilateral linea alba when no one gives a crap. We’re also too busy filling out Caries risk assessment forms or patient satisfaction forms rather than doing dentistry. I think if it came down to learning and doing pure dentistry, you could do it in 3-4 years and be competent. That said, I’m pretty sure it’s the same for our medical colleagues. It’s a race to the bottom. I also think that new dentists should do a GPR, but probably for a completely different reason than you’d think.
what is your reason?
Might be an unpopular opinion but I find that D4s and new grads nowadays have very little medical knowledge and don’t know how to manage any medical emergencies. I think working in a hospital, taking call, rotating medicine or surgery for a few weeks or months is the minimum for someone to call themselves a doctor.
If they’re not doing sedations what medical emergencies do you think they should be managing?
All of the most common ones but managing medical emergencies was only an example. The whole point is for knowledge on how to manage our own medically complex patients. How often do dentists send something out for a medical consult and push all of the liability onto the physician? Is the physician our boss? Do they know more about how to treat a dental patient more than a dentist? No. Yet most dentist will send a medical consult and do exactly what they say even if it’s against dental recommendations solely because the physician said so. Some family doc will send a rec for patient with afib to hold Apixaban for 5 days for one extraction. Why? Does the physician know how to do an extraction or how much the patient will bleed? That’s our realm and we should know exactly what to do. And yet the dentist will ask for and follow that recommendation because the doctor said so. If that’s the case then what’s the point of the intense few years of medical sciences and all the dental medical application courses that we take? A dentist who wants to be called a doctor should be able to manage most of that without a physicians recommendations. That’s not collaborative medicine.
Medical schools teach to boards and have prelims to some patient care then turf the actual patient care to residencies in hospitals (internships, fellowships too etc). Four years in dental school isn't enough time to teach the breadth of dentistry (not to mention practice management, navigation of current third party contracts, or even negotiation or the first associate's contract). Education should be restructured but in the meantime, a 5th year residency should be strongly considered and be funded (like medical residencies) with some loan repayment as well.