School specific chair time and lab work

[Oracle DMD]

At Midwestern, we are seeing patients full time 4.5 days a week w/ 0.5 days of classes once you hit clinic. We are not responsible for any lab cases, and we send out almost everything, unless we want to set our denture teeth, which nobody I know does more than once before they realize sending it out is way faster. We work in pairs so we always have an assistant and a chair.

How about other schools? What lab work do you have to do, how much chair time do you get?

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[lotexigeus]

At Midwestern, we are seeing patients full time 4.5 days a week w/ 0.5 days of classes once you hit clinic. We are not responsible for any lab cases, and we send out almost everything, unless we want to set our denture teeth, which nobody I know does more than once before they realize sending it out is way faster. We work in pairs so we always have an assistant and a chair.

How about other schools? What lab work do you have to do, how much chair time do you get?

UT memphis 4th year:
probably average 4 clinic days/week with 1 day classes until after boards (December) when it is all clinic 5 days/week. We do all removable work other than casting a framework or processing a denture. We send all triple tray impressions to the lab, but if our fixed is 2+ units or an anterior tooth, we pour it up and pindex it ourselves, then send it to the lab. We take full arch impressions on any 2+ unit or anterior case.

Third year is the same but probably averaging 3 clinic days/week.

We work in pairs for the first two months of D3 year. Then we are on our own. Every once in a while we will have a DAU lady assist or the hygiene students or D2s will be on rotations or something and can assist us.

 

[mike3kgt]

We are not responsible for any lab cases, and we send out almost everything, unless we want to set our denture teeth, which nobody I know does more than once before they realize sending it out is way faster.

Faster? Yeah, sometimes. Better educational experience? Nope. You can set a few dentures to learn how to manipulate teeth and wax. I know personally it makes a difference in practice. When you get out of school you won't be doing it but it is important to know that you don't have to be afraid of set-ups or be cautious to move teeth around when they're not right.

 

[lemoncurry]

at LLU, we work alone with no assistants unless a local school has students for a rotation or one of our classmates is free. This means every student who has a chair should have their own patient. This quarter I have clinic priority time (i.e. guaranteed chair) 4 days a week, 6 total sessions. I have 1 class on monday for 2 hours and nothing on friday. Next quarter will be different; we'll have a bit more class and have clinic on fridays. We also throw in some rotations at local community clinics, ortho clinic, etc.

As far as lab work, we do everything but cast metal frameworks, process dentures or stack porcelain. We can cast our own gold crowns if we want, but most just wax, invest and give it to the lab for casting. If you're a gunner, this means that you will be spending late hours in lab since you were in clinic all day (if you haven't guessed, i'm not fond of gunners ).

Thanks for starting this thread. I'd like to include some stuff my school offers that is rare/unique among dental schools, or at least fairly new, and I hope others do as well.

- LASER course elective offered, can do soft and hard tissue tx.
- Gold foil elective and ability to place direct gold in clinic (AFAIK, this is very rare)
- CEREC availability (limited at this point)
- Filtek composites (probably not rare, but i think it is cool that we have them in addition to our standard crappy composite).

misc:
- we do most of our own extractions unless they are complex 3rd molars or otherwise complex, and then they go to OMFS
- we do NOT place implants (which sucks) but we do everything else for an implant case.
- we can do perio surgeries like crown lengthening, gingivectomies, and other similar simple procedures after we have assisted 3 perio surgeries.
- We perform at least 1 biopsy
- we do our own SRP and prophies, as well as FMXs unless we have done all our competencies.

I'm constantly amazed at the amount of complexity we are allowed to treat, esp considering we have just about every specialty at our school.

 

[Oracle DMD]

@lemoncurry- do you ever find it difficult to operate alone? i couldn't imagine trying to be productive w/o an assistant. also, how do you like cerac? at MWU we have E4D ready for anyone who wants to use it and we have had inconsistent results to say the least, personally i'm not a fan.
at MWU there is a lot of variance around the clinic for what you can do. most instructors let you tackle anything that they would be able to bail you out of if you were to get in over your head.

also, props on the filtek and especially gold foil! dope. however, if i am glad we don't have to wax or pin...i'm home at 5pm every day!

 

[Quattro DMD]

At Midwestern, we are seeing patients full time 4.5 days a week w/ 0.5 days of classes once you hit clinic. We are not responsible for any lab cases, and we send out almost everything, unless we want to set our denture teeth, which nobody I know does more than once before they realize sending it out is way faster. We work in pairs so we always have an assistant and a chair.

How about other schools? What lab work do you have to do, how much chair time do you get?

What do u mean you work in pairs? You have another classmate assist you for one procedure while you assist them for the next? How many patients do you see per day? At ASDOH you generally work alone, we have an assistant for our section of about 16 students and she'll help you if you ask her, or a classmate can assist if they don't have anything to do.

 

[Oracle DMD]

What do u mean you work in pairs? You have another classmate assist you for one procedure while you assist them for the next? How many patients do you see per day? At ASDOH you generally work alone, we have an assistant for our section of about 16 students and she'll help you if you ask her, or a classmate can assist if they don't have anything to do.

at MWU last year, we only had one class (3rd years) since we are a new school, so 3rd years were paired together; one is the operator the other is the assistant. this was sweet because we bounced ideas off each other and worked through tough cases as a pair. pairs handled patients however they wanted to in that some pairs broke up procedures other pairs broke up which patients were theirs and which patients were their partners. we had about 80 patients between us, about 60 or so were active patients.
this year, we split up and now the 4th years are paired with the 3rd years. this year is a little different and is playing out where 4th years seem to pick which cases they want to do or pass on to their 3rd year as each pair has a little autonomy to do so. if there is ever a dispute, they can work it out with their direct supervisors, a supervising dentist of which there is 1 per 12 students or so.

for every 12 students or so there is also a staffed assistant that is there to bring your instruments, get things from dispensary for you, answer your phone calls, and help in any other way they can up to and including assisting if you split up to take an emergency patient.

we also have mobile account reps roving on the clinic floor that takes payments, answers account questions, prints receipts and insurance forms for the patients in your room.

you book your won schedule, we tend to be booked differently since some people work at faster speeds than others but generally 2-4 patients a day is average but some people will see 6 and some see 1 if they have cancellations or what not. i would say we generally stay booked out for 2-3 weeks or so, with an opening or two in there.

 

[lemoncurry]

@lemoncurry- do you ever find it difficult to operate alone? i couldn't imagine trying to be productive w/o an assistant. also, how do you like cerac? at MWU we have E4D ready for anyone who wants to use it and we have had inconsistent results to say the least, personally i'm not a fan.
at MWU there is a lot of variance around the clinic for what you can do. most instructors let you tackle anything that they would be able to bail you out of if you were to get in over your head.

also, props on the filtek and especially gold foil! dope. however, if i am glad we don't have to wax or pin...i'm home at 5pm every day!

I actually haven't used CEREC on a patient yet, but I just got one that i think would be ideal, so I'm hoping we can get the kinks worked out.

It can be extremely difficult to operate alone! It was killer during D3 when I felt like I could barely do anything on clinic, plus I had to be my own assistant. I'm a lot more comfortable now working on my own, plus now I'm using the isolite mouthpiece with the Kona adapter (poor man's isolite) and that is making things a lot easier.

I like the idea of the roaming assistant and accounts person. Our accounts people are holed up in a room near the cashier (where we have to take our patients to pay). Each group of 8-10 students has their own coordinator which handles patient calls and schedules our appts. We can request appts but they handle scheduling when pts call in.

We just switched to a computer kiosk patient check-in system. In the past, the patients would go to the coordinator and say "i'm here" and would wait in the lobby until we called them, but people kept complaining that it was like a cattle call, so they put up these touch screen kiosks where pts can self check in. They get a receipt with the student name and chair number and they mosey on over to their chair when it is time. When they first introduced it, the receipt would say they should go to the chair between 7:50 and 8 for an 8 AM appt. This was disastrous, as our students are usually late, so we'd have patients sitting in the operatories looking around for their students. They changed it to say between 8 and 8:10, so it isn't as bad.

We get our own supplies, set up and clean up our own operatories. Luckily we don't have to do our own sterilization.

 

[Andre3k]

At Midwestern, we are seeing patients full time 4.5 days a week w/ 0.5 days of classes once you hit clinic. We are not responsible for any lab cases, and we send out almost everything, unless we want to set our denture teeth, which nobody I know does more than once before they realize sending it out is way faster. We work in pairs so we always have an assistant and a chair.

How about other schools? What lab work do you have to do, how much chair time do you get?

Wow must be nice. I am my own assistant, secretary, and lab tech lol. In school I think its good to learn how to do things yourself. Its important to know what a quality denture looks like and the steps that go into making one. I think thats just part of being an expert in the field. That way you know the quality of work you are getting back from the lab when you start practicing and you are skilled enough to make adjustments if needed.
Of course that does make life alot harder as we still have to see patients everyday.

I will be so glad when this is over.

 

[Oracle DMD]

Wow must be nice. I am my own assistant, secretary, and lab tech lol. In school I think its good to learn how to do things yourself. Its important to know what a quality denture looks like and the steps that go into making one. I think thats just part of being an expert in the field. That way you know the quality of work you are getting back from the lab when you start practicing and you are skilled enough to make adjustments if needed.
Of course that does make life alot harder as we still have to see patients everyday.

I will be so glad when this is over.

i agree that it is good to know how to do all the lab stuff yourself, but i'd rather just learn how to do it and send it out. for the cost of dental school tuition these days, i'd rather spend my time seeing patients rather than spending all night festooning ya know? props to you guys out there doing it solo, i know its gotta be tough to get productive. i rather spend time getting faster and more proficient than trying to work solo tho.

 

[konarocky]

I'm a lot more comfortable now working on my own, plus now I'm using the isolite mouthpiece with the Kona adapter (poor man's isolite) and that is making things a lot easier.

There is now a student deal with the Kona Adapter. Buy 2 and get 1 free or get 5 Isolite mouthpieces with every Kona Adapter purchased. http://KonaAdapter.wordpress.com

 

[lemoncurry]

would like to hear more current students' info.

New this year for D4s is "flexible scheduling." This means we have more freedom which days to take off during the quarter and we can sign up to work in the main clinic during break time. So far, I like it.

 

[Roto Picante]

I go nuts when I have to sit and assist someone else (When a patient cancels and I don't have any lab work pending). Talk about wasted tuition money sucking spit for someone. 4.5 days a week seeing my own patients and I would hate it any other way. Working by yourself at first is hard but you get used to it quick. Sure I may work a little slower that way than if I had an assistant but it isn't that bad.

 

[PChemGrad]

I went to temple, had to do all of my own lab work until my last semester there, and i didnt have an assistant. I was in clinic 9/10 sessions a week.
15 dentures, 20 crowns, 2 bridges, and what ever else I had to do, this was all before i got to send work out.

but i am done, and glad i dont have to do it again.

 

[bigstix808]

at MCG/GHSU

no assistant unless classmate or local tech school is there. they have some in clinic but they pretty much just walk around the whole time.

only lab work that is "required" is pindex, mount fixed casts, and trim die's; master casts for removable; esthetic wax ups (functional and for suck-down); rpd functional set ups (more for learning though); and occasionally need to make a pseudo/modified-record base/rim for getting an IOR on RPD pt's

a lot of students do their own work like custom trays and such bc its just faster if you can get a pt in more than once a week or even once every week with a 7-10 day turn around. not too many people set their own teeth unless they are despirate and i've only heard of one person wax up a crown and cast it at the school (gold of course)

 

[jay47]

at MCG/GHSU

no assistant unless classmate or local tech school is there. they have some in clinic but they pretty much just walk around the whole time.

only lab work that is "required" is pindex, mount fixed casts, and trim die's; master casts for removable; esthetic wax ups (functional and for suck-down); rpd functional set ups (more for learning though); and occasionally need to make a pseudo/modified-record base/rim for getting an IOR on RPD pt's

a lot of students do their own work like custom trays and such bc its just faster if you can get a pt in more than once a week or even once every week with a 7-10 day turn around. not too many people set their own teeth unless they are despirate and i've only heard of one person wax up a crown and cast it at the school (gold of course)

Wow, I'm only a 3rd year but I'm about to cast 2 gold onlays already.

At UT Houston, we do most of the lab work in 3rd year. Dentures we do everything (often with lots of help from faculty the first time), gold onlays or inlays we do all the lab work, gold crowns we can do the labwork or we can send it out, we don't have assistants unless 1st or 2nd years happen to be assisting or we have a classmate that doesn't have anything else to do. We don't have schedulers to call patients- we schedule, organize and book chairs all by ourselves the entire time.

The lab work is fine, the necessity of having to call patients is fine, but the one thing that I CANNOT STAND beyond a shadow of a doubt is the fact that we have to do certain procedures in certain bays and there are only so many chairs to go around. During any given clinic time we have 12 chairs for 3rd year students to do operative (1 session a week we have 18 chairs). We have around 90 students booking there when you count seniors who are still in our bays because they are behind. Right now you can't even make an appointment for a month out because every single day is booked. Quite frankly, there just aren't enough chairs and faculty to go around and we need more spaces. This isn't as much of a problem for any other bay, but for operative, we are truly struggling to make appointments.

 

[lemoncurry]

by operative, you mean restorative work or surgical work (extractions, etc)?

We can't do exts on main clinic. we either have to book a chair in omfs or find an open spot in urgent care. i hate working in the omfs dept.

 

[Mackchops]

I went to NYU and we would would have 2 patient sessions/day 4 days a week with every other Friday adding another 3. Each patient visit was for 2 hours. Some students would see more patients "off-session" but the chair wasn't guaranteed. We primarily worked by alone unless a classmate had a cancelation and was willing to help you out.

We were required to do very little of our own labwork. We would do our own custom trays and anterior teeth setup, but everything else could be sent to the lab. Casting our own work wasn't even an option. We did have access to CERAC and the scanners always seemed busy.

In D4 you can participate in various honors/electives including esthetics, implants, perio, prostho, OMFS, etc. Students in these programs had the opportunity to do a lot more stuff -- one of my classmates placed something like 7 or 8 implants and another had the opportunity to prep and temp a full-mouth rehab. There were a couple locations off-site as well that functioned like community clinics where you could work on your speed and confidence without the red tape of dental school.

 

[eventualOMFS]

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[peg lateral]

Here is the breakdown at UMD Baltimore:
~135 students per class (so 270 D3/D4)
~90 staffed chairs in clinic
~2.5 hrs per clinic block

M/W/F am/pm : D3/D4 in clinic
T/Th am/pm : D4 ONLY in clinic
W/Th evening : D3/D4 in clinic

When I say D3/D4 are in clinic, what I mean is that all students are allowed to fight for clinic chairs. With ~270 students battling for ~90 chairs, it is a bloody freaking battle.

We do all of our own scheduling. We find an open chair in Axium, ask pt if they can make the appt, then request the appt in Axium....and pray that the receptionist chooses to give us the chair instead of the other 10 students that also requested that same chair.

In terms of lab work, I can't comment much because I haven't done much. We don't do our own casting. We do our own custom trays. We set our own denture teeth. Cerec is available but doesn't seem to ever be used.

About 1/3 of students are assigned to "block" on any given day: pedo, OMFS, urgent care, screening, geriatrics, special pt, etc. It's promoted as a learning experience, but everybody knows that it's a way to get 1/3 of the class out of the clinic each day...to lessen the appearance of a gigantic chair shortage.

Students do all of the extractions during OMFS block.

That sucks. What are the graduation requirements like? How do students graduate on time?

We always complained about being out of clinic on rotations and feeling like we weren't in clinic enough to meet requirements. But there was never a clinic chair issue. We have roughly 160 clinic chairs for 190-200 D3/D4 students. And there is always around 15-20 students out on rotation any given day so fighting for a chair was never an issue. We also didn't have an open clinic. Student's were assigned to groups and this is the group that you worked out of all the time unless you were on rotation. So technically, even if you had to "fight" for a chair within your group, you were fighting among 10-12 students rather than 100. And if for some reason there was not a chair in your group, you would be able to find an extra chair in a different group, it would just take longer for your faculty to come find you and check you off on things. It was frustrating in its own way. I just can't imagine getting anything done having to fight for chairs and hoping the scheduler put me in instead of someone else.

 

[2th Doc]

this year, we split up and now the 4th years are paired with the 3rd years. this year is a little different and is playing out where 4th years seem to pick which cases they want to do or pass on to their 3rd year as each pair has a little autonomy to do so.

So how much of the 3rd year student's clinic time is taken up by simply assisting D4s? Don't get me wrong, I think assisting isn't a bad idea since it will get the D3 a little more comfortable and have a mentor to get tips from, but D3s still have to be doing their own procedures too right? What would you say are the proportions of time for a D3 assisting vs. treating?

 

[Oracle DMD]

So how much of the 3rd year student's clinic time is taken up by simply assisting D4s? Don't get me wrong, I think assisting isn't a bad idea since it will get the D3 a little more comfortable and have a mentor to get tips from, but D3s still have to be doing their own procedures too right? What would you say are the proportions of time for a D3 assisting vs. treating?

i would say that the 3's do more operative than the 4's on account that the 4's want to pass off most of the easier stuff and focus on completing graduation requirements. i suppose that pairs work differently but the guys i know say they are giving up a ton of procedures.

 

[cjb04]

It really isn't an issue. As a D3, I do spend time assisting, but during that time I'm also asking questions, evaluating my partner's work, and picking up on the little tricks that make doing dentistry easier. My clinic partner probably does 60% of the work right now, but mostly because it is more advanced than I feel comfortable jumping in to. Overall, I like the system that we have, but that is also because I have a very patient, organized, and driven clinic partner.

So how much of the 3rd year student's clinic time is taken up by simply assisting D4s? Don't get me wrong, I think assisting isn't a bad idea since it will get the D3 a little more comfortable and have a mentor to get tips from, but D3s still have to be doing their own procedures too right? What would you say are the proportions of time for a D3 assisting vs. treating?

 

[eventualOMFS]

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[jay47]

When I say D3/D4 are in clinic, what I mean is that all students are allowed to fight for clinic chairs. With ~270 students battling for ~90 chairs, it is a bloody freaking battle.

Wow.... That sounds impossible. What a horrible system. Why would you have 90 chairs for 3 times as many students? Our system doesn't facilitate things being any easier, but there is always SOMETHING to do in clinic; extract teeth, do labwork, assist, go to a required rotation, etc...

Bloody battle is right.

 

[HupHolland]

Yeah your situation sounds heavenly compared to what we're experiencing at UMD. Truthfully, the problem is FACULTY COVERAGE. Though we don't have the ideal number of chairs (1:1), we have enough to make it work. The problem is that during any given session, up to HALF of these chairs aren't covered by faculty - and are thereby unusable.

The worst part is that requirements continue to increase, and faculty coverage continues to decrease. There are NO open appointments available for 4+ weeks. What was a frustrating problem is becoming an embarrassing joke.

Last week we initiated a new all-paperless EPR system in Axium. The administration is now trying to get iPads for the attending faculty to "facilitate" treatment coverage. I'm not sure why the administration thinks it's a good idea to throw technology at every problem, but it's the only strategy they've used for some time now. (The iPad thing was directly from the mouths of two administrators in a class-wide meeting....not a rumor, as much as I wish it were).

Wow, spoken like a true whiner. I went to UMB (just graduated) and it's not that bad. Sure, it is tough to get a chair well in advance but if you are persistent you should have no problem getting your patients in. Patient management is key, and it's a skill I perfected while at Maryland.

Finishing requirements wasn't much of an issue. I was done an entire semester early. I went to Perryville and shucked teeth all day for months and also did some "real" dentistry while staying at the mansion eating home cooked meals. The students that did not graduate on time spent too much time whining about the system and not enough time managing their patients. Truth!

The only thing we agree on is the technology issue. The higher ups are a bunch of jamokes. They are more concerned with how the school looks to an outsider than how it actually runs for their students. Technology alone without proper planning and implementation is useless and a waste of money. Our planmeca chairs, I swear, were made by ikea. Anywho.. I'm done.

Let me guess- you're a 3rd year?

Hup

 

[lemoncurry]

Wow, spoken like a true whiner. I went to UMB (just graduated) and it's not that bad. Sure, it is tough to get a chair well in advance but if you are persistent you should have no problem getting your patients in. Patient management is key, and it's a skill I perfected while at Maryland.

Finishing requirements wasn't much of an issue. I was done an entire semester early. I went to Perryville and shucked teeth all day for months and also did some "real" dentistry while staying at the mansion eating home cooked meals. The students that did not graduate on time spent too much time whining about the system and not enough time managing their patients. Truth!

The only thing we agree on is the technology issue. The higher ups are a bunch of jamokes. They are more concerned with how the school looks to an outsider than how it actually runs for their students. Technology alone without proper planning and implementation is useless and a waste of money. Our planmeca chairs, I swear, were made by ikea. Anywho.. I'm done.

Let me guess- you're a 3rd year?

Hup

spoken like a true gunner.

 

[HupHolland]

spoken like a true gunner.

I would hardly call someone who graduated in the bottom half of their class a gunner. But thanks anyways.

hup

 

[eventualOMFS]

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[HupHolland]

Hup,

I was wondering how long it would be before you joined the conversation. For what it's worth, I've appreciated many of your contributions to SDN. And yes, I am a 3rd year.

When were you last at UMD? A lot has changed in the past few months, even since I started in clinic.

I acknowledge the importance of patient management. Though I would prefer to have more patients, I could make due with what I have - if there were appointments available for which I could schedule them.

When I'm in clinic, I look for things done well or efficiently, so as to incorporate them into my own practice. I also try to keep an eye out for things that are done poorly and could be improved - for example, providing fewer than 35 staffed chairs for 100+ students during multiple clinic sessions each week. Blind allegiance to my school won't make me a better dentist. Rather, I will better learn dentistry by repetition and sound instruction.

My complaint is that I am NOT getting the repetition right now. If that makes me a whiner, so be it. But if I were you, I would reserve judgment until I gained a current, real-time look at the system - it has changed.

Look - the whiner comment was said half-jokingly, I admit.

I guess my point is no system is perfect. UMB has their problems like every other program and airing out the dirty laundry on a message board is not going to help. Keep a positive attitude and be persistent about keeping your schedule full.

And how has the clinic changed in the past few months? When I was a student there, the biggest issue I had was getting patients in to do tx plans. My final semester, 3 new GP managers were hired to fill the void. Has this not made it easier to get the ball rolling on pt tx?

The worst time in clinic is the summer/fall of 3rd year. You will feel like you're going nowhere fast. However, in the spring you will have a lot of pt's tx planned and will understand better how to manage your patients and get them in chairs. In addition, I would get to know the dean's faculty well as this will allow you to "add on" to them even if they're full.

One more thing, about our "blocks." They are not designed to keep students out of the GP clinics. They are required for dental school education. Every school has rotations in oral surgery, peds, special patients, etc.

I've worked with many news dentists from many dental schools, and compared to them I feel like I got a solid education. Keep your head up and keep moving forward. Good luck.

Hup

 

[GatorDDS]

Look - the whiner comment was said half-jokingly, I admit.

I guess my point is no system is perfect. UMB has their problems like every other program and airing out the dirty laundry on a message board is not going to help. Keep a positive attitude and be persistent about keeping your schedule full.

And how has the clinic changed in the past few months? When I was a student there, the biggest issue I had was getting patients in to do tx plans. My final semester, 3 new GP managers were hired to fill the void. Has this not made it easier to get the ball rolling on pt tx?

The worst time in clinic is the summer/fall of 3rd year. You will feel like you're going nowhere fast. However, in the spring you will have a lot of pt's tx planned and will understand better how to manage your patients and get them in chairs. In addition, I would get to know the dean's faculty well as this will allow you to "add on" to them even if they're full.

One more thing, about our "blocks." They are not designed to keep students out of the GP clinics. They are required for dental school education. Every school has rotations in oral surgery, peds, special patients, etc.

I've worked with many news dentists from many dental schools, and compared to them I feel like I got a solid education. Keep your head up and keep moving forward. Good luck.

Hup

OMFS, Hups class had it way worse than your class, so the changes that we have had in the past few months are for the better (other than the 5mm pocket perio rule). Things have improved much more for your class than it was for the previous 2 classes.

I do agree that we have a major understaffed school. On any given day with the most faculty coverage there are 56 chairs on each floor that are staffed and available to schedule. thats 112 chairs total on any given day (some days will be less but 112 is the max that i have seen). with 260 of us and about 1/4 on block that leaves about 195 people that are available to schedule chairs on any given day. So thats still a shortage of 80+ chairs every day for the students.

Now im not whining im just breaking it down mathematically. HUP is right. If you stay on top of your patient management and try and be in clinic doing something productive (i dont mean assisting classmates) you will be fine. I am no where near a gunner in school and I play by all the rules and I have been fine with our requirements. Yeah I think i dont get enough experience but I think alot of schools are like that. This all coming from someone that really hates our area and is frustrated with the school as much as you might be. In the end I really do think we get a top notch education.

regardless of what anyone says, any recent dental graduate from any dental school really has no clue about real world dentistry. But thats why they call it the practice of dentistry. School gives us the ability to be able to build on what we learned when we get out and establish ourselves as proficient dentists.

cliffs: just stay on top of everything and you will be fine.

 

[HupHolland]

OMFS, Hups class had it way worse than your class, so the changes that we have had in the past few months are for the better (other than the 5mm pocket perio rule). Things have improved much more for your class than it was for the previous 2 classes.

I do agree that we have a major understaffed school. On any given day with the most faculty coverage there are 56 chairs on each floor that are staffed and available to schedule. thats 112 chairs total on any given day (some days will be less but 112 is the max that i have seen). with 260 of us and about 1/4 on block that leaves about 195 people that are available to schedule chairs on any given day. So thats still a shortage of 80+ chairs every day for the students.

Now im not whining im just breaking it down mathematically. HUP is right. If you stay on top of your patient management and try and be in clinic doing something productive (i dont mean assisting classmates) you will be fine. I am no where near a gunner in school and I play by all the rules and I have been fine with our requirements. Yeah I think i dont get enough experience but I think alot of schools are like that. This all coming from someone that really hates our area and is frustrated with the school as much as you might be. In the end I really do think we get a top notch education.

regardless of what anyone says, any recent dental graduate from any dental school really has no clue about real world dentistry. But thats why they call it the practice of dentistry. School gives us the ability to be able to build on what we learned when we get out and establish ourselves as proficient dentists.

cliffs: just stay on top of everything and you will be fine.

5mm perio pocket rule?? LOLz

 

[GatorDDS]

5mm perio pocket rule?? LOLz

Lol yeah in order for their patients to qualify as perio patients they need to have 5 mm pockets and not 4 mm pockets. That rule only applies to their class and beyond. Not us