What areas do dentists need to be fully skilled in? Do they have to remember every topic they have taken in college? Such as math and physics?

[napnemeanix]

Good morning, everyone

I keep asking myself what areas of topics do dentists needs to be skilled in.

I have taken lots of math, college algebra, calculus 1,2,3, linear algebra, plane trigonometry, statistics, general education math, and differential equations. Those were one of the boring courses I have taken. Every math problem had multiple steps and all the arithmetic needed to be solved correctly or else one tiny mistake would cause an invalid answer.

Especially on exams where a student had to show his work and almost 30 pages of handwritten work was a pain. Now for Physics some of the homework problems were very long like 2 pages of arithmetic to get to the final answer, I remember plugging numbers into this formula was super huge almost consumed 1 page of the paper for physics.

After going through that brutal experience with math and physics. I sometimes wonder if dentists need to remember every possible thing they have learned in college, in order to be good dentists. Math & physics are very time-consuming when doing careful calculations and a big headache. No more math for me and staying far away from those engineering degrees, not my cup of tea anymore, consumes hours of time.

I always tell myself, what can a dentist do with calculus and physics, I can't believe the dental school has these brutal prereqs; calculus and physics have to be taken and higher degrees such as Biology requires physics and calculus. My dentist friend told me "He's not a number guy" He was relieved he got those brutal courses done.

I know chemistry is necessary but that requires some time to grasp and master, that as well as math it in.

Any thoughts.

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[MLC45]

You need to know general math to calculate CC's of local anesthetic for the weigh of a child. If you give too much the child can overdose. As for physics, I don't think I use any of it. You need to know chem for understanding how dental materials work in a wet environment and also how the chemical formula will interact with other medications the patient is taking.

 

[napnemeanix]

You need to know general math to calculate CC's of local anesthetic for the weigh of a child. If you give too much the child can overdose. As for physics, I don't think I use any of it. You need to know chem for understanding how dental materials work in a wet environment and also how the chemical formula will interact with other medications the patient is taking.

Yes, basic math measurements. Is easy but hours of solving homework problems for other math topics got me tired. And need a break.

 

[Rambunctious]

You need to know general math to calculate CC's of local anesthetic for the weigh of a child. If you give too much the child can overdose. As for physics, I don't think I use any of it. You need to know chem for understanding how dental materials work in a wet environment and also how the chemical formula will interact with other medications the patient is taking.

You use physics when you extract teeth. The best extractions are done with rotating, elevating, etc and not just grabbing a forceps with brut force and pulling.

 

[Rambunctious]

Good morning, everyone

I keep asking myself what areas of topics do dentists needs to be skilled in.

I have taken lots of math, college algebra, calculus 1,2,3, linear algebra, plane trigonometry, statistics, general education math, and differential equations. Those were one of the boring courses I have taken. Every math problem had multiple steps and all the arithmetic needed to be solved correctly or else one tiny mistake would cause an invalid answer.

Especially on exams where a student had to show his work and almost 30 pages of handwritten work was a pain. Now for Physics some of the homework problems were very long like 2 pages of arithmetic to get to the final answer, I remember plugging numbers into this formula was super huge almost consumed 1 page of the paper for physics.

After going through that brutal experience with math and physics. I sometimes wonder if dentists need to remember every possible thing they have learned in college, in order to be good dentists. Math & physics are very time-consuming when doing careful calculations and a big headache. No more math for me and staying far away from those engineering degrees, not my cup of tea anymore, consumes hours of time.

I always tell myself, what can a dentist do with calculus and physics, I can't believe the dental school has these brutal prereqs; calculus and physics have to be taken and higher degrees such as Biology requires physics and calculus. My dentist friend told me "He's not a number guy" He was relieved he got those brutal courses done.

I know chemistry is necessary but that requires some time to grasp and master, that as well as math it in.

Any thoughts.

Dentistry isn't just one thing its culmination of different skills but one of the best skills to have is being well at interacting with patients. No patient has ever cared more about what the filling or crown looks like more than how you treat them. They also don't care about where you went to school or how many calculus classes you've taken.

 

[napnemeanix]

Dentistry isn't just one thing its culmination of different skills but one of the best skills to have is being well at interacting with patients. No patient has ever cared more about what the filling or crown looks like more than how you treat them. They also don't care about where you went to school or how many calculus classes you've taken.

It's all about hands-on experience as well. I really love being nice to patients And never argue or cause trouble.

 

[TanMan]

I don't think you have to be fully skilled in anything to do well in clinical dentistry, but you need to know bits and parts that apply to dentistry. Lets take physics for example, physics is important for extractions, physics is important for understanding why incisal edge composites are more likely to fracture than an occlusal composite (it has to do with force/area, lateral components of movement, and increased dependence on micromechanical retention). Math is not so important unless you're making your own desensitizer, compounding your own stuff, or care about mg anesthetic administered. Chemistry and materials science are probably the most important out of all the fields, as chemistry/biochemistry is more of the applied aspects of physics. You got bonding agents, why they need an activator when you use an acidic bond in the presence of a dual cure composite, equilibrium/catalyst contamination, understanding capillary effects when using paper points, understanding surface contamination, hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of dental materials in the presence of saliva/moisture, tetragonal/cubic zirconia and phase transformations and so on... I did kindof go on an information dump, but this is what I can think of, off the top of my head.

So yes, they are important, but you don't need a phd level understanding of each subject. Just an applied working knowledge of each field. That will allow you to troubleshoot problems that may arise. Once you master these fields in the context of dentistry, everything else becomes intuition when you're in the clinical field.

 

[napnemeanix]

I don't think you have to be fully skilled in anything to do well in clinical dentistry, but you need to know bits and parts that apply to dentistry. Lets take physics for example, physics is important for extractions, physics is important for understanding why incisal edge composites are more likely to fracture than an occlusal composite (it has to do with force/area, lateral components of movement, and increased dependence on micromechanical retention). Math is not so important unless you're making your own desensitizer, compounding your own stuff, or care about mg anesthetic administered. Chemistry and materials science are probably the most important out of all the fields, as chemistry/biochemistry is more of the applied aspects of physics. You got bonding agents, why they need an activator when you use an acidic bond in the presence of a dual cure composite, equilibrium/catalyst contamination, understanding capillary effects when using paper points, understanding surface contamination, hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of dental materials in the presence of saliva/moisture, tetragonal/cubic zirconia and phase transformations and so on... I did kindof go on an information dump, but this is what I can think of, off the top of my head.

So yes, they are important, but you don't need a phd level understanding of each subject. Just an applied working knowledge of each field. That will allow you to troubleshoot problems that may arise. Once you master these fields in the context of dentistry, everything else becomes intuition when you're in the clinical field.

Ph.D. level was the word I was looking for. Thanks for the info, basics should be more than enough and once a dentist does repetitive work everything will be easy to remember.