See you around the halls.

I think of my uncle who had 5 kids all under the age of 5, went through dental school, got a 4.0, then completed his ortho residency at the mayo clinic in Rochester, MN

If he can do that, than anyone can do anything. Loans, a little work on the side, frugal living, and a lot of praying!

At Temple we are required to do 12 days of outreach.  Outreach is when we travel to a satellite clinic off of the dental school campus to provide dental care.  There are about 6 places to choose from.  Some are located further away, some are downtown and there are a couple of pediatric dental clinics to choose from.  One clinic is located inside the dental school and is associated with the Ryan White funding.

I have worked a couple of times in our Ryan White clinic (called the Rosenthal Clinic) and didn't have much success with getting any points.  At Temple, each procedure we do is worth a certain amount of points, so each day you want to be working towards getting points because you need points to graduate.  All I did in the Rosenthal clinic was adjust 5 dentures.  A few of my classmates however, were able to get many points during their 'duty days' in Rosenthal.

I went to another clinic called CVIM (Community Volunteers in Medicine) last week and did a class II amalgam on #30, a class III composite on #8, and a cleaning.  I don't think we get points for the cleaning while off campus, but I was able to get a few operative points.  It was slightly frustrating because there were only 3 patients all day long and I felt like I could have seen some more patients.  The patients I did see only had one lesion each, so there was no chance to do multiple restorations.  With outreach duty days it depends on the day and luck of the draw with regards to amount of points you will get.  A classmate of mine went to CVIM a few days before me and got close to 30 points.  I got 5 points during my experience at CVIM for comparison.

Today I went to Doc Breslers Cavity Busters Pediatric Dentistry clinic.  It was an eventful day.  I started out with a simple class I composite on #30.  Then moved on to another girl who needed four sealants on all her 1st molars followed by an extraction of #Q.  The sealants went fine.  When I got to the extraction I placed the topical all over the tooth and then asked the girl how many prizes she wanted.  She said she wanted four.  So I replied with, "Well, how about we give you EIGHT!"  Right when her brain was processing the amount of prizes she was going to get (I could tell by the size of her eyeballs), I used some gauze to extract tooth Q.  Squeeze, twist, pull. She didn't even know it was out until I told her.  I love the mind games in pediatric dentistry.  I love using those same mind games on adults.  After that another patient needed an extraction of T.  Then the next patient needed a pulpotomy and SSC.  So in 4 hours at the outreach clinic I was able to do what takes 4 months in our dental school pediatric clinic.  2 extractions, 4 sealants, one occlusal composite, and a pulpotomy and SSC.

What makes the dentistry smoother at these outreach clinics?   The patient has already been treatment planned, the teeth are clean, and the next step is where the dentist comes in.  It was a nice experiance to sit in the chair, numb the child, wait 5 minutes, do the dentistry, and then move on to the next patient, all the while you have an assistant with you retracting and suctioning and giving moral support. :)  Our dental work is still regulated, but it goes much smoother vs. the dental school where there are more students per faculty member, no assistants, and we are required to do everything. (set up, break down, insurance, billing, hygiene, scheduling, etc.)  I am not knocking dental school, because it is what it is, but it was nice to get a good look at what lies at the end of the tunnel.

First time poster here. Thanks for all of work work giving us a peek into the life of a DMD student.

I'm 28 and thinking about going to dental school. We have no kids but would like to by time I'm 30, so we'll be in the same boat. I'm worried about how to cover all of our costs and would like to hear how you've done it.

If you're wife stays at home and you have 3 kids, are you just taking out stundent loans to cover life expenses?

Thanks!

Starting out in the clinic can be a frustrating experiance.  Even after a year I still find that I am getting frustrated every now and then.  I imagine the frustration does not end after dental school or residency.  In many ways you are prepared to do dentistry, in many ways you are not.  At first it can be frustrating.  You are practicing for the first time a lot of different aspects of dentistry in a school setting.  Patient management, quality control vs. efficiency (ie: how can I do my very best in a short amount of time), and general knowledge about how to perform clinical dentistry are some things that come to mind. There are a few things to remember when you are in dental school that will decrease your frustrations.

• Remember that thousands of other dental students across the country graduate each year and EVERY single one of them at one time or another felt frustrated. "I am not going to graduate" "I will never get enough points" "This case is too hard" "I cannot stand scaling another quadrant" "All this debt..." ETC. Guess what? The majority of then DO graduate and are doing just fine.
• When a professor gets down on you for not knowing something don't take it personally.  Brush it off as something you didn't know, but now do, and the next time someone asks you will know.  No one ever remembered everything that was said in every class.  I like to think from the instructors point of view.  They have been teaching the same concept in the same dental school to the same kids for 15-35 years and are probably bored of repeating what the ferrule effect is or how to write a med consult.  It's not personal.
• As long as you are doing your very best then why worry?  I have been getting very frustrated with my lack of anterior endo's  I have not done a single root canal in dental school.  I have been in the clinics for almost an entire year.  I don't know if it is bad luck, karma, or whatever but every case i bring to endo is either a referral, an extraction after caries control (non-restorable), or the tooth doesn't need a root canal (the tooth had a PARL but ended up testing vital - cemento ossesous dysplasia, etc).  In the past two weeks I am 0 - 5 in trying to get an anterior endo...but I am doing my absolute best, no regrets when I fall asleep and this does wonders when trying to fight frustrations.
• Take a break.  Sit down, take a deep breath, get a snack and a drink, and make a list of everything on your to do list, and start to do them.  Writing things down in a list helps your brain organize everything you have to do and decreases the frustration of thinking you have a million things to do.  Sometimes when I do this I find out that my list is only 3 items long and I have been stressing out over nothing.
• When all else fails and you are at your brink, go volunteer in oral surgery and extract some teeth.  I find this to be very relaxing.  Maybe I am weird, but it works.

If you have anything that you find to be frustrating and something you do (don't write "drink lots of alcohol") please comment below.

Until then need to hunt for scholarship, all the one that I looked up the deadline passed maybe I will have better luck next yr.

P.S. A moment of silence for my laptop and bang recycle can it go

Let me first talk a little about scholarships as a dental student.  I have applied for maybe a dozen scholarships while in dental school and have won one of these scholarships which was worth $1500.00 big ones.  This was a couple of years ago and I think it was at a crunch in my budget and most of the money went towards my monthly rent and some bills.  It was still nice to have the extra money for a short while.  I know several of my classmates who have won several $500.00 scholarships, and a few who have won $25,000.00 a year.  Most scholarships are easy to apply for and your school should have an advisor that is aware of available scholarships.

In my experiance dental scholarships come in a few different categories and some are only awarded if you meet specific criteria.  There are needs based scholarships where your parents may have to meet certain income requirements.  There are scholarships that are only awarded if you meet other criteria such as gender, race, state of residency, religion, etc.  There are also scholarships based on merit and how well you perform in a certain class or overall.

Most likely your state dental association has a scholarship that you can apply for as well.  Find out which ones you qualify for and apply to as many as you can.

Most scholarships have you write an essay.  This essay can be tweaked a little bit and you can use the same essay for most of the scholarships you apply for.  Some scholarships will ask a specific question that you need to answer in essay form.  Whatever the case the scholarship essay should be well written with the intent of catching the readers attention and making them pick you over the other 500 people with an essay written exactly like yours.

The scholarship that I am going to offer is as follows:

The award is for $20.00!!!!!!  I know, amazing!

The criteria:

1. You must be subscribed to this website.  Click on subscribe, enter your email address, and then confirm your account by visiting your email address.  Check your junk mail if you don't get a confirmation email.
2. You must be a dental student. Tell me your name and the dental school and graduating class you are in.
3. You must be going to a dental school in the U.S.
4. Answer the following two questions in a half page or less: Why do you like dental school? and How does DMDstudent.com help you. It can be a story, an experience, etc.
5. Submit the essay with a picture of your dental work.  You know I like dental photo's!
6. Deadline is OCTOBER 1st, 2009
7. I will read all the essays and look at all the pictures and choose my favorite ten.  I will then pick from a hat out of those ten and the winner will be notified and sent twenty smackers!
8. SUBMIT everything to templedmdstudent@gmail.com
9. By submitting your essay you agree that I can use your picture and essay on this website if I choose.  I will use initials for your name though.
10. Finally, I am looking for something funny and creative.  I am the one choosing the winner after all and I would like to be entertained!

GOOD LUCK! If this is succesful then look for more lucrative opportunities in the future!

Just hope you won't get annoy, since IT IS your final year

I don't know why people aren't more active, I try! I hope at least it helps, whether they lurk or get involved...

Thanks to you though for asking questions.

1.  The patient has to pay AT LEAST half of the cost of the crown.  At Temple we charge $350.00 which is a steal!  If the patient can pay in full then get them to pay up front, it makes life easier.

2. After they paid, go and get an approval form and fill it out.  Take the approval form to a clinical coordinator so they can stamp it.  After it is stamped, go through the checklist on the form and make sure you have everything done in the chart.  You have to make sure the recall is done, signatures are up to date, etc.

3. Put the form in the chart and submit it to the AEGD window for approval.  This takes 24 hours.  After this time period the chart can be found back in central records.  Go pick the chart up and see if your plan is approved.

4. If you are approved you can get your patient in and start treatment. If not, fix what you are missing and resubmit your form.

Here is the crown I have been working on for the last few weeks (total of 3 appointments for a parapost and composite buildup and prep and impression).  I plan to cement it within the next week.

Othe reasons to like gold crowns:

Typically there are less appointments because there is not a coping try-in step before porcelain.  The margins always come out better (at least for me).  Gold is simply awesome to look at.

Hope you enjoy the case!

P.S.  I tried to get the bridge, but the patient just wanted to get the crown done. FYI!

U talking about this one?

Do they really have to separate part I and II into 2 books?

How come we have 500+ view on this post but u and me are the only one posting?

This site is pretty cool, wish ppls are more active