Inevitable: UWO VS. U of T

[Contach]

Contach, have you decided what dental school you're going to?

 

Yes, UPenn.

[monreal]

I have read every post in this thread. Almost all Canadian dental schools were mentioned, although the thread is about UWO and UofT.Congrats OP.

 

All dental school in Canada are good. There is no bad choice. You will do fine and be a competent dentist wherever you go. As I visited many dental school in North America, I am gonna spill out what I know:

 

1-UofT reputation is all about the number of ongoing research. But in reality Mcgill should get more credit because publication/faculty ratio in Mcgill is higher than that of Toronto... remember UofT is 3 times bigger.

UofT overkills you with didactic. Should expect stressful 4 years with not-that-impressive patient care. But, It's verrrry respected in the US if you plan to specialize (so is Mcgill).

 

1-UWO has a pretty good combination of didactic and patient care. I heard a lot of complaints about sick instructors which can be bad.

 

1-UBC, not much info here because I wasn't interested at all. For most of us, nothing justifies the high tuition they charge. Sure dentistry is worth it, but I wouldn't go there unless I don't have choice or I need to live in Vancouver.

 

1-Manitoba is one of the best, with a well rounded program. The only downside I see is its huge load of labwork in 3rd, and 4th year. My friends there get back home at 10 pm, even in weekends.

 

1- Mcgill is awesome too (I'm from Montreal as my name suggests). Small class and all the patient care is done at the hospital (I see this as a +). And since nothing is perfect, their problem is that students spend 18 months with medical students, then they spend 5 months learning "Dentistry", then they head to the clinic and start drilling! I let you imagine the mess

 

1- UofA well rounded, has the best instructors/students ratio in Canada. But very similar to Mcgill with the 18 months Medical students thingy... I understand some folks may argue this is a good thing, but it absolutely isn't. No need for detailed anatomy or in-depth biochemistry to make a good dentist.

 

1-Dalhousie (Yes I am biased ) is great. Didactic more than enough, very good clinical experience. You begin seeing patient in your second year (vs third year everywhere else, please correct if am wrong), and its not only prophies and screening, It's active treatment (fillings, scaling, removable dentures). No lab work in 3rd and 4th year with very low stress level... forth year is just a bless, no exams or competencies, only pure patient care and you're done at 14h30... Halifax is fine.

 

All are numbered 1 on purpos:) YOU WILL BE FINE. Pick the city and go with your gut.

 

Contach. Congrats! Good choice. Philly is fun, UPENN is absolutely one of the best. Last time I visited was a couple of years ago when they were renovating the perio department and some of the clinics. The big main clinic was noisy though.

[ploughboy]

1-UWO has a pretty good combination of didactic and patient care. I heard a lot of complaints about sick instructors which can be bad.

 

My gf just graduated UWO dents, so to expand on monreal's point...

 

You will come out of Western with very good technical skills in the fundamentals of dentistry. You won't learn a lot of flashy stuff (that's what post-graduate courses and training are for) but you'll be really solid and comfortable when you start practising.

 

There is, however, a bit of an "old boys" club among some of the instructors. Whenever I went out with my gf's friends, they would inevitably complain about certain clinical instructors. Consensus is that these instructors favour certain students over others. If you're on their good side you can do no wrong, but if they don't like you they won't sign off on your work for seemingly ridiculous and arbitrary reasons, causing you to spend hours re-doing your work. I have heard enough corroboration from people outside my gf's social circle to believe the things they told me.

 

Just some food for thought. Like monreal said, all of the Canadian schools are good. Western will let you develop good hand skills and strong fundamentals. Just go in with your eyes open.