Any advantage doing the first 2 years with med students?

[Guest Milkytooth]

You view?

[Guest Ian Wong]

You know, I'm really not sure. I like to think that the dentists will take something from our curriculum away with them, but by the end of the second year, they were all chomping at the bit to get the heck out of the med program and into some actual dentistry. There's a lot of potentially neat information for dentists, but there's so much more med school material that really isn't all that relevant for dentists. ie. Lower limb anatomy, microbiology of colon flora, management of ovarian cancer, etc, etc, etc.

 

By the end of it, I think there was a huge amount of concern from the dental class regarding the limited dental exposure they'd received thus far, and how they would then have to make up this information in their last two years, while developing good hand skills. As such, I'm not really sure how much information they will ultimately retain and use in their future careers. It might be neat stuff to know just for knowledge sake, but it probably won't change their dental management all that much.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest Milkytooth]

Hi Ian,

 

You know, if I were to restart Dentistry again, I would chose to do the first 2 years with med students. Surprising? Hand dexterity can be developed with practices. But the biological stuffs should remain the core of Dentistry. After all, DMD=doctor in dental medicine. It is true that quite a big chunk of medicine is not relevant in the daily life of a dentist. But in my view, it is still important for a (dental) doctor to go through those 2 first years during which we learn the basis of human body.

 

There are several systemic diseases which also affect oral mucosa. For a dentist who is too focused working on teeth but misses a potentially lethal epithelioma on the buccal floor, then this is a huge mistake... And I would feel really sad for the patient.

 

Ciao and thanks for replying. Gosh, I just realize I made so many typo errors in my msg...

[Guest ubcdmd2005]

The biggest advantage is rubbing your marks in their faces when the dental averages are higher than the medicine averages after the exams!! Egos are shattering by the minute.