DENTAL SCHOOL EXPERIENCE!!!
Q: Are there any people who simply despised their dental school
experience, such as the first and second years? Do you think you could
explain why and what you did to try to better the situation.
A:I graduated from Dental School in 1976 and ,yes, it was a very demeaning
experience, all four years of it. I found particularly distressing the
fact that I was in a post graduate learning experience and was treated
like a grade schooler!!! I found the intimidation methods so frequently
employed in the clinical portion of my education a significant waste of
valuable time. I graduated and went on to a residency in Oral and
Maxillofacial Surgery. The difference could be measured in light years.
You were treated with respect, criticism was both contructive and helpful.
I find myself continually embarrassed by dentistry's archaic teaching
philosopy as well as liscenscing restrictions out in the real world.
Dentistry could learn a lot from our medical collegues if it chose to.
I graduated two years before you-- 1974. Same exact story! It is emabarrasing
and shameful.
Two things to remember:
In many cases, dental school "professors" are burnouts! When a dentist
has had enough, he or she goes to teach in a dental school, if they'll take
him.
Second, they are paid next to nothing-- less than half of what a professor in
a medical school makes. This is a simple supply and demand equation-- the
supply far outnumbers the demand.
I have no idea if things have changed. I used to sometimes see studies
comparing the percentages of dentists who contribute to their Alma
Mater vs physicians-- thse studies were definitive and telling.
I graduated in 1972 from UCLA and I didn't experience any
particular intimidation at all. Except for just a few
turkeys as professors ( and they did not last long with
the school), the intructors were the finest and most
motivated, caring men and women I have ever met. I felt
honored just to stand in the shadow of such fine clinicians
such as Frank Kratochvil, Ted Berg, Robert Wolcott, Robert
Garfield, Helen Leuchauer, Herbert Schillinberg and Phil
Boyne. Some of those guys even remember me 20 years later.
In fact we have even gone fishing together. I could name
twenty others. They loved dentistry and excellence