Dentistry 2007

benjemino · Regular Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 27

Hey guys just wondering who's applying for BDENT in 2007 at USYD?
Let us know a bit about yourself ie what degree you are doing/have done
and why dentistry.
Cheers..

Im Ben i am studying BMedSci at USYD ( 3rd year )
love the manual skills involved with dent and the fact your working with patients

pants · Regular Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 24

Hi, Ben.

I'm Tanya, and I've also applied to Dentistry at Sydney Uni. It's nice to see a post from a Dent applicant, as I'm sure that 95% of the people writing the GAMSAT are applying to Med.

I'm currently doing medical research, but have a physiology undergrad and was a science teacher for a wee bit.

Good luck with exams,

-T
Ps. Do people ever give you the 'eww, gross' look when you tell them you want to do dentistry? It's not like were talking about gastro or podiatry here.

benjemino · Regular Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 27

the first thing i always get is
"Do you know it has the highest suicide rate of any profession"
AGHH haha im sick of it.
I get asked alot why im applying and always asked dont you think its gross staring down peoples mouths all day?
Well i currently work at a Vet hospital and we do dentals on dogs and cats. Trust me when i say i dont think it can get much worse than a dog who hasnt has any dental treatment for 15 years and has a mouth full of pus infected teeth which need to be pulled out
So yeah ive been exposed to the worst i guess so human should be easy to deal with after that.
So when people ask why im applying i generally say that i love working with all the cool gadgets dentists have.
Its a mentally stimulating job as you have to know what your doing ie diagnose patient and treat and the fact that its a hands on job has its real advantages.
With my degree now i can go and work as a research assistant in some lab swabbing Agar plates for microbes for the rest of my life and i would rather die. Thats another reason.
Oh and i get the Why not medicine??
Well medicine would be a great career but i dont think i could hack killing someone by accident. Its way too easy. I feel guilty when we put down dogs who are in pain let alone accidently killing a human. With dentistry its alot harder to kill someone. Plus the hours are more regular and you dont have to spend nearly half the amount of time becoming a specialist .
So yeah that pretty much it.
What research are you doing??

pants · Regular Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 24

Hey Ben,

I'm not too sure how that suicide statistic has made itself so well known, or even if it is true or not, but I'm originally from Canada and I can tell you that I've heard that over there. My thought on that statistic is that it has to do with all the people who ended up doing dentistry because they didn't get into medicine. It's unfortunate when people end up going into professions they really aren't interested in just because their parents want them to be Dr So-an-so. On that note, I'm hoping that Sydney Uni continues last year's format of releasing the dentistry acceptance letters before the medicine ones, and that those who accept dent don't find out whether or not they get into medicine. Sure does cut down on the number of doctor wannabes using dentistry as a fall back.

As for spending your days looking into people's mouths, I'm with you, I find dentistry interesting. It's a specialisation of medicine that has good hours and allows you to be creative. It's a good mix of maintaining good teeth, fixing painful mouths, and creating new smiles with some pretty wicked equipment. My dentist has all the bells and whistles, which can keep the job pretty interesting. But, I'm also just a big geek.

I'm doing research in microneurography at the moment. It's pretty boring, but it's paying the bills at the moment. And if we get in next year, there will be some big ol' bills coming up.

alex · Regular Joined: 20 Aug 2005 Posts: 20

Man this is fantastic!! 2 people that want to do Dent for the right reasons. You guys are pretty spot on - Dentists do have a high suicide rate but we are or will be the highest paid graduates on completion. Not that we do it for the money do we... or the lifestyle! I'm pretty sure that the Med graduates are all just jealous - given these so called mature people seem to like putting us down as the lesser peers in the lecture theatres - when will they ever grow up - Ahh the future of medicine - you gotta love it?!?

And anyway given that we do the Medicine degree as well as our dental degree that makes us Oral specialists when we graduate, doesn't it? And yep we do some really fine stuff with cool gear. Apparently in the next 5-10 years we will be having access to 3D imaging of teeth - potentially no more radiographs!

So good luck guys with the interview and hopefully we'll see you next year out at SDH or main campus
Regards
alex
BDent 1

pants · Regular Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 24

I doubt the "highest rate of suicide" tag is true, so one has to wonder: how did this stat become so highly perpetuated? I haven't come across any good answers on my google quest, but here was a site worthy of a mention.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010420.html

benjemino · Regular Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 27

haha nice. So its doctors who have the highest rate of suicide...
Take that medical profession.
Thanks for that...
I just had my first year psyc exam which i think i failed. First year subjects are harder then my 3rd year ones.

pants · Regular Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 24

Ben-

I'm sure you didn't fail. I remember stepping out of a few exams where I thought it would have been easier if the Orgo/Calculus teacher would have just had us all lie down in a line and kick us in the teeth. Would have saved them the trouble of having to feed all those multiple choice cards into the computer. Moral of the story? I dunno, but I'm sure you did fine.

Have you sent off your application yet?

Good luck on the rest of your exams.

benjemino · Regular Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 27

Yeah i sent my application off the first week i got it. I know its now due till august but i would levae it to the last minute and panic as i do with everything else in my life. hahah about psychology well im not one of those people that say Im screwed for this exam and get 90%. hahah i pretty much deserved to fail as i think i went to about 2.5 lectures the whole semester.
You applying for dent?

benjemino · Regular Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 27

sorry pants you are applying for dent. I watched the soccer last night and didnt get home till 4 am this morning. Bit delerious....

pants · Regular Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 24

I've sent my application off too, but it took me a bit longer to get around to it as I had to figure out what to do with my gpa calculation. I did my undergrad overseas and acer says not to attempt to calculate your gpa if that's the case, but since I'm applying as a local student and it says to do it online... well, anyway, it wasn't rocket science but I wanted to be sure it would all be okay if I did it myself. Did you bother to do the online calculation?

The only shitty thing now is the big ol' wait. What limbo. I'm the type of person who is always making plans, but next year seems to be on hold until October when we finally find out.

Patience has never really been my strongpoint.

Oh, and if science lectures weren't always stuck in the 8.30-10.30am block I don't think I would have missed as many as I did. It's so hard to get out of bed for class, let alone when it's -35C outside.

benjemino · Regular Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 27

haha you realise that 5 days a wek we have 8 am lectures for dentistry and most days we finish at 5-6 its a good 40 hours of contact time. I live about an hour away from the city so that entails getting up at 6:30 eveyrmorning for 4 years.....
its pretty full on but i gues it will be worth it in the end.
I have my last exam tommoro Virology.... dreading that one.
But then ihave a month off!!!

alex · Regular Joined: 20 Aug 2005 Posts: 20

Hey guys
You're right Ben with the early starts - 8am just about everyday and then when you rush to get in on time the lecturers either don't show up or the computer doesn't work or something else. Not to mention the double booked lectures with the Med side of the course. I sure hope it's all worth it.

We have our first RFA or Required Formative Assessment in 2 weeks and our first formative clinical assessment about 2 or 3 weeks after that. So study study study is the word for the month at the moment. Anyway I hope you both did well in your exams. Now I have to find something to study about - something Dental related hopefully.

see ya's
alex

benjemino · Regular Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 27

hey alex.
You a med or dent student?

i have heard that the dentistry department is pretty badly organised but when there is no other choice except undergrad...
hahah na im really looking fwd to the study. And the sydney campus is great.

alex · Regular Joined: 20 Aug 2005 Posts: 20

First year Dent. And yes it is poorly organised, but you're right there is nowhere else in NSW. Plenty of new Med schools but dwindling Dent schools. The majority of the tutors all do their best under trying circumstances!