I was surprised to find myself struggling to write this post about hating dental school. I know I hated a lot about it when I was there. When I sat down to write the last post, I found myself sifting through old photos and yearbooks, laughing, and feeling warm fuzzies. It was easy to write about what I loved. So I couldn’t wait to write about how much I hated it, thinking I would come up with some really rich material. But when I sat down to write it, the fire wasn’t there, and it was much harder than I thought. Has the real world of dentistry been that unkind to me that it made me forget about the hardships of being a dental student? Many of the stories that I hated at the time now make me laugh. Trust me. I really hated dental school and all the things listed below, but sometimes I think our memory has a way of sugar-coating things. That’s probably a good thing. It’s probably why women choose to get pregnant again, miserable couples choose to get back together after a breakup, or on a whim we decide to have a few too many cocktails… again. With that in mind, I might need some help on this one. So please, add to the list and see if you can improve it with a few of your own.
10 Reasons Dental School Sucked
1) Tests. We had at least 1 test everyday. We had so many tests, that you couldn’t even study for a test a few days in advance. We were too busy cramming for the test the next day to plan ahead. Half the stuff we were learning had nothing to do with the practice of dentistry anyway. It was just so we could pass the board exam and try to show the world that our school was the best.
2) Requirements. Sometimes it would take me 3 hours to do 1 simple filling. I didn’t have the luck that others had. I often felt slighted because my patients’ fillings were always big and deep, and wrapped around the entire tooth. My friends could get 3-4 fillings done in the same 3 hours because the fillings that were presented to them were small and shallow. As far as required credits went, all fillings were created equal, regardless of difficulty.
3) Mean Teachers. We’ve all had our share of them. Mine was a certain female teacher my freshman year. She deliberately would not come check my work in lab and would check everyone around me first, leaving me behind every time. The minute I started being a bitch right back to her, she suddenly became nice. Eventually, she acted like my BFF. Not sure what that’s all about. Maybe it was a sort of initiation to see if I was tough enough. I did grow to like her though, despite the B.S.
4) More Nasty Teachers, or more specifically Oral Surgery Instructors. These were some mean bastards. They acted superior, treated the students with little respect, and always seemed a bit very sexist. One time I was punished by one of them for simply misunderstanding his instructions to me. He tore me a new one and treated me like shit the whole rest of the year while he rubbed elbows with all of my male friends. And he was supposed to be one of the cool ones.
5) Pervy teachers. A few of my friends were put in some pretty uncomfortable positions (figuratively– at least, as far as I know) on a few occasions. There was more than 1 story of the married man with kids commenting about my friend’s ass or a disguised grope or lingering hug. It was enough to make us all cringe. My pervy experience came from a teacher who I thought was a role model and a good friend, but at least he waited until after graduation. Despite the fact that he respected his boundaries while we were in school, it was still creepy and disappointing, shattering any respect I had for him.
6) Dental school wasn’t college. In college we spent about 3-4 hours a day in class and the rest was free time. Dental school was an 8-hour day, leaving just enough time for dinner, followed by an evening of studying for several hours for the 1 or 2 tests scheduled the following day. It really was all dentistry all of the time.
7) Practicing a new skill on another human being. I know there is no other way to do this, but it was scary. Luckily, most of us were so careful that we didn’t do any harm.
8) Boards Part 1. This standardized written exam after first year was bogus. Being tested on relevant topics like Histology that we were sure to use all throughout practice was a productive use of our time. I’m glad we learned those things instead of something as useless as Practice Management.
9) Boards Part 2. I can’t even remember Part 2 because I think I was so terrified for the Clinical Board Exam. Those were hellish. It was a subjective test that one could fail if their patient didn’t even show up. We had to convince our patients to dedicate their whole weekend to us, all for a free filling or 2. As incentive, we were basically forced to pay our patients to come and get free dental work. Some people had to bribe patients or even drive for hours to pick them up in order to ensure that they arrived. A classmate and I actually flew 2 patients from Dallas to Denver and put them up in hotel rooms for the weekend. One guy spent a bunch of (our) money on pay-per-view porn in his hotel room. Way to be a douche and take advantage of a struggling student.
10) Lab work. After an 8-hour day of classes and clinic, and entire evenings studying, we then had to do our own lab work. Whether it was waxing crowns or building dentures, it was enough to drive this dental geek insane.
Now it’s your turn. I know there is some good stuff out there, so please help!
What did you hate about dental school?
Hi,
You certainly had to put up with a lot during your dental school days, there must of been a few days where you just didn’t want to go at least that is how I would of felt for sure.
Good on you for seeing it all through. It certainly would of taken a bit of courage and determination.
That’s right, mags. In fact, there were many days! I never skipped class in college even though it was so easy. But when I was in dental school, I definitely skipped out a few times
. Thanks for your kind words!
Can’t improve on this……except I’m Male!
Thanks, Brett. You probably were able to avoid the pervs pretty easily
How about dealing with some of the most ridiculous patients on the planet and not being able to get rid of them?!! (I had some great ones too .)
Yes! I had my share of them. One woman tracked me down and called me at home. Another would come in for more work after I’d spend hours fixing just 1 tooth and it was obvious he hadn’t brushed at all in the 3 weeks since the previous visit. One lady claimed she’d been pregnant for 14 years and was carrying a “man-child.”. That one still kills me! But there were also many great ones that I was sad to leave.
Pregnant for 14 years? Hilarious! I had one patient in the walk-in clinic who said she couldn’t have x-rays because they caused her to have, um, female problems.
A friend who was really cute had a patient who was married and lived about 2 hours away. He told her all about his marital problems, in waaayyyy too much detail, and invited himself to stay at her house whenever he was in town for dental work. She uninvited him:)
I agree about the patients. While most of them were great, I had a few that I would have gladly drop kicked off the roof. One of my very first patients, during our first meeting, grabbed me in the hallway and asked if I was going to heaven or hell. Ummm… why? Am I going now?! Every time she had an appointment she would tell me how she was praying for me and hoped I would come to her church’s revival (which they evidently had every other week). Did I look like that much of a heathen? LOL Another one totally took advantage of me knowing that all of her work needed to be paid for in order for me to get credit and thus graduate. Yep, I got to pay her bill! I actually needed to take out a loan to be able to afford to graduate!
I’m like you, I needed to really think about what I hated because I tend to remember the good times. There were a few instructors that terrified me or just rubbed me the wrong way and many long nights doing lab work and/or studying, nothing too terrible though. But, I can honestly say that BOARDS SUCK!!
Agreed. That is horrible about the paying thing. I think that happened in my school too.
I had one guy with horrible teeth (discolored, uneven, crooked, and rotten) say to me, “hey, your front tooth is longer than the other,” because my #9 was .25 mm longer than 8. I wanted to smack him
Laura–nice post. You don’t know how close you are to the truth about the dental profession….especially the mean, nasty, pervy teacher part. We learn no people skills in dental school. Actually we learn to be more competitive, envious and greedy. This gets extended to practicing dentists…the real world. Dentistry is a flawed profession at many levels. Run by technophiles who know nothing about what makes people tick. I really don’t know how we got here but I suspect that one way out could start in dental school.
Thanks for the great post.
Barry Polansky
TAOofDentistry.com
Thanks, Barry! I totally agree– well said. Which is why I contacted you to thank you for your post 10 Reasons Why My Patients Love Me There were several commentaries about me on other blogs by well-known dental leaders in our community. While I found their commentary to be a bit judgmental, and the humor and the point of my blog was lost on them, your commentary showed empathy, compassion, and humor. All qualities that are missing from some in our profession (among others.)
OMG I love your blog!! I am actually in Dental school now and its is def a pain in the a**… You said all the right things… best of luck in your new career change, I am sure things will work out for you.
Thanks, Courtney! It sure is. I’m glad to get confirmation from someone who is in the thick of it. Feel free to come back to this post and vent any time. Many of us will definitely appreciate any funny memories you might bring back.
Dental school was the absolute worst 4 years of my life, for all the reasons you said.
Except for boards – I took the SRTA’s (Souther Regional Testing Agency, for you non-dental folks). Compared to a day in the clinic, SRTA’s were a breeze. i don’t know if it was just the examiners assigned to our school, but they were so much more friendly and respectful of us than some of our instructors. They’d walk around and joke with us and our patients to put us at ease. They didn’t compromise the integrity of the exam, but they did try to make it so that if we were competent, we would pass. They weren’t looking to fail us on a paperwork technicality that had no bearing on patient treatment. A breath of fresh air.
National Boards were a bit stressful, but I take standardized tests well, so it didn’t get to me too much.
I would add patients. While I was there, I had a patient physically threaten me. I was cussed out for not prescribing Vicodin for a filling (mind you, a dental student can’t prescribe anything, period). I had to hide in an office one day to avoid a patient who had grabbed an assistant’s crotch. In my office, any of these behaviors will earn you a one-way trip out the door, and, in the case of physical or sexual assault, a call to the police. In school, you had to suck it up, unless a professor took up for you (my professor did, bless him). I had some truly wonderful patients, and I loved working with them. But, unlike today, I couldn’t get rid of even the threatening ones without a professor to advocate for me.
And barry, I can see how dental school would bring out the worst in some people. Too often, it was made clear that it may not matter how intelligent, conscientious, or competent you were. Students were more likely to get ahead by being unethical – cheating on exams, trying to “steal” patients from your classmates, schmoozing up to the secretary who assigned patients to students so she’d cherry-pick them for you. Some female students found they could get extra help in some classes by flirting with the male professors. Some students always managed to be “sick” a few days before and after every break, forcing other students to pull extra hours to cover their rotations, while receiving no more credit.
I’d like to think I came through it with my integrity intact. I really think most dentists do, but I’m sure the ones who were unethical in school have probably continued along the same path. I am bitter about how we were treated, even 11 years later, but I’m glad I do what I do. I think the system for educating dentists could use a serious overhaul.
A lot of great points here, Sandy!
I once had a patient chase me around my dental office looking for her crown because I refused to seat a crown for her that another dentist prepped. When I walked into the room, she was nasty from the start. Luckily I was several years into practice and knew that I was not going to own a tooth I didn’t prep on a disrepectful and probably litigious patient. My assistant was standing between us b/c she thought the lady was going to hit me. That’ll teach patients to learn to treat you with any kindness or respect
Your stories reminded me of that.
It’s interesting to hear you mention how you feel bitter to this day b/c most of us left d school saying we would never donate a penny to our school for the reasons you mention. There is something very wrong with that. Many people forget and end up supporting their school, but I think many don’t.
Thanks for yet another thoughtful comment!
That’s a loyal assistant!:) Glad you’d figured the patient out already – takes a while to be able to weed out the stinkers on the first visit. I’ve never had a patient actually chase me. Wow.
One thing I didn’t have a problem with was the Oral Surgery professors. The residents could be a bit arrogant, but the instructors were pretty cool. I never got the feeling that they thought women shouldn’t be there, and I spent a lot of time in that clinic.
I did have to laugh when one of my female classmates told us one of the oral surgery residents told her female students were only in dental school to find husbands. Yes, we are going to pay crazy tuition to be abused for 4 years by patients, instructors, residents, and administrators, just to try to find a husband in a pool of arrogant, misogynistic tools. Apparently, he wasn’t quite as smart as he thought he was.
Haha! “Yes, we are going to pay crazy tuition to be abused for 4 years by patients, instructors, residents, and administrators, just to try to find a husband in a pool of arrogant, misogynistic tools.” Love that!
haha i feel your pain. i really really do. only for us the OS people were ok, and the perio people were the rude ones… funny how im now studying to be a periodontist :/
Funny– our perio people were pretty nice. I think because the department was headed up by a really sweet guy. Just don’t turn into one of them
That’s interesting though because I thought it was a quality unique to those surgeons!
I ended up going into an OMFS residency where I’m the only girl. Beside the burping, flatulence and lady-parts jokes, it’s all good! haha I know what you mean about the pre-doc instructors though. I had one read me the riot act in second year when I didn’t know that a baby aspirin had exactly 81 mg of medication in it. I also remember that if you couldn’t get a broken root tip out in exactly 30 seconds, they would just jerk the elevator away from you and say something like, “Never mind, I’LL do it,” leaving you to retract and suction, unable to see anything that was going on, and unable to gain any extraction skill. Thanks for your list, it was really therapeutic for me to read.
To add to the weird patients, I had some:
1. lady kept wanting me to come over to her house so she could wash my hair (it wasn’t THAT outwardly dirty, as Koshericious can attest, but yes there were days when I would skip shower b/c I was so busy. Chanel No.5, anyone??heheh)
2. man asked me to give him one of my kidneys b/c he didn’t want to end up on dialysis. I finally had to tell him that I was born with a single “ring kidney” (I think this exists but is very rare) and that if I donated even a small portion, I myself would croak. He also wanted me to give him my teeth!!!
3. After asking patient to stick out her tongue as part of standard new patient exam, she said the whole process turned her on and “would give her and her husband ideas” oy.
4. one man wanted to kiss me all the time. He said we would take me on an all expenses pain trip to his homeland. As Koshericious pointed out, he probably wanted “something in return.” Blech.
Thanks, Lauren. The profession will be lucky to have another woman in it. I don’t think I know any female OS’s. Good for you!
Funny patient stories… just when we think we’ve heard it all, it gets weirder and weirder. Thanks for contributing!
I think the worst in our school were the pros instructors. The ones who knew what they were doing were mean and condescending. The nice ones didn’t know what they were doing. There were a few nice, knowledgable instructors, but most were one or the other, and not both.
Oral surg and oral diagnosis were all good folks.
All the other departments were a mixed bag – some good, some bad.
I hope when you teaching you are not going to give hard time for ……………….
cause you know how it feel.
Ditto that, Todd. Somehow I have a feeling he will remember what it was like.
Reading your article was like reading about my life the past 5 years! And consider the fact that I am a student in a dental school in Greece! the same things happen here too!
Ddent, I love to hear about the similarities with other cultures! I always thought many of these things I write about were typical American qualities. Oddly, it’s a bit reassuring to know it’s the same everywhere. Maybe I should be scared instead of reassured
Thanks for weighing in from Greece! 
Your lists are the best! It’s like you’re writing out of my brain. Except I didn’t have pervy professors. Not to say that no professors ever hit on me, just that the ones that did I didn’t mind because they were good looking. hahaha. Man, dental school days were fun but man did I get in some trouble!
Thanks, Natalie! Haha– Right, there not pervy when they’re cute! We didn’t have any of that, unfortunately
It’s no fun without a little bit of trouble.
Once again you depicted it with incredible words! I had a “special” teacher that once said “for the next year, at the 5th grade, there is more”…And I and my collegue were at the 5th grade(our portuguese course was 6 years long)…Unfortunatelly that did happen because we could fail one entire year for one class…Luckilly I didn’t have a look at this person again…the other year she was kicked out from dental school. We only had to do lab things before going into clinic! Fortunatelly…
Thanks, Sofia! So, more of the same in Portugal, huh? Amazing that they would make you do an entire year over for one class. Not sure if that happened at our school, but some people did have to repeat a year. I think it was usually because they didn’t finish their clinic requirements. I can’t imagine doing 5, let alone 6 years. Ours was 4 LONG years
trust me dental hygiene school was even worse although is was in the early 80s….Nursing school is even more mean… The best experince I had was recently getting my social work degree..They wanted me to succeed and made sure I had all I needed to do that.. Dental School does not have to be that stressful …its like how shitty can we be to you because we can…..My friend ask me the other day why do you only clean kids teeth and not adults anymore.. I said think about it….think about the things you can find in an adults mouth compared to a kids…..she said well they are probably dirtier…I said not that..how about public hairs.. and various crap.and bdy parts have been in there mouths…possible..(not all people but).. she said eweeee.. I said yep…
Wow, Donna! I don’t usually say this, but… LOL! Must be my love of potty humor.
I agree. I never understood why they felt they needed to berate us in order to allow us to succeed. It’s great to hear that your studies in social work were that way. I would hope in a field like that, but then again, I would hope any field that teaches people to care for others would be positive!!!! It’s like, “hey, we’re in the business of caring for other people, and we’re going to show you exactly how NOT to do that. All by example!” I also think nurses have the hardest job in the world. Maybe they are so mean in nursing school to get them used to a life of being treated poorly by patients and doctors.
Oh no Donna, not you too with the hair in the mouth, sometimes embedded in calculus an inch thick? Make it go away…please…*begins to shake violently* lol
I think you’re right about our memories ‘sugar coating’ things. I really hated the beginning of dental school for many of the reasons you’ve listed, but I guess at the end of the day I usually just shrug and think ‘well it wasn’t that bad’ especially after hearing stories of “how it used to be” from professors.
Anyways, I think I’m going to brush up on some physiology. It’s been 3 years and I’ve forgotten exactly how the renal system works…
You should, Chris. You’ll need it
11. Secretaries who were on waaayyy too much of a power trip. Don’t know about other schools, but ours had quite a few who could make you or break you, and were not a bit shy about abusing that power. Don’t want to order from my kid’s latest school fundraiser? Maybe you’ll get that operative chair, and maybe you won’t. Not a male student willing to flirt with me? No patients for you!
So very true! Forgot about them. They really made all the rules. They could make or break your experience… wait, it’s not that different in practice
What’s with the dudes taking advantage of the women?? Sexist teachers/dentists is just plain wrong on every single level. Where do these guys learn about life and what’s correct? Interesting post and I’m glad I didn’t go into dentistry, really. Not my thing.
MJ, I’d like to think that those sexist dudes are more the exception than the rule, but I’ve been shocked on many an occasion. It’s crazy how so many in the different health care fields think they are better than everyone else.
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Unfortunately, there were too many instructors in dental school who had a complete lack of self awareness that they were in fact assholes. During my time in clinical training, there was always one instructor who spent his entire day reading the paper. He was able to do this because nobody in his/her right mind would dare sign up with him.
Maybe he did it intentionally so he’d have the free time. Who knows???
Haha! So true, Mike. How boring would that be to sit and read the paper? I never understood how some of these people were so uninterested in helping us. Isn’t that why they were there?
The reasons you mentioned are true, and I will add also that classmates in general sucked as well. Dental school was, overall, one of the most juvenile environments where gossipping, backstabbing, scheming-behind-the-back, and competing-like-crazy existed. There were some classmates who evidently enjoyed this like some sort of reality TV show, but personally I hated it.
Yes, it was such a weird culture in school. I’m not sure much has changed with the dental community after graduation either
Thanks for the comment, JT.
I completely agree. I hate dental school mainly because of the classmates i have. It really scares me how competitive and crazy they all can be.
I hate to say it, Natasha, but I think in some ways they all get worse out in the real world. I actually liked my classmates, and I also really like the majority of my colleagues, but you see a lot of big egos being competitive even after school.
i laughed at some of these reasons…! how did you decide dentistry is not for you? i agree with everyone here, the people in dentistry are super crazy and competitive/study all the time/no social skills…i find myself alone most of the time and no one wants to help you either!
Thanks, dent. I take it you are in dental school? It took me a long time to decide dentistry wasn’t for me, but it was always a slight concern. I wish I could sum it up for you in a quick sentence, but it’s not so brief. I have written a lot of posts on it here if you want the full scoop.
The competitive nature of school can be overwhelming… that’s why I just chose to enjoy it the best I could and not be too intense about being the best in the class. Hope it goes well for you. When do you graduate?
2 years time…i’ve always wanted to do dentistry but lately i’ve had the feeling of what if i don’t want to be filling teeth my whole life or what if i’m not cut out for it! i guess its just the nature of the course, days i love it and some days i dont! but i can relate the sugar coating analogy to a lot of things that happened in the clinic etc…i just laugh at them now
If this helps at all… you’ll be doing so much more than just filling teeth. As much as it seems like it would be boring, it really is not at all. It’s always changing, always requiring you to be on your toes. Far from boring (maybe a bit monotonous and tedious at times)
And I guess if you decide you don’t want to be doing this your whole life, you can always change when the time comes! I can definitely relate…
Dentistry is like any other form of work. Most people have issues with work. The Gallup Organization has determined that only 17% of people, worldwide are engaged in their work. What about the ready? So how does one develop a passion for their work (dentistry)? No one is “born” to be a dentist…like athletes. The talent is developed…and the talent goes way beyond hand skills. Through the years people learn to love, hate or just stay apathetic about dentistry. Working right trumps doing the right work. By working right I mean becoming competent in the hard and soft skills, getting total control over your work (think insurance companies), in order to provide meaningful work, and creating great relationships. Just my humble opinion.
I think that 17% is important to remember– and it’s so true. We do get to choose how we want to approach a situation, especially our careers. And I can’t think of a job that doesn’t have some bad (even if minor) mixed in with the good. I think your point is very motivational– to me, it’s about practice and making choices.
I can’t believe I graduated dental school 36 years ago and seems like nothing has changed. Some instructors enjoyed being mean and condescending. Some, you had to wonder why they were there. I always compared dental school to hell week when I pledged a fraternity in college. Fortunately, my dental school was only 3 years.elieve
Wait a minute… I’ve heard stories of what goes on during a frat hell week. They weren’t giving you alcohol enemas in dental school, were they?
It seems to never change, but when we were in school the teachers made sure to remind us how much nicer and easier things were than when they were students. Hope you’re getting some good turns in!
Great post! I’m going to be starting at CU in the fall. Sorry dentistry didn’t work out for you, but at the same time, I’m glad. It seems like you are doing very well. Any advice for the new dental students !?
Thanks! I’m glad you liked the post. In case you missed it, I have a post about loving dental school.
I hope you enjoy all of it. It will hold a lot of challenges, but hopefully you will find it to be very rewarding. Good luck with your dental career. I’m in Denver, by the way.
I trained in India 15 years ago, gosh long time. Brings back memories of condescending prostho prof’s, pervy lecturers, difficult patients yes paid them, picked them up on day of exam, put them up in hotels ….etc etc, everything you wrote and a lot of what has been commented on ….. All experiences I have had. Although my specialist training was just as bad. I thought private practice / real world would be better.
I worked in private and specialist practice for 5 years, taught at the dental school part time and in the end had a sort of burnout
I’m studying DDS in Iran at the moment. I’ve finished BDS in another country and have gone through all this torture before… But Iranian teachers are doing a number on me! I’m currently depressed because of what they put me through in clinic. It’s as if I can NEVER do the right thing. They pick on me so much I’m always about to break down and cry in front of everyone. I can’t eat or sleep well anymore and I’m losing weight. I don’t wanna bitch and moan so I don’t even talk about it with anyone. I think I’m not cut out for this and I hate myself for being weak. Reading this and a few other blogs made me feel a little better though.
They can be so cruel. You have to really want it to go through dental school twice!
Good luck, and remember, if you’re not cut out for this there are always other options. They may not be easier now, but eventually they will be a better match for you and in the end you’ll feel better.
Reading blogs like this before I started dental school really set my expectations low. I’m just finishing up my 1st year at Roseman University and getting ready for Boards, and looking back I realize it has been better than I could have even imagined. It has been incredibly challenging, but we don’t have to deal with the majority of the problems described above; I don’t know how students work with teachers that are out to make your life hell. That concept is so foreign to me, we don’t have any like that at our school. Some of them you don’t care for, but they are still approachable. Browsing this post again makes me not as frustrated to be studying for BioChem at 11pm; I’ve got it pretty good!
It’s great to hear that they are treating someone a little better somewhere in this dental school world. It’s also great that you have a chance to appreciate what you are going through now. We had some really good times too despite what I say in this post. I even wrote a post about that. For some reason though, this post gets a lot more attention than Why I Loved Dental School. Not sure why??
Good luck with boards and the rest of your time in school!