Dental

Dentist

Could a child of a parental divorce, a slow reader in school who had to attend summer school in college to improve his grade in a science course, possibly succeed as a well-regarded dentist? Read on to find out!

FAMILY BACKGROUND

DF’s father was a neurosurgeon. His mother was a home economics teacher and homemaker. When DF, the youngest of four children, was age 4, his father departed the family forever via divorce. Only when DF as a teenager accompanied his mother and siblings to court to seek child support / alimony from the father, did DF ever see him again but they did not speak, as his father didn’t even recognize DF.

Fortunately, despite the absence of a father from DF’s life, several adults provided significant support and encouragement to DF along the way: his mother (“You can do it!”), his grandmother and later, a college professor.

EARLY THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER

DF’s grandmother worked as a non-medical assistant within the dentist’s office of DF’s grandfather so early on, while accompanying his grandmother, DF was exposed to the sounds and smells of a dentist’s office, where he noted patients coming and going, though he was not yet old enough to observe actual dental procedures. But DF had the opportunity to play in the dentist’s laboratory, where he could experiment with making molds and other (useless to anyone else) objects.

By age 6, DF was determined to someday become a dentist.

EDUCATION

While DF’s mother had her hands full (often literally) with DF’s three older siblings, DF spent much time with his grandmother at her house, where she provided DF with a weekly allowance, which she gave to DF in coins, thus coincidentally teaching him to recognize the differences in their size and value. When DF attended early years of elementary school, he was best at knowing coins but a slow reader, considerably behind the comprehension levels of his classmates. He just couldn’t read words quickly.

Looking back, DF now believes that he had a learning disability due to an undiagnosed attention deficit disorder / dyslexia (for an in-depth review of dyslexia, see the career story: ‘Radiologist’ within the category: Healthcare / Medicine). Now, with some amusement, DF as an adult concedes he was sometimes distracted from complete classroom attention, by the presence of fellow students of the opposite gender.

COLLEGE

Despite DF believing at the time that he was “a lazy student,” his grades and test scores were apparently sufficient to earn an ‘early decision’ acceptance to a well-regarded, small college within a two-hour drive from his home. DF cannot be sure but believes his college admission might have been aided by two factors outside his ‘above average’ academic record: a brother was an honor society (Phi Beta Kappa) student attending the same college plus DF was a skilled tennis player who was able to immediately contribute positively to the college’s tennis team.

As a dental school hopeful, DF believed it was important that he succeed in all his classes, especially those involving science. However, his freshman year distractions of tennis team and fraternity activities had a (predictably) negative impact on his first-year academic performance, most notably in “Inorganic Chemistry” where DF’s minimal efforts achieved a D+ grade.

RANDOM, VOLUNTEER MENTOR MAY ASSIST WITH LIFE AND A CAREER PATH

DF’s substandard, first year college academic performance was his personal “wake up call” resulting in his enrollment in the college’s summer program to re-take that course. On the first day of the summer class, the professor read the names of each student, one by one. When he came to DF, the professor repeated DF’s name several times, seemingly trying to recall where he may have heard that name before. A fellow summer student assisted the professor’s recall by saying: “DF…. Great tennis season!”

Whether the professor liked interacting with athletes generally or was intrigued that an athlete wanted to improve his science knowledge will never be known but the professor apparently soon appreciated DF’s (new) academic focus and invited DF to have dinner at the professor’s home, which commenced a friendship that has lasted for all the decades following DF’s graduation and career path. So, among the things unknowable – whether DF would have succeeded academically without the support of this volunteer mentor – certainly the efforts of the professor to both teach and encourage DF were a significant and positive assistance to DF while he pursued his career goal to become a dentist.

DF believes that his experience at a relatively small college (total enrollment @ 1800) was more likely to have created such a mentorship opportunity, than at a large university but he concedes that without a large science-based study (involving many participating students and faculty at both colleges and universities), no one can be certain.

When DF’s sophomore year began, he was a newly dedicated student. Organic chemistry, often a “trap door” exit for aspiring medical / dental students, was no problem for DF, who briefly considered altering his career goal to either biology or chemistry. However, upper-level biology and chemistry courses are well known for a high degree of difficulty so in addition to envisioning a potentially boring career in a laboratory, DF’s career thoughts returned to dentistry.

IMPROVING CHANCES OF ACCEPTANCE BY A DENTAL SCHOOL

Editor’s note – the following suggestions were found on the internet:

Post baccalaureate courses can improve your overall GPA
Earning a Master’s degree improves your application
Gain experience volunteering and shadowing within the dental profession
Retake the Dental Aptitude Test after better preparation via self-study or a prep course

DENTAL SCHOOL

DF was surprised to learn that many fellow, first year dental students, had not focused on science related courses in college which he had thought would be required for admission. But once admitted, the dental student must, of course, succeed in not only the science-based curriculum, but also in the ‘hands on’ aspect of dentistry, sometimes referred to as ‘3D perception’ – i.e. the ability to work with both hands in (very) small areas, using precise tools to resolve dental issues while minimizing patient discomfort and ‘causing no harm’ to the patient.

DENTAL SCHOOL COURSES

Editor – The dental school curriculum varies by school and often changes but most schools follow the general structure of biological science classes during the first and second years, followed by clinical (hands-on) education through simulation, during the third and fourth years.

Typical first- and second-year courses include anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, pharmacology and dental-oriented sciences: oral anatomy, oral pathology and oral histology.

The last two years of dental school mostly involve direct patient care and some practice management instruction. Students learn how to care for chronically ill, disabled, special care and geriatric patients, as well as children to ensure they have a wide variety of experience caring for all types of people.

At many schools, students often rotate through various clinics, hospitals and other off-campus community settings, and work under the supervision of a clinical instructor. This gives students the opportunity to work closely with other health care professionals, giving them the appreciation of a team approach to health care delivery. (see adea.com for more information).

DF was pleased to be recognized by the dental school faculty and by his peer group as one of the best students with 3D perception and delicate, effective, manual dentistry skills. Confirming the importance of manual skills, the top academic student was judged by the faculty to have insufficient manual skills so the faculty persuaded that top academic student to redirect her career path to general medicine. (DF notes that the general student consensus, upon hearing that news, was that the decision was not in any way biased due to gender discrimination and certainly DF has never had such a bias, as he now gladly employs a female dentist as a fully qualified, highly trained, dentist partner, who shares his same dedication to detail, unlike a male associate dentist whose work DF had to redo too many times to justify continuing the employment of that associate dentist.)

REQUIREMENTS FOR A DENTAL LICENSE

Dental licensing laws vary from state and are occasionally revised (so applicants need to research those details) but generally, the requirements include:

Graduation from an accredited dental school
Passing a test which includes both written and clinical (hands-on) questions and procedures
Minimal experience within the profession (which may be satisfied by the education degree)
Annual, continuing dental education participation
Payment of licensing fee

OBTAINING FIRST CAREER EMPLOYMENT

Most dentists opt to commence their first professional employment associated with one or more senior dentists in either a private practice or a dental clinic. DF was fortunate to have the opportunity to initially work with a seasoned dentist, family member. Eventually, that older dentist retired so DF took over the patient caseload; virtually all the patients continued with DF, whose expertise led to more and more referrals from satisfied dental patients.

CHALLENGES INVOLVED WITH ANY DENTAL PRACTICE

Patients who appear for the first time with prior, poor dental self-care and then decline to follow (gentle) recommendations to reform their (bad or non-existent) habits
Patients who are too easily insulted by gentle recommendations for improving their home dental care
Patients who are unreasonably impatient (apologies for the pun) with progress of a dental procedure when the circumstances are beyond the control of the dentist – e.g. a patient with a very small mouth opening, whether voluntary or involuntary
Monitoring the professional quality of any new dental employee, ranging from hygienists to dentists
Monitoring the results of specialists to whom the dentist refers patients for diagnosis or treatment which the dentist has no experience or equipment to provide
Having to deal with exterior conditions beyond the dentist’s control – e.g. insurance companies and pandemics
Patients who don’t laugh at my jokes (just kidding about this one but mostly the ‘shoe is on the other foot’, as DF feels obliged to laugh at almost any patient’s (often lame) joke….

CAREER SATISFACTION

DF would not trade his career for any other because he has found continuing satisfaction in diagnosing and treating both routine and complex dental issues while calming patients with his obvious compassion, skills and especially with his ability to essentially eliminate any patient pain or distress.