Learning to be a dentist?

There is no "virtual way" to learn to become a dentist. No matter how much "book learning" and clinical practice with teeth  mounted in mannequins, a student has, practice on patients is required for dental students to learn to become an actual dentist. For this they need actual patients with appropriate type of problems that can help them learn the actual ins and outs of dentistry.

Text books, and manikins don't adequately simulate the conditions in patient's mouths. Manikins don't salivate, close their mouths or talk back. Caries can affect teeth in different ways that can't easily be explained in a text book. Lastly, manikins don't require anesthesia and never bleed.

Most of the students I am supervising are very bright and most have a good grasp of the material they have been taught in their first two years of dental school, but often they lack knowledge that can only be gained by "hands on experience" with actual living patients. I find that students who have prior experience in dental assisting have an advantage over those that do not, since they have observed an actual experienced dentist working on a large number of teeth, with different types of problems. Shadowing a dentist is good, but working as a dental assistant is better, since it provides actual experience working  within the oral environment. I believe exeperienc chairside assisting is more beneficial  than that afforded by standing  behind and only"listening",while shadowing a dentist.

Prior to my son applying to dental school, I advised him to work part time as an assistant for my associate. I actually paid his salary and my associate got a "free assistant". She trained him and he found the experience gratifying and after this experience he knew he really wanted to become a dentist.

While my more academically inclined colleagues may believe interning in a lab doing research is better preparatory work, this only trains the student at the skills required for research and not clinical dentistry. It is a good experience for sure, and it may help them become future dental researchers,  but  there is no better way to learn about dentistry than watching a skilled dentist at work in a patients mouth and seeing how the clinician handles his patients and their dentistry.  While this sort of job may not always impress some academically inclined dental school interviewers,  is terrific pre-dental training for those considering applying to dental school and will help them afterwards, when they are in school training to become an actual dentist.

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2018/09/learning-to-be-dentist.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/