I'm a dental technician and trying to improve my morphology skills. I've been working for some time, so I'm not really a beginner.
Any advice and constructive criticism is highly appreciated!

I’m 22, in semester 8 of dental school, with around 3 semesters left. I consistently get high marks and enjoy theory, research, and learning about diseases, but I genuinely hate the clinical side of dentistry.
I’m unsatisfied with my hand skills and lack confidence in my practical abilities. On top of that, finding patients and completing all the clinical requirements has become a constant source of stress. I’m burnt out, sometimes struggle to attend university, and worry about whether I’ll finish everything on time.
Leaving isn’t realistically an option because of my family and the years already invested in this degree. However, I’ll graduate without student debt. I’m interested in Oral Medicine because I prefer diagnosis and the medical side of dentistry, but I’m unsure whether that’s enough to make this career worthwhile.
If you were in my shoes, would you push through the remaining semesters and pursue a specialty you enjoy, or would you reconsider dentistry altogether? I’d appreciate honest advice, especially from dentists who struggled with clinical skills or regretted their choice during dental school.

Hi all,

Current D4 at a US school. It’s not that I do badly in clinic or anything… I have decent hand skills and am doing well, though I’m pretty slow. Have done simple and surgical exts, crowns, bridges, restos, anterior endo and have finished some molar endo too. I also often practice procedures on plastic teeth before I do them in clinic because I want to do well for my patients. However, clinic is not compelling to me. I feel most interested in case presentations and reading journal articles, and have sought out multiple research projects during school which I enjoyed more than my time in clinic.

I thought I may like prosth since I loved dentures and waxing and did well in both classes, but after shadowing a prosthodontist at a private office, I felt very ambivalent. It was only recently that I realized it’s because I am bored with clinical dentistry as a whole. I know academia pays much less and I will be graduating with $300k in loans, which makes me hesitate to pick that first. I also feel like I MIGHT want to specialize and deepen my knowledge in an area of dentistry. But so far I like the research in endo, prosth, perio, and ortho while feeling completely ambivalent about the clinical sides. Maxillofacial prosth seems like something that could combine the lab work and troubleshooting with a mix of clinical and academic responsibilities, but I haven’t had any exposure to it. And how do I know if I can make it through additional years of training if the clinical side is “meh” to me?

My current plan is to shadow a maxillofacial prosth before I graduate to answer that question first, and move to a major city that has academic opportunities and figure out if I like that route and if I want to specialize while still working as a general dentist for a few years. Any advice or info about academic careers in the specialties would be appreciated. And if anyone has struggled with something similar I’d appreciate hearing your story. Thanks!

Hi guys, I’m a D3 interested in knowing what OMF Radiology residencies generally care about in applicants. It’s a niche area so it’s hard to find info on, but if anyone can help it would be really appreciated!

D1 here. My first practical exam is on Tuesday and we’ll be tested on rubber dam set-up. Instructions given was to restore tooth 34. Obviously I don’t have the proper set up at home here but I’d very much welcome any constructive criticism + helpful tips/tricks to improve based on that set up I did or advice in general for my exam ahahhahahhahah be nice pls 🙏🏻🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲

many thanks!!

edit: should have mentioned that they’re looking for quadrant isolation instead of single tooth isolation sorry goats

Is first aid still necessary for doing well on the CBSE or has bootcamp taken its spot? Basically do I need first aid or am I good with just bootcamp?

Currently an applicant to dental schools this cycle and interested in OMFS. I’m wondering if studying for the CBSE right now (October 2026- start of school in July/Aug 2027) would be helpful to ease the CBSE workload during dental school later on? Graduated with my MAMS degree in May so my schedule is pretty blank. I’d be using free resources of course since idk if I’ll even get into dental school, so it’d be more deep topic coverage and exposure rather than deeply hitting the details of things. Just wondering if this would be beneficial or not!

The thought of using private loans with high interest rates feels predatory. I want to be a dentist and I would hate for this opportunity to be ripped away because of the financial aspect. I really care about people and their well-being and I've worked very hard to get to this point. I'm an older applicant and I don't have the financial support of my parents/family. I really wonder what/who does the "big beautiful bill" support? Every interview I go to students are stressed and holding their breaths when they hear about the financial commitment. Truthfully, it feels like another barrier in place for the rich to remain wealthy and for the poor to struggle immensely.

If anyone is aware of any scholarships please let me know.

Hello,
Im currently applying to GPR residency, ive been trying to find information on the Loma Linda VA GPR to see if its clinical aspect is good or if i would be better off not going to this GPR and spending my time elsewhere. All the stuff I have seen online is very outdated so if you have any news thats current it would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm a fresh dental graduate from Egypt, and I'm interested in pursuing a master's degree in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

I'm wondering whether this is a financially worthwhile career path. For example, would I be able to work in the Gulf countries after completing my master's degree, or would employers generally require several years of clinical experience after graduation?

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone familiar with the field, especially those who have experience working in the Gulf or pursuing postgraduate training in OMFS.

Thank you!

Tips for dental school

i’m in my first year of dental school and need a good one for wax carving maxillary central incisor

Hi, looking for advice please as I’m just unsure what to do at this stage!

I’m a D3 student and just had the worst time so far at dental school and unsure if I should drop out or not.

I really want to be a dentist but our total lack of exposure to practical skills is baffling me. The whole experience is just incredibly overwhelming, and we have a few decent lecturers but most teaching is online.

The content for essentially everything is a rapid overview - for example we had intro to partial dentures (from Kennedy classification to fulcrum lines, biomechanics etc AND 3 case studies) dumped on us over six days. We had one simulated clinic for preps of rest seats/guide planes/secondary imps and border moulding with NO demonstration, just a PDF and a 4 minute YouTube video 😭

My prep was a disaster, doing a cingulum rest half the canine was taken off and most of the distal of a premolar when trying to do guide planes. I’m trying desperately to keep up but my god the exhaustion is hitting.

I get that I essentially need to get the piece of paper and I’ll learn mostly on the job. But last semester we had a class 2 filling to do (with minimal teaching and shear obstruction) and I was on my final attempt before needing to repeat the year. Apparently I would have hit the pulp, but where is the pulp on a plastic tooth?

It feels dangerous, I can do fillings and perio now but I’m battling with just how slap dash the whole experience is. I’m not sure how much more stress I can take the whole thing is eating me up, with less and less teaching as the weeks go on it seems.

Maybe this is just dentistry but honestly not sure it’s worth it, I really would love to be a dentist but the stress and toxicity of dental school is just next level.

I’m sure I could develop practical skills with practice, but the only reason I got through last semester is because my partner is a dentist and I bought stuff off of eBay. Feel like the response is total stonewalling from the uni, I know there’s staffing and resource issues but…. We’re teaching dentistry apparently but no practical skills? Am I losing my mind??!

There’s a student in final year who hasn’t done any sub scaling. Would you go to a hairdresser who has never cut hair?

Honestly if I could get through in its current shocking form I’d keep quiet but I feel like it’s ruining my life

Young dentists, do you sometimes make mistakes that make you question your competence?
I’m in my last year, and sometimes I make mistakes in procedures I’ve done many, many times before—mistakes so obvious and dumb that they defy any logic. I ask myself what the hell was going on in my head. It’s never been any serious mistakes, nothing that ever affected patient health or finances. At least so far, all of them were easily fixable. But it happens to me over and over. I waste time because I have to manage what I’ve done, or I get stressed.
So to distracted dentists: does it go away at some point? Have you managed to eliminate them to a minimum?

How important is the cbse? Do schools really care about higher scores or do they just want to see around the average ~60+? Considering there are such a limited number of spots, what’s the most important aspect of the application for these programs?

Current D3 student. Initially interested in peds. But have been shadowing a few DAs and I find that dental anesthesia more fits my personality. I love working with kids but I don’t know that the high volume fast paced peds lifestyle fits me. Current class rank 30/96 with lots of peds specific leadership like volunteering and club leadership. My rank would be higher but I struggled in sim clinic while getting As in didactic courses. If I can get a decent CBSE score do I have a good chance of getting in or am I a long shot? Also will it be a problem that I a lot of my experiences are peds centered instead of anesthesia?

There is no dental school in the state of Kansas, so the AEGD program is the center of training for the state.
We have all the specialties to support you and mentor you. We love what we do and we just want you to succeed.
I invite you to speak to the residents directly. They learn all kinds of things every day over the shoulder and hands-on every day is like a CE workshop….everyday.
I’m the director and I’m a Prosthodontist.
We have three Periodontists, two oral surgeons, several advanced General Dentists and a technology trainer.
- we have two hygienist to support you. Usually about 4 to 8 patients per day, Plus shared Hygiene checks.
-for the last three months of the program we did not take new patients
- we do not rush through procedures we get it perfectly and at the level of the specialists
You’re welcome to do a phone call with the Chief Resident at any time.
-we do a YouTube every year, it should be easy to find us as Wichita State AEGD Graduation-
Check us out and see if we are the best option for you
Dean Elledge DDS MS

http://Www.Wichita.edu/aegdgraduation

Anyone willing to give me feedback on my premolar pfm crown prep? Thank you!

Do you know anyone that has done the Canadian militaries Special Officer Training Program (SOTP) for dentistry? There’s not a lot of information about it online, and I’d like to hear the opinion of someone who’s actually done it.

I am having a hard time deciding between dragonfly ergos from Orascoptic and q-optics ergos. Any advice??

Stuck within the ascending ramus. I find these extractions difficult as they oppose the traditional elevation even after a good amount of bone removal. I tend to give a distal slant cut and separate a crown like in the picture so that I can elevate the remaining tooth in the space created.

But some distoangulars even resists the elevation in this state, then it becomes a battle between you and tooth and it's only your tactics at that moment will help you out.

Hey all, I'm a 5th year OMS resident wrapping up training. I remember how confusing the path felt from the predental and dental school side, so I figured I'd open it up. Happy to talk about whether OMS is actually a good fit for you, how I prepped for the CBSE, externships and getting letters, what a normal day in residency looks like, and how I keep a life outside the hospital. Ask away and I'll get to as many as I can tonight and will continue answering questions throughout the week!