Fun Stuff

Ask a question
Sign My Guestbook
Photos

Dental Blog

Archives

About Me

Photo source:
p-achard.com

Now What?

So after you interview, you wait, wait, and wait from anywhere from less than a week to over a month for a response. Some got a phone call, myself I received either big envelopes (yippee!) or small ones(oh shit!).

You have so many days to reject an acceptance, usually 30 days. Once you accept, you can start planning your move. You should also get a Welcome Package with lots of informational goodies.

The 3 things I want to point out:

1 - start collecting teeth.  I don’t know if you have to for all schools, but definitely for UF and Nova.  You will be working with them later. See tips for collecting teeth below.

2 - if you haven’t gotten them already, start your immunization shots, especially Hepatitis B.  Hep B is a series of 3 shots spaced out in 5-6 months.  I got my first one in June.  My second one in July and have to wait 4-5 months for my last shot.  Other typical shots include: MMR, Varicella (if you never had chickenpox), TB skin test, and tetnus.  
If you no longer have health insurance, you can go to the local Department of Health and get the shots for about $30 bucks.

Each school will have their own immunization form and specific list of shots to get.  You should get this form with your acceptance package, but if you didn’t (and I didn’t) then make sure to inquire about it.

The shots may not be important if you don’t have clinic for awhile. You can always get them done during school for free or reduced cost. However, we have some clinic our first year. Plus, I wanted to get as much of the superfluous stuff done during the summer when I had time.

3 - Fill out your Fafsa. Almost forgot about this. If you're one of the lucky few who don't need students loans, you can skip this step. But of the rest of us, submit your online Fafsa application so your funds will be dispersed on time.


Collecting teeth

My advice is the same for shadowing.  Call and ask your dentist first.  If they don’t extract that many, then ask who they refer perio and oral surgery to.  Then call the perio/surgeon's office, drop your dentist's name (eg, Hi, my name is [blank] and Im a patient of Dr. [X].  Dr. [X] mentioned you ...), tell them about dental school, and see if they will collect for you.  

Actually, I know people who just picked numbers out of a phone book and lucked out.  But others will say no.  

Storing teeth:  store the teeth in a plastic/glass jar with dilute chlorine at a 1:10 ratio of chlorine:water. The perio who collected for me just put the teeth in sterile bags for me.  I also collected teeth from an office shared by 4 oral surgeons.  They extract a lot of teeth and requested that I stop by first and drop off a jar (that they filled with disinfectant, but you can fill with your chlorine solution.)

I got a lot of teeth from the surgeons, but most were posterior teeth.  I got about 13 teeth from the perio, but they were mainly anteriors, so that was great.  Nova requested the teeth have no or small fillings, but I requested all extracted teeth.  The more, the better.