Team building is essential during dental school. Building a cohesive unit that recognizes and is perceptive of each other’s strengths and weaknesses allows a team to successfully move forward, while performing at a high level.
Weighted blankets: An opportunity to revolutionize dental anxiety?
Approximately 40 million adults in the United States over the age of 18 years old experience some kind of anxiety disorder, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
What is your learning style and why is it important?
One lesson I learned my first year was understanding my learning style and applying it to how I learned and studied for exams. As a visual learner, I find it most helpful to read through a PowerPoint while following along with the text and images the professor discusses.
How to stay motivated during dental school
Dental school comes with a lot of wonderful experiences, but it also presents some challenges. As a first-year dental student, you are responsible for staying on top of classes and completing all clinical assignments, in addition to balancing sleep and relationships with family and friends. This can be overwhelming. When …
Motivational interviewing to improve patient outcomes
An article from the Journal of Dental Education defines motivational interviewing (MI) as a “person-centered, goal-directed method of communication for eliciting and strengthening intrinsic motivation for behavior change.” In dentistry, MI is a strategy that can be used to improve patient outcomes and acceptance of treatment plan and suggestions for oral health care by increasing a patient’s motivation for behavior change.
Developing study strategies for dental school
One of the most challenging parts of being a first-year dental student has been figuring out the most efficient and effective study strategies. Unlike in college, in dental school, you are expected to study large amounts of material in short periods of time. For example, a 10-question quiz on two weeks of material for one class might be on 200–300 PowerPoint slides. Is it possible to study this much material, or possibly more for every class, while still doing well? Yes, it is!
How taking two gap years made me a better dental student
The last thing I expected to do was take a gap year after college. Everyone around me was applying and getting accepted to dental school right, and it was frustrating that I was not on the same path. What I had yet to realize was that going to dental school immediately after college was a path for some, and even though it wasn’t my path, that didn’t make my path any less fulfilling.