Dentistry

balenciaga

Uhm it's my first ever post so I don't really know what I'm doing... I suppose if I write with as little spelling/grammatical error as possible, I should be fine

Is anybody here doing dentistry? If yea then I have a couple of questions about it
1. What exactly is PBL? In the prospectus it says its like a small group session, but other than that, it gives no other info.
2. What is the workload like? Is dentistry hard or is it just the volume of things you have to know that makes it tough?
3. What's the social aspect of the course like? I heard it's only a small group so I'm guessing you all are pretty close....? Do you often organise events, parties..etc.?
4. I think in UCC you have to buy your own equipment for the course. How about in Trinity?

Well, that's about it.:rolleyes:

mardybumbum

Heya.
Im not doing dentistry myself but I know quite a few of the first year dents. Hopefully I can answer your questions.

1. What exactly is PBL? In the prospectus it says its like a small group session, but other than that, it gives no other info.

PBL (Problem Based Learning) a.k.a Pain in the ass is a two hour session three times a week. Well thats what it was for the 1st year dents this year.
Basically you are presented with a short passage of text. Your group then discusses it applying the relevant knowledge you have gained from lectures and research any topics that the group isn't sure of.
PBL counts for a relatively large percentage of your result in dentistry.
Here is an example of a PBL blockbook.

2. What is the workload like? Is dentistry hard or is it just the volume of things you have to know that makes it tough?

Hmmm....I guess it is a pretty hard going course. My flatmate last year was doing dentistry and spent a lot of time in the library studying away but also made lots of time for hitting the sauce. If you listen in lectures and can organise your time effectively you'll be grand.

3. What's the social aspect of the course like? I heard it's only a small group so I'm guessing you all are pretty close....? Do you often organise events, parties..etc.?

Its quite a small group allright and they all seemed to be pretty close. I dont think there were many events organised specifically for dentistry but they were always out on the sauce together. And then theres the tri-dent ball near the end of the year where UCC,TCD and QUB meet up for a weekend.

4. I think in UCC you have to buy your own equipment for the course. How about in Trinity?

A dissection kit and lab coat are all you need. You can buy them in the SU shop cheap enough.

Hope that helps.
Aaron.

Cantab.

mardybumbum wrote: »

Its quite a small group allright and they all seemed to be pretty close.

And have carved out their own little identity for themselves. Separate to the rest of College. They even have their own faded flag which they fly proudly from their tower.

mardybumbum

Fantastic

balenciaga

Cantab. wrote: »

And have carved out their own little identity for themselves. Separate to the rest of College. They even have their own faded flag which they fly proudly from their tower.

And their own hospital:) Even the med people don't have that

(to AAron) thanks for the help. I'm hating PBL already. There might be a silver lining though, in that I'll just give myself "excellents" in every task. Sure the tutor may correct me, but I can be very persuausive:D

"Tri-dent" ball? How clever. Maybe there should be like an Oral B-all... or not.:o

mardybumbum

balenciaga wrote: »

And their own hospital:)

And their own library and tea room with free tea. :eek:
Bastids

Kwekubo

Cantab. wrote: »

And have carved out their own little identity for themselves. Separate to the rest of College. They even have their own faded flag which they fly proudly from their tower.

You've brought this point up before. Again, Dublin Dental School and Hospital is under the Department of Health, but education and training is carried out by Trinity.

Becky_Boo

Just mardybumbum mentioned that PBL counts for a lot towards your final result, it's actually only worth 10% of the overall grade for first year and it's done on a continuous assessment basis. Most people this year only got between 5 and 7%, only a few got 8-9%. Attendence is mandatory like 95% at least and you get a 0 if you miss a session.
Good luck, oh and we've been told that our clinical equipment for 2nd year will cost 2000euro...

Jammyc

mardybumbum wrote: »

And their own library and tea room with free tea. :eek:
Bastids

Probably have sugar free biccies though, so it works out evenly.

mardybumbum

Becky_Boo wrote: »

Just mardybumbum mentioned that PBL counts for a lot towards your final result, it's actually only worth 10% of the overall grade for first year and it's done on a continuous assessment basis

Ooops, I thought it was like 30% or thereabouts for dentistry. I guess its still pretty important though.