Tackling dental school is not always an easy feat. It can be difficult as you begin to combine scientific knowledge with practical skills that are not taught in school. However, there are certain things you can do to make your journey into and throughout dental school much easier.
One of the most common difficulties that students face in dental school is dealing with the workload. If not managed correctly, the amount of work you can find yourself doing might completely take over your life, so it is extremely helpful to learn how to manage your time well from the start. My personal advice would be to never neglect the activities and hobbies that you enjoy; rather than plan your week around your work, plan your work around your week. By doing so, it becomes much easier to create balance in your life and actually might help to improve your exam results. How you manage your time varies between everyone and so figuring out how much time you want to spend on hobbies, or work is something that you should attempt to figure out in your first year of university. Having said that, do not feel obliged to continue with the same revision techniques the whole way through dental school even if they do work, as I have found I change the way I revise depending on the module even in the same year.
The amount of growth you experience in dental school is incredible. This comes not only through enhancing your revision techniques, but also through experiencing new opportunities and meeting new people. Dental school offers so many unique experiences from skiing to pottery painting and even though you may not realise it, you will find yourself continuously changing. I cannot emphasise enough how important meeting new people is. This can be anyone – from your peers in your year, to older and younger years, from different universities and courses, and even dentists that you meet in events. Talking to an experienced dentist and practice owner was very helpful. Although they may be far from where you are right now, they have lived through and experience the same problems you are going through. The conversation I had was invaluable, and I learnt three key lessons that I feel are important throughout dental school.
The first key lesson is the importance of perseverance. There will be many difficulties throughout dental school and even after in your professional life, however, knowing how to deal with these and not allowing them to deter you is more important. Being persistent doesn’t mean that you will fix a problem immediately, but instead, you do not allow these difficulties discourage you or prevent you from what doing what you want.
The second message I felt was useful was no one starts off being good, you become good. This is often forgotten in dental school, and when we do something for the first time and it does not go well, we get disheartened. But the reality is the first time anyone does something, the chances of them doing it well is low. This applies to almost everything in life. Practice is what determines how good we become. The first time you restore a tooth probably will not look amazing, but that doesn’t mean one day it won’t.
Finally, enjoy the process. Results are significant, but learning how to enjoy the journey is perhaps even more essential. Dental school goes by quickly and making the most out of every moment is invaluable.
Sana Hussain
KCL Dental student
Comments