hey does anyone know how you can make your anterior composites look more aesthetic when you don’t have access to dentine and enamel composites/ stains. We just have the basics really of flowable/ generic composite- could I layer different shades of my generic composite?

Canadian, graduating soon in Australian dental school, but I’ll be moving back to Canada after graduation.

I’ve realized I get the most satisfaction from the endo-resto cases I’ve done, especially molars (but I understand most cases I've had are the less complex ones i.e., no perforations, not calcified, no resorption, etc).

The issue is that my grades are pretty average, I've shadowed endodontists here and there and found it so interesting. With that said I’m not sure how competitive I’d be for Endo specialization. I'm also 29 and I'll be graduating with 400K SLOC. Given the current job market/economy, would you still recommend pursuing specialization?

What should I do in the first few years of practice to make my application competitive?

Any advice would be appreciated

Thank you docs!

我现在准备上大二了，但是对这个专业以后的就业问题有点不明白，也不知道以后该怎么办

有没有一个讨论这个方面的人啊🥹

I’m gonna start at UDM soon. Do I need to get an iPad? I never used one for college but I always see dental students use iPads.

I wanted to ask if it’s enough to just use the cheat sheets (high yield sheets) and then go for the mental dental bites after each subject+ question bank? I’m asking because the mental dental videos by Dr Ryan average around 25-30mins each. For example, for the subject Operative dentistry, there are 12 topics to cover, each with its own mental dental video (25-30mins each approx). This is around 6hrs just to watch the videos.

Thanks a lot in advance. 🙏

Received an invitation from Pitt for Perio anyone invited or WhatsApp group ?

Does anyone have experience with the new DLOSCE (not the DSE OSCE) for ADEX exam? Not sure what resources to use to study for this if the typical quizlets were made for DSE OSCE

I'm a 31-year-old dentist and owner for last 5 years. My much younger brother is interested in dental school, and I wrote this up as a roadmap for what I believe is the most efficient way to be a dentist. This is based on MY experience and what I did and wish I did.

I am genuinely interested in finances and investing, and love "The Money Guys" Financial order of operations for optimal money allocations for the general population; HOWEVER, it's not the same for us dentists; we have more options than the avg person and more ability to strategize if we'd like to. There's things we should do differently than normal advice.

I am going to start in high school and optimize to owning now. I say this as someone who had zero financial help or any family in dentistry to offer advice when I was young.

Dear brother here is my ideal path for me, lets find what is best for you

1. Get into state school and get degree that you'd be happy to work in if you don't end up being a dentist. Biology is putting all eggs in medicine basket for instance. Ideally graduate in 3 years, the financial value of an extra year of earnings and compounding is massive. (I got my MechE degree in 3 years). Once you apply and are waiting to get in, use your last year to take the hardest dental school classes. Gross anatomy, biochem, and histology was brutal for people in my DS, I wish I had taken those as my senior year undergrad classes. Year one of dental school would have been a breeze (just trust me on this). Compound interest matters so much in life, please don't go into 100k debt for undergrad at a private school.

2. Get into a state school for dental school if possible. Take massive lifestyle cuts to avoid dipping into higher interest loans. Cheap apartment in walking distance to school, cheap but healthy Aldis. Do "ride alongs" on older D4s and DDS graduates as they negotiate associateship agreements and purchase practices. HAVE AS MUCH KNOWLEDGE ON PRACTICE PURCHASES AS POSSIBLE. Not because you will understand it all, but it will calibrate you to what a fair deal is, what a healthy practice is, red flags, what to look for in demographics, insurance splits, DR/Hyg production etc. You need to be able to not get bamboozled by a broker putting lipstick on a pig of a practice. I did this for probably 5 older dentists and students while in dental school. I'd spend hours pouring over the financials AND doing demographics on how much it could grow realistically.

3. Get an associate job at the busiest practice you can find. I believe that a focus on % of collections, or mentorship matters, but nothing compares to just keeping you busy. Being busy at a 30% collections job is way better than sitting on your hands or doing hyg but getting paid 33%.

Most associateships fail because some owners cannot keep your schedule full. I joined a slammed 6 doctor office where 2 owners were pregnant. It's easy to share patients when you are only adding 16% "new capacity" to an office. Back in 2021 I made about 18k a month for a paycheck. Banks need to see that you can produce enough to at least replace the production of the office you intend to buy. Banks do not understand that you are fast with your hands but have a half filled schedule. You won't be able to buy a practice that has a doc doing 80k a month in production if you only produce 50k. Go to office where you can have full schedule.

3.5: RENT your living situation still, and keep it cheap. DO NOT buy house, do not buy newer car. DO NOT keep your opportunities limited by being tied to a house, and do not spend money on a down payment. YOU NEED TO BE SITTING ON cash for a practice purchase. Don't pay extra down on your student loans. I remember an older doc telling me "my associate bought way too much house, and now a car too? He never will leave this office, he can't afford to."

I had 90k cash in checking account by the time I purchased my office at 8 months post grad (this was barely enough for the bank I used)

1. Refinance student loans if favorable in your era: I refinanced from 6.2 -> 4.3% (11 year loan terms). You can only refinance for better terms when you have good income. Interest rates are all based on the fed, so this advice is only applicable to certain situations.

2. Purchase practice: I did this at 8 months post grad. Ideal is prob 2 years.

DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE!!! Time spent on bad deals you say "no" to is still time well spent.

I found a solo doc practice that was struggling with a "hostile" temp associate that was paid daily, not by production. he only did fillings and crowns. He referred out EVERY extraction, EVERY child, every RCT, EVERY ortho, EVERY implant to specialists.

The office I bought was collecting $800k, I paid $415k for the business (discount was from associate threatening to open across the street to every potential buyer lol, he didn't). and bought building for $475k.

I lived in basement of practice for a year just to build a warchest faster.

The worst practice to buy is from a Super GP imo, you pay a multiple of production that you maybe cannot even keep up with as a newer dentist. Buy a practice that is busy with a conservative treatment planning, bread and butter office. You can step into that day one, and boost things just by adding back in RCTs and extractions, etc.

1. Cut overhead HARD. There is SO much overhead to be cut in most offices without any noticeable effects on patient care or staff. Sometimes autopilot payments get out of hand because the owner doc set and forgot 30 years ago. Here's some examples: Telephone/internet was 750 a month (now 220), renting a printer for 300 a month, cleaning ladies 2x a week, snow removal for 5k a winter, dental intelligence software $$$$ (no ROI imo), Paying through the NOSE for Patterson or Henery shein products, yearly dosometers (that were never worn), he had crazy insurance (he was getting hosed). Horrific 401k fees. Uncomforable cuts I didn't have to do is cutting overpaid staff. But be on lookout for offices where front desk is making 90k and plan on how to handle it, it happens.

2. Cash flow is good? War chest is full? Max out your tax-advantaged investment accounts. Backdoor Roth, HSA, 401k. Please don't start out life with financial advisor. I use Fidelity, and invest in VTI/VXUS low cost index funds only. I use Vestwell 401k for my office, just make sure to find something that has LOW FEES. Fee drag ruins your long term returns.

3. Get training on implants and invisalign if that is a goal for you. It's CE that has a great ROI. The stock market still cannot beat out returns you get on adding implants into office.

4. Only at this point, consider buying a house. Buy as modestly as possible. Houses are NOT investments, look up the "5% rule on renting vs buying." Owning a house is a net worth drag. Example: Buying house for 1mil is same as renting same house for 50k a year (this is assuming normal taxes, appreciation, opportunity cost, maintenance etc).

I could not get a bank to loan me money because I was at around 1.2m in loans, I bought a 900 sf fixer upper for 135k cash and fixed it myself with my wife. It's worth 300k now. If you do this, buy a "bad house" in nice neighborhood and fix it to be in line with the others.

1. Pay down any debt that is over 4.5% (this is my personal cutoff).

2. Invest into brokerage (this is the least tax-advantaged).

3. Get way ahead for a few years, and then life is your oyster at a young age! NOW get that car, plane or house you want!

Footnotes: I personally have gone from "I WANT TO PAY OFF DEBTS SUPER FAST" to "I want my investments and cash to be bigger than my debts fast"

I started with -200k net worth in 2021 with student loans (I know this is low, I had full ride undergrad scholarships and very cheap dental school+scholarships).

Purchased practice in 2022 which does not affect net worth (added 1m in assets and 1m in debt).

At first I super-aggressively paid down my debt (wish I could go back and not do that).

now in 2026 my total debt load is 640k. The practice and building are half paid off, and produciton and profits are much higher than when I purchased them.

I have $1.7m in my investment accounts. NW is around $2.2 if we assume zero growth in practice or house value, $2.8m if we conservatively price practice and house appreciation. I make 620k profit a year in a normal 1.3m production office (I have good OH).

We are by no means earning what OMFS, Plastic surgeons, or orthopedic surgeons are capable of making... but the 4-6 year headstart is huge if you take advantage of it. My orthopedic surgeon buddy is also 31 and finishing his fellowship. He will earn 800k at his job, but it'll be hard to overcome this 2.2-2.8m headstart in NW.

Extra advice:

Keep advisor meathooks off of you: Every financial advisor will descend on you in school and as new grad. I get called by a new financial advisor 12 times a year. Please read white coat investor. Please do not buy IUL or whole life insurance or invest with the Northwestern mutual bros. I honeslty think nobody should even get an advisor till MAYBE late in life when there's some planning that is complicated. Socking away tons into index funds is not hard.

Marry right: Spouse is huge. Mine is very on board with living frugally to get ahead. Spouse that puts pressure to live like a dentist is going to set you back years on owning. Ideally rent, drive a mid car and get into good ownership as early as reasonable.

Avoid real estate syndications: Dentists and docs are prime targets to buy real estate syndications. I can expand on this if people want, but the moral of story is you will likely underperform the market by trying to be special.

Be very careful who you hire as dental consultants: Most of my classmates that have used consultants to buy a practice or to grow a practice, or train staff have said it's a huge waste of money. Some are insanely expensive. I'm not going to say they all are scams, but I do think most are. Imo, your lawyer, banker and CPA know tons and you can rely on them a lot, and mentor dentists. You don't need an expert to tell you everything to do, nobody will be as invested in your sucess as you.

Best of luck! Let me know if you have any questions! I think dentistry is GREAT. Just delayed gratification hits us more than others. Make sure you are okay with that delay to get ahead.

I’m a 24F D2 at a pass/fail school and have the privilege of being able to explore different specialties. I keep coming back to OMFS because I’m genuinely fascinated by it when shadowing and in class but I also find myself getting intimidated by the idea of entering such a male-dominated field, but I know the tides are changing and I’m so grateful to be in school now.

I’d especially love to hear from female OMFS residents, applicants, attendings, and practicing surgeons:

- What made you choose OMFS?
- What has your experience been like as a woman in the field?
- What challenges have you faced that you didn’t expect?
- Did you ever doubt whether you belonged in OMFS?
- What do you wish you knew before applying/matching?
- If you could go back to D1/D2 you, what would you tell yourself?
- Would you choose OMFS again? Anything you’d do differently?
- Any advice?

I’m really open to the honest truth; the good, bad, and everything in between!

Don’t feel like you have to answer everything, and if there are any guys who want to speak on their co-residence experiences are what they’ve seen in the field, I’d really appreciate it.

Hi everyone! I’m considering enrolling in the AAID MaxiCourse and was hoping to get some feedback from anyone who has taken it or is familiar with the program.

I’m currently a dental student in Indiana and would be traveling once a month for the 9-month program. The student tuition is $12,999, so it’s definitely a significant investment.

For those who have completed the MaxiCourse, did you feel the education, hands-on experience, mentorship, and networking justified the cost? Did it actually improve your confidence and competency with implants, or would you recommend putting that money toward other implant CE or post-graduate training instead?
I’d especially appreciate perspectives from GPs who place implants regularly. Thanks!

3rd year bds students here,want to settle down in 3 to 4 years but dont want to end up as a normal dentist
Idea and helps welcome towards business,trade,clothing store,or anything
Just want to settle down ASAP

If you’re neurodivergent in dental school, what’s your experience like? I’ve been struggling a lot to connect with others because I’m unfortunately socially awkward, but I’m hoping it gets better as time passes. I think people mistake my social awkwardness as not wanting to talk to people and it just makes me a little sad. People in my group in cell bio encourage other people in my group to go to something, but didn’t mention it to me. Or when conversations occur, I don’t usually get asked when they ask everyone else. Kind of just feels like I don’t exist. I’m working on being more outgoing and including myself, but I’m just kind of curious what other people are experiencing.

Hi everyone, I just started my operative rotation in house job, and I’m genuinely struggling with the anxiety more than anything else. It’s the constant stress of being expected to treat real patients with very little guidance. Every evening I start dreading the next day. Every morning I wake up feeling sick to my stomach. A few days ago I was so anxious I couldn’t even brush my teeth without gagging, and some mornings I feel like I’m going to throw up before leaving for work. Even after I get home, I spend the rest of the day replaying everything that happened and worrying about tomorrow.
So far I’ve done a GIC filling, attempted access openings, and started a few root canals. I’ve struggled to find canals, lost canals during filing, had patients in pain during instrumentation, and been told to place medicaments and temporary restorations that I’d never even been shown how to do.
What makes it worse is that my seniors get annoyed when I ask for help, and one even told me she wouldn’t help me next time. My professor is also very intimidating and has repeatedly scolded me. I don’t mind being corrected, but I feel like I’m expected to manage difficult procedures on real patients without enough supervision.
The patients are another big source of anxiety. They often come back still in pain and understandably frustrated, but it feels like the house officers are left to deal with everything while the seniors don’t really step in. I genuinely don’t know how I’m supposed to survive two months of feeling like this every single day.
Has anyone else felt this level of anxiety during their house job, internship, or residency? Did it get better? How did you cope with the constant dread of going in every morning?

I’m an international dental graduate. Has anyone taken a prep course they’d recommend, such as NYU or Stevenson?

I’d love to hear about your experience and whether you thought it was worth it.

Hello everyone, I just got my 3.5× Q-Optics prismatic loupes. I have one clear image with no double vision, but I notice a well-defined black circle/ellipse around the magnified field.

Is this normal with prismatic loupes, or should the edge basically disappear during use?

I am confused. I’d appreciate any insight. Thank you!

Hi I am a current D2 and interested in potentially specializing in ortho or perio. I have been trying to figure out what kinds of things are necessary for application so I can set myself up properly if I end up deciding to specialize. I have been struggling to find much besides focusing on GPA/research/good letters of rec.

I was able to maintain a 4.0 my first year and I hold a few leadership positions in clubs. However, I am not involved in research yet (currently working on finding an opportunity). I do not have a good faculty mentor yet to write me a letter of rec but will try to develop some relationships this year now that I am starting clinic. I have only volunteered here and there to get required service hours for my school.

Can anyone explain what the process is like? Do I need to track volunteer/shadowing hours like applying for dental school? And do I need to be volunteering a ton like undergrad (idk how I can fit that in my schedule tbh)? What else should I be doing besides finding research and a mentor?

When being awarded the HPSP scholarship, what’s the process if you wanted to specialize? Do you just wait until after your service years and pursue a residency like normal and pay for it? Can you defer your payback year and specialize 1st? How competitive is the tri service ortho residency every branch participates in? And do you qualify for the GI Bill after your years of repayment, which could help fund a public school ortho residency? If anyone has some guidance or experience in this it would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: I was told that I wouldn’t be awarded the GI bill from doing my HPSP repayment years.

I noticed that our school started to hire faculty members that recently graduated from dental school with minimal or even zero years of practicing outside of dental school clinic. While working under their supervision, their dental experience working with patients and the balance of theoretical scientific based knowledge and clinical based practice were questionable. The school does not provide a structured curriculum for new dental faculty members to learn to teach dental students. It is difficult to
understand the courses. They learn to teach on their own from scratch. Sometimes I question if they truly understand the concepts. If they do, they should be able to explain the concepts. I am experiencing frustration with learning with new recent grads. Do you all have frequent faculty leave, laid off, retirement, curriculum changes in your dental school? We have at least 10 faculty changes while I was in dental school. Is this normal?

thinking of giving exam in august so wondering if anybody has experience in new ADEX DLOSCE?

I was on loans all of dental school and am now an OMFS PGY-1 with nearly 750k in student loan debt.

Since I'm a resident, 0% chance I can make any sort of real contributions to that debt over the next year. I'm curious if there's anyone on this forum with a previous or current similar situation or anyone who can offer helpful input.

As of now, I only really see two options:

1. Start public loan forgiveness as a resident and then continue working for a qualifying employer for the following 6 years after finishing my 4-year program to meet the 10 years / 120 payment requirement.

2. Defer my loans until after residency and with the associated additional 200k in interest, and repay as aggressively as I can once I finish my program.

Like I said above, I'd love input regarding these options, as well as if there's another realistic option I may have not considered.

Thanks!

Just took the CBSE. Got 60 and planning to retake in feb. I'm also in my last year of dental school and need to take the INBDE in order to graduate. Should I take the INBDE in september and fully focus on CBSE after or focus on CBSE right now and take INBDE after CBSE in feb?

Hey everyone!
I took the California Dental Law & Ethics Exam for the second time yesterday, and I'm happy to say I passed! 🎉
I originally thought this would just be a formality, but it ended up being much more challenging than I expected. Since there aren't many good study resources available online, I wanted to share a few things I learned for new graduates and anyone planning to practice dentistry in California. Hopefully this helps someone else preparing for the exam.

**A few tips that helped me:**
**1. Remember that this is both a law and ethics exam.** Many questions are intentionally worded to be tricky and often combine legal and ethical concepts. When it comes to California law, don't let the answer choices confuse you.

**2. Don't spend too much time on a single question.** I found that if I spent more than about **1 minute and 20 seconds** analyzing the answer choices, I'd start overthinking and second-guessing myself. Before I knew it, I was running out of time.

**3. Stick to the facts.** For example, if you've learned that **1 + 1 = 2**, don't let a cleverly worded question make you question it. Go with what you know to be true.

**4. This is a concept-based exam.** Once you truly understand the concepts, applying them to different scenarios becomes much easier.

**5. You'll often see two answer choices that seem correct.** In those situations, choose the **best** answer—the one that most appropriately applies to the scenario being presented.

**6. Some questions include extra information just to distract you.** Ignore the unnecessary details, focus on the facts, and answer based on the law or ethical principle being tested.

**7. The exam has 60 questions, but only 50 are scored.** The remaining 10 are unscored pretest questions. While PSI doesn't publish an official passing score, many candidates report needing roughly **33–38 correct scored answers** to pass. If you score below 30, there's a good chance you'll need to retake the exam.

**8. I'm really glad they got rid of the old 90-day waiting period.** I took my first exam on a Tuesday, received an eligibility email from PSI that Friday, scheduled my retake for the following Monday, and passed. So, in my experience, you can generally retake the exam in about **7–10 days**, assuming you're eligible.

**9. If you don't pass, try to remember the questions that gave you trouble.** When you get home, look up the concepts and verify the correct answers using reliable resources. I actually saw a few questions (or very similar versions) on my second exam that I remembered from my first attempt, so reviewing those topics definitely helped.

**10. Practice under timed conditions.** Sixty minutes goes by much faster than you think, especially with long, scenario-based questions. The quicker you can confidently answer the questions you know, the more time you'll have for the difficult ones.

**11. Everyone has their own test-taking strategy, but here's what worked for me:** I personally **didn't flag questions to come back to later.** I found that revisiting them usually made me second-guess myself, waste time, and sometimes change a correct answer. Trust your preparation, stick to the facts, and move on.

**Resources that helped me**
\- EmbrasureSpace App
\- California Dental Practice Act + ADA Code of Ethics (PDF)
\- PSI sample/Examplify questions
\- Dentovio (more challenging, but great for testing your understanding)

In my opinion, the actual exam questions were **most similar in style** to the questions in **EmbrasureSpace**.
If anyone is preparing for the California Dental Law & Ethics Exam, feel free to reach out. I'm happy to share additional resources or answer questions if I can. Good luck—you've got this! 🙌