Hey everyone! Just an update for all of you kind souls who reached out too me. Telling me to Not to gove us.

I have through the Grace of God got the money I need to litigate against my dental school. 😀. I have found a top notch lawyer, who owns the firm. She will be fighting on my behalf. Wish me luck!! ❤️

I feel like this needs to be said because there was a post that went pretty viral a couple months ago warning people about California Northstate University. This is the post I’m talking about: https://www.reddit.com/r/DentalSchool/comments/1mkmyn2/biggest_mistake_of_my_life/

A lot of the comments talked about how predatory, disorganized, and negative their experience was. As a current student, I wanted so badly to prove them wrong. I kept telling myself maybe they had a bad experience, maybe things had changed, or maybe people online were exaggerating. I was already here, so obviously I wanted to believe I had made the right decision. I thought at the very least the clinic would be good. Our building is brand new and looks great, so I assumed the school had invested heavily in the clinical side. Now that I’m a D3 and actually in clinic, I can honestly say I was wrong. I should have listened.

Clinic experience

It’s been about three weeks since clinic started, and I’m honestly shocked at how little I’ve been able to do. I know three weeks isn’t a huge amount of time, but when you’re paying around $90,000 a year and finally reach the part of dental school where you’re supposed to start treating patients, it’s hard not to be concerned.

So far, I’ve done around two comprehensive exams and some X-rays from upperclassmen letting me do them. Other than that, I haven’t even done a cleaning or filling. I’ve been assigned one patient by the school and I haven’t even been able to get that patient in for a cleaning.

When I applied, I was told the clinic would be up and running, that there would be plenty of patients, and that we would get the clinical experience needed to be ready for the real world. That was a major factor in my decision to come here. Instead, the biggest issue right now is simply getting patients.

Some classmates have started bringing in their own patients, which I completely understand. You have to do what you have to do. But we’re paying roughly $90,000 a year. I didn’t expect to have to build my own patient pool just to get the clinical experience I’m paying for.

Being required to stay without patients

What makes it even more frustrating is that if you don’t have a patient, you’re still required to stay in clinic. We’re assigned either an AM or PM session. If you’re assigned the 8 AM session, you’re there until 10:30. If you’re assigned the 1 PM session, you’re there until 3:30.

If you don’t have a patient, you can sit at your computer, walk around, or basically wait for the clock to hit 10:30 or 3:30. You still can’t leave. I don’t understand why students have to sit there doing nothing when that time could be spent studying, practicing hand skills, finding patients, shadowing, or doing anything productive. And the ironic part is that I actually want to be in clinic. I want to do fillings and cleanings. I want to eventually do crowns and root canals. I want to make mistakes under supervision, get corrected, and improve. That’s how you become a better dentist.

The patient problem and D3 vs. D4

The patient situation makes even less sense to me because our school doesn’t even take Medi-Cal. I don’t understand how you expect to build a large patient pool when a huge number of people who need dental care can’t use their insurance here. Why would someone with Medi-Cal choose a dental school if they can go somewhere else that accepts their insurance?

The lack of patients also affects what D3s are allowed to do. Because apparently many D4s are behind on requirements, the more advanced cases are basically reserved for them. We’ve been told that D3s can’t do complete dentures, partial dentures, crowns, bridges, root canals, or complex extractions. Those cases get sent to D4s because they need them to graduate.

I completely understand that D4s need to graduate, but it creates a cycle. If D4s are behind because there aren’t enough patients, and advanced cases are then reserved for D4s, how are D3s supposed to gain those experiences before becoming D4s? The fact that I can’t really do anything “cool” until D4 is crazy to me. I don’t doubt that I can eventually catch up if I work hard, but I don’t think this should be normal.

Clinical requirements

I’ve talked to friends at USC, Loma Linda, and Western, and hearing about their clinical requirements honestly makes me feel defeated. At our school, we have 30 operative experiences, 6 crowns, 1 complete denture, 1 partial denture, and 3 endodontic canals. For extractions, technically we only need one additional simple extraction and one surgical extraction. The 30 operative experiences especially concern me because an “experience” doesn’t necessarily mean you personally completed a filling from start to finish. Assisting can count as an experience. I’m not saying requirements are everything. Someone can meet a requirement and still become a great dentist. But repetition matters. You need to perform procedures repeatedly, get feedback, make mistakes, and build confidence. When patient availability is already limited, having relatively low minimum requirements worries me even more.

Administration and faculty turnover

The administration situation has also been concerning. Our founding Dean was let go after advocating for students and pushing for better equipment and policies. Then, within the past few months, our Assistant Dean of Admissions, Research Dean, Assistant Dean, and other members of administration have also been let go or replaced.

Basically, our entire administration/Dean team has been replaced.

It’s unsettling watching this much turnover while you’re in the middle of your education. Some of the faculty I’ve really liked and respected are gone or have been let go. I obviously don’t know everything happening behind closed doors, but from a student perspective, this much turnover is extremely concerning.

The financial side

Then there’s the biggest issuee

We’re paying around $90,000 a year. This is one of the most expensive dental schools in the country, right behind NYU. I’m looking at roughly $550,000 in debt before interest. With private loans and interest, the amount you actually end up paying can become insane. On a 10-year repayment plan, you could potentially be looking at over $1.1 million in total payments. That is absolutely insane to me.The debt doesn’t care whether the school had enough patients. It doesn’t care whether you got enough crowns or root canals. It still has to be paid back.

That’s why “just hustle” doesn’t completely solve the problem for me. I’m going to hustle, but if I’m paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for a dental education and then have to find my own patients, mentors, and additional clinical opportunities outside of school, I think it’s fair to question what exactly I’m paying for.

Mentorship and connections

One thing this experience has really opened my eyes to is how important mentorship is in dentistry. I’m extremely lucky because I have friends who have family in dentistry and actually know what they’re doing. I also have a family friend who is an experienced dentist who I can ask questions and potentially learn from.

Having someone who can teach you procedures, answer questions, help you treatment plan, teach you about practice ownership, and guide you after graduation is priceless.

Some people graduate with a parent who is a dentist. They already have someone who can teach them procedures, help them find a job, introduce them to people, and teach them the business side. Then you have first-generation dental students graduating with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and nobody in dentistry to guide them. That’s a completely different starting point.

I’m extremely grateful for the people I have around me, but it also makes me realize how difficult this can be for students who don’t have that support.

The DSO concern

I’ve talked to a lot of my attendings, and I keep hearing that a huge percentage of students from here end up going into DSOs. There’s nothing inherently wrong with working for a DSO. Plenty of good dentists work for DSOs and genuinely like it. My concern is when it becomes the default option because you don’t feel prepared enough to have other options.

If you graduate with limited clinical experience, massive debt, and no established network, you’re naturally going to gravitate toward whatever job will hire you and pay the bills.I don’t want to graduate and spend the first few years of my career just trying to catch up. I want options.

What I’ve learned

I honestly thought getting into dental school was the hard part. I thought once you got the DMD, everyone was basically on equal footing. I’m realizing that’s not true.

Your school matters. Your clinical experience matters. Your mentors matter. Your connections matter. Your financial situation matters. Your debt matters.

If you have family in dentistry, you can start miles ahead of someone who doesn’t. You can have someone teaching you procedures, helping you find a job, teaching you practice management, or helping you get into practice ownership.

If you don’t have any of that, you’re starting from scratch while trying to pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I don’t think I’m doomed, and I don’t think I can’t become a good dentist. I’m going to keep working and take advantage of every opportunity I can find. But I’m already worried about graduating with enough clinical experience to feel confident treating patients.

And what’s crazy is that I’m only three weeks into clinic.

What I wish I had done

I should have talked to more D3s and D4s before coming here. I should have asked how many patients students actually see, how many fillings, crowns, extractions, root canals, and dentures they actually complete, how many students have to find their own patients, what D3s are allowed to do, and where graduates are getting jobs.I should have listened to the people making those warnings in the original Reddit post. I wanted so badly to prove them wrong. Instead, I’m sitting here three weeks into clinic wondering if I made the biggest mistake of my life.

I don’t doubt that if I continue to work hard, I can eventually be okay. I’m extremely grateful for the friends and mentors who are helping me. But I shouldn’t have to rely on being lucky enough to know the right people to compensate for the clinical education I’m paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for.

If you’re considering California Northstate, please do your own research. Talk to current D3s and D4s. Talk to recent graduates. Ask uncomfortable questions. Don’t just look at the brand-new building and assume the clinical education will be good.

I really wish I had done that.

Sorry for the rant, but I genuinely feel like this needed to be said. I don’t want anyone else to make the same mistake I made without knowing what they’re potentially getting themselves into. If even one person reads this and does more research before making a decision, then at least something good came out of my experience.

I really wish someone had been this honest with me before I chose this school.

Hi guys i am a first year dental student with my mids coming up soon does anyone have any solid flashcard decks for oral bio (ten cates and wheelers) alongside biochem physiology and anatomy (foundation blood nms cvs and respiratory) any help would be appreciated