Hey everyone, welcome to the first episode of the Dose to Dental Podcast.
The focus of this podcast is to share undergraduate and dental school experiences from dental
students and dental professionals through valuable discussions.
Through sharing the journeys and stories of current dental students and dental professionals,
our goals are to help you find answers or guidance for your own pre-dental dreams.
We are very excited to have dental student Zaid Ramon as our guest today.
Good on everyone.
Zaid graduated from Sonia Brook University, the degree in biochemistry.
He's now an incoming D3 student at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine.
He's planning to specialize in orthodontics.
As an undergraduate, Zaid was heavily involved in the pre-dental society at Sonia Brook University,
conducted research at the Sonia Brook School of Dental Medicine, and served as a teaching
assistant for organic chemistry.
Hey Zaid, welcome to the podcast.
We're so happy to have you.
How does it feel to complete your second year of dental school so far?
It's exciting.
A little nerve-wracking too because at the end of your second year, going into your third
year, you begin seeing patients.
You go into clinic and you put everything you learned into practice.
So Zaid, of course, welcome to the podcast.
I've known you for a couple, I guess a couple of months now.
You used to be the president of the pre-dental society here at Sonia Brook, so welcome back.
So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you are, where you're from,
you know, how you come from.
Sure, sure.
So I've lived on in Long Island, New York my whole life.
Like you guys said, I went to Sonia Brook University for undergrad, close to home.
I commuted there.
I was a biochemistry major, I minored in French.
And I mean, you guys gave me the whole intro already, but I'm really into basketball.
We could talk basketball anytime if you ever meet me.
Yeah, big into video games.
Right now, I live in Washington Heights in New York City, which is where the campus is.
Yeah.
So Zaid, of course, I have to ask you this.
What got you into dentistry?
What ignited that spark that you said that, okay, this is the thing I want to pursue?
Yeah, I mean, it's a combination of a lot of different things.
I'm growing up.
I was always interested in health, medicine, science, just STEM, like that general field.
I guess like middle school is when I started getting into career searching and what I should
be doing when I grow up.
And I went to the dentist.
I had a new dentist when I was in middle school and I was like, oh, well, this could be a
cool career.
They help people out.
They're business people.
They have their own hours.
It's a cool field.
And I thought about it over the years into high school.
I started shadowing a dentist.
Really enjoyed that experience.
And I think what really solidified it was one, pre-dental society, which we could go into
for a while.
And two, I went to a dental conference in New York, the Greater New York Dental Meeting.
And I saw thousands of dentists super passionate about their field, talking about dental technology,
different dental diseases, what they're doing to treat patients.
And I was just so inspired by how passionate these people are and how progressed with the
field is, how it's evolving every day.
And that really lured me towards dentistry.
So you talked about the pre-dental society and the kind of role that I played.
What about it really made you attracted to dentistry?
Was it the community that they had there?
Something you guys did?
Events, stuff like that.
You can go more into that.
So when I was an undergrad, the pre-dental society was super involved with the dental
school.
And from the start, we would visit the dental school and do hands-on activities.
And I saw that dental students themselves took time out of the day to show their field
to us.
And that really, I was really motivating to me and dental faculty too.
They took time out of their busy days to show us different procedures, make us more interested
about the field.
And having that support system and going to a school, an undergrad that had a dental school,
was super helpful and really solidified my positive opinion about dentistry and maybe
want to pursue it even more.
Yeah, that sounds great.
I mean, I think it's really cool.
You found a community of people that you really looked up to in the pre-dental society.
And even at Sony Brook right now, I'm in the pre-dental society and it's just a really
good, tight-knit community of people and so very fortunate for that.
So you mentioned you shadowed a little bit before we got started here.
I was wondering if there was a certain event or sort of experience that really got the
ball rolling for you?
Yeah, I mean, I started shadowing in high school and to college.
It was at like a family, friends office.
The procedures themselves, like shadowing the dentist was like, it was like cool and
cool, but I really liked how the dental hygienists there really mentored me and showed me how
to do different things.
And I don't know, I'm just really attracted to people and fields where they're very welcoming.
And I also went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic for volunteers around the world, the
organization.
We went to the Dominican Republic and to see that dentists from that country volunteering
their own time to help their own community and to allow us to be involved, it was also
a very positive experience for me that I really value.
Yeah, me personally, I went to Guatemala from May 27th to June 9th of this year.
And when I tell you, I work as a dental assistant here in Manorville.
We're into a third world country and seeing how lucky we are here to even have access
to simple dental care compared to what they have.
Patients would come in, they have an abscess, infections, this and that.
We can only do so much because we're only going to see them for maybe a day, one appointment.
So that was a little bit frustrating that we couldn't help them more, but the fact that
we could impact them a little bit just giving them a little bit of a simple cleaning or
a filling or an extraction if they needed it felt really good.
But it really opened my eyes to the struggle of dental care around the world.
So was that something that you found too?
Did you see that discrepancy between how fortunate we are here and how less fortunate they are?
Did that propel you to solidify your placement in dentistry even more?
Definitely, for sure.
I encourage anyone, if you have the opportunity to serve in the underserved community, whether
that's outside of yours or within the US, there's a lot of errors, rural errors in the
country that lack dental health care.
I encourage anyone to go out there and see the humanity in the field and it really puts
perspective on the work and contribution you can do in your career.
It's a very altruistic career if you want it to be one.
Exactly, for sure.
So I wanted to ask, how did you organize your experiences during undergrad?
What activities did you focus on getting involved with?
Did you give an order of importance and which activities you prefer to do with the others?
How did you structure your extracurricular activities during undergraduate?
Yeah, we talked about it briefly, but it all starts with pre-dental society.
It differs by every university, but St. Annaberks is so strong and so supportive.
They really gave me guidance on what exactly I should be doing if I want to go into dental
school, if I want to become a dentist.
I get involved with pre-dental society if you have one at your school.
If you don't, maybe you could be the one to start your pre-dental society.
That took priority.
That was the main activity I did in undergrad and it kind of branched out from there.
From there I learned about volunteers around the world.
From there I was able to find a research position at the dental school.
One thing I really enjoyed during undergrad was being a TA.
I TA'd for organic chemistry for two and a half years.
There's something just so rewarding about teaching other students about a subject that
you yourself struggled in at one point and allowing people to overcome the mental block
that is organic chemistry and making things easier for other people.
I think that's super rewarding.
So yeah, you kind of touched upon being an organic chemistry teaching assistant.
I actually was able to be one last semester.
In addition to helping it, relearning the material for like DAT or something, to even
like help a struggling student that much, it's really valuable.
Something I wanted to ask, what kind of skills did you develop through all these electrocleric
activities that you feel really helped you now that you're in dental school?
I would say leadership.
A combination of leadership, TAing really helped me build discipline knowing that there
are deadlines that I need to meet, being able to delegate roles among other people in dental
school now that I'm in clinic at the report to faculty at the work with other students.
It's a lot of coordination at the work with people at the front desk.
That type of dedication and I guess it's a combination of different things that you
pick up, discipline from TAing, anything specific.
I don't know, just the fact that I always kept myself busy and undergrad and knew that
there are deadlines that I needed to meet and that there are consequences to these deadlines,
really put into perspective of the importance of me doing my job and that's translated into
dental school, to be honest.
So yeah, it sounds like you really had a good order of your commitments and your priorities
and check.
It's something that's really important even as most of these free dental students transition
to the dental school process.
So I want to ask along those lines, how was that time management aspect of it?
Was it also something you had to tackle?
It started with my own personal situation.
So I mentioned that I was a commuter at Stony Brook.
Fortunately, I lived five or 10 minutes away from home or away from school.
But my father worked at the university and I would always coordinate my schedule with
his meaning.
I would have to go to school at seven in the morning and leave five in the afternoon.
So it really taught me to prioritize what I need to get done at school and then do whatever
else I can at home, whatever those tasks may be, and it really organized my day throughout.
And balancing that with friends, I mean, knowing that by 5pm, I think a lot of things done.
It left me with a lot of free time in the evening.
If I need to say after I could hang out with my friends, do other things, go to do other
activities.
But I don't know, I was on a strict schedule at Serum Points and undergrad that really
straightened me out.
So I kind of want to go back to your why.
Like a big issue, not issue, but dilemma that a lot of pre-dentalists face is once we find
our why, or if we have found our why, how do we maintain that motivation and not lose
focus of your goal?
Not only do you do undergrad, but like in dental school because, at least for me, shadowing
or something kind of reignites that flame.
I want to do this.
When you're stuck in the books, it's a little bit different.
For sure, like during school, you can find yourself kind of thinking like, do I still
want to do this?
I still want to do this.
How did you maintain that passion?
Yeah, I definitely understand that concern.
I mean, once you find your why, I feel like that answers a lot of the question.
But I say keep yourself involved in dentistry and whatever way possible.
You said to Faraj that you're a dental assistant.
That keeps you in the field.
You know the ins and outs of that field and you're involved every day and you see your
dentist and you're like, I want to be him or her one day, you know?
I'm working towards that goal every day.
That's why I was in pre-dental society because I met so many dental students and they inspired
me to keep going.
I look at where they are in life and then I keep telling myself I want to be there and
if I keep in mind my why and keep myself involved, there's no reason why I shouldn't
make it, you know?
Yeah, no, I work as a dental assistant.
Last summer I worked full time but because school is starting, it's not that much time
to work but I definitely try to dedicate at least one or two days to work because I feel
like when I'm in that setting, I'm always more motivated to do my classes, to finish
my pre-dental coursework and whatever I got to do just because I know that that's where
I want to be, right?
It reminds me every time I go away and why I'm doing this.
Even though I know why, it just serves as another little bit of motivation and a little
bit like a reminder of why you're doing this and that's where you want to be in the future
so I think that's definitely what's feeling my why as I continue this process myself and
I'm pretty sure it's doing the same for a lot of other students as well.
So Zed, you mentioned you did a little bit of research during undergrad.
If you'd like to elaborate on exactly what you did, how did you get it, how did that
kind of work out for you?
Yeah, I mean, I was never inclined towards research.
I did some research in high school that was based on physics and I had really no idea
what was going on.
And then I didn't do any other research until the end of my junior year.
It was an anthropology.
It was somewhat related to dental, something like that, ancient teeth, fossils and trying
to make connections to how ones had the teeth shape related to the diet in ancient times.
And then during my senior year of undergrad is when I found a position at the dental school
that was in implantology and kind of material science, but it's very related to dentistry.
It was super interesting.
I mean, I would never tell someone to pursue research in a field that they're not interested
in because it's going to be like a living nightmare every day.
Like you're going to be there for several hours a day, not enjoying what you're doing,
wishing you could be doing other things.
And it's not doing justice to the work that you put in and to the mentor that you're working
under.
You're not doing anyone justice by doing that.
I wouldn't say it's necessary to do research at all against the dental school.
Maybe certain schools like Columbia are research focused and they have a big research system
at the school, but I know plenty of my classmates who didn't do research and they're there with
me at Columbia.
It's always a plus though.
It shows that you're able to commit to a certain field.
This doesn't have to be dentistry, but you're able to commit time, produce tangible work
and contribute to the field of science or the world of science, which is always a good
thing.
So just bouncing off that, how can pre-dentals choose a topic for research and how can they
find it?
Because I know everyone's just email a bunch of people, throw a dart at the board, see
what happens.
Is there a secret formula?
Is it something like that?
I mean, at the most basic level, it's always email a professor, first look at the research
papers, see if it's an interesting topic, and then shoot your shot and see if they'll
respond.
I feel like that's, I don't know, you really don't know what you're getting into if you
do that, right?
You're not actually like it.
I think the best thing to do is find some undergraduate student or some dental student
who is working under some research mentor, ask them about their research, and then try
to sneak your way into joining that lab or wait till whatever student graduates or something
and try to pick it up from there.
But I think the best thing to do is talk to students who are actively involved in research,
be intimate, I'm asking everything about it, ask them, is it something you're really interested
in or is it just something you're doing for your resume?
And the, the students more often than that will give you an honest answer.
And they'll tell you the best professors to go to, the most, the ones that are most enjoyable
to work under.
I mean, that is also the look of your job too, you might not know someone like that,
but if you want the best results, always best to network, branch out, find other people
that are already in research.
So just like a quick follow up question.
Were you able to publish after all the research or did you kind of just, you know, did it
show up in your interviews to Columbia like you're so ongoing, you're doing it continually?
Yeah.
So I mentioned that I started my research during my senior year at the dental school
and that was also while I was interviewing.
So I didn't have much tangible work done at that time, but I, if it ever came up in the
interview, I told them the interview or what I was working on, how the progress is going.
I didn't, I didn't really pivot my application or my resume towards research.
I just mentioned it.
I told them I was working on it.
I did end up publishing, but that was actually a few months ago.
It was like years after I graduated, partially because of the pandemic, but partially because
I was just getting into the research field at the time while I was interviewing.
So it wasn't really a big part of my application.
Yeah.
And I think that's a, that's a really interesting perspective because I know a lot of students
feel like they need to do research, you know, before, you know, they bought dental school
and the application, but I feel like even I didn't know that, that you could just put
that down as your application.
They weren't really questioned that much, but they, they, I guess they'd appreciate that,
you know, you're still working towards your goal even after you've applied and in a way,
you're kind of trusting the school that, you know, that they'll, they'll trust you and
that you're going to finish your research during your senior year.
So that's just something really interesting.
I didn't really think about it that way, but yeah.
So how, how has Columbia been?
How's, you know, I know you're going to incoming D three.
So how, you know, how's the clinic's been, how the class has been, how is just the entire
vibe of Columbia, Delvin?
Yeah.
I could give you like a quick rundown of the first two years.
Just so you students or undergrad have an expectation of what goes on.
It's different at every school, but Columbia is one of the few schools where your curriculum
is integrated with the medical school.
So the first year and a half, you're taking mostly medical school courses, you know, like
biochemistry, anatomy, stuff like that, alongside the medical students, which is super cool.
You get to know everything about the human body, which I think is super important for
the next generation of dentists.
And then they sprinkle in dental courses throughout the first year.
And you start your hand skills.
The second semester, you go into a sim lab, work on procedures on mannequins and type of
stuff, and then into the fourth semester, so after a year and a half of mostly medical
school classes as when you're fully quote unquote a dental student, you're taking all
these different types of dental courses, you're taking each specialty one at a time, we started
orthodontics, then we had to pediatrics, oral surgery.
And then towards the end of the second year is when you start ramping up for clinic.
You're performing all doing hand skills like all the time.
And you get a lot of you're been barred in with information on how to work with patients,
how to manage the electronic health record, what to do when you're inside the actual clinic,
what to expect how to set up a chair.
And it comes out you fast kind of in the last month or two.
That's what that's what I've been doing.
One thing I will say about dental school that some people may not know is that courses can
start and end at any point in time.
It's not like a semester based schedule where you're taking one class at a certain time
certain days a week throughout the whole semester.
Classes can span like for example like three weeks long, and it's like four hours a day
every day of the week.
And then you have a final like in the middle of the semester like in April or March or
something.
Just a heads up on that one because kind of it can be it can be kind of fast paced.
Yeah, I think that change of pace like from undergrad to like, you know, I just actually
just learned that myself like dental school.
That's kind of crazy because, you know, as undergrad your whole schedule is predicated
on when your classes start and stuff like that.
But dental school gets you out of your brain for everything.
So like I just wanted to ask you like, how did you choose Columbia?
Did you apply to other schools?
Like was there something about Columbia that really stood out to you?
Yeah.
So I applied to I think six schools all in Northeast.
I want to say somewhat close to home.
My priority in choosing a dental school was going somewhere where I would be the most
happy and the least stressed.
So Stonerbrook was a fantastic school.
It was one of my final choices is between Stonerbrook and Columbia.
What I really loved about Columbia, I'm sure a lot of people already know is that the curriculum
is past fail.
And not only that, it's it's a very supportive system.
Failure doesn't mean you're going to kick that a dental school failure is an opportunity
to learn and refocus your skills and understand where you need more guidance.
Right.
That's what they really emphasize at our school.
And I feel like that produces a really low stress environment.
You're able to learn to become a dentist at your own pace.
And the vibe at the school when I interviewed was amazing.
It was the most of the entry process was led by students themselves.
Everyone was super upbeat, super happy to be there, always complimentary of the school.
And I want to go somewhere where like everyone is just everyone enjoys doing what they do
of being there every day.
And I thought Columbia stood out more than any other school.
And I know it's a very expensive school to go to.
But my philosophy is I'm in my 20s.
I'm at the peak of my life.
I want to be as happy and least stressed as possible.
And no matter the cost, I'll pay I'll pay out the loans when I'm older.
But I just I need to be as the least stressed as possible.
And Columbia offered that.
Yeah, I think that's another very important factor to consider that, you know, you have
this past fail curriculum and some of these schools, I know.
So you mentioned Columbia has it that definitely probably reduces a lot of stress, as you said,
from being this rigorous dental school process that everyone has to go through.
And definitely something to consider for, you know, those applying this cycle or, you
know, an obviously in future cycles.
So on that note, like the low stress, how has the social life been in Columbia?
How, you know, how have you felt it?
How have you felt fitting and so far?
Do you feel like about your classmates and, you know, what kind of events are you involved in there?
Yeah, I mean, involvement for me, I'm not really involved in too many things right now.
I've for the first couple of years, I was involved in as the district to only mainly
to give back because as has done so much during my undergrad years to support pre dental students
and I wanted to carry that on.
I'm part of the orthodontic society, which is super cool because we get speakers,
previous alum, orthodontists to come give us advice on what the field is like, super cool.
I'm sure every school has that.
But I think we have so many cool different clubs like we have a club called CD, CD,
um, Columbia dental, um, which is all about like professors and other people like
showing us how to cook different recipes and cool stuff like that.
Like it's all about food.
I think we have a social class chairs.
They organize the coolest events for us last week.
Our class won on a boat cruise just to celebrate the end of the first two years of dental school.
A month before we had previous alum who became our class parents,
sponsored a whole dinner for our class.
We went out to a restaurant, had a great time.
Um, and the Columbia, Columbia alum really look out for us.
And that's also something I really love about the school, how, um,
your involvement with the school doesn't always end when you graduate.
They're very active, um, and they want to see a success and, and they see us succeed and, and, uh,
allow us to have fun.
That's actually kind of nice to hear.
That means like, you know, Columbia is a really good, you know, it does good things for people there.
Yeah.
Sounds like a really good, you know, experience.
Um, I know I saw on your social media page that you, you were certified to do cleanings now.
Is that what that was?
Oh, no, no, it was, um, so for those we don't know, um, at the end of your first two years of
dental school, um, or at least at Columbia, there's a ceremony called the clinician,
clinician ceremony that commemorates the, um, uh, the introduction of dental students into the clinic.
So it was just, there's just a ceremony, um, uh, before we started seeing patients for the first time.
Uh, kind of going back to, you know, the pre-dental experience,
what are some things that pre-dental students should really focus on to look attractive,
um, to different schools like a unique way?
Um, I know definitely grades are like 50% of it.
Definitely.
Like, what are the things, you know, maybe, maybe even about grades, like,
how do you maintain all these things?
Yeah, I mean, the first thing is having a good GPA and good DAT score.
That's like getting one step into the door, um, right, on your application.
Um, unique dental experiences would be great if you have, you're involved in a summer
summer dental program.
I know Stonerberg has one.
There's something called, um, SHPEP, I think.
Um, summer health scholars, something along those lines.
Um, I think any experience that, um, shows your involvement in dentistry specifically
is super helpful.
Example, uh, outreach in the dental field.
If you have significant hours, if you've committed months or years into that,
I think whatever you do, if it's dental related, uh, if it's a long-term commitment,
that's like a really positive, like, um, that's a real big plus on your application
because it shows that, okay, this kid is, hey, you smart, cool, but he's also really
committed to the field already.
He's not even in dental school yet, you know?
Um, those are the biggest things to me.
And I think a lot of, a lot of pre-dental students think they have to major in some
science, like biology or biochemistry.
I've come to realize that's not at all.
You don't have to major in, in a hard science.
Uh, there's, one of my classmates was, uh, in finance for like years before you switched
over to dentistry.
Another one, um, was in a whole different field.
I, uh, I don't want to say specifically, I don't want to talk about people's personal lives,
but, um, you can major in anything, anything that interests you.
That's why I majored in French because there's a personal interest in mine,
even though I majored in biochemistry, I, I spent the time, um, doing things that I was
super interested in.
So if you're committed to dentistry and you know you want to be a dentist,
it doesn't matter what major you're in.
Have fun with it while you're in undergrad.
Yeah.
And I think another really important point right there is, uh, you know, you don't have
to major in like a biology or biochemistry or some of these more STEM related, uh,
majors, you can definitely just do whatever you like, like business, law, uh, you know,
things like that.
Uh, so,
so yeah, I want to, let's, let's talk about the DAT, right?
And dental application as a whole now, um, something that every pre-dental student is,
is, uh, it's just something they have to face.
You got to face it that way.
Um, so can you run us through your application, like how that go?
How'd you feel about it?
Uh, you know, how'd you kind of overcame this, this, this gigantic monster of an application?
Yeah.
Um, so I took my DAT the winter of my junior year.
My initial plan was to take it between sophomore and junior year.
So I started studying that summer between sophomore and junior.
Um, and I wasn't really taking the studying very seriously.
Um, I studied chem, general chemistry and organic chemistry during that summer and that consumed
all of my time.
Um, I think the best thing to do before you started studying for the DAT itself,
wonder you're taking these pre-work as a classes that are correlated to the DAT.
I have that perspective that not only do I need to do well, um, in this class to get a good grade,
but I also have to really understand the material in the future so that when I study for the DAT,
it'll come easy to me.
Um, keep that perspective while you're taking those classes and really understand the material.
Um, I think TAing really helped me with the chemistry section.
Um, because also I think the best, best way to learn something is, uh, to learn something to the
point where you could teach it back to someone else.
Because then at that point, you really understand the material and it, it, it makes logical sense
in your head, right?
You're not just memorizing bullet points or facts to be able to explain it back to someone means you,
you really know your stuff in that field.
That's the, I mean, you can't do that for every single subject, but, um, as much as you can for
whatever, for bio, for Jen Ken, one of those, it'll go a long way.
So during my winters, when I really started, um, cramming the books, I think it was five or six
weeks.
I used DAT Bootcamp.
I heard DAT Booster is also very, very good.
Like maybe even better than the Bootcamp nowadays, but I took my DAT like three years ago.
DAT Bootcamp was more than enough to help me, um, do well on the exam.
And another thing is for the PAT, the Perceptual Abilities Test, that's the most intimidating
to me because it's the one subject where you don't have previous experience or exposure to
until you start studying for the Perceptual Ability, um, part of the exam.
So I recommend months before you start really studying for the DAT, treat, do some practice
problems every single day, 15 minutes, and treat it like a puzzle.
Treat it like the daily word or something, you know, um, just make it a habit, keep doing it
little by little.
And by the time you start really studying for the DAT, it's like, it's like a fun little
like game to you at that point.
Sounds great.
Yeah.
I know.
I'm, you know, I was, I wanted to take it, you know, like do it this summer, um, but decided
to do some research instead.
So I'm kind of focusing on that.
And yeah, um, planning on doing it, like I study, you know, during the fall semester
and take it next year early.
Yeah.
Of course we, we both, I think we're both going to apply, you know, the June, the June cycle.
So next summer.
Oh, so right, right.
So, so no gap here you're saying?
Uh, I don't think, yeah.
I mean, it sounds like fun.
Yeah.
Um, so you mentioned that you specialize, you want to specialize in epidemics, right?
Yeah.
So, um, did this come from when you were shadowing or was it kind of like a, did it grow on you
as you started dental school?
Um, so it was always in the back of my mind.
I had braces when I was a kid in middle school.
I thought it was really cool that worth a dent is like their job.
Um, I don't know.
I was like, Oh, it seems like a relaxing career like laid back, but you're also helping people, um,
at the same time.
So that was in the back of my head.
And then during dental school, we had like a two or three week block of orthodontics.
Um, and I found that super fascinating when we, um, that orthodontics is more than just
putting on braces and calling it a day.
It's about treatment planning, your patient years in advance, um, understanding
jaw relationships, um, in patients and how that might affect, um, how the teeth, um,
set and how they are positioned.
Um, and I don't know.
I'm, I'm someone who likes to plan ahead.
Um, and, and really like, uh, work with someone over a long period of time to, to see themselves
that, uh, their treatment at completion, uh, work alongside a patient is super cool over time.
And I just love that, that age group like that young teen, young adult group,
they're just so fun to be around.
You get, I mean, me right now, I could really relate to them because I'm, I'm still kind of young,
right?
Um, but I mean, those people are always like, I don't know, they, they're so, uh, they, they
have a lot of light in them, you know?
And that kind of gives you more light when you, you work with them, you know, kind of
like reduce battery things aren't going well, you know, make it, make it, make a joke or
something, light you up.
Yeah.
So, um, you know, from here, where do you see yourself in the next two years?
Three years, four years, like what are your future goals?
Maybe not only for the next step of your life, but you know, for dental school.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm trying to be the most, um, dedicated dental student I can be by being in the clinic
as much as I can.
I realized that they, uh, you really get your handheld throughout this process in dental
school, right?
Once you graduate, there's no one there to tell you that you did something wrong.
There's no one there to tell you, oh, you did something.
Oh, if you did something well, right?
There's just, there's no guidance like that.
So I want to take advantage of my faculty as much as I can, learn as much as I can in
these next two years because, um, that's what I'm paying for and, and it'll only help me
in the long run.
Um, just being a really dedicated dental student is, is on my mind doing anything I can
to get into orthodontics.
I mean, I'm open to other specialties actually at the moment, like orthodontics is a dead
set, um, because I just haven't had enough experience in the other fields to really,
really know what I want to do, right?
I've not done an actual orthodontic case.
I've not done an actual denture case.
Maybe I'll really, I'll really like dentures in the future, but, um, I really just want
to take my time exploring the different fields, um, hopefully get into some type of residency
program, um, in these next couple of years and just enjoy life in the meantime.
I'm in New York City.
Um, you know, there's, things are opening up.
I want to enjoy my time, have friends over and like explore the city together and have
a good time, you know?
I'm very sure of that.
I think that you're going to do great things in the future.
So why don't you leave us with a little bit of advice for our, uh, pre-dental listeners,
as they continue on their own journeys?
I would say don't get lost in the sauce.
Um, there's, there's been times where I've just been so focused on school and so focused
on getting into dental school that I forget that like I'm young and I'm in college and
I, I should be spending some time hanging out with my friends, playing basketball, doing
other things.
Um, and not everything in life is so serious all the time.
So definitely learn to, uh, pace yourself, learn to have some type of discipline, but
never forget that you're young and you have a life to live at the same time, you know?
That's something my mom always tells me like, shoot, why are you working so much?
Like just relax and enjoy life, stuff like that.
Um, but yeah, definitely next time you come back to Sonny Burke, I would need that one V1.
Well, it's down.
We got, you know, they just redid the recreation center.
So we really, okay.
I'm down to play at any time.
I'll definitely be praying for the New York Knicks.
I don't know what they're doing, but praying for them always.
Please.
We'll make the playhouses here.
I promise.
Hopefully.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I'm not going to say anything.
All right.
So that concludes this episode of the Dose of Dental Podcast.
Thank you, Zaid, for joining me and sharing your experiences and advice.
Your insight was definitely valuable and I hope that it will be the same for pre-dental listeners.
Everyone, please feel free to reach out to Zaid at his socials.
If you have any further questions, lastly, I thank everyone for listening.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to follow us on Instagram and Spotify.
And we will see you next time for another Dose of Dental.