1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,400 Hey guys, before this episode begins, I just want to let you all know that I've partnered 2 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:06,960 with DOT Bootcamp to offer a 10% discount code on all Bootcamp products. 3 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:11,000 Whilst learning from my DOT, I've found that DOT Bootcamp to be the best resource during 4 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:12,000 my preparation. 5 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,600 There are extensive review videos and practice exams are second to none. 6 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:20,760 Use code DOD10 at checkout for a 10% discount, applicable to all programs Bootcamp has to 7 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:21,760 offer. 8 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:43,040 Everyone, welcome back to another episode of the DOSEDENTAL podcast. 9 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:46,640 The focus of this podcast is to share undergraduate and dental school experiences from dental 10 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:49,880 students and dental professionals through valuable discussions. 11 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:53,080 We're sharing the journeys and stories of current dental students and dental professionals, 12 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:55,880 or go help you find answers or guidance for your own pre-dental journeys. 13 00:00:55,880 --> 00:01:00,880 We are very excited to have Sonia Brick dental student Lesia Nantani with us today. 14 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:04,080 Lesia graduated from Emmer University with a bachelor's degree in biology and global 15 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:05,080 health. 16 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:07,480 She is now a D1 student at Sonia Brick School of Dental Medicine. 17 00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:09,480 Hey Lesia, welcome to the podcast. 18 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:11,040 How was your first year of dental school been going? 19 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:12,720 It's kind of crazy that you're almost done with it. 20 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:15,240 I know, it actually is crazy that I think I'm almost done. 21 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:19,440 I feel like this year went by so quickly, but it went really well. 22 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:23,880 We were in the med school for the first half of it until spring break, and then we just 23 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:26,320 started in the dental school three weeks ago. 24 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:28,280 It's definitely a fresh perspective. 25 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:30,080 It's nice to be in the dental school full time. 26 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:34,480 You already knew going in that you're going to be with the medical students for the first 27 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:35,480 half of the year. 28 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:36,480 Yeah. 29 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:41,000 Why don't you just live by yourself, where you're from, where you grew up, what you like 30 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:42,160 to do for fun? 31 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:47,880 Yeah, so I'm actually originally from Phoenix, Arizona, so kind of far away from here. 32 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:52,960 I guess my favorite things to do are, I was part of a dance team when I was small and 33 00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:53,960 in college. 34 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:55,440 I like to paint. 35 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,160 I have my paintings up all around my room. 36 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:02,280 Also, I just like to get outside, work out, stay active. 37 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:07,240 So whether that means getting outside, hiking in Arizona was a big thing growing up, or 38 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:10,480 now just going on walks outside to get a little bit of sun. 39 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:13,360 I definitely missed that from Arizona. 40 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:17,840 But yeah, everything's just been... I've had time to be able to do those things. 41 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:19,800 Well, I'm in dental school. 42 00:02:19,800 --> 00:02:25,120 Well, that's against the time management aspect, dental school, how you kind of manage your 43 00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:28,520 time and have time to do other things besides just studying. 44 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:30,360 But I want to hit you with that question, right? 45 00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:31,520 So why dentistry? 46 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:32,520 Yeah. 47 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:36,040 So my mom is actually a general dentist. 48 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:38,160 So I feel like I was in this space growing up. 49 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:42,800 I saw what it entails, and I just realized that it's a perfect fit for me. 50 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:49,600 I always enjoyed medicine, but I think dentistry is specifically a good fit for people who 51 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:54,760 enjoy working with their hands, who are more artistic, who like that patient interaction 52 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:55,960 every single day. 53 00:02:55,960 --> 00:03:00,800 I know that one great thing that she loved about the job that I also resonated with is 54 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:04,200 seeing generations of patients coming into her office. 55 00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:09,080 And so you really, really get that close patient interaction, and you get to know these people 56 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:10,080 like their family. 57 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:12,960 Now, were you like around her office a lot? 58 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,120 Did you kind of assist her a little bit as you grew up, or were you just kind of, you 59 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:17,120 know, always in it? 60 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:18,120 Yeah. 61 00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:21,160 So I was definitely a hard kid to actually come in and work. 62 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:22,600 I never wanted to do that. 63 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:24,880 But I would go and shadow her. 64 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:29,280 I also worked front office at her office for a while, which I think is super important. 65 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:33,440 I think that we don't really get the chance to learn the business aspect or the front 66 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:35,680 office aspect in dental school. 67 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:38,960 And it's really important to get an idea of what that's going to be like since most 68 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:42,240 of us end up working in private practice after we graduate. 69 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:46,320 And so that was a super helpful experience, just understanding insurances, understanding 70 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:50,800 marketing, understanding, you know, like how to keep patients coming and keep them comfortable 71 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:52,400 in the office. 72 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:53,920 I think so I work in office too. 73 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:59,280 And there's always like a little dynamic between the front desk people and like our 74 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:01,000 assistants, because we have no idea. 75 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,320 We just, we're just there to like do the procedures, right? 76 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:04,320 To help doctors. 77 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:08,080 But we don't know, you know, patient might take like an hour for consult, but then they 78 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:10,960 have no insurance and they can't do the procedure at the end of the day. 79 00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:15,640 So I think there's a lot to be said about the knowledge of assistance to understand 80 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:19,880 what the insurance aspect of it is, just so that maybe in the future we can like maybe 81 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:24,040 make the most out of our time at doctor's time, because if patients are going to come 82 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:27,920 in and do a consult for like an hour and then they eventually just get nothing done, then 83 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:32,760 I feel like it's kind of not a waste of everyone's time, but there could be like a better use 84 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:33,760 for most time. 85 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:35,800 So that's definitely an interesting part that you said. 86 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:39,160 And I know even at dental school, right, you have to do most of the administrative work 87 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:40,160 yourself. 88 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:41,160 Yeah. 89 00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:42,160 Right. 90 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:45,320 I think that we'll get a better idea of how that goes once we start in clinic. 91 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:49,120 But yeah, like you said, it's so important to have a good knowledge of the insurance 92 00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:50,120 aspect of it. 93 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:54,840 Like, I think that that's a big thing that's going to be affecting future dentists too. 94 00:04:54,840 --> 00:04:59,000 You know, a lot of people, I was just actually at Lobby Day for ASDA. 95 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:04,920 And one of the things that we were advocating for was insurance companies determining what 96 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:10,920 dentists can pay or can charge for certain things that they do in the office, even if 97 00:05:10,920 --> 00:05:15,200 the insurance doesn't cover the whatever procedure is being done. 98 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:18,560 And so there's like a lot of, there's a lot of little things that insurance companies 99 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:22,720 have a control over in the office that we might not be aware of until we're actually 100 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:24,280 like a dentist practicing. 101 00:05:24,280 --> 00:05:28,480 And so having an idea of those things and going into it is definitely very valuable. 102 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:30,400 And I kind of write up on that a little bit. 103 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:35,280 Like, I don't understand how they can have fixed rates for things that they don't cover. 104 00:05:35,280 --> 00:05:36,280 Exactly. 105 00:05:36,280 --> 00:05:39,160 That's me, but they're trying to guess you again, I guess. 106 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:40,640 So let's rewind a little bit. 107 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:41,920 So how was your undergrad experience? 108 00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:43,920 I know you went to Emory, but you're from Arizona. 109 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:45,800 So how did that kind of work out? 110 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:48,680 Yeah, so I knew I wanted to go out of state. 111 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:53,600 I think Emory is known for being a very good school to prepare you for med school healthcare 112 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:56,080 professions in general like that. 113 00:05:56,080 --> 00:06:01,880 And so we had a very big pre-medical society, but the pre-dental society was really small 114 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:04,040 as I'm sure it is at most schools. 115 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:06,720 And so that was one thing that I really enjoyed getting involved in. 116 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:11,880 I ended up, you know, my second and third year, I was the vice president of community 117 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:14,860 service, I mean, of mentorship at Emory. 118 00:06:14,860 --> 00:06:18,440 And then my senior year, I was president of the pre-dental society. 119 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:24,880 And by doing that, I realized how much mentorship is required and how much you can learn, how 120 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:30,600 valuable it is to have those mentors, whether they're peers or upperclassmen or advisors 121 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:32,080 at the school. 122 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:35,960 And I think Emory was a really great place to be for pre-dental specifically because 123 00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:40,120 we actually had a specific pre-dental mentor or advisor. 124 00:06:40,120 --> 00:06:42,240 And so I ended up getting very close with him. 125 00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:45,840 He made sure to, you know, there are differences between applying to medical school and dental 126 00:06:45,840 --> 00:06:49,440 school, and he made sure to make those very clear to us. 127 00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:52,440 And so I think that I had an overall really great experience there. 128 00:06:52,440 --> 00:06:58,000 And the, I think the idea of increasing membership at the pre-dental society at Emory was something 129 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:01,960 that I was able to achieve by the end of the time that I was there. 130 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:05,520 So did you have your side set of dentistry like when you entered freshman year? 131 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:09,000 Like, did you already know that you wanted to go, like, I guess not maybe dentistry to 132 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:11,920 the science, medical route, but that's cool, dental school. 133 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:12,920 Yeah. 134 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:17,720 So, I mean, I knew that I wanted to do dentistry when I came in, but I think once I was there, 135 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:19,920 I kind of switched up a little bit. 136 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:24,680 I was interested in public health, as I said, I was a minor in global health, and I really, 137 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:28,040 really enjoyed everything that I was learning in those classes. 138 00:07:28,040 --> 00:07:32,840 But I think that I really solidified wanting to do dentistry after I started volunteering 139 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:35,640 at this free clinic in Atlanta. 140 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:40,040 It's called Clarkston Community Health Center, and they provide free care for low-income immigrants 141 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:42,980 and refugees in the Atlanta area. 142 00:07:42,980 --> 00:07:48,520 And I worked actually as a dental assistant, and I realized that there's a lot of overlap 143 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:54,160 between oral health, dentistry, and public health that isn't covered usually. 144 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:58,680 I mean, we focus a lot about systemic health when we talk about public health and advocacy 145 00:07:58,680 --> 00:07:59,960 and education. 146 00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:04,000 And there aren't as many people talking about oral health in that space. 147 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:09,640 And so I think that I realized that that was something that I could do is be a clinician, 148 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:14,960 but also be able to talk about the public health aspect of it and really engage my community 149 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:19,320 in educating themselves on oral health and how it relates to their systemic health. 150 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:22,400 So that's kind of how I solidified my decision. 151 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:25,880 And I actually went to a conference, like there's a Harvard pre-dental conference, and 152 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:30,200 my sister lives up in Boston, so I'm able to go and stay with her and go to these things. 153 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:36,120 But one of the professors talked about global oral health, and I went on a mission trip 154 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:39,080 this past summer to Guatemala, and it was from VAW. 155 00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:44,480 So we went to this place called San Pedro in Guatemala, and we did, we had a little clinic 156 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:47,880 and we treated patients that really don't get regular dental treatment at all, right? 157 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:52,200 So they come in with abscesses, a lot of infections that we can't treat because we don't have x-rays 158 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:54,560 first of all, and then we can put them to sleep or anything. 159 00:08:54,560 --> 00:08:57,360 So it's kind of more surface level dentistry. 160 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:02,120 But after I went to that conference, after I came back, the professor kind of talked 161 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:07,840 about how she had a practice, she had a private practice, and then she kind of sold it because 162 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:13,360 she thought, well, she went on a trip same as I did, and then it opened her eyes to being 163 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:15,240 in quality and global health there is. 164 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:18,120 And so she essentially sold her private practice, which was doing very well. 165 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:22,080 She sold it and how she's doing like kind of global oral health lecturing and kind of 166 00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:24,280 educating the public on these things. 167 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:29,880 And I feel like a lot of dental students get sucked up into assisting at an office here 168 00:09:29,880 --> 00:09:34,920 that do a bunch of implants a week to patients who can afford it, right? 169 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:36,160 And that's what we think is dentistry. 170 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:40,200 But honestly, like people will say they want to help each other, and that's what every 171 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:41,600 student dental student says. 172 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:46,120 The best way to help somebody is to help people to actually eat more than people here, which 173 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:47,120 is what you're kind of saying. 174 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:53,760 And so these people like in Africa, in Mexico that don't have that treatment to health care, 175 00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:57,400 I think that's one aspect of dentistry where everyone should at least try to get involved 176 00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,880 and try to get a little bit exposure to. 177 00:09:59,880 --> 00:10:03,880 So you know, pre-dental students, maybe they might have some like a VAW as a club that does 178 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:04,880 these mission trips. 179 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:08,720 I know mission trips can be kind of suspicious sometimes, but it was fine. 180 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:10,600 We got still here. 181 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:13,400 And that's a very important part of getting it. 182 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:17,840 And so I've kind of got both of the roles, like people that get full mouth restoration 183 00:10:17,840 --> 00:10:21,080 treatments, people that can't even get an extraction. 184 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:22,640 So like it's a dilemma. 185 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:27,280 You probably can relate to this, from everything you've seen. 186 00:10:27,280 --> 00:10:31,840 Like what are your thoughts on this dilemma between people who can afford this health 187 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:35,560 care in America and people that can't even get access to it in other countries? 188 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:38,480 How can we kind of educate ourselves on that? 189 00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:39,480 I don't know. 190 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:43,720 But I would even like to say that there's so many communities of people within the US 191 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:46,040 that can't get access to the care, right? 192 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:49,840 Like all of these people that we were treating were in Atlanta. 193 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:53,880 They were, I mean, granted they were immigrants or they were refugees from other countries 194 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:54,880 from all over. 195 00:10:54,880 --> 00:11:00,400 They spoke like, I think we had over 30 different languages of patients that came in. 196 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:05,440 And so I definitely think it's important, obviously, for American trained dentists to 197 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:10,720 go to other countries and assist or provide care, provide screenings, provide education 198 00:11:10,720 --> 00:11:11,720 in other countries. 199 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:15,840 But I always am of the idea that we should start at home, right? 200 00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:19,720 Like we have so many communities in rural communities here that aren't able to get access 201 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:23,640 to general care, to general dental care. 202 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:28,760 And the patients who were coming in had no idea about the things that they had to do 203 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:33,880 to even treat their own regular day to day oral health. 204 00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:37,760 There were patients who would come in and they wouldn't brush their teeth with actual 205 00:11:37,760 --> 00:11:39,440 toothbrushes. 206 00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:42,400 We have this thing in India called Neem Powder. 207 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:46,360 And they would just put that on their finger and just use that to clean their teeth. 208 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:51,320 And obviously you're not getting the same kind of cleaning with just using a powder 209 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:53,160 as you would with brushing your teeth. 210 00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:57,240 And so because of that, we would have people coming in with severe periodontitis. 211 00:11:57,240 --> 00:12:01,320 And all we could do at that point is extract their teeth because the only thing, as you've 212 00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:05,520 said, that we have capacity to do at clinics like that is fillings and extractions. 213 00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:10,040 We don't have the capacity to do crowns or root canals or implants or any of those things. 214 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:14,800 And so you'd have patients come in with all of their molars missing, which at that point 215 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:17,560 is going to completely change the way that they function, right? 216 00:12:17,560 --> 00:12:21,400 They have a lack of ability to chew food. 217 00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:24,080 Of course, it's going to affect the way that they look, which affects the way that they 218 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:26,120 would be able to get a job in the future. 219 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:30,240 And so all of those things are really important, I think, to address. 220 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:35,320 And so I think the number one thing, there is a organization called RAM, like Remote 221 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:36,320 Area Medical. 222 00:12:36,320 --> 00:12:40,240 I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's very similar to the free clinic that I worked 223 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:46,120 at, but they travel and they do these kinds of procedures in different places like Tennessee, 224 00:12:46,120 --> 00:12:47,840 New York, there's actually one of them. 225 00:12:47,840 --> 00:12:52,040 And so I think that it's super important for students to go to these events and for dentists 226 00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:56,640 to volunteer their time at these events and provide their care. 227 00:12:56,640 --> 00:13:01,080 And obviously, I think the number one thing that we could do is promote more dentists in 228 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:02,880 rural areas, right? 229 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:04,880 We should have more dentists. 230 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:09,360 And it's difficult, of course, with the way that we have so many student loans by the 231 00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:11,060 time we graduate. 232 00:13:11,060 --> 00:13:14,720 And I can talk about that a little bit more into why I chose the dental school I'm at. 233 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:20,400 But with how much we owe by the time we graduate, so many dentists just want to go in and make 234 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:25,160 it a business hungry kind of private practice where they can pay off their loans, just literally 235 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:26,160 to live. 236 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:30,840 But at the same time, it's really important to at least spend some time in rural communities 237 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:36,360 and be able to give back in that way and provide to people who can't reach the urban areas. 238 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:41,560 I know at least in my office, I know a lot of our doctors go to these CE courses, but 239 00:13:41,560 --> 00:13:45,160 most of the courses are actually, I think they have them in areas where people need 240 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:46,160 the treatment. 241 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:50,280 So it's kind of like a double dipping where doctors who are already practicing, they can 242 00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:53,320 maybe go for their skills, but they can also help the community. 243 00:13:53,320 --> 00:13:56,360 So I guess like that way would be one way to kind of make this a little better. 244 00:13:56,360 --> 00:13:58,840 We're going really into the topic, but it's pretty interesting to me. 245 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:01,000 I think it's pretty important. 246 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:04,800 So what else do you undergrad, did you kind of have to do to kind of make yourself stand 247 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:05,800 out? 248 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:06,800 I know you're on like a dance team. 249 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:08,520 You did a lot of painting, a lot of cooking. 250 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:11,600 So can you talk about a little bit about how I guess those things can be grounded and 251 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:14,680 how you can use that to stand out to dental schools? 252 00:14:14,680 --> 00:14:15,680 Yeah. 253 00:14:15,680 --> 00:14:20,400 So I think my first two years of college were very difficult for me, at least in terms of 254 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:25,200 adjusting, and I'm sure a lot of students can relate to that. 255 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:30,040 Going into like pre-medical classes at a school like Emory was actually very difficult, especially 256 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:35,000 considering that they made all of the intro courses, weed out classes for pre-med and 257 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:39,080 pre-dental students, and we had to take all the same courses, right? 258 00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:43,160 So I think I had a lot of difficulty with my mental health the first two years, and 259 00:14:43,160 --> 00:14:49,080 it was really during COVID that I was able to take the time and sit back and notice that 260 00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:54,880 it was my own decisions, the way that I spent my time that was making it worse. 261 00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:59,640 And so really, I would say post COVID is when I started making time for all of these things 262 00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:05,800 that I know keep me grounded and keep my mental health a lot better, make me more sane. 263 00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:12,280 The number one thing that I would say is do the things that you enjoy, whether it has 264 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:14,120 to do with your application or not. 265 00:15:14,120 --> 00:15:19,040 I mean, painting obviously helps with your dexterity and things like that, right? 266 00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:23,680 And so I'm lucky that I was able to do something that aided both in my career and also just 267 00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:25,240 in my mental health. 268 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:29,880 But at the same time, I would take time to do things that had nothing to do with dentistry. 269 00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:34,520 My dance team that I was on, we practiced over 20 hours a week, and I knew that that 270 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:38,760 would take away from time studying, but I also knew that that gave me the ability to 271 00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:43,600 exercise, get in dolphins, spend time with other girls that I really enjoyed hanging 272 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:48,280 out with, and connect to my culture because it was a Bollywood dance team. 273 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:54,240 And so I knew that that was a good time spent, even though it took away from studying. 274 00:15:54,240 --> 00:16:01,680 And it just aids in learning how to spend your time, how to not procrastinate, how to 275 00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:06,680 make sure that you are really diligent with what time you do have to study. 276 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:08,880 I think it's very important. 277 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:13,160 And a lot of people get stuck in the books and they'll do anything besides studying. 278 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:15,560 I think that's soft. 279 00:16:15,560 --> 00:16:19,280 Because even like, I love playing basketball, it's kind of like what I do all the time. 280 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:23,360 I'm not like LeBron James or anything, but I can get some kids going. 281 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:28,720 But like when I'm in the gym, I don't think about my next chem test or bow test or any 282 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:30,240 of this other stuff I have to do, right? 283 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:31,880 It's just kind of like a getaway. 284 00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:34,720 That's super important. 285 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:38,520 Not even just like towards studying, but just towards your mental health, I guess, like 286 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:39,520 you said. 287 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:44,760 And that's super, super interesting. 288 00:16:44,760 --> 00:16:50,440 So like how did you use these experiences and kind of cultivate everything towards your 289 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:51,440 application? 290 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:54,840 Like towards your, you know, as you guess, like junior or senior year. 291 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:56,040 And did you even say gap year after? 292 00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:57,680 I don't remember if you said that. 293 00:16:57,680 --> 00:16:59,240 So I took a gap semester. 294 00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:02,200 I graduated in December of 2021. 295 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:06,040 And so I had that gap from January until starting in August. 296 00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:09,040 But I did apply as though I was going to go straight through. 297 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:10,840 But it was really nice to have that time off. 298 00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:14,720 I think a lot of my friends, I see the gap semester and they kind of just go travel 299 00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:16,600 or they just kind of relax and chill. 300 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:19,200 I think they wanted to do before. 301 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:21,880 So how did you, how was the application process like? 302 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:24,920 So you applied probably like a June, May, June rate? 303 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:25,920 Yeah. 304 00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:32,640 So I applied the June right before my senior year started. 305 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:37,680 I had pretty much all of my prerequisites done except for like one course. 306 00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:41,160 I think microbiology or something like that. 307 00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:46,400 And so I was able to spend that last semester just preparing for interviews. 308 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:52,840 So the application process, I think was really aided by Emory because we had a composite 309 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:53,840 letter. 310 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:55,440 So we had like a school composite letter, right? 311 00:17:55,440 --> 00:18:01,720 Where they will basically write a summary of all of your experiences, your grades, your 312 00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:07,400 DAT score, all of the activities you did, the research you did, your letters of recommendation 313 00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:10,440 and they'll compile all of that and send it to all the schools that you're applying 314 00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:11,600 to. 315 00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:17,080 And so they actually had a lot of these due dates due, you know, December before you're 316 00:18:17,080 --> 00:18:19,680 going to apply, February before you're going to apply. 317 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:24,600 And I think that that really helped in making sure that my application was completely ready 318 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:26,560 by the first day it opened. 319 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:31,200 I would say like the number one advice that I would give in terms of the application cycle 320 00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:37,320 is to submit on the first day because as everybody knows, it's a rolling application, right? 321 00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:43,040 So say a thousand kids apply that first hour, those are the first thousand applications 322 00:18:43,040 --> 00:18:47,320 that they're going to be looking through and they might find 30 or 40 kids they like in 323 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:53,320 that thousand and not even get to yours if you applied in July or August or September. 324 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:58,640 And so I think that the number one thing that was super helpful was having everything prepared, 325 00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:04,960 my personal statement ready to submit, all of my activities logged on like a Google Doc 326 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:10,040 with a 650 like character count or whatever it was written out for each thing. 327 00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:15,240 So I could just as soon as it opened, I could plug everything in and just submit it all. 328 00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:16,760 And so I mean, let's let's go back, right? 329 00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:18,560 You should talk about the DAT a little bit. 330 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:21,240 I know it's it's kind of like one of the biggest things to talk about. 331 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:22,760 So how did you kind of go about like that? 332 00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:23,760 And like, what did you take that? 333 00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:27,320 Did you take it like a couple of months before your application or did you take it in like 334 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:29,480 gaps in a certain like? 335 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:31,880 So I was actually very early with my DAT. 336 00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:37,720 I took it right after my sophomore year of college because that was COVID summer for 337 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:38,720 me. 338 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:42,080 So I really had nothing else I could do other than study at home. 339 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:47,760 And I would say that that is the biggest deal is you want to have nothing else to do during 340 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:51,120 the time that you're studying for your DAT. 341 00:19:51,120 --> 00:19:55,920 I think it's the number one thing that contributed to my success is I sat down for three months 342 00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:59,000 and it was just my entire focus for those three months. 343 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:01,840 I didn't go into it thinking, this is the first time I'm going to take it. 344 00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:06,840 I went into it thinking, this is the time I'm taking it and I don't want to retake it 345 00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:10,960 because I think that a lot of students get hung up on, oh, I can retake it later or I 346 00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:13,240 can take it a second or third time. 347 00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:16,240 And you know, I'm just going to do it this time to see how it goes. 348 00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:22,040 And then, you know, it gets really prolonged and a lot of the time, like if you just plug 349 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:26,240 in all the information, you just really get it all into your brain in those eight weeks 350 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:30,520 or 10 weeks, then you will have that short term memory to be able to do really well in 351 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:32,600 the exam. 352 00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:40,640 So I used DAT boot camp and it was basically, I think, a 12-week program and I lengthened 353 00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:44,840 it, I think, to 15 weeks, so it gave me a little bit of wiggle room. 354 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:49,280 And I think the number one thing that I would suggest in addition to boot camp, it was a 355 00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:50,520 great resource, by the way. 356 00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:54,880 It was wonderful, but I think Anki is like the best thing and it's funny because my friends 357 00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:59,360 make fun of me so much now in dental school for being obsessed with Anki that I swear 358 00:20:59,360 --> 00:21:05,540 to God it's what medical students like live by for their board exams and trust it is such 359 00:21:05,540 --> 00:21:10,720 a good way to get this memory of all these random things you have to know for the DAT. 360 00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:15,840 So I would say like every day you spend some time doing content and then at night you could 361 00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:20,760 take a break and then at night just do the Anki to review all of the content that you 362 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:23,680 covered for the day. 363 00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:28,520 And so I took my March, March, so like a month ago I guess you'd say. 364 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:32,120 And I think the best thing, so I said it over a winter break on my junior year, I really 365 00:21:32,120 --> 00:21:37,720 wish I did it after like the summer after my sophomore year though because I had nothing 366 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:38,720 going on really. 367 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:42,560 I mean I went on the semester trip and then I went, I did research second half of the 368 00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:48,160 summer but I wish I took it then just because when school starts like coming up on you like 369 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:52,720 it's kind of, you might have time but like the mental time you have I guess you'd say 370 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:54,240 is not enough. 371 00:21:54,240 --> 00:22:02,920 But in terms of Anki, like Anki was honestly, it was great because for bio especially bio 372 00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:07,280 I would be able to bang out like maybe a chapter within like an hour because of all the cards 373 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:11,280 they have and sometimes they have bio bites in boot camp so I would, the order I would 374 00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:15,880 do it in I think I would do, I would read those yielded notes they have, the high yield 375 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:18,080 notes, those are pretty good. 376 00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:22,520 I'd read those maybe six times with my whole, through my whole studying and then so I would 377 00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:25,320 read those notes and then I would do the bio bites because the bio bites are essentially 378 00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:28,560 like a representation of the notes, just questions. 379 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:31,840 And then from there I would go to Anki and by the time I get to Anki I'm already like 380 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:34,160 seen the material like maybe twice. 381 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:37,800 So then I would just do the cards and then you know the next day they come back again 382 00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:41,280 so then you just keep doing it again and again and again and there was good active recall 383 00:22:41,280 --> 00:22:42,280 there. 384 00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:45,440 So when the test actually came it was just kind of like I finished by the bio section 385 00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:50,760 maybe like, I don't know how much time do you get like 40 minutes or like 30 minutes? 386 00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:52,760 I don't remember. 387 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:56,160 It took you like a month ago I don't remember but I think 30, 40 minutes but I finished 388 00:22:56,160 --> 00:23:00,800 it in about like 20 minutes just because of how much Anki kind of sent me to the information 389 00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:03,240 to my brain. 390 00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:05,080 And then I would do like a little bit of PhD every day. 391 00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:06,600 No, PhD is one of those topics for like kids. 392 00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,800 Oh, damn, this is what am I looking at right now? 393 00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:14,720 But I like first hand experience guarantee you that the actual exam, if you do boot camp 394 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:18,640 the actual game is a lot simpler than what's on boot camp. 395 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:20,720 Exactly. 396 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:25,640 And I would definitely say that so I think the best thing to do is take every single 397 00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:31,240 practice test that they offer on boot camp and I'm sure that you would say the same. 398 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:35,720 When you take those practice tests, the number one thing isn't just to you know see what 399 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:40,280 your score was and each of the subjects and move on but to actually go through and actively 400 00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:44,520 figure out you know what topics and content material you were struggling with because 401 00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:49,240 usually they will give you a breakdown and so you can see oh you know I need to work 402 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:57,040 more on this system or physiology or biochemistry whatever it is within each subject and that 403 00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:00,440 really helps you tailor your studying for the last month before you're going to take 404 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:05,440 it and everybody says this but the day of your score for each category goes up like 405 00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:08,000 two points and that's what happened to me too. 406 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:11,880 And some of them they went up by like four points so it was just it was great to just 407 00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:16,080 you know you feel like really nervous going into it because the boot camp exams are so 408 00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:20,840 difficult but trust that it really really prepares you the day of and you'll be very 409 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:23,560 pleasantly surprised after the exams over. 410 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:28,920 For sure and I would say like I mean I don't know if you do like destroyer do you get those 411 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:29,920 books or not? 412 00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:32,320 I don't think so no. 413 00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:37,520 Well I had I was able to get them and I wouldn't say I mean the bio and genicam that's all 414 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:43,120 great but I guess math would be the best thing to get just because math is so repetitive. 415 00:24:43,120 --> 00:24:47,760 So the destroyer math books they have are essentially the same thing as the actual exam 416 00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:53,080 same questions and there's like maybe 14 exams in that book and doing them repeatedly like 417 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:55,840 really gets into your brain because it's all like a pattern right? 418 00:24:55,840 --> 00:25:01,520 The test itself is not like super super super hard it's more like how to take it in like 419 00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:03,680 recognizing patterns you know what I mean? 420 00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:07,280 So if you know what equations use in genicam you're good if you know what equation that 421 00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:09,280 what reaction that is in our goal you're good. 422 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:14,240 So like you can just if you can make like mental pictures and visualizations that you 423 00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:16,760 should be you should be good to go in that section. 424 00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:20,400 I don't know what other sections did you kind of or I guess how did you approach it to 425 00:25:20,400 --> 00:25:21,400 the PhD section? 426 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:25,480 I think the PhD section was my weakest section. 427 00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:29,440 It didn't end up going very badly but I was definitely most nervous for that one. 428 00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:34,080 The main way that I did it was how they structured it in boot camp. 429 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:36,720 So I started with the easiest categories. 430 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:42,160 I think it was like I honestly don't remember all the categories under PhD but there's like 431 00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:46,600 the three that are easier and three that are harder of like kinds of questions I'll ask 432 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:50,040 and they're not in the same order like it's not like the three easiest go first and the 433 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:53,280 three hardest go last but you literally just start with the easiest ones. 434 00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:55,400 You skip all the questions that are harder. 435 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:59,720 You do the easiest ones and then you have more time to spend on the ones that are harder 436 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:02,360 and literally that one's just practice. 437 00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:08,520 There was like a PAT app that I would use and when I was like driving or not driving 438 00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:13,440 when I was like on the train to go to like dance practice or like when I was just at 439 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,960 home and like I wanted to take a break from like biology hard content like I would just 440 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:22,440 do those and they were really fun kind of it was like a game almost and you just like 441 00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:27,080 practice over and over and literally that's the only way you can get it. 442 00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:31,240 So I think those are the three easy ones are like cube counting this whole bunch and then 443 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:33,480 there's pattern folding. 444 00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:34,480 Right. 445 00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:35,480 Yeah. 446 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,800 Ingrid Raking is like some BS like you just got to you either get it or you don't I don't 447 00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:39,800 know. 448 00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:40,800 Yeah. 449 00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:45,040 And then the TFE was also kind of interesting just because I guess the more you do it the 450 00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:49,800 easier it is but on book out on the actual exam I swear like the shapes were just like 451 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:50,800 they were not that complicated. 452 00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:54,080 It wasn't like there was a thousand different angles where we had to analyze. 453 00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:56,080 It's kind of it's very simple. 454 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,000 Same with heel whole punching. 455 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:03,040 I'm like a whole like episode on this is really interesting on how I approach the every section 456 00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:07,320 but open she's always look there's if you finally get method you really like and just 457 00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:10,200 go with it and you're going to get all the right man. 458 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:15,360 I'll probably make a video on like how which ones I use the best. 459 00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:19,000 But yeah I mean so what's the DT out of the way. 460 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,480 I mean you did your personal statements how did that kind of got you kind of approach 461 00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:24,920 that how did that kind of take you to get to the final product. 462 00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:31,400 Yeah so honestly I think that I thought it was going to take a lot longer than it did. 463 00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:36,160 I just sat down and started writing like it was a journal entry one random day over summer 464 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:39,680 I think or winter break because I think my personal statement was due in February for 465 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:41,240 the school. 466 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:45,200 And so I sat down over winter break and I was like let me just start writing something 467 00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:50,200 down like a journal entry at least if I have something down I can read through it and find 468 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:52,840 ideas I like within it. 469 00:27:52,840 --> 00:27:59,120 And I ended up just writing straight for like two hours or something and I had two pages 470 00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:05,320 just flushed out and obviously that is a very very like early draft of it. 471 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:08,840 But I had the ideas of what I wanted it to be about. 472 00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:12,200 And you know I had a lot of people read my personal statement. 473 00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:16,840 My sister was in med school at the time she's a resident now so I had her read it. 474 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:21,880 I had my advisor read it my pre-dental advisor and a couple of other people that I thought 475 00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:24,240 could give me constructive criticism. 476 00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:29,600 And I think that it did change obviously at some points I was like I just need to scrap 477 00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:31,160 the whole thing and start over. 478 00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:37,320 But at the end of the day like I knew that what I started with was very honest and very 479 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:42,040 like just clear about myself and it was very personal so I decided you know I'm just going 480 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:43,040 to go with that. 481 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:47,760 Some people disliked the way that I wrote and other people were like you're being very 482 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:52,880 raw in this and I think that that will speak to the kind of person you are. 483 00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:58,320 And so whenever I talk to people about writing their personal statement I always say you 484 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:02,480 should never write about something that you think they want to hear. 485 00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:06,960 You should always just be very raw and just listen to what you want to say and what your 486 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:08,160 journey was. 487 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:12,000 It might not you know strike a right chord with every single person who reads it but 488 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,040 you don't want to go to those schools if they don't like the kind of person that you are 489 00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:16,040 right. 490 00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:23,240 So I always say be as honest and vulnerable as possible and somebody will see that you 491 00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:26,040 were being very honest and really commend you for that. 492 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:33,240 And how did you kind of make your like I mean like how did you catch the reader's eye? 493 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:35,840 What were some techniques you kind of used in your personal statement that kind of made 494 00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:38,560 it stand out do you feel like? 495 00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:43,120 I mean I'm not sure because I was never on an admissions board but I would say that like 496 00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:49,120 the biggest thing that I enjoy about my writing is making it more artistic you know than just 497 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:52,880 kind of stating things that happened in my life. 498 00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:59,440 You know I drew a connection between my connection with spirituality and meditation into shadowing 499 00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:04,800 and how watching these dentists was very meditative to me and watching the work and seeing how 500 00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:10,320 they were so you know precise with the way that they were doing things and the way that 501 00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,920 they were just completely zoned in on what they were doing. 502 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:20,440 And then I connected you know my interest in Ayurveda and cooking with you know mental 503 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:25,840 health and overall systemic health and how these are not all separate things. 504 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:29,680 Our gut health, our mental health, our oral health they all connect to systemic health 505 00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:30,680 right. 506 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:35,440 And so I think just like bringing in different experiences but in the end tying it all into 507 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:41,480 why dentistry and why oral health specifically is the thing that I think was really great. 508 00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:44,320 Did that kind of stuff come up during interviews? 509 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:46,320 Oh yeah. 510 00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:50,280 My personal statement came up in like all of my interviews. 511 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:53,920 One of the things that I was worried about that I talked about in my personal statement 512 00:30:53,920 --> 00:31:01,160 was my mental health the first two years of college and I used the word quit and like 513 00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:04,720 somebody who read my statement was like you shouldn't say that they don't want to quitter 514 00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:08,640 they don't want somebody who doesn't follow through with what they're doing. 515 00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:12,400 And I was like I'm going to keep that in there because that's part of my journey and I you 516 00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:16,920 know I quit a lot of things in the first two years and just completely confined myself 517 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:21,960 to my room and became you know just very lazy and I wasn't doing the things that I was 518 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:28,800 supposed to be doing but then in the end that ultimately like made me change as a person. 519 00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:32,640 And everybody brought it up in my interviews and they were like you really had a journey 520 00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:39,040 during college and you really overcame something and that really goes to show it's a testament 521 00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:45,080 to you know dental school is very difficult and you are prepared for the difficult times 522 00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:46,080 that are going to occur. 523 00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:50,560 Like they don't want somebody who's just perfect and knows exactly what they want to do 24 524 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:53,480 seven you know so just be very vulnerable I guess. 525 00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:57,600 And I mean that's the honesty right there is what might even help you get through your 526 00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,160 interview because if it's like that if you're that honest about something and they read 527 00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:03,040 it and you can talk about it right you can literally talk about it. 528 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:06,800 I don't know how long interviews usually go for in 20-30 minutes is that how it works 529 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:08,300 so hour? 530 00:32:08,300 --> 00:32:12,200 It really depends on the school so yeah some of mine went the full hour and they were 531 00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:15,880 very like would just ask me the questions that they had written down and other ones 532 00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:19,120 were like we were just having a conversation and sometimes it would just be 20 minutes 533 00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:21,320 sometimes it'd be over an hour. 534 00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:25,200 So I mean yeah if you write something about that like you can just talk about that like 535 00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:29,040 it doesn't have to be about dental school at that point or like your other stuff that 536 00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:33,160 you're doing right so I mean that's something to think about when people are writing personal 537 00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:34,160 statements. 538 00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:38,200 Definitely the hardest thing people like the pre-dawn students have seen like try to get 539 00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:44,040 around is that voice that passive voice like I want to I don't know like I want to help 540 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:49,440 people I guess that's what you would say like that's what they need to say. 541 00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:54,280 Did you write did you ever have that kind of voice in your personal statement like 542 00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:57,760 should you ever have like I want to help people and then do you kind of like think that you 543 00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:02,240 want to do something like adjust as it doesn't sound like you're just being like everybody 544 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:03,240 else. 545 00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:10,160 Yeah I think that's where your specific experiences come in because everybody who's going into 546 00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:13,920 healthcare wants to help people right there's a reason they're going into service oriented 547 00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:19,720 job and so I think the way that you approach that is talking about why you want to help 548 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:26,920 people or what experience brought you to that realization and so for me it was working at 549 00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:30,920 Clarkson Community Health Center and working at a free clinic and just seeing like the 550 00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:35,720 range of patients that you can encounter versus working at my mom's office you know in a nice 551 00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:41,320 suburb and the kinds of patients that she would see and so I think just being very specific 552 00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:45,440 with your why is what makes you stand out. 553 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:47,480 Yeah that makes sense. 554 00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:53,800 So as you go through this process you're from Arizona and you went to Emory so where are 555 00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:58,440 you thinking about going now like now you're planning on schools like where are you thinking 556 00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:01,640 where is your head at do you want to go back home or do you want to you know apply to schools 557 00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:05,640 in Northeast which is where you are now or like how did that kind of go about. 558 00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:12,320 Yeah so I applied everywhere and that is because Arizona doesn't have an in-state school it's 559 00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:18,320 one of the few that doesn't and so a lot of the dentists that I spoke to regarding like 560 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:23,040 where should I apply how do I cure my list the number one thing every single one of them 561 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:28,160 said was look at cost because it doesn't matter where you go you're going to graduate with 562 00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:31,840 the DDS or a DMD like you're going to get the degree and you're going to get a good 563 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:37,520 education regardless of where you go but you could graduate with maybe 300k in loans you 564 00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:43,720 could graduate with 600k in loans or even more and so as practicing dentists and talking 565 00:34:43,720 --> 00:34:48,520 to those people specifically I think is the most important advice that you get because 566 00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:52,160 you can talk to students who are in dental school and all of them are going to say they 567 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:58,400 love their school or you know they're going to look at maybe how nice the school is or 568 00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:02,520 the name of the school name brand is a huge thing right but I think talking to actual 569 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:06,320 practicing dentists and hearing what they think is important and what we're going to 570 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:11,880 think is important in 20 or 30 years is really helpful and so when I applied I applied all 571 00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:17,720 over the country mainly East Coast and West Coast and I ended up getting interviews on 572 00:35:17,720 --> 00:35:25,120 both coasts so I had options when I got in and so once I got into those places I decided 573 00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:30,200 that cost was going to be my number one decision and Stony Brook was the cheapest option for 574 00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:35,160 me but there are a lot of other great things that I found about the school that made me 575 00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:40,840 solidify my decision so we're the smallest class size in the country we only have 47 576 00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:47,120 45 students this year and it's usually 45 or 46 and so that's super helpful because 577 00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:52,480 you get really close to your class it's very collaborative there's no ranking and so there's 578 00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:57,520 no competition I did not want a competitive environment and I knew I wanted to do oral 579 00:35:57,520 --> 00:36:02,840 surgery coming in and being in the med school I think is super helpful for that if you do 580 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:08,680 want to do oral surgery at Stony Brook we are actually graded so you will get a grade 581 00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:14,360 in your med school classes so you have to try but that can work to your favor because 582 00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:17,960 if you are doing really well in your classes and you get those A's then it looks really 583 00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:23,280 good in comparison to a school that's just past fail and there's no really way to look 584 00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:28,000 different from the rest of your peers and so I think there's definitely pros and cons 585 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:35,360 to it Stony Brook also has a lot of ability to work on patients in clinic because we're 586 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:39,840 the only dental school on Long Island so we actually have a really big waiting list of 587 00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:44,280 patients that we need that was a big thing I thought about was I didn't want to go to 588 00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:49,280 a big city that might have been saturated with dental schools and the students have difficulty 589 00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:54,720 finding patients and so that was a big pro about Stony Brook is that we have a lot of 590 00:36:54,720 --> 00:37:00,200 patients available to us and we like none of our students ever complain about not being 591 00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:04,120 able to get their credits done by the time they graduate so that's a huge plus and something 592 00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:08,320 everyone should look into when they're applying to a school but yeah I think those were like 593 00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:10,920 my main points in deciding. 594 00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,480 And late did you have to so I don't know some schools do this but you have to like find 595 00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:17,360 your own patients or they kind of assign you patients? 596 00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:23,040 As Stony Brook they assign you patients I think sometimes they're also passed down after 597 00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:26,680 students graduate but they assign you patients. 598 00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:30,560 I guess I mean that's even better for like a small class as I guess everyone has to know 599 00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:36,400 each other at some point so more patients to go around like that may be better connections 600 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:41,920 to like from a D3 to like a D2 you know as you graduate kind of get their patients absorb 601 00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:45,000 the patients stuff like that so yeah. 602 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:50,160 And it's also really nice because we have like bigs and so we have like two students 603 00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:55,440 in the class above us who are like our mentors basically and the class above them and the 604 00:37:55,440 --> 00:38:01,000 class above them and so already when you come in you have like six mentors which is great 605 00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:06,880 and then so when you go into clinic actually during your D2 year you can assist D3s and 606 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:12,680 D4s and that's super helpful because you can learn from your upperclassmen and then you 607 00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:16,840 can sometimes they'll let you like practice injections on patients and so it's just really 608 00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:22,520 great super collaborative and very like strong mentor-mentee relationships at the school. 609 00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:27,160 Yeah I know so you know you're a D1 right now right so it's like your second after your 610 00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:31,280 junior how did how were your first couple months I guess let's go back a little bit 611 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:33,960 so how was your first couple months at D1 year what were your expectations going into 612 00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:39,360 dental school and how did you do your experiences meet your expectations? 613 00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:45,760 Yeah so I think one really big benefit for me was having an older sibling who had done 614 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:50,520 med school because you know we're thrown into the med school day one we don't start 615 00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:55,120 in dental school classes at Stony Brook until the first month where we do morphology and 616 00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:59,080 that's only once a week your entire first semester so every other day you're in the 617 00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:04,520 med school and a big thing that people should know is we take NBME exams in the med school 618 00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:10,080 which basically means the step one board style exams is the same format for all of your med 619 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:18,560 school exams and so going in I was super nervous as I'm sure everybody is but I think that 620 00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:24,600 nervousness really got me a good kickstart into the studying day one I mean I might have 621 00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:28,600 been a little jumping the gun but I was making sure to stay on top of the material from day 622 00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:35,320 one and that was so helpful I would make my own Anki for the like for anatomy for example 623 00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:39,800 and I thought that was so helpful because you're studying while you're making Anki off of your 624 00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:46,320 PowerPoints and then you do the Anki you do your flashcards and that's just active recall 625 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:51,440 and it really helps because you don't have an exam every week or every other week we 626 00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:57,000 had an exam every three to four weeks and so a lot of students had to go through that 627 00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:01,960 learning curve of oh something I looked at you know first day of class I don't remember 628 00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:06,760 anymore the week before the exam and Anki was super helpful for that because I was doing 629 00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:12,200 my reviews every single day right so the week before the exam I had seen that material from 630 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:18,080 week one like 10 to 15 times already I knew it like the back of my head and so wait back 631 00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:25,520 of my hand so that last week I could just do practice exams and that is very very important 632 00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:30,080 because NBMEs that's like the number one thing that gives you an idea of what the questions 633 00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:35,560 are going to be like you can know your material like that like nothing else and you can still 634 00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:39,560 look at a question and have no idea what you're looking at because it's completely different 635 00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:44,400 style than we're used to so a lot of the questions are patient vignettes which basically means 636 00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:49,040 you'll have a question that's like 65 year old male presents to the clinic with these 637 00:40:49,040 --> 00:40:55,600 these and these symptoms you'll have to diagnose what the patient has and then do a step after 638 00:40:55,600 --> 00:41:01,040 that like you know what enzyme is deficient in this patient or what drug would you give 639 00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:06,080 to treat this patient things like that so you have to have that higher level of thinking 640 00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:13,120 and so your number one should be understanding the material within the first few weeks of 641 00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:18,200 getting that those lectures and that last week should all be about just practicing and doing 642 00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:21,400 practice questions and getting used to the style of questions that you're going to be 643 00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:27,360 asked and so I think that going in super nervous and like getting a really good head start day 644 00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:36,120 one is what set me up for success in the med school because I was never you know surprised 645 00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:41,480 with what I saw when I got to the day of the exam and so you you know like that kind of 646 00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:47,640 goes back to the DT right like you're going to use Akis and I already know like this is 647 00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:52,360 probably the best thing to use yeah and like to be honest I really like if you see material 648 00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:57,360 like one time you know what the F is going on and then you big Anki cards you kind of 649 00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:01,080 your brain you're training your brain to see the material again and again and again so 650 00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:05,280 that by the time you actually get to the test like you kind of know what's going on you know 651 00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:09,960 what it is right it becomes like an H it on yeah you mentioned that like you take classes 652 00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:14,400 at the med school so you want to do oral surgery so how did you kind of come to that conclusion 653 00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:21,160 ready like you want to do or you're interested in that yeah so I have wanted to do oral surgery 654 00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:25,600 since I was an undergrad I think that every time I shadowed it was the most interesting 655 00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:30,880 procedures that I got to see I really liked watching extractions I really liked watching 656 00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:34,880 what they did in the private practice but also a lot of the oral surgeons that I would 657 00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:38,680 shadow would walk me through the cases they do in the OR there was one I remember that 658 00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:44,440 I saw where he had to remove a tumor from the jaw and the patient was a lot older he 659 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,680 was elderly so he had to use a completely different technique than they would normally 660 00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:53,000 do and go through the neck up into the jaw I was just like it was amazing and so interesting 661 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:58,880 to me I didn't want to go into dental school being like gung ho I'm going to do oral surgery 662 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:03,960 because I'm very aware that it's a very difficult path to go through and not that many people 663 00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:09,840 are able to do it so day one I didn't go in being like I'm for sure OS like I was very 664 00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:16,600 open to the other things you know the other options but I think things that made me realize 665 00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:23,680 that I'm for like I do want to pursue that path is like I enjoyed studying for the med school 666 00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:31,000 classes and that was so fun to learn about you know infectious disease and cancer and 667 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:34,680 biochemistry and I really enjoyed sitting down and doing the practice questions for 668 00:43:34,680 --> 00:43:39,200 envy and ease so I was like if I enjoy this material I enjoy the procedures that they 669 00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:43,560 do that's definitely a path that I think is the right one for me you do have to be aware 670 00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:50,000 you know you have to get great grades in dental school you have to do well on the CBC which 671 00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:56,400 is you know the exam that's similar to step one but it's for the oral surgery route and 672 00:43:56,400 --> 00:44:02,040 that is something that I'm going to have to take soon but I think that figuring out that 673 00:44:02,040 --> 00:44:06,000 you have that interest early on is really important so that you can prepare yourself 674 00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:07,240 for the next few years. 675 00:44:07,240 --> 00:44:12,880 And I think you know what you probably know Brandon Axelrod is yeah yeah so he taught 676 00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:18,040 me he played basketball a couple weeks ago and he just took a CBC because I think he 677 00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:21,840 was just he was saying that like you can take it once and then you can just take it again 678 00:44:21,840 --> 00:44:26,560 later if you want like so you have to score it so like I was like you can just do that 679 00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:31,120 is like yeah bro you can just take it and then like see how it is it's anymore and take 680 00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:35,720 it again later so I guess like that's probably something you're probably going to do in the 681 00:44:35,720 --> 00:44:40,680 soon so that's pretty interesting so I mean yeah I think oral surgery is like really it's 682 00:44:40,680 --> 00:44:49,600 like what I mean blood's fine for certain cases like blood like and then and surgery is I'm 683 00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:56,880 going to say it's I feel like it's the most like people people people just like go work 684 00:44:56,880 --> 00:45:02,400 I guess sometimes yeah like it's just so interesting because you're going inside of a person or 685 00:45:02,400 --> 00:45:06,760 whatever way you're going to go really taking his tooth out you just sutured up there's a 686 00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:10,360 lot of blood coming at you blood splatter everywhere just bone splattering everywhere 687 00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:14,880 usually put grafts into a person's jaw and then it can heal up like that's just saying 688 00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:18,720 to me and I think that's I work in oral surgery often so I always see that all the time it's 689 00:45:18,720 --> 00:45:22,760 like super cool to see and I think I'm not even going that route I'm not even sure yet 690 00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:27,200 to really say that so but going in stills with the open mind is probably the best to 691 00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:31,880 do I'm assuming no way there's so much stuff coming at you like you don't even know right 692 00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:37,680 really know until you know it I guess yeah that's pretty cool so like how are your other 693 00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:42,240 classes like how you know is a socialite at Sotyberg like how does everyone get along 694 00:45:42,240 --> 00:45:49,320 like is it as hard as you thought it would be like like that kind of thing yeah I think 695 00:45:49,320 --> 00:45:54,480 that the med school was definitely as hard as I thought it was going to be but I think 696 00:45:54,480 --> 00:46:00,040 once you get used to the way that works for you and that took different amounts of time 697 00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:04,960 for different people then it's just kind of you know rinse and repeat you do it for every 698 00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:10,560 exam I did the exact same thing for all of my classes and it worked for me and so once 699 00:46:10,560 --> 00:46:15,640 you find that for yourself you just have to put in the work and do it and so I think that 700 00:46:15,640 --> 00:46:20,920 yeah it was grueling but it was it was a great time I really enjoyed the classes my classmates 701 00:46:20,920 --> 00:46:25,880 like hate that I say that it's so gross and nerdy but I really enjoyed it and also a big 702 00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:32,000 thing that I liked about the med school was we didn't have to be in person and so a lot 703 00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:36,400 of the time like I had the whole day to choose how I wanted to spend my day and that's how 704 00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:41,240 I was able to make time for the things that I enjoyed doing right so I would wake up go 705 00:46:41,240 --> 00:46:45,680 to the gym as soon as I woke up and then come back and it was only like 11am I had the whole 706 00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:50,560 day to just study so instead of watching lectures for me personally I like to go through the 707 00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:56,760 board style materials and watch those kinds of things like boards and beyond or sketchy 708 00:46:56,760 --> 00:47:00,440 and then take notes on that and then do my Anki and you know by the time it's like a 709 00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:04,520 week before the exam I have a lot of Anki built up like thousands of cards and so I 710 00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:08,880 would spend most of my day doing that and so that was really great is that I could pick 711 00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:12,560 and choose how I study how I spend my day I would like sometimes spend days at a coffee 712 00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:16,600 shop a lot of us would like hang out together in the library and just spend the whole day 713 00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:23,160 there studying together so yeah I think that school wise it was it wasn't that bad it it 714 00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:30,680 was exactly what I expected in terms of like social life I like really love my class I 715 00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:35,320 think that's one great thing about having such a small class is like we're a weird really 716 00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:39,880 close family already and like it's insane that I've only known these people for what 717 00:47:39,880 --> 00:47:45,600 like eight months like it feels like I've known them for years and because we're now 718 00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:50,200 in the dental school we're also getting closer to the D2s 3s and 4s which is really great 719 00:47:50,200 --> 00:47:54,560 because you know you do get that mentorship but also you can just like do fun things with 720 00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:59,320 them like we'll have school parties or you know we'll go get dinner somewhere together 721 00:47:59,320 --> 00:48:05,080 and that's just really great just for morale right I'm going on asda trips so the American 722 00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:09,480 Student Dental Association is probably the biggest club that I'm a part of right now 723 00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:13,920 and I loved going on those trips you meet so many dental students from around the country 724 00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:19,400 and just last like literally two days ago Saturday night our social chairs planned an 725 00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:24,200 event with Columbia dental and NYU dental and we all just met at a bar in the in New York 726 00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:28,120 City like all three of our D1 classes and we got to know each other and it was such a 727 00:48:28,120 --> 00:48:33,320 great experience so I feel like because it's such a small community here it really gives 728 00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:38,000 you like the ability to get super close with the people that you're around and collaboration 729 00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:43,320 is key right yeah that's super cool I mean I feel like a small class size kind of like 730 00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:48,640 makes it as if it's like undergraduate class like a very small and undergraduate class 731 00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:51,160 when you see these people every single day you just kind of build more connections with 732 00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:54,800 them you go closer with them and at the end of the day like that's the best space for 733 00:48:54,800 --> 00:49:00,480 learning I guess so that's pretty cool so how so now you're second after your D1 right 734 00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:04,160 so now when you get back to dental school are you kind of doing clinical things like 735 00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:10,240 what are those courses like yeah so the first semester we had one dental school course dental 736 00:49:10,240 --> 00:49:16,000 morphology which is basically where you're waxing up teeth and so that just really helps 737 00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:21,120 you get an idea of the basics of dentistry it gives you an idea of what each tooth looks 738 00:49:21,120 --> 00:49:26,760 like the numbering system where the grooves are just the terminology in general and then 739 00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:31,680 this semester we started a ton of dental school classes as soon as we were out of the med school 740 00:49:31,680 --> 00:49:39,960 so right now we are taking intro to perio we're taking karyology radiology oral bio and operative 741 00:49:39,960 --> 00:49:44,160 and so we are taking a lot of classes at once but one thing that I think is different between 742 00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:49,160 dental and medical school is the lecture content isn't as dense it's not going to be like you 743 00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:54,760 might be taking a three hour class during the day but it's not going to be like taking 744 00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:59,680 a three hour class in the medical school as in like you know it's not as dense the material 745 00:49:59,680 --> 00:50:05,240 to study so it's not as as grueling so it sounds scary that you're taking five classes 746 00:50:05,240 --> 00:50:09,680 at once or six classes at once but it's not as bad I think the biggest thing that we're 747 00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:13,680 getting used to right now is the lab course which is operative so we're learning how to 748 00:50:13,680 --> 00:50:18,920 do cavity preps right now and then we're going to get into restorations so it's the first 749 00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:22,240 time we're holding a drill and that is one thing that you know you're going to have to 750 00:50:22,240 --> 00:50:25,680 be aware of if you go to a school with the med school curriculum is you're not going 751 00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:30,120 to start drilling day one like at other schools and if that is something that's important 752 00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:34,880 to you then you wouldn't want to go to a school that has that med school curriculum so for 753 00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:40,520 us we had day one of drilling like three weeks ago meanwhile we have friends at other dental 754 00:50:40,520 --> 00:50:44,040 schools and like they already know how to do preps and restorations and they're moving 755 00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:49,160 on to like removable and fixed already so that's definitely like a learning curve for 756 00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:54,880 us but they really help you they give you a lot of time we have two times a week one 757 00:50:54,880 --> 00:51:01,040 to five to start our preps and we can come in whenever after the Simlab is open all the 758 00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:06,120 time and we can come in after hours to work on it a lot of us will like ask our D2 like 759 00:51:06,120 --> 00:51:11,080 bigs or our mentors or friends just to come in and help us with it and so I don't think 760 00:51:11,080 --> 00:51:14,320 that it's impossible it's definitely like a learning curve at the beginning but we're 761 00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:18,920 all getting used to it I think that because it's like a small class size like even if 762 00:51:18,920 --> 00:51:27,240 you guys started later maybe like like you catch up yeah even at schools like I know 763 00:51:27,240 --> 00:51:32,440 Harvard has they don't start drilling until much later I feel like maybe like even D2 764 00:51:32,440 --> 00:51:36,280 year but everyone I've gone to a couple of dental students they kind of say that you 765 00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:41,000 just catch it because like they want you to be good right that's the point at the L school 766 00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:44,880 so like one way or another you'll you'll get to the same level as the other dental schools 767 00:51:44,880 --> 00:51:55,560 I suppose yeah so I mean like what else do you tell me about like so D1 year um see I 768 00:51:55,560 --> 00:52:01,760 don't know like have you done any obstacles any like challenges any issues that way yeah 769 00:52:01,760 --> 00:52:06,360 I think that like the biggest obstacle for most of us is finding that balance between 770 00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:12,000 studying 24 seven and like finding time to do things outside and for that I would honestly 771 00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:18,600 just say that it's really about time management and you can make time to do whatever you want 772 00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:24,920 I'm like the kind of person who I can't study on a Friday night like I want to I want to 773 00:52:24,920 --> 00:52:28,560 go out with my friends on a Friday night so I'm going to schedule the rest of my week 774 00:52:28,560 --> 00:52:33,760 so that I can be off on Friday night or on Saturday or Sunday or I want to go to the 775 00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:38,040 gym after class every day and so I'm going to make sure that I pack all of my stuff 776 00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:42,080 and drive straight there from class even if we get out at five or five thirty so that 777 00:52:42,080 --> 00:52:47,560 I can get that in a day it's really about priorities and people who tell you that you're 778 00:52:47,560 --> 00:52:50,680 going to you're not going to have a life when you're in dental school and you're not going 779 00:52:50,680 --> 00:52:54,400 to have time to do anything except study are completely lying because that is not true 780 00:52:54,400 --> 00:52:58,680 at all it is really what you make of it and so I think that was like the biggest obstacle 781 00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:02,840 right is you know day one you come in and you're like oh my god I have so much to do 782 00:53:02,840 --> 00:53:07,160 I have so much I have to study and you feel guilty and when talks about the guilt of not 783 00:53:07,160 --> 00:53:13,000 studying whenever you're awake and that was something that I had to get used to is I mean 784 00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:16,480 I would wake up and before class I would try to get in some on key and then when I got back 785 00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:20,480 from class I would try to get in some on key but it's really I mean it's it's like that 786 00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:27,120 was saying like it's not a race it's a marathon like you have to keep up your mental health 787 00:53:27,120 --> 00:53:30,840 because you're going to be doing this for so long that you don't want to get burnt out 788 00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:35,440 in the first couple weeks for the first month and so you have to make the time to do the 789 00:53:35,440 --> 00:53:40,040 things that you enjoy and trust it's not you might feel guilty but it's not going to if 790 00:53:40,040 --> 00:53:43,920 you go out on a Friday night you're not going to get ten points lower on an exam just because 791 00:53:43,920 --> 00:53:48,960 you weren't studying at ten p.m. I think that's that's so really even on a grad 792 00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:52,400 school day that's pretty real. So like where do you see yourself going like in your D2 793 00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:56,960 year right so I mean when you guys start D2 like when is D1 and then when is D2? 794 00:53:56,960 --> 00:54:02,560 D1 ends first so like last day of June and then we have six weeks off it's the only year 795 00:54:02,560 --> 00:54:10,320 we have six weeks off and then we start D2 year mid-August. Yeah so I think that where 796 00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:14,480 I see myself it's it's going to be I'm I'm kind of like living in the moment right now 797 00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:18,480 because it's super nice all I have to worry about is classes. Once summer break starts 798 00:54:18,480 --> 00:54:23,920 I will be starting to study for the CBSC and that's a pretty grueling process I plan to 799 00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:32,240 take it in February and so you know I've heard that D2 year is a lot of exams also the lab 800 00:54:32,240 --> 00:54:36,960 work is difficult we take removable and fixed throughout the entire year and so there's a 801 00:54:36,960 --> 00:54:42,000 lot of days that you're going to end up spending time past five that you're in the lab just 802 00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:48,640 working on whatever assignment is due so yeah I honestly I'm just preparing myself for that I'm 803 00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:52,160 trying to do all of the fun things now so that I don't feel like I'm missing out when I'm just 804 00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:56,800 staying at home and studying for the CBSC but I'm looking forward to it I think that it's going to 805 00:54:56,800 --> 00:55:03,040 be just a new journey. Sounds good I mean so you mentioned that you guys are like drilling now like 806 00:55:03,040 --> 00:55:06,880 three three scurries are drilling what kind of things are you guys doing? Are you guys drilling 807 00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:11,840 like practice dummies or like kind of like what exactly does that entail? So the first 808 00:55:11,840 --> 00:55:17,040 day that we started drilling we had like a block and there was different shapes in it 809 00:55:17,040 --> 00:55:22,560 and so you start by just like using a drill directly looking like the block is on the table 810 00:55:22,560 --> 00:55:27,040 and you just try to fill in the shape you have to fill into a certain depth so there'll be 811 00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:32,160 different colors for how thick enamel is which is like one millimeter and then a different 812 00:55:32,160 --> 00:55:36,960 color for dentin and a different color for pulp and so it tells you if you're going too deep so 813 00:55:36,960 --> 00:55:40,320 you want to make sure when you're drilling that you get to the exact depth that you want and that 814 00:55:40,320 --> 00:55:47,200 gives you a little bit of practice and then the next day we start directly on a toot and we place 815 00:55:47,200 --> 00:55:52,960 a rubber dam we put our type it on so like our teeth into like this mannequin that we have in SimLab 816 00:55:53,520 --> 00:55:58,400 and we start with preps that allow you to use direct vision which basically means you don't need 817 00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:05,040 to use a mouth mirror to do the prep the prep yeah the cowdy prep and so we started with a class 818 00:56:05,040 --> 00:56:10,560 five and a class three just on the maxillary interiors and the next thing that we're going to 819 00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:15,120 start working on is indirect vision so we're going to do that the exact same way we take a block 820 00:56:15,120 --> 00:56:20,800 we place it inside the mannequin so we have to use a mouth mirror and our loops so that we can see 821 00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:25,600 it from backwards almost like it's imagined like on the lingual or like the the back of your maxillary 822 00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:31,280 interiors and then you start drilling that way and that is different right you have to get used to 823 00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:36,960 seeing opposite vision and the depth and all of that getting used to the placement and then you 824 00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:41,840 start doing the preps on those teeth that require indirect vision so they plan it really well and 825 00:56:41,840 --> 00:56:48,560 I feel like they give us a lot of days for catch up too like I remember the first day not being good 826 00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:53,360 at it and just I just pushed too hard on the drill and it just went straight through the dentin and 827 00:56:53,360 --> 00:56:58,560 I was so upset I had to start over but everybody has to start over like literally you can't be 828 00:56:58,560 --> 00:57:03,280 neurotic when you're drilling day one like it's going to take time to get used to it but we all do 829 00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:07,360 that's pretty cool I mean did you do you feel like your artistic abilities that you did on a 830 00:57:07,360 --> 00:57:13,520 grad and like all that stuff is it playing is it playing a good role in it 100% oh 100% 831 00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:20,080 like I think just even the little things like I do eyeliner every day and like you know I have to 832 00:57:20,080 --> 00:57:24,800 rest my hand on my face and then do it right like little things like that like you have the ways that 833 00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:30,880 we have to hold our drill and our like our hand instruments you have there's certain techniques 834 00:57:30,880 --> 00:57:34,640 like you can do like the modified pen or the inverted pen and all of those things you don't 835 00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:38,640 even realize you do them in day to day things like when you're writing or when you're doing your 836 00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:43,600 eyeliner and where you rest your hand and all of those little things definitely help you with the 837 00:57:43,600 --> 00:57:47,520 drilling but also I know people who didn't paint growing up and they're really they're just like 838 00:57:47,520 --> 00:57:52,480 naturals at it they're just great so it's not a requirement but it'll definitely help you I definitely 839 00:57:52,480 --> 00:57:56,160 think that hand skills are something that you should practice before you come into dental school 840 00:57:56,160 --> 00:58:00,400 sounds good I'm sure like if we do another episode like for years you'll be better at it to be honest 841 00:58:00,400 --> 00:58:05,600 oh yeah I hope so because your client's like residency and stuff I guess right oh yeah definitely 842 00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:11,680 yeah it's so pretty cool so I mean like do you have any last like minute like uh advice to 843 00:58:11,680 --> 00:58:16,480 pre-enals you know entry dental score just don't really know uh you know penistry's right for that 844 00:58:17,760 --> 00:58:22,080 yeah I think that the number one thing you can do to know if it's right for you is to shadow 845 00:58:22,080 --> 00:58:27,600 and talk to dentists ask them what their day to day is like what they enjoy doing make sure that you 846 00:58:27,600 --> 00:58:34,080 see general dentistry a lot but also see specialties and kind of see like the range of what you can do 847 00:58:34,080 --> 00:58:39,920 within the field in terms of preparing for the application cycle being a pre-dental student is 848 00:58:39,920 --> 00:58:44,560 very difficult obviously there are so many aspects to the application and the number one thing I would 849 00:58:44,560 --> 00:58:50,240 say is to utilize your mentors whether they're your peers your peers can be a mentor and also 850 00:58:50,240 --> 00:58:55,600 upperclassmen students in dental school and your advisors and really just try to take advantage of 851 00:58:55,600 --> 00:59:01,200 everybody around you it should never be a competition ever it should always be very collaborative 852 00:59:01,200 --> 00:59:06,800 work together and that's like the best way you're gonna have success thank you for the words I mean 853 00:59:06,800 --> 00:59:13,280 yeah I mean uh I would sell even we are pre-enal society here like guys like try to find uh you 854 00:59:13,280 --> 00:59:16,400 know even alumni of the pre-enal society they're all in dental school now like Trevor reach out to 855 00:59:16,400 --> 00:59:21,760 me a couple questions like they even come like you came the other day um like I said as many 856 00:59:21,760 --> 00:59:25,440 questions as you can get these are the people that you're trying to beat future right so I want 857 00:59:26,000 --> 00:59:31,440 people that you know have already gone through it so anyway thanks for coming on really appreciated 858 00:59:31,440 --> 00:59:36,880 I had a really good time looking today and good luck on your your journey too you're applying this 859 00:59:36,880 --> 00:59:40,960 right yeah actually two months so I got a the last thing I kind of have to do is my personal 860 00:59:40,960 --> 00:59:46,320 statement just kind of get that uh more true to myself I did write a draft that I wasn't really like 861 00:59:46,320 --> 00:59:50,160 feeling like it was myself so yeah something that's more I already know what I'm gonna write about 862 00:59:50,160 --> 00:59:55,520 but I'm gonna write about that more like a basic experience I had so awesome yeah and then I guess 863 00:59:55,520 --> 01:00:01,840 what is it I think that I think it opens May 9th to like put everything in right and then you submit 864 01:00:01,840 --> 01:00:06,480 on June 1st yeah like I think it's at May 30th I'm not even sure but I think it'd be on June 1st 865 01:00:06,480 --> 01:00:12,800 same thing whatever um that's pretty much it and somewhere I guess but yeah it's uh it's pretty 866 01:00:12,800 --> 01:00:17,840 crazy like the looking back like freshman year sophomore year and I'm already a junior now so 867 01:00:17,840 --> 01:00:23,040 like now could be a senior okay and then I'll just find out how it goes yeah it goes so fast and I 868 01:00:23,040 --> 01:00:28,160 think something else on itself like you know it's like try to try to not figure it out but if you're 869 01:00:28,160 --> 01:00:33,840 interested in like medical or dental either way try to get into the offices like maybe fresh 870 01:00:33,840 --> 01:00:38,480 spring year so you kind of know like what path you want to go on that's kind of what I had to do so 871 01:00:38,480 --> 01:00:43,040 I was initially pre-med a lot of people were pre-med whatever um and I started shadowing 872 01:00:43,040 --> 01:00:46,720 like my general dentist the one that I had I got at Islam and honestly that's what kind of jumped 873 01:00:46,720 --> 01:00:50,960 started my journey and then from there it was just like it's like a snowball you just keep going to 874 01:00:50,960 --> 01:00:56,320 things and keep exposing yourself to new things and it just it just uh you find a community of 875 01:00:56,960 --> 01:01:01,600 other pre-dentals that want to do the same thing as you so that's like the best way to learn and I 876 01:01:01,600 --> 01:01:05,600 know there's a lot of advisors out there to help you on a journey but the best advisors are people 877 01:01:05,600 --> 01:01:12,000 that do the same thing to you so your peers is actually so yeah so just try to try to get as 878 01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:16,880 much exposure as you can so everything then it all it you'll figure everyone's like yeah 879 01:01:17,840 --> 01:01:22,400 no it just comes it always is so stressful in the moment but everybody figures it out and 880 01:01:23,200 --> 01:01:29,120 I would also say like not to be worried if you don't hear from schools in August and September 881 01:01:29,120 --> 01:01:34,480 I remember being so nervous about that like other people in my class were already hearing back from 882 01:01:34,480 --> 01:01:40,240 schools about interviews and I ended up getting several interviews just later and so really try 883 01:01:40,240 --> 01:01:44,160 not to compare yourself when you're in the application cycle during that process those like 884 01:01:44,160 --> 01:01:48,960 six months where you're waiting you really have to find something get a hobby get like something 885 01:01:48,960 --> 01:01:52,960 new just start doing something else because you need to stop thinking about it like I remember 886 01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:56,400 that was a big thing it was like I was just gonna be getting texts like oh did you hear like I got 887 01:01:56,400 --> 01:02:01,600 an interview and it was so stressful but it works out for everybody like you will definitely be 888 01:02:01,600 --> 01:02:05,520 prepared by the time you apply and just because you don't hear first doesn't mean you're not 889 01:02:05,520 --> 01:02:11,120 going to hear it's basically my thing all right so thanks for coming on and we'll uh we'll uh 890 01:02:11,920 --> 01:02:15,520 try to have you on in a couple years probably whenever you're when you have like more knowledge 891 01:02:15,520 --> 01:02:31,440 I guess more to shit yeah definitely good luck with your application cycle and let me know if you ever had any help