How Dentists Are Trained

When it comes to your health, there is no room for messing around or skipping recommended appointments.  There are a variety of medical professionals that you should be seeing on a regular basis so that your state of health is always taken care of.  One of these professionals is the dentist.  Many people don’t realize it, but dentists in Phoenix are doctors that go to school for the same amount of time as someone that goes to medical school.  The only difference between the 2 is that the dentist focuses on diseases and disorders that start in the mouth.

Dentists have to go through a rigorous training and education that begins with an undergraduate degree.  The most common bachelors degrees that dentists in Phoenix choose are biology, zoology,  chemistry, and public health.  These degrees give the future dentist a good base in the sciences that he or she will eventually use in dental school and after.  Somewhere between the junior and senior year of college, the future dentist takes a test called the dental admission test, known as the DAT, as a prerequisite for admission to dental school.  This test is an important part of the admission procedure, as it is a way for schools to rank applicants along with their grade point average. Once this test has been taken the individual applies to the various schools that they are interested in and fills out applications.  The process often includes an interview and a visit to the school to look at the facilities.

Once the future dentists are in school, they are trained in a variety of different ways including anatomy, microbiology, immunology, pharmacology, physiology, and biochemistry.  In these classes, the future dentists in Phoenix learn the information necessary that will help them diagnose and treat illness in the human body.  At the same time, they are also trained on procedures that they will have to do in the mouth, including filling preparations, metal and composite fillings, how to prepare a tooth for a crown, how to make dentures, how to place braces and other devices for orthodontics, and a number of other procedures that they will perform on patients in their future practices. Dental school is quite intense for these students, but is rewarding when they are able to practice the skills they have learned in the clinics.