University Of Detroit Dental School, Michigan Dental Schools

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Q. I have recently been accepted to both The University of Michigan and The University of Detroit/Mercy Dental Schools for the fall of 2000. I was looking for any advice on which to choose, as they both have their merits. Uof Michigan is older and located on the campus. Of course it has the reputation of UofM and it happens to be ~$10K/yr cheaper! UofD is private so they are more expensive. Their facility (clinic, sim-lab) was new in '97 and is awesome. The main differences are that UofD is weak didactically, but being in Detroit, they have an endless supply of patients for clinical experience. UofM is extremely strong didactically, but doesn't have as strong of a patient base, ie, students receive a minimum number of root cannals, extractions, etc. I haven't found any results of the boards published, however I have heard the UofM is in the top 3 and UofD hasn't done as well. (Any further insight into this or where the results are published?)

A. It all depends on how you plan to spend your working life. If you plan to specialize, U of M may be your cut of pie. If you plan to do clinical dentistry, U of D-M may be your choice. I chose U of D (no hyphen and "M" back then). I did more clinical dentistry in four months than students I knew at U of M did in their entire program. You have to choose: clinical experience or lecture/book experience. Having said all this, remember that my experiences date back to 1980-1984. Please remember that we all tend to think whatever we personally did was best. Perhaps "Dr. Wolverine" would de-lurk to offer his experiences???? I am very partial to the University of Michigan, being a 1998 graduate. As you have noted about their strong and weak points, UofD's patient clientele is more populous, but many of the patients lack the ability to complete the ideal dental school treatment plan. Don't believe everything you hear about their numbers. As for U of M, I didn't feel that the patients were very hard to come by. They have patient/student/faculty monitors which help you get patients assigned to you. As long as you are good to them, they will be good to you. Any other questions I can answer for you, please feel free to direct them to me. I graduated from NYUCD in 1976. They had provisional AADS accreditation during the time I was there. Of course, being in New York, you'd think there would have been an endless supply of patients. In fact, in certain departments it was still tough to find patients to fulfill clinical requirements on time. What were the requirements? About 14 dentures, about 8 root canals, perhaps 10 crowns, about 50-100 fillings, a couple of weeks in oral surgery for extractions--you get the idea. The actual amount of clinical dentistry during a dental school curriculum is minimal. I would guess this is still true, and probably for most or all schools. It's kinda like learning to drive--you really get your miles in after you've been loosed on an unsuspecting public! Seriously, if you think Michigan is superior didactically, you should probably go there. In ten years, it won't matter if you did 2 more root canals while in school You may be right. My slant is from how things were many years ago. I know that back then, the number of units of the various procedures required to be completed prior to graduation was a lot less at U of M. Does that mean anything ten years down the line--I doubt it. Could it mean something for the first few years--maybe. If you work hard and are ambitious, it does not ultimately matter which school you go to. Some schools do tend to focus on certain end points though. BTW, when I was at U of D, the number of patients who could finish a treatment plan was equal to or better than in private practice.

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