Metal Mouth Message Board

I don't see anything wrong with going to a dental school for any procedure braces or therwise. sure you'll be dealing with students but they are under the watchful of eyes of teachers. who are probably some of the best.
In a couple of years I will need implants and I'm definitely considering a dental school for cost alone.

I hope your "test drive" goes well, BigEyedDave and do let us know how it goes!

I just recently (last Thursday) got 3 of my 4 premolars extracted at a Dental School. I also had my 4 wisdom teeth extracted there. I didn't find there to be too much of a difference between the students there, and a regular Dentist or Oral Surgeon. The only thing they couldn't do was put me under General Anesthesia.

They had to have everything approved by their supervising oral surgeon, and he (in my case) droped by every 15 minutes or so to make sure everything was going well. And when things got a little tough, he did most of the work.

The woman that did my 3 promolar extractions told me she was a 3rd year Dental student, plus she already had 4 years of a Bachelor in Science. So you surely wouldn't be the first case they've worked on.

They also told me that they practice needles on each other for over 6 months!

It does take a lot longer, but it depends on the student and the case.

I would go back to have more work done, because the price is about a 1/4 of a Dentist/Oral Surgeon.

It's really a personal choice.

My ortho is a professor at the College of Dentistry at the University of Iowa. While I'm a private patient and have no students working on my case, I do know plenty of people in this town who go to the dental college to get dental work done. The students do practice on one another first, and the patients have told me that the students are very careful, thorough and cautious. They do NOT want to make the patient feel pain, so they try really hard to be careful. They want to do the best possible job, so they are thorough. And they know the newest techniques because they are at a teaching facility.

So although I'm very happy with my situation, if cost had been a factor, I may well have gone through the dental school for treatment.