What are the best things about attending The University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston?

The University of Texas School of Dentistry offers a dual degree MPH/DDS program, which is a strong draw for anyone interested in the public health aspects of dentistry. This program is completed through online courses, an integrated learning experience (basically a project that culminates in some sort of written final product), and a practicum. The program provides a complete background in thinking about public health issues and the means to analyze and address them. Generally the classes require many online discussion posts where students respond to open ended questions, so we have the opportunity to research, learn, and report on the public health issue we are most interested in, while also reading about issues we may not have realized existed through our classmates’ responses. The program started in 2017 and is being adjusted and I think that there is room for improvement to further integrate the public health knowledge with dental applications.

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What are the worst things about attending The University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston?

I mentioned managing and scheduling our own patients as one of the pros of our program. However, it is worth noting that it belongs on the list of cons as well. Since we schedule our own patients, if our patient no-shows or cancels last minute then we have nothing to do for that clinic session, besides assisting a classmate. I have heard that other schools will ensure that there is a patient to fill your chair, so you have something to do every day, but that is not the case at our program. This could potentially mean that those who are not able to manage their patients well, ensuring they come to all scheduled appointments, may waste more clinic sessions and struggle to complete graduation requirements. Managing patients also adds an extra stress level on students: not only are we concerned about classes, exams, or the procedure we are about to do, but we must always think of the next patient we have to call or schedule, often needing to step out of lecture to answer patient phone calls.

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What do students need to know/what do you wish you knew before attending The University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston?

One of the unique pre-requisites to this program is Microbiology. Me and several of my classmates who took gap years after finishing undergrad had not taken microbiology, so we needed to take it at local community colleges for the credit.

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