Bon Appétit! A Caries Puzzle, a Diet Chart, and a Cultural Awakening: How One Patient’s Question Changed My Perspective As I sat reviewing my patient’s treatment plan at dental school, the tooth chart in front of me displayed thirty-two teeth in the Universal Numbering System. Red markings indicated carious lesions, while black filled the spaces […]
Category: Blogs By Dr Meenakshi
Go comprehensive? Starting Clinical Rotations at NYU It was the day we started shadowing the seniors in the clinics at NYU. The place was buzzing with students and patients, almost like a busy marketplace! That might be an odd comparison, but that’s exactly how it felt—alive with activity. The professors were huddled in one corner, […]
Am I there yet? Life After BDS: The Journey to DDS and a Better Future The auditorium buzzed with chatter as I stepped in, anxious yet determined. This massive hall, seating 400 people, would be my classroom for the next three years. Among the 350 students in the DDS Class of 2011, everyone seemed different […]
Practicing to Perfection Strange looks were exchanged as we glanced at each other. I was one among a hundred students in the preclinical lab for crown preparation. The manikins were all set up, ready for our first class in the DDS program. The typodonts were securely screwed in, with a full complement of teeth, positioned […]
Statement of “Purpose” Dental School Admissions: A Journey of Choices and Challenges Number 75—the board flashed. My father and I were in a huge line of dental school applicants for two hours, waiting to be called. All of us had written a common entrance test, and each of us had a rank number based […]
Hello, how are you? Mastering English as a Foreign-Trained Dentist in the U.S. English is widely spoken in India, but does that mean Indians are considered proficient in it? According to U.S. regulations, not quite. Every dentist trained outside the U.S. must take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) to prove proficiency—regardless […]
NBDE – “Non-Recognized Bored Dentist on eBay?” Traveling across the globe from Mysore to Manhattan changed my life forever. Friends compared Manhattan to Bombay and Bangalore, but who knew those places? I had spent my entire life in a small town. This new world was exciting to my eyes. Passing by Chinatown dental offices on […]