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If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions related to dentists with hearing loss, please contact: Aruna Rajagopalan at dentistry@amphl.org.
Dentistry Guidelines
1)Is this really what you want to do?
It’s important to think about what you truly want. Not everybody knows what they want to do with their lives. But if dentistry comes to mind, get your feet wet first. Call your dentist or a local dental office and tell them your interest in dentistry and shadow them. Most dental schools require a number of hours of observation in dental offices anyway. Try to shadow as much as you can to get a feel of what it is like to be a dentist.
2)Overcoming obstacles in the dentistry field
You will need to check blood pressure and pulse during clinical rotation years. Using the digital blood pressure monitor is sufficient. Instructors will have the masks on during lab and clinical courses, so you may have them remove the masks while talking or utilize an interpreter. Other than that, lectures and communication with patients are possible obstacles that can be overcome with an interpreter or informing the professors/patients about your hearing loss.
3)How do I maximize my DAT scores, especially the verbal portion?
In order to get into dental school, you will need to take the DAT, or the Dental Admission Test. It is comprised of four parts-Survey of Natural Sciences, Perceptual Ability Test, Reading Comprehension Test, and Quantitative Reasoning Test. I highly recommend you invest in prep books and courses. Study the prep guide books and take as many practice tests as you can. The Perceptual Ability portion tends to be a little more difficult as it is “new” to most students, so make sure you take practice tests. Having a private tutor over a lecture may make a difference as you have one on one interaction. Otherwise you may request an interpreter from the director of the DAT prep courses in order to follow the course. You might even be able to strike a bargain deal in getting the private tutor as the cost of the lecture course due to your hearing loss. If you choose to opt out of the tutoring, then try the Kaplan and Baron DAT books. Kaplan also has a quiz bank online that you can have access to as part of the Kaplan fees. Aim for at least a 20 or above in each section. Your high test scores and G.P.A grades may increase the chances of the admission looking past your hearing loss. Prove to them that you are above and beyond capable, and that means studying as hard as you can and never giving up. There are tricks to ace the verbal section. The prep books and your tutor will give you some great tips. Last but not least, you can and are entitled to request for extended time as reasonable accommodations. Have documents stating your hearing loss ready and a letter explaining how your hearing loss has affected your learning ability and you have to work twice or thrice as hard as a hearing person. If you have a disabilities counselor from college, have them write you a letter explaining why you need extended time. You have worked this hard and you deserve to have an equal chance, and if extended time in testing will give you an equal chance, so be it!
Dental Schools
University of Missouri-Kansas City
If you have a particular school you desire to attend, do not give up on that. By all means, apply and make your application the best you possibly can. Look up their website, contact the representative of the disability center of the main campus, and get to know the school.
Before Dental School Starts
1)What now? Do I need to do anything before school starts?
See if you qualify for assistance via Vocational Rehabilitation. Look up the local office for your state and make an appointment. You may be surprised and if you do qualify, you may get financial assistance in services such as interpreting and real time captioning. Meet with the office of student affairs, disabilities counselor of the main campus, dean of admissions. Be friendly and show them your dedication. Be prepared with documents and resources in the event they ask you how you plan to overcome such barriers you may come across. Find out if there is a current student that may show you around and get some advice from them. Spend a day shadowing a dental student during dental school. Some dental schools have a shadow day for pre dental students. Accepted students will have a mentor assigned to them usually. Take advantage of that and ask as many questions. They are there to help you. Have a standard letter for faculty members addressing your hearing loss and how they may help you.
2)Some great helpful website links for getting into dental school:
www.studentdoctor.net
www.ada.org
www.adea.org
www.dentaltown.com
www.toptennation.blogspot.com
www.scholarware.com
The Lab and Clinical Years
Dental school is not just lecture. You will also have lab courses on top of that, and then clinic rounds on top of that. It is a juggle but once you have mastered the organization skills, it will all fall in place. Again, contact the faculty members of your lab courses ahead of time and send them the standard letter. Have them alert you during timed exams, if time is up or if they make an announcement during the exam that you may have missed. Labs are time consuming and demanding, but can be a lot of fun if you make it fun. The most important thing to remember is, practice practice practice! The instructors grade on perfection so do not let yourself down if you felt you did not make a “perfect” prep. Since instructors may have masks over their mouths while going over your work, you will need to remind them to take their mask off when speaking. The same goes for clinic rounds. You will have direct patient contact, so here is your chance to develop personal relationships with your patients. Being honest upfront them, saying you have a hearing loss, and they will need to make sure you are facing them when they are talking. They will immediately appreciate your compassion for communication. You will need to take blood pressure readings prior to appointments, so utilize the digital blood pressure monitors. Sometimes you might have to use the standard stethoscope and blood pressure cuff in the event that their arm/wrist is too large for the digital. In that case, have your instructor or next door neighbor perform the reading. Make sure you let the instructors know ahead of time that if your digital blood pressure will not be able to be used, that you may have to have them take the reading. Usually the clinic is separated into teams, so you may have a team coordinator that you can communicate if you have any problems. During group discussions and team meetings, try to sit in the front to be able to lip read. Generally you may not need a CART/sign interpreter during lab and clinic, but you may find some lab days will have lectures, during which you will need to contact the interpreter to come that day. You will get a feel of what you will need and not need for your own sake in order to keep up. Generally the first two years are lectures, with lab included in the first two years. The last two years will be less lecture and more clinic, with the fourth year being the most clinic time.
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