At Duggan Dental Studies we offer a variety of courses, for those from U.S. dental schools who are having difficulty passing licensure exams, or for those who cannot afford to fail and want to insure their success as much as possible, for foreign-trained dentists who want to establish practices in the U.S., and for practicing dentists who wish to enhance their skill-base and improve their capabilities in patient-care and at the same time increase their profit-margins.
In order to qualify to take the clinical exams, or to apply for entrance into school programs (see International Dentist tab), you have to take at least the National Dental Board Part I and possibly Part II. We had live courses for both of these exams for many years in our Colton office, with many invited lecturers to explain many of the subtleties of the basic sciences and clinical sciences. These days we don't offer the courses in our facility, but we do offer the recorded versions. We recorded the lectures and discussion sections of each of these courses, consisting of hundreds of hours of videotape with stereo sound. The NBDE-I course content was edited onto DVDs this last year, with ample menus, so you can skip from place to place following the outline. The NBDE-I DVDs are no longer available to rent, but we are in the process of putting these ONLINE, and are aiming for early 2010, with unique enhancements to help you remember all you need for this exam. We taught these courses previously to help candidates that were having trouble passing the exam, but the emphasis now is to get the highest grade possible. In the past, if you got a 75 on the NDB-I and NDB-II you qualified to take the CA RT exam and enter the licensure by examination system. If you did not pass both exams by the end of 2003, you do not qualify for the RT and you must apply to a school program - for these a grade of 75 simply won't suffice. Most schools are looking for at least an 85, and some set the cutoff even higher. You will need every bit of help you can get to master the material for these exams, and we can certainly help with this. The materials we have for NBDE-II consist of over 100 hours of invited lectures and manuals, and will be ONLINE by mid-2010.
The licensure examination courses cover your needs to pass Regional Clinical Dentistry exams, including the popular Western Regional Examination Board (WREB) examination, which may become the national clinical examination in the future. DDS has long been considered to have the highest passing rate for students a variety of clinical exams, even compared to recent graduates from U.S. dental schools. For many years we taught clinical exam courses IN U.S. dental schools, on both the East and West coasts. You can read more about the history and possible future of the clinical exams in the "Dental Board Exams" tab.
Recent changes in the WREB exam makes it more similar to the discontinued but challenging California Clinical Exam (Cal Board)! Checking the WREB website and Candidate Guide shows significant differences (Jan 2008), reflecting changes in protocol for the exam. Historically, the last change in patient restorative requirements was to make the class II composite restoration a possible alternative to indirect posterior restorations. The original choice was between an inlay or partial veneer crown - almost everyone chose the inlay. Then, with the class II composite added to these choices, almost everyone chose the class II, making the exam a class II amalgam and a class II composite. Now, you are allowed to choose two of the following categories of restoration: class II amalgam, class II composite, class III composite and indirect gold (inlay or partial veneer). This means now many people will choose the class II amalgam and class III composite, essentially the same as the last version of the Cal Boad. A "slot" class II is still accepted for the WREB, but was never for the Cal Board.
Our WREB course is slightly more complex due to these changes. It may well be that the choice of restoration depends solely on what patients you have available. The amalgam is still the simplest preparation and restoration for well-chosen cases, but both class II and III composite restorations must be practiced. For the composite restoration classes we will be doing BOTH class II and III fillings. We will need natural teeth BOTH for anterior and posterior, and screening radiographs must include four bitewings AND the anterior maxillary PAs.
The other series of courses we have are designed to help you gain admission to U.S. dental schools, either for advanced standing positions, or to International Dental Programs. These school programs will take you through to the DDS degree, so you can practice anywhere in the United States. The admission process is very competitive, as described in the "International Dentists" tab. We call this course the FRT, Fundamental Restorative Techniques course, and in it we cover many preparation designs that you probably haven't studied, for these that many schools ask you to demonstrate. Even the amalgam class II preparations, which all schools ask, is something that most dental school graduates don't know how to do well or quickly. The training that we give you will enable you do to a precise preparations, quickly, and help you enter a school program knowing that you have skills that put you above the rest of the group. It is highly advised that even if you are already accepted in a school program, that you take one of our restorative dentistry courses before you go so that you will be much better able to cope with the stresses of their programs. They will surely keep you very busy, but there is not so much emphasis on fine skill development and preparation strategy as we will give you! Some school programs are good, and some don't teach you as much as you would like - the good news is that you will be a U.S. graduated dentists at the end of any. Our hope is that you take some good skills into your practice at the end.
Our goal at DDS is to help you, the dentist, find a way to serve your patients better, and thus establish a more effective practice, both in terms of helping the patient, and in terms of financial viability. You understanding of the subtleties of dental procedure, the nuances of treatment planning, and your skill in execution, and your ability in patient management, all add to your ultimate success. And, yet, no school does an adequate job of helping you get what you need in these areas. We do!