Dentistry in IIUM Kuantan?

Bismillah, this might be the continuation of last post where I stopped at my admission in IIUM CFS(Center of Foundation Studies / Asasi). And may this post help those who are interested or concerned in taking dentistry!

I still remember my lecturer’s words when I had my interview for degree, “if you want to pursue Dentistry just because it is easier than Medicine, then you are wrong.”

Honestly that was the truest thing I have ever heard.

Also, have heard of ‘Dentist = Doctor + Engineer + Artist’?

Entering CFS, I was the 2^nd batch to ever start studying in Gambang. Overall was good, except that everything was secluded. Felt like we were separated from the real world, sigh. Nonetheless, I thought it was good for bookworms-course like us.

I think I need to remind everyone that u don’t need to know Arabic to further study here. But u WILL learn if you haven’t. There were few tests done during orientation to decide whether we will take certain classes. During my time, for dentistry / medic / pharmacy (3 serangkai – pls take note, im gonna use this term), foundation duration can be 1 or 2 years. I won’t tell this in details since currently, all students are compulsory to take 1-year-foundation!

At that time(eh rasa tua sgt guna ayat macam ni), majority of students were 2years students. And I was among the minority who completed CFS in 1 year. And that explains why I am the youngest in my batch :)

Taking 1 year path, it’s a lot more painful than those 2-year friends. Since the subjects that we had to take at the end of the day were the same, the schedule was more packed. Subjects learned were the same for 3serangkai – biology, chemistry, physics, maths, etc. Since it’s foundation, nothing is specific yet. You can even choose to change course for degree! if there’re seats and your cgpa is qualified. [I believe this applies for foundation in other places too]

I was in a class full of medical students, and I still remember when I was not in my right mind I always looked down(not rly, I just couldn’t find right word for this. Kelate panggil ‘jeih’) on 3serangkai students – always with books, in my mind they were nerdies. But later on I realized that it’s not the students’ attitude that bring them to that, but it’s nature of study which made them (us) can’t help but to always befriend books.

How tough is studying for 3serangkai? Haha is there any perimeter to decide how tough is tough? Well to compare it with SPM, studying in U requires more self study, and for me the step up is not that high during CFS (means it’s not THAT different in level), things learnt were mostly learnt during SPM but just deeper. But entering degree, it’s totally a different story!

Before entering degree 1^st year, we(dentist and medic) were required to attend UNGS classes, which made us enter main campus earlier than other people. Why? Because UNGS are compulsory subjects for all students and later on from year 1-5 we won’t have time to attend those classes.

For the first year, it was full of theories. Some practical was included – carving wax block into tooth(see pic), histo drawing and coloring (to enhance our art skill), etc. However there was no direct teaching on dentistry practical yet. 4 subjects taken were – Oral Biology, Anatomy & Histology, Physiology, and BioChem. It’s safe to say that year 1 is the year with most free time compared to another year. And that’s why it’s a good year to join a lot of societies and events!

Exam, was full of surprise. It was the first time I felt like crying during exam (I mean it). 3 sections were included – MCQ(Multiple Choice Questions), MEQ(Multiple Essay Questions), and SN(Short Notes). MCQ WAS  SUCH A PAIN. They were all true-or-false questions, and in 40 minutes we had to answer 100 questions(!!). The biggest pain was they were marked with negative marking ; 1 mark if correct, 0 mark if we don’t answer, and -1 if we’re wrong. HA. It traumatized me even now (exam is near the corner r.i.p madi)

The questions were so detailed that sometimes we were not even sure from which topic do they come from. Tbh, I often ended up not answering nearly half of them. The thing is – if we really don’t know the answer, we can just leave it blank but IF we’re not sure than we’ll have to decide to take a risk(+1 or -1) or better to leave it(0). And that’s when you wanna cry.

Going to year 2, ahh this was went I was reassured that I’m taking dentistry(read: it feels more like a dentist) lol. We started going into simulation lab, with each of us having our own mannequin / dummy(see pic). We have our own set of instruments which cost a looot if we lost it. Dentistry is an expensive course ya know.

The subjects increased to 6 – Conservative Dentistry, Prosthetic Dentistry, Dental Materials, Pathology, Microbiology, and the most loved (uhh) Pharmacology (also Endodontics during B4). Cons(tampal2), Endo(deal with pulp) and Prostho(denture/gigi palsu) are the ones where we use the simulation lab(see pic). While the other subjects are in classes and sometimes lab for microscope usage

Exams are carried out in same way as year 1 (continues till year 5), with addition of all exercises in simu lab which requires a lot of commitment. For example, in Prostho the class sessions are only for teaching and demo by the dental technologies, so we need to do the exact thing demonstrated BUT outside of the class. Hence we have to find our own time and some procedures can only be done in lab, so there are times when we have to stay at lab until maghrib to finish our work.

One thing about dentistry is – you need to deal with very detailed things. It may be the first time you realize how 0.5mm changes your whole world (ini serious). Denture rejected due to 0.5mm is super normal. Also the working area is only on the tooth like you can easily imagine how small it is.

Which part of it is being engineer and artist? In dentistry we deal with a lot of machines and instrumentation to complete a procedure. High speed handpiece, for example, is 400,000 rpm(rotation per minute) which is super fast and to control it needs a lot of skills. You may hurt urself / the patients if not handled properly. Being an artist can be seen when we have to carve the restoration(bahan tampalan) back to its normal morphology(original shape), also in setting teeth (susun gigi) while doing denture to follow exactly normal teeth arrangement. Too much example I have to write another essay for that!

For 3^rd until 5^th year, since I haven’t experienced yet, I could only share briefly. We start entering polyclinic and treating real patients starting from year 3. There are theory classes, but only 2 hours per day. The rest of the day is struggling in the clinic to fulfil the requirement. Just like our life, it gets harder as year increases.

To compare it with medic, dentistry is a more diverse field. You require a lot of skills especially hand skills while medicine requires a lot of brain skill(?). Medicine needs a loooottt of reading and they are full of lectures and practicals. Well of course, doctors deal with people’s life in a bigger extent therefore they need to work harder with theories. While dentistry learns about human’s body as much as medical students do, dentistry is more on technical part. Meanwhile pharmacy, is kinda same with medicine except that they focus more on the medicine(ubat) themselves. 

Last but not least, whatever you wanna be, remember that the best ones are always those who always do their best in everything. and the happiest ones are the ones closest to Allah, at the end of the day. so let's strive to be the best and live our lives to our fullest!

:)