- You've seen me take on law school,
but it's time to take on dental school.
Please welcome Dr. Daniel to the channel.
- Thanks for having me.
- Are you nervous?
- Not at all.
- Well, medical school is about to beat dental school
'cause we're the cooler school.
- All the medical students say that exact same line, so.
- Okay, well, we're about to find out
because he just yelled at me for not flossing.
Sorry about that, by the way. - Yeah.
- [Mike] Huge thanks to SoFi for sponsoring this video.
- [Crew Member] Which is harder,
dental school or med school.
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging) (Mike laughing)
- It's so obvious.
- Dental school, obviously. - It's so.
One organ versus 78 organs.
- So we have to learn all the organs and specialize
in this massive, most important organ.
- Name 10 organs.
- Let's not talk about it right now.
(Mike and crew laughing)
Let's focus on the question that was asked,
(laughing) and dental school.
- Name three organs in the abdominal cavity.
- We have a cavity. (Mike laughing)
Speaking of cavities, let's talk about your cavity.
(bass drum booming)
(static hissing)
- Four years of education. - Mm-hmm.
- Plus at least three years of residency.
- Four years of dental school.
If you want to specialize,
you could get into another four years of residency
or three years.
It depends on the specialty.
Not only are you reading books and memorizing facts,
but you have to be really good with your hands.
So the hand skills have to be not up to here, but superior.
- And if you're a surgeon?
- If you're a surgeon, then you're a surgeon.
(both laughing)
- But in family medicine, we rotate through surgery
'cause we perform minor surgeries.
I'm not gonna go and start opening up
someone's abdomen, but if in case of emergency,
and I'm your only hope, I can do it.
- Or a dentist could do it.
- (laughing) No, a dentist
could not do it. (Daniel laughing)
- [Crew Member] Where did you go to school
and for how long?
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging)
- I went to NYU College of Dentistry.
- Okay. - And I did
my residency at Yale.
- Oh, shout, we're putting residencies on here too?
But I did my degree. - It's all
about the technicality. - In a seven-year program
at NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine,
not NYT.com.
(Daniel laughing) 'cause some people did that.
(both laughing)
New York Institute of Technology
College of Osteopathic Medicine.
So this was an accelerated program, so I had to-
Where's your undergrad?
- Okay, so I'll write that too.
I've been a New York guy most of my life, yes.
- Okay, so how long is dental school?
- Four years. - And college?
- An undergrad. - Undergrad.
- Could be four years
or three years. - But how long
did you do? - (laughing) Did I do.
I did undergrad in three years.
- No you didn't!
- Yes, I did.
- Stop lying.
- I promise you.
- You also did a seven-year thing?
- It was a make-believe seven-year thing,
but I pushed through.
Like, summers, I took classes. - Wow!
- So I didn't have to, like, spend, the four,
four and a half years in undergrad.
I knew what I wanted to do,
so I kind of, like, tried to steamroll through.
- 'Cause doesn't Brooklyn College
have a seven-year track for?
- For medical school. - Medical school.
- For medical school, not dental.
- But yeah, seven years is, basically, you go.
You do the three years.
You continue on as long as you meet the criteria
of the scores and yearly GPA and all that stuff.
- [Crew Member] How many schools did you apply to,
and to how many were you accepted.
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging) - You applied
to only one school?
- One school, and I got into one school.
I would not recommend that. - Your confidence. (laughs)
- (laughs) I would not recommend that.
- Is that because you have a white coat on?
- That's exactly the reason. (Mike laughing)
My parents, I'm very lucky, both my parents are dentists,
and they both went to NYU Dental,
and I just saw that as the school to go to.
They gave my family an opportunity to become
who they are today,
and I was gonna do whatever I needed to do
to get into this program and school, so.
But for majority of you, please apply to,
to many, many schools.
- I didn't apply to medical school,
so this is actually not accurate.
I applied to that seven-year program,
which is undergrad first,
and then you just happen to continue
into the medical school. - Right.
- Anyways this is (laughs) - One for one.
- But my dad also went to the same school
it just used to be called New York College
of Osteopathic Medicine.
- So we are following in our families' footsteps
and we are very lucky, right,
we're both very lucky. - Yeah, we are very lucky.
Well, our parents did it both as immigrants, right.
- That's true.
Our parents did it as immigrants
who spoke different languages,
and we were lucky enough to follow in their footsteps.
- [Crew Member] What was the best part
of medical or dental school?
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging)
- Some of these patients seemed like they're a cadaver.
They didn't want to move. (Mike laughing)
No! - They looked at me, like,
"What are you gonna do
"here today?" - Okay so why was
that the best part?
- Why? Because,
I went into this field to help people.
In dental school, to be able to work on patients
prior to becoming doctor,
I thought it was such an amazing thing and, you know,
you started your patient skills in dental school.
- And who teaches you?
Is there, like, a senior dentist
that walks around and watches you
and holds your hand, like.
- Yeah, so you do have senior dentists,
you have older classmates,
and you also have doctors that have retired
that are there supervising.
- I've actually been curious about that.
Do you practice on a mold first?
- [Daniel] Yes.
So we practice on mannequins
that don't talk, don't respond.
You can take out. - Really?
But it's a real, like,
everything, the material's the same?
- No. - Oh.
- [Daniel] It's like plastic teeth.
- [Mike] But is it a realistic teaching experience?
- Not at all.
Because human beings talk back to you.
Human beings. - They move.
Their tongue moves. - They move.
They're like, "Ahh." - Salivate.
- Everything's moving.
This mannequin is the perfect patient.
Their mouth is open
and you can open, stretch it (synth sound effect)
as much as you can. - So you never had
standardized. - Sometimes,
sometimes people could even take out
the teeth out of the mouth
and drill it (drill whirring)
and put it back.
- Oh, they did that?
In school? - Some dental students,
I know you guys are watching. - Wow.
They cheated. (Daniel laughing)
- Little cheaters, I see you.
- Wow, okay.
So for us,
it was different because we had standardized patients.
- Mm-hmm.
What does that mean, standardized patients?
- [Mike] They're paid actors.
- Really? - To act
with certain conditions.
- [Daniel] That's cool.
- And you would literally walk into a room,
and you would not know what's going on,
and you have to treat it like a real patient encounter.
And you have, it's timed.
You have, like, 15 minutes, or whatever the time was,
to find out what's going on with them.
They're all trained to give you some scenario
with practiced, rehearsed answers, questions.
But then also, they have something unique going on.
They're really mad, they're crying,
they're throwing up.
They would literally have stuff in their mouth
and spit it out.
And then you'd get graded on the encounter
from the video of the session,
and your note, how well it was written.
But cadaver lab (laughs) was the coolest part.
(Daniel laughing) Has nothing to do with
what I just said.
For me, cadaver lab was the coolest part
because you get to see the parts of the body
that you only see in textbooks,
in drawings. - Mmm, yeah.
- And it looks completely different.
You realize what a mish mosh the body is inside,
and how everything's actually interconnected with fascia,
and how you need to separate it out.
And you grow a respect for the body.
But at the same time,
when you're studying for the test,
and it's midnight, (suspenseful music)
and no one else is there, and it's dark,
it's kinda spooky. - That is very spooky.
- It's my life goal.
I haven't yet committed to this
'cause I have some weird fears,
but I wanna donate my body to a cadaver lab.
- Wow.
- So if you're a school
and you're interested in my cadaver lab,
drop a comment down below. - You know what.
I'll take it one step further.
I'll donate my teeth.
- [Crew Member] As specifically as you can recall,
how much did it cost
to go to medical or dental school?
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging)
- How many years?
- Four years.
- But I thought dental school was three years.
- Four years. - Is it ever three years?
- Maybe back in the day there used to be, like,
some accelerated program. - Oh.
- But I don't think so. - I though that dental school.
- And, I was doing some research,
'cause I went to school many years ago.
- So $300'000?
- It's at almost 100'000, just school.
Not room and board or anything.
Just. - Right now?
- $100'000.
- Isn't NYU medical school free?
"We award Full-Tuition Scholarships
"to all current students."
(bass drum booming) - Where was this
when I went to school? (Mike laughing)
- Just a quick pause before we
dive back into our engaging discussion.
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All right, now that we've got that covered,
let's jump in with Dr. Daniel.
- [Crew Member] What is the worst part
of medical or dental school?
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging)
- How often did you get a test?
'Cause I still remember. - Honestly I felt, like,
the second...
"Welcome to NYU dental school,
"you have an exam tomorrow."
Like what the heck! (Mike and crew laughing)
I just got in.
I don't even know where I'm at. (laughs)
So prior to dental school,
everything was on a piece of paper,
you had to take the exams on Scantrons
and so forth. - Yeah.
- And I think the year that I went into dental school,
they're like, "We're gonna do it on the computer."
I'm, like, sounds very technical and cool and whatever.
I didn't understand it very well,
I wasn't very good at computers.
So, the first question, (keys clacking)
you know I read it, I'm like, you know,
I don't wanna answer this.
(bass drum booming) Next question, I click next.
I don't wanna it right now. (bass drum booming)
I think I know the answer, I just.
I wanted to skim through it.
You weren't allowed to go back.
So I'm starting off my career in dental school
with, like, a 50. (Mike laughing)
- We would have three exams. - Mm-hmm.
- Per testing segment. - Mm-hmm.
- You would have the written exam.
- Yeah.
- Then you have your OMT,
which is the hands-on exam. - Mm-hmm.
- And then you would also have your cadaver exam.
So you're doing three exams within one day.
And that's every two weeks.
- [Crew Member] How would you describe your professors?
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging)
- Ooh! (Mike and Daniel laughing)
(coin chime)
- I really wanted to get to know them
'cause I knew that they will play a big role in my life.
I did the best that I could.
I spent extra hours working on my craft
and I think they saw that,
they saw how hard I was working.
And I saw that they were willing
to devote their energy and time.
These teachers, professors, don't make any money, really,
so they're doing it from the bottom of their heart
and I really respected that.
- I was very surprised.
I thought in med school
the professors and people would be mean.
But they actually, genuinely would be upset
if someone didn't do well on an exam,
because they felt like they failed.
- [Crew Member] What's one of your fondest,
specific memories of your time in school?
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging)
- "First test and time during..."
What does that say? - "Trauma."
- You definitely have doctor's handwriting.
- (Laughs) Trauma in Brooklyn. - In Brooklyn.
- You were a student body president?
- Yeah.
I was very lucky enough and honored to become
the student body president.
That was the first time I ever got involved in
any little politics, and let me tell you,
sucks. (Mike laughing)
Any type of politics is terrible.
I got to work very closely with the Dean of NYU Dental.
And he really mentored me on how to approach a room,
and how to lead and speak to people,
and be kind and generous but also
have your point across in a very specific way.
So just because I went to dental school
doesn't mean that you can't learn anything else
while in dental school.
What about you?
- The first test, I did really good,
I got, like, a 97.
I was, like, "Pfft, I'm gonna crush med school."
- What a difference. - So that was,
that was so good. - Next, next.
And I got, like, 50. - No, but.
It was a rough start after. (Daniel laughing)
And then I remember during even Hurricane Sandy,
I was working in one of the level one trauma centers
in Brooklyn.
Got to see some wild scenarios.
Got to learn how to throw in an 18 gauge I.V.
Scrub into a lot of surgeries,
but also at the same time learn that
I didn't wanna become a surgeon.
'Cause initially I wanted to do surgery.
And I scrubbed into, I think,
60 surgeries. - Wow.
- And I was like, "This ain't for me."
- I think that's even more important than school itself.
- Yeah.
- Figuring out what you don't want to do or what doesn't
make you happy. - Well that's why it's
it's important, the first two years of medical school,
you learn, like, the sciences, the basics,
and then you move in and actually learn
what's like to be on the wards.
- [Crew Member] How would you describe your personal life
while in medical or dental school?
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging)
(crew member laughing)
- No but, see, I disagree with yours.
- Let me see.
- See I think mine happened to be sad,
but I don't think it needs to be sad.
I think you can have a personal life.
- Once I started to understand how to study
and I was very efficient,
I had a little bit more time to unwind,
I played a lot of sports, went to the gym.
Did have a little bit of a personal life
but the personal life should not take over
your main goal, which is graduating.
A lot of students were failing exams
because they would go out more than they should, so.
You have to be really self aware
of yourself. - Priorities are important.
No, but. - Why was yours sad?
- First, I moved in and I lived on campus.
Like, near campus, and it was fine,
it was going well.
But then I unfortunately, you know,
I lost my mom, so I had to move back in
to Staten Island,
and because of that, I started commuting.
Then I got used to the idea of commuting,
so I almost fully disconnected from my class.
And never created friendships,
wasn't involved as a student body president
and the government.
Like I completely lost all the opportunities
to get involved, and I would go out,
I would have a personal life,
but not connected
to my community. - To the school, yeah.
- Which sucks.
- [Crew Member] What's one thing you would change
about medical or dental school?
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging)
- The amount of exams on a weekly basis was
extraordinary. - Too many?
- It was too many.
And I think that kinda takes away from
actually experiencing dental school
and understanding what dentistry's about
and really engulfing within the community.
'Cause when you're constantly just studying
for these exams, I mean, you kinda miss out.
And also the tuition, I think tuition
is very, very high. - Tuition's ridiculous.
- Very, very high,
and what's happening is many people
that are graduating from dental and medical school
with these high loans that they took on,
they have to do things maybe that they shouldn't.
So they jump on, like, a chain dental,
just to see as many patients as possible
to try to make their money back.
So, the ethics and morals kind of, like, start to
wander. - Shift.
- Shift and wander away.
- Because they become more about money.
What were on your exams?
I'm always curious about that.
- What's your name?
That's a good one.
That's a good start. (Both laughing)
- I hope that's not
the only thing on thing. - No, no, I mean.
We took. - Like are they asking you
questions about, like, white blood cell function?
- Exactly.
Pharmacology, any diseases.
Also. - Any diseases?
Or just dental diseases?
Like autoimmune disease?
- Exactly.
So in order for us to understand the head and neck,
we have to understand how the body works.
'Cause the mouth is connected to the rest of the body.
- So you would have, like, cardiovascular.
- Yes.
- Really.
- Yes.
As we went closer to graduation,
it would go from really broad
to more narrow, narrow, narrow,
narrow, narrow, narrow,
and then teeth.
Teeth is the last thing that we focus on.
- Well I wanna keep the Krebs cycle
and add improv.
There's a movement to remove the Krebs cycle from education
and instead bring in, like, a more humanistic approach
and less scientific approach to medicine.
And I think that's a mistake, I think you need
to keep the scientific knowledge in,
but our communication sucks as doctors.
- Yes.
- So we need to add improv,
which forces us to leave the book
and stop thinking about the future,
which we all do in healthcare, - Amen.
- And think about the moment.
Even, we communicate really poorly
on social media between each other.
Attacking each other.
It gets quite toxic within the medical communities.
For no reason.
A lot of us are on the same page.
- We're all on the same team. - Yeah.
- [Crew Member] What is one piece of advice
you would give to someone
just starting medical or dental school today?
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging)
- So don't let one exam (Mike laughing)
or class... - You left me hanging there.
- Deter you, or deteriorate you,
or discourage you.
- That's a lot of words. - From achieving
the goal of why you started medical school or dental school.
Whatever grade you think is the worst grade in the world,
learning how to move on past that
and keep moving forward
and doing the best that you can,
I think that's the most important.
Do not let one exam or class
change that. - Get back up on the horse.
- Get back on that horse and keep going.
- I just said do it for the right,
make sure you're doing it for the right.
I was gonna right reconsider,
but I don't want people to think
that I'm discouraging folks from going into medicine.
Medicine is in a tricky place. - Yes.
- Where doctors are in a very tumultuous situation.
Where things are changing rapidly.
Their skills will be shifting,
their reimbursements will be shifting,
even style of work will be shifting.
It's so worth it 'cause the field is so rewarding
and it's so much fun and it's really cool,
but with all those challenges,
you better be doing it for the right reasons
'cause if you think you're doing it to get rich,
or you're doing it 'cause
Papa Bear did it. - It's cool to be a doctor,
or whatever the case is.
- That's not it.
That ain't it.
You ain't him.
- (Laughs) You ain't him.
- [Crew Member] We bring it back to the beginning.
Which is harder?
Med school or dental school?
(clock ticking)
(bell dinging)
- What did this guy write? (crew laughing)
"School is more expensive, med school is harder."
Ooh.
- What'd you say?
- I think medical school and dental school has
the same amount of problems and trauma,
mental trauma, all that stuff.
But if you do it for the right reasons.
- No, no, no, I agree.
I think that both are really hard.
I just think there's so much more.
Maybe 'cause I still don't grasp
what's being taught in dental school.
- It's crazy 'cause you think, you see teeth,
and there's a tongue, there's the lips,
you're like okay, that's dental school.
The amount of understanding
and the amount of details that comes into
understanding the head and neck is tremendous.
- Okay, so I'll say dental school is more expensive
and med is harder,
but only by a tiny, tiny bit.
(Both laughing)
So dental school's pretty tough but
I also took on law school with the man himself,
Legal Eagle.
Click here to check that out, and as always,
stay happy and healthy.
- [Mike Voiceover] Huge thanks to SoFi
for sponsoring this video.
(upbeat synth music)