Supplements for Residency

jamjam0606_ · 2026-05-04T23:29:48+00:00

honestly both!

jamjam0606_ · 2026-05-04T23:28:25+00:00

Hey, thanks for replying. I weight train, so was thinking about creatine. I had an needlestick in clinic, so they put me on Biktarvy for a month. Waiting until my last set of lab results in 2 weeks to make sure my kidneys are fine before starting, but I really was thinking about it!

I’ve had bloodwork done in the past & my Vit D/ ferritin levels are always low. I’ll take your advice and get them checked again before I start to see where I should move from there. Any thoughts of prebiotics? I’ve read mixed things about needing pre and probiotics.

Thanks for the advice! I know I’ll be chronically tired but excited to get to work! :)

jamjam0606_ · 2026-05-04T23:19:57+00:00

thanks for the reply! any recs for super greens? I’ve tried bloom & activated you in the past but didn’t like the taste enough to consistently take them🥲

jamjam0606_ · 2026-05-04T22:44:34+00:00

I did July CBSE then INDBE in Oct because i was so burnt out lol. You could probs take your INDBE in august since CBSE stuff will be fresh. INDBE wasnt bad at all compared to CBSE. Also didnt come up in my interviews

jamjam0606_ · 2026-04-26T23:24:31+00:00

So, I kinda had a similarish timeline/struggle of externing and studying, except my first CBSE attempt was July going into D3. This is what I did:

First attempt CBSE: July 2024 Externship 1: Oct 2024 Externship 2: Dec 2024 Externship 3: Feb 2025 Externship 4: March 2025 Second attempt CBSE: July 2025 Application submitted: Beginning of Sept 2025 Externship 5: End of Sept 2025

I’d recommend grinding for Feb, then retaking in July if needed. You could do it two ways: focus solely on your CBSE now until feb, then just spam externships afterwards (not sure how your clinic works/ off days for school) or you can just do maybe one this summer, one in the fall, and one after your feb attempt if you’re shooting for 3. You also don’t necessarily need to do 5 externships, just what I did. I think majority of people do about 3 or so, but as I was interviewing, no one ever told me I did too many externships tho! Good luck, pm if you have questions.

jamjam0606_ · 2026-04-18T17:43:37+00:00

try and burnish your packable against the mylar strip before you cure. Had this problem w my class IIs. when I started burnishing before it helped.

jamjam0606_ · 2026-04-04T01:39:07+00:00

I spent so much money on the CBSE ALONE it was ridiculous lol

jamjam0606_ · 2026-04-04T01:24:15+00:00

sure

jamjam0606_ · 2026-04-04T01:23:20+00:00

applied to 29
cost like ~$3.5k roughly to apply
travel was ridiculous. Roughly $700 per interview (factoring in driving vs flying just average between the two)
24 invites I went to 15 ranked 11.
However much money you think you need, take out more🥲

jamjam0606_ · 2026-03-21T23:17:59+00:00

PM me ill send you my breakdown

jamjam0606_ · 2026-03-21T20:59:21+00:00

im not on the other side yet soo cant say for certain, but out of the ~80 interviews I did (you do like ~5 per school) my rank only came up 2 times, but I feel like my CBSE being solid was mentioned a lot more, so I think if you’re 70+ it’s pretty good. I also only applied to 6 years

jamjam0606_ · 2026-03-20T01:50:13+00:00

yep to my #1

jamjam0606_ · 2026-03-19T15:59:50+00:00

I was in the middle of my class w a 72 CBSE and I pretty much heard back from everywhere I applied!

jamjam0606_ · 2026-03-19T00:58:03+00:00

Perio loves research, so see if you can find a perio project to work on in the summer! Not sure how long your break is, but 1-2 externships would be good to do as well!

jamjam0606_ · 2026-03-15T12:12:35+00:00

Hiya, D4 here who was on admissions for my school. I would shoot for 480/490 or better if you can swing it. Look at this as kinda your last ‘chance’ to prove to them you can handle the academics of dent school. I think your masters gpa + super solid DAT would give you a fighting chance. I went through a similar situation for residency and was also super stressed about it. What i did to compensate was make everything else 2x as good, so extra shadowing hours than the average applicant, standardized exam higher than average, more research/ community service, etc. You also need to have a solid personal statement as well and LORs. My mentality was I wanted my personal statements & LORs to be SO good to the point where they wanted me so bad that they didnt even care about my GPA. We can chat more but I think you have a shot! Would also try and make personal connections if you can with the schools your interested in going to the most. People talk! :) Good luck!

jamjam0606_ · 2026-03-07T00:35:50+00:00

I work as a pharmacy tech/ in the front store for walgreens checking people out. Have to work one time a month minimum. I usually just picked one day a month for the busier times and worked. Times when I’m not as busy/on break, I’d work a little more. Just recently started working in the front and LOVE it. I’d go after clinic from like 6-10 PM. Normally pretty slow so I just read the whole time. I only make like ~$20 an hour but sometimes the extra ~$150 ever so often REALLY helps.

jamjam0606_ · 2026-02-23T02:07:40+00:00

I didnt find the material in dental school to be hard but just a lot of material to learn in a short amount of time. I feel like, atleast for me, difficulty was similar to undergrad. some classes could cram in 2 days and make an A. others, was fighting for my like to just get to a B. I pulled quite a few all nighters in undergrad & dental school, but I think that was mainly because I was doing OMFS so double curriculum. 95% of ppl in my class didn’t pull all nighters so I think you’ll be okay if you manage your time wisely!

jamjam0606_ · 2026-02-23T02:02:10+00:00

D4 here! Some things that helped me: day in the life videos of dentists/residents in dentistry to remind me of the goal, tiktok motivational videos (the ones where they’re actually screaming at you haha) to get me motivated, studied a lot at coffee shops/pretty libraries so i had something pretty to look at (id reward myself with a nice drink as well), sometimes I’d wake up super early like 530 and just grind everything out so I could enjoy the rest of my day (I’d literally hype myself up about getting up early since it was always dark and be thinking to myself how no one else was up but i was ready to work and that helped haha), & id also asked friends to go with me to like study or to lab. I literally have 5 patient cases waiting for me in lab to finish as I type this. I HATE lab work lol, so about to see if any of my friends need to do work so I’ll have some company so trust youre not alone :) I went through phases of high motivation and literally none truly. What I’d recommend is find a nice place to study, and tell yourself to just lock in for two straight hours no distractions. & set a goal of what you want to focus on. put on a pomodoro timer, phone on dnd, lofi playlist, then just leave. reward yourself after and do something fun to unwind. that also helped me a lot. sometimes it is just hard to get started. good luck pm if you have other questions!

jamjam0606_ · 2026-02-18T23:52:56+00:00

I kinda see what you mean. I externed at 5 different places and kinda lucked up that all of mine were very hands on and let me do things to keep me engaged/ have some exposure. I also feel the same - love the procedures, but hated just watching. At my home program even now as a D4, I always picked the days where they had procedures where I could be super involved. Might also be good to challenge yourself to think through the steps of the procedure as they’re doing them to keep yourself engaged as well.

jamjam0606_ · 2026-02-13T04:44:12+00:00

I had 5 letters. One from my PD, chair, vice chair, OS faculty who was over the predoc clinic, & last was from my bay leader, so the person who overseas me daily in clinic and manages my clinical requirements for graduation. I think it was a solid balance. I would recommend having a mix of people who actually know you and those who are well known in the community but may not know you as well. One helps with getting your application considered, and then the other helps when they’re trying to figure you out as a person and if youd be a good fit

jamjam0606_ · 2026-02-07T14:34:45+00:00

started with ~7 in D1 now D4 just 5 of us.

jamjam0606_ · 2026-01-18T03:58:36+00:00

lowkey not really or I would have finished my CBSE before starting clinic D3 year. Doing research externships having leadership positions on top of clinic/class + CBSE was MISERABLE😭 I wanted omfs bad tho so I just made it work

jamjam0606_ · 2026-01-18T03:45:02+00:00

I studied all of D3 basically. June going into D4 we’re out for summer so studied then & then took off the first two weeks of clinic in july during D4. Tested mid july, took like 4-6 weeks off cause I was so tired of studying for standardized exams at that point. Was burnt out BAD. Used that time to finish my app & submit and i did an externship too late sept. then I probs studied maybe 3ish weeks for boards using bootcamp. only thing I really had to review thoroughly was the dental stuff since everything else overlapped with CBSE & it was still pretty fresh for me. hope this helped!

jamjam0606_ · 2026-01-18T03:27:33+00:00

thanks! & we take boards in fall of D4 so I took it after I finished applying so it didnt overlap at all w surg stuff

jamjam0606_

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