Orthodontics Defined
Orthodontics may be the specialty of dentistry that's concerned using the study and treatment of malocclusion (improper bites), which may be a result of tooth irregularity, disproportionate jaw relationships, or both. Orthodontic therapy can focus on dental displacement only, or can deal using the control and modification of facial growth. In the latter case it is better defined as "dentofacial orthopedics". Orthodontic therapy can be carried out for purely aesthetic reasons with regards to improving the general appearance of patients' teeth. Nevertheless, you will find orthodontists who work on reconstructing the whole face rather than focusing exclusively on teeth. Therapy is also frequently prescribed for practical reasons for example providing the patient having a functionally improved bite (occlusion).
There ‘are’ exceptions, in which, though you still have to undergo the dedicated coursework that prepares you for dental school, you need only do 2 years of undergraduate school work and then go directly to dental school.
And so in other words rather than undergoing the ‘entire’ 4-year bachelor-degree layout, you matriculate in a program that entails a concentrated, dedicated undergraduate 2 years only — then on to dental school direct. It bypasses the bachelor’s degree and is set up to allow you to undergo the D.D.S, or D.M.D, degree trajectory on completion.
There is still another modality in which you do a 4-year bachelor’s degree program for which the last 2 of the 4 years of the bachelor’s program are the first 2 years of medical or dental school. On completing the last 2 years of the bachelor’s degree but the first 2 of dental or medical school, the bachelor’s degree is then conferred while you will have already be preparing to enter your 3rd year of medical or dental school.
Such as these exist for those who wish to do this. It is little known. And such can be risky, indeed, but it does exist.
This is because one has to be very careful in going — in particular — the first alternative. Administrators and students and parents alike prefer not to chance it, for you have to know that going to dental school is truly and really what you are bent on pursuing and completing; otherwise you risk being left without either a bachelor or professional degree. See?
These are still little known methods and I believe are more commonly accepted routes to dental or medical school on the east coast of the United States.
Both these two alternatives remove 2 years from the overall time in spent in undergraduate-professional schools.
Colleges normally have a pre-dental program that you can look into. But really, you can major in anything you like, as long as you take the core courses required by most dental schools.
Start looking at brochures for the colleges you want to attend. Check out the pre-dental program and see what it consists of. And talk to couselors! They’ll be very helpful.
Good luck!
Other than a pre-med / pre-dental program, you could major in biology. I know that that’s what my old orthodontist did =]
Dentistry…..duhhh