i hope this isn’t considered an inappropriate place to post this question. my medical school doesn’t provide dental insurance. has anyone ever gone to their affiliated dental school for cleanings and procedures? as a medical student, i believe it’s important to support the education our dental colleagues but i don’t want to risk my teeth at the same time. i don’t know if you get better quality care because they take their time with you and have a professor checking their work or if it is bad because they are learning…
thanks,
kelly
Kelly, I don’t have personal experience with this but I would guess, based on my experience with the med school model, that they’d be well-supervised, so you’d get a pretty thorough exam and treatment. When my dentist was in dental school, there was one procedure he HAD to do in order to graduate, and he hadn’t had any patients in clinic who needed it… he ended up doing the procedure (I forget what it was, obviously not one of the run-of-the-mill things) on his wife’s perfectly healthy tooth! Now THAT’s love. 
Back when I was an uninsured 19 year old, I had all of my wisdom teeth removed at the dental school where, incidentally, I now attend med school. My first visit was done by an attending dentist because they were impacted (I’m assuming that’s what you call them) and my second by a fourth year because it was a simple extraction. I had great care, no complications and no regrets. I definitely did not feel like practice material but rather as a real patient. Plus it only cost me $50 total (back in 1990), a real bargain considering what my copays are now on my husband’s insurance.
Hope this helps,
Tara
When I was a PhD student at a medical school, I also didn’t have dental insurance and had alot of dental work done by the dental students. I was always very happy with the results, but I had inside information about who were the best students (I taught anatomy for dental students and had friends in the school) and the best time of year to go (i.e. after they’ve had a bit of practice).