BDS 3rd Year - A walkthrough

by Haris Ghole

You have to deal with five subjects this year. 

General Medicine.

Oral Pathology.

General Surgery.

Periodontology.

Oral Medicine.

I must put emphasis on Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine before I start with the subject specific explanation. You have to buy this book no matter what. And then you have to carry it in your hands, bags, pockets, secret chest, whatever you have, all the time. You should make it your friend, hang out with this book, and sleep with it. Keep referring to this book time and again. You just can't get enough of it.

General Medicine

Books to consider:

Textbooks 

1. Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine
2. Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine 
3. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (only if you are in love with medicine)

Review books

1. Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (All-purpose handbook)
2. Lecture Notes: Clinical Medicine (the best review book)
3. 100 Cases in Clinical Medicine (if you are all Dr. House about this subject)
4. Churchill's Pocketbook of Differential Diagnosis

Clinical Methods etc

1. Bedside
2. Clinical Examination by Talley O' Connor
3. Macleod's Clinical Examination

Strategy

General Medicine was my favourite subject. I studied it from more than ten different books and atlases, and believe me, it was worth the time.

• Choose a textbook (Davidson or Kumar & Clark)
• Choose a review book (Lecture Notes on Clinical Medicine and Oxford handbook)
• Make it fun (100 Cases, Prognosis android/iphone app, Harrison's MCQs, PreTest MCQs, etc )

You have to choose between Davidson and Kumar & Clark. Both are very good books, though I found Davidson to be a better companion. Give a thorough read to Davidson, and consult Kumar & Clark for CVS, Liver and Kidney. Do a case from the 100 Cases book every time you complete a unit. This will test your knowledge. Medicine is an easy subject provided that you study it like a doctor.

For review, instead of mini davidson or Inam Danish, I would recommend Lecture Notes on Clinical Medicine. It is one of the best books for medicine available out there. Specially do GIT and Liver from this book.

Most students make the mistake of leaving Bedside and MacLeod's for vivas and ospe. These clinically oriented books have the important content that does come in the written paper. When you're doing a unit, say for example Cardiovascular System, you have to study it from every possible resource that you have; which in this case will be the textbook(e.g. Davidson's), the review book(e.g. Lecture Notes), the clinical methods book (e.g. Macleod's), and the test-yourself book (e.g. PreTest MCQs), in addition to all the helping videos about the said unit. 

Surgery

Books to consider: 

Textbook

1. Bailey & Love's Short Practice of Surgery
2. SRB's Manual of Surgery

Other Books

1. Lecture Notes by Ellis: General Surgery
2. Norman Browse (clinical methods and stuff)
3. A manual on clinical Surgery by S. Das (for differential diagnosis)
4. Dogar (for general surgery)
5. Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (surgery section)

Strategy

Surgery is THE clinical subject. You learn more from wards, then you do from the books. Visit wards regularly. Bailey and Love is an ideal book for the text and background information. Lecture Notes by Ellis serves as a review. I would not recommend Dogars and Shameems. These short books do you no good. If you are still desperate or lack the time, go with Dogar's. Norman Browse and S. Das should both be studied with Bailey and Love. S. Das has a page on differential diagnosis at the end of each chapter. Do consult it. I haven't studied SRB's completely, but most students find it very easy and better than Bailey and Love. 

Periodontology

Books to consider: 

Carranza's Clinical Periodontology

Well, there's only one book I can recommend for periodontology. You probably would already know that.

Tenth Edition, or Eleventh? 

There is a lot of stuff missing from the hard copy of eleventh edition, and it is hectic to go online and do all the remaining things from there. So, as much as I want to recommend the eleventh edition, I would not do that. Buy the tenth edition. 

The subject is lengthy but very easy. 

Oral Pathology

Books to consider:

Textbooks

1. Contemporary Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology
2. Regezi's Oral Pathology
3. Cawson's Essentials of Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine

Others

1. Oxford Handbook of Clinical Dentistry (Oral Pathology Section)
2. Oral Pathology Atlas(by Churchill Livingstone)

Strategy

Get Regezi's from someone, and get the first ten or twelve pages that contain the summary tables, photocopied. Cawson's is a beautiful book. But only if you love studying and have time.

Contemporary. The boring book that everyone has to read, is the book of choice for passing the UHS exam. The book isn't that bad. You just have to cram a lot of histology and then revise it umpteen times in order to make sure you're fully prepared for the boards. Sir Arshad Malik's powerpoint notes are highly recommended. Get them from your seniors. There's this Oral Pathology Atlas(by Churchill Livingstone) that I would recommend for everyone (specially for tumours).

Oral Medicine

Books to consider:

Textbooks

1. Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine by Scully
2. Tyldesley's Oral Medicine

Others

1. "Oral Disease" (Churchill Livingstone)

Scully and Tyldsley's both are very good books. And since this subject is considered very easy and is underrated, most people ignore giving it the attention it deserves. Study it with Oral Pathology. 

There's an atlas titled "Oral Disease" (Churchill Livingstone). Go through that too. 

Quotas and Rotations

Exodontia 
You need to buy two books before starting the exodontia. First one is the Oral surgery text book by Tucker that we're supposed to study in final year. Study all the instruments, chair positioning and techniques from this book. Second is the Local Anesthesia by Malamed. Things will get a lot easier and a lot more interesting if you study relevant stuff from these two in 3rd year.

Prosthodontics

We have a separate guide for Prosthodontics. Here, 3rd Year Guide to Prostho Quota

Periodontology, Phantom head and Diagnostic
No secrets to share here except that 'take them seriously'.

For OSPE and Viva, I have written separate posts. Here, OSPEs

That's that. I might have forgotten some important things, or maybe I didn't explain certain parts sufficiently. Feel free to object. Your suggestions will be included in the post. Any query about studies, whether unnecessary or annoying, do not hesitate to ask. I will help you as much as I can.  

I want your prayers in return. (Jazak'Allah bolo!)

Good Luck!