D1 Class,

Dental students have two sections to the student Dental Kit. Items that are student owned, such as your handpieces and articulator, and kit items that are leased. Historically dental students owned all of their kit, and the cost was significant. To put this into perspective. When I went to dental school, I purchased my entire dental kit. With this purchase I bought thousands of burs, teeth, and other consumables way above what I could ever use in a lifetime. Most of this was so that I would never run out and secondly the unit volume of dental supplies meant that if I only needed 10 of one item I purchase 100 in my kit because that item could only be ordered in 100 units. Ultimately, I graduated with a larger dental kit debt than was needed to survive dental school and although I thought I might be able to use some of the supplies in private practice or sell what I did not use it just was not the reality.

Over a decade ago this college, in response to ever increasing costs to the students, developed a system whereby students would purchase key dental kit items and then lease more consumable based items. This allowed for bulk purchasing for the college so that cost savings could be handed down to the students and more customizing of unit volumes dispensed to minimize waste for students. The downside was that this process required more staff to put the kits together and timely to distribute and return each year but ultimately the cost to students would be minimized.

Each year we meet with all course coordinators to review kit item requirements to complete each course. Once we know the basic course kit needs, we then increase the amount significantly to allow for practice and learning errors. We are generous with what we include in the leased items and each year students hand back what they have not used in the kit which is restocked and handed to the next student. There are enough supplies in each student kit to support pre-clinical learning, practice time, plus more, plus more, plus more. Therefore, at the end of the year you should be handing in your dental kits with items still in stock.

Appreciating that after the pandemic our dental kit costs have increased by 30-40% we have managed to keep the dental kit prices down by being as generous as possible with the dental kit while allowing students who require additional items to purchase these at a reduced cost. Understand though that your kit has been stocked well above what you reasonably should need already. You do not own all of the consumables in your kit. You are leasing these items and what you do not need we expect you to return.

Ultimately if you wish to continue handing in your D1 kit with everything stripped from them including all of the denture teeth on the typodont you will be setting up the dental kit system as it is to fail. This will result in us having to look at either significantly increasing the cost of the dental kit lease or move to a fully owned kit which will be even more costly for students.

I ask you to look at the big picture here. This is your college. We operate at a loss each year as the cost of dental school is expensive and you only need to look at the cost of dental education in the US to appreciate that your educational costs are being supplemented. The college does not make money on your dental kits; in fact, it costs us money to try to save you money with this system. Hoarding all of the items in your dental kit and handing in your kit empty of all consumables will only hurt the college and other students in the long run.

I ask you to think about what you are doing, what is reasonable, and what the long-term results will be.

Dr. Reeve

Trenna M. Reeve DMD, ABGD Assistant Professor Associate Dean (Clinics) Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry Rady Faculty of Health Sciences University of Manitoba [1578502983199] Clinical Support Services D227-A-780 Bannatyne Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba R3E 0W2 email: Trenna.Reeve@umanitoba.ca Tel: 1-204-272-3194tel:1-204-272-3194