Reading Material for part A

Anatomy- Johnson and Moore, its an excellent book, written with the dental student in mind. You need to know head and neck perfectly. You can be asked to draw diagrams, I gave my part A in GKT London in march 2004 and we were asked 3 diagrams in the question paper, that were taken straight out of the book.

Draw a diagram showing superficial and deep relations of hyoglossus muscle
Draw diagram of horizontal section showing pterygopalatine space and label 5 relations, complications of LA block
In addition to the usual stuff you also need to know, brain arterial blood supply circle of willis, questions on sounds eg- fricatives, labiodental etc. this is given well in Johnson and moore, Jaw reflexes.

During my Basic Science viva is was given a mandible and asked to trace the Inferior dental nerve course, show the attachment of the mylohyoid muscle. So be prepared for this.

Oral Histology- I read ten cate, though some people preferred berkowitz. Again you need to read it thoroughly, learn saliva properly. In my viva i was shown print outs of slides, showing different stages of tooth development, incremental lines etc so you may be shown and asked to identify slides.

Physiology and biochemistry- I read Vander and sherman. It is a big vast book and unfortunately there isnt too much you can avoid, but do your basics well. CVS, CNS, Blood, GIT, Respiration. Some questions asked in my paper were.
Oxygen heamoglobin dissociation curve.
Haemorrhage control in small vessels (platelet plug+clotting cascade)
How does the Action potential move in myelinated nerves
Alpha amylase: what limits its action! What products are formed by its action and what is formed by further digestion of these products!
Different orofacial stimuli? what are nociceptors and what is their stimulus!
Fill in the blanks about VLDL, HDL, LDL, chylomicrons and triglycrides
Types and functions of different immunoglobulins! Dimeric Ig in saliva, pentameric, monomeric Igs
Tempreture control, mechanisms by which body geains and looses heat.
During the viva i was asked about Cholesterol, hyperventilation, glucose absorption, I had a Biochemist taking my viva.


Medicine- I read Cawson and Scully and MFDS modules 2, 3A and 3B. You need to know main drug interactions , esp for patients on warfarin, INR, Management of medical emergencies, Antibiotic prohylaxis for Infective endocarditis( the latest regime is is available at the royal college of surgeons of england site and in the latest edition of cawson and scully)
http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/dental/fds/c...s/ie_recs_html
The modules covers a lot of stuff on neoplasms , gag reflex, vomting, swallowing, saliva, microbiology, jaw reflexes are given better in the modules though they are mentioned in Johnson and moore. In the viva is was asked about asthma, hypertension, hypoglycemia, latex allergy,INR

General pathology and Microbiology- any good micro and gpath book will do they recommend Underwood and samarnayake for each respectively. I did'nt use either.
Read inflammation epithelia dysplasia neoplasia thrombosis infarction, embolism,atherosclerosis and shock
Some surgery topics like factors affecting wound healing,fracture
healing,examination of a lump etc. and fluid stabilisation should be
read from any good general surgery book or internet resource.

Oral Pathology-I used Cawson and odell it is an excellent book and you will use it in your part C too. Some people have also used soames.Topics to concentrate on are Salivary gland tumours,benign and malignant tumours of the oralcavity,cysts,fibro osseos lesions and devlpmntl disturbances of teeth, Vesiculobullous lesions.

Radiology- Eric waites, just for a brief overview, this book is more useful in the part c. You may get radiographs in your viva or in your paper, we had one showing a radiolucency in the angle of the mandible and we had a to give a d/d. I was shown a radiograph in my viva, it was a Master apical cone radiograph. Now you dont really need a radiology book for this. Most of the questions use applied knowledge.

Biometry - was not specifically included when i gave my paper as a seperate subject. Biometry is largely statistics but includes the design of research.I suggest you use the BDJ Books by Bulman & Osborne entitled
Statistics for Dentistry Further Statistics for Dentistry.


In addition to these books some of my colleagues used the Oxford Handbook of applied dental science, this is like a small guide for basic sciences, they used this one book instead of the above mentioned books. I know that the book is well written for oral histology, and saliva, i would'nt recommend it for all the other basic science subjects.

Your written exam is 2 papers, one will be anatomy and physiology , clinically applied dental science and one paper will cover medicine and opath, micro, gpath, therapeutics and emergencies.The new revised portion now contains 20 questions each, it used to previously contain 35 questions. each question will be worht 10 marks and may be subdivided into further 3-4 questions. You have 3 hours for each paper. Most questions are very specific and require small succint answers. They will give you an alloted amount space and you are not allowed to write beyond that if you do they cut marks.Use correct colours while drawing diagrams and label them neatly remember, blue is for veins, red for arteries, brown for muscles and yellow for nerves.
There will be 2 vivas, one in Human medicine and one covering Clinically applied dental science(Anatomy, physiology and biochemistry, dental materials and radiology, biometry). Each viva is i think about 15 mins and you have 2 examiners, each of them will ask you a set of questions and while you are answering one the other will take notes. The important thing to remember in a viva is, dont stall the viva, when your stuck ona question say i'm sorry i dont recall, the examiners may give you clues and prod you, if you still cant remember again say you cannot recall and they will move on. Try and cover as many topics as possible, it is better to have answered 11 out of say 16 questions than just 5 out of 9..as you would have covered more topics. Dress formally for your vivas it is very very important. Most examiners are very cordial and considerate, and know that you are under stress.Even if they arent if you know your work they wont harass you.

There is one more book called the oxford handbook of clinical dentistry which i would recommend you buy. This book was useful when we had the clinical dentistry viva, which has been removed now but it is a nice small consie guide, it gives you alot of information about the latest regulations here, fluorides is covered well in it and it will help you in all three parts. You can also read dental materials, therapeutics from it.

This exam is not difficult if you cover all topics systematically. In addition to this go through the General Dental Councils briefing regarding the new syllabus.
http://www.gdc-uk.org/register/iqe_parta.html

Now many people have asked me what kind of jobs you will get after completing the part A and coming here. For these details you will have to contact the department of health directly or the british council in the city you stay in. As far as i know they plan to get you dental nursing jobs here i dont know about the pay but you will get enough to sustain yourself.

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HI,im preparing for ORE,which replaced IQE...need guidence for it .thanx