First of all, a big congratulations to the one, who is admitted in this professional course. BDS or bachelor of dental surgery is the branch of science that deals with dental health and hygiene. This goes the general definition for bds but noone tells you how a bds student have to study almost the complete human body functioning i.e physiology, biochemistry, human anatomy as well in the first year. Even I was unaware about the subjects but after going to college, I realized that we also had to study almost all subjects that an MBBS student study i.e Physiology, Anatomy and Biochemistry. But here an BDS student has an advantage and the advantage is the human anatomy i.e we don't have to study the whole human anatomy instead we are limited to the head and neck region and the neuroanatomy section only. Along with head and neck portion and neuro, we also need to know about the different visceral organs and their blood vessels, Human Embryology, Osteology as well. but these subjects are placed under Human Anatomy only.
Along with these three subjects, a dental student also studies Dental Anatomy and Dental Histology - The basic step towards the whole journey of dentistry.
During the initial days, one don't understand everything and find it difficult to grasp everything that is taught in the college. Everything seems new and we are like having no idea what the hell we are really studying but with time, we get adapted to it.
Human Anatomy, being the most volatile subject completely frustrate the students. Majority of students find it the most difficult subject of 1st year. I personally found it difficult but with time and with more and more focus and study, i start loving reading it. Instead I sometimes found Human Physiology more difficult. Nope, just kidding here, both these subjects are quite volatile and requires a lot of study in order to make a good hold over them.
BOOKS
Whenever it comes to books, everyone is so much worried like they are giving NEET exam once more.No doubt, book selection is very important but there is nothing to worry about it. I personally never worried about it because I always believed books always teaches something. The only difference is the content i.e some books elaborate the things a lot and some kind of keep the content simple and short.
Now, as we had to entered into a professional course now so we have to act like the same. Here the books generally recommended are the standard books, used same worldwide.
I also preferred standard books but i also read from the books of some other Indian authors a s well. Books i had read includes;
1) Human Anatomy - BDC/ BD Chourasia
BDC is like a master book of Human Anatomy for Indian students. It's all because of the language and the way, the writer had explained the whole human anatomy. This book is best suited for all the BDS 1st year students. This book has the plus point of its simple and easily understandable language with colourful and efficiently explained flow charts.
2) Human Physiology - Guyton and Hall textbook of medical physiology.
Whenever it comes to Human physiology, the only book that comes to the mind of any medical student is Guyton and Hall. This book is considered as the bible of medical physiology.This is the standard book preferred by almost everyone for human physiology. I had studied my human physiology from this book but I had seen some reading other books as well like Essential of medical physiology by K. Sembulingam, which is also a good book. One can go with this book as well if you want something easy and quickly revisable but even though i highly recommend the first year students to surely go for Guyton and Hall, in order to build strong concepts about human physiology.
3) Biochemistry - U. Satyanarayana
U. Satyanarayana is the book, I used myself for biochemistry but I had seen students using Vasudevan as well. I personally hadn't read from Vasudevan so I cant say anything about that book here but for Satyanarayana, I'm sure that it's a good book.
4) Dental Anantomy and Dental Histology - Wheeler's and Orban's respectively
Wheelers and Orbans are the standard books for DA and DH. Both of these books are excellent to make a good hold and a perfect grip over these subjects. All concepts can be greatly built referring these books. I had studied these books in order to build my concepts but I somehow found it a little difficult in order to revise quickly from these books so I kind of preferred Maji Jose as well. In Maji Jose, everything is written in a very easy way so that it becomes very good for quick revisions. So I studied my DA and DH from these three books. I had used Maji Jose mainly for my revision purposes only.
Conclusions : I am recommending all the books from my point of experience. Different people have different tastes and choices but you can check these books and start focussing on your studies.
Good Luck!
