I'm pharmacy, not med or dent, but I can give you my perspectives of rural placement. It was AWESOME. There's no other word to describe it, honestly. There were several reasons.
1) It was somewhere different. I had never lived in rural Australia before for an extended amount of time (and it's not even long--it was 2 weeks).
2) It was my third time living away from home but my first time cooking and cleaning and washing for myself (the other two times were both one-week holidays away from family where food was provided). Sad I know, but I found it exciting to be able to do these simple things and feel like an independent adult. A lot of my colleagues I suspect it was their first or second time away from home too.
3) You're more relaxed (presumably). We did it during these July holidays. And if it's during semester, the people surrounding you are so much more relaxed anyway you will be more relaxed by the end.
4) The people surrounding you are so much nicer. Not just relaxed, but nicer. Probably because they're less uptight, but whatever.
I would highly recommend rural placement to everyone. As they say, don't knock it till you've tried it! Because of this placement, when I wasn't even considering going rural on a serious basis, I now am applying for all the rural jobs I can get my hands on. It's good, seriously.