So did you do dentistry because you wanted to be a dentist, or did you have OMFS in mind? Also, what kind of things do you do in your rooms?
What do you enjoy most about OMFS?
I chose dentistry over medicine. I had interviews at both medical and dental schools, but chose not to pursue the MD path in undergrad for several reasons, most important being ability earn a living after 4 years and life style during practice. I didn't even know that OMFS existed.
When I got into dental school, I grew tired of doing 'traditional' dentistry. I enjoyed the technical aspect of doing clinical general dentistry (fillings, crowns, root canals etc), but honestly, I felt all the hard work I put into studying basic medical science was going to complete waste. I wasn't utilizing much of the medical science I learned in practice of gen dentistry, and frankly I wasn't all that impressed with the level of knowledge many of the general dentist preceptors had. I initiallly was interested in doing periodontics as periodontists were placing majority of the dental implants at my dental school. The 'surgical' nature of perio along with the fact that implants seemed financially viable seemed attractive to me. However, I ended up meeting OMFS attending thru a friend of mine over dinner, and he basically told me 'why would a guy with your board scores and achievements woule pursue perio? you're crazy...' something in those lines. So I decided to find out more about OMFS, and once I discovered the surgical scope of the specialty, didactics, and being able to control the way you practiced (private practice vs. inpt sx), I was hooked. That's my story. I was very fortunate to have met that attending to say the least.
As far as procedures that are performed,
Outpatient procedures: extraction of wisdom teeth, surgical extraction, full mouth extraction with alveoplasty, dental implant surgery, bone grafts (usually bone taken from mand ramus or symphysis), soft/hard tissue biopsy, management of simple odontogenic infections. Cosmetic procedures (ie: genioplasty, malar implants etc) can also be done as outpt sx. Many of these procedures are done under IV gen anesthesia. We rotate thru anesthesia at resident level for 5 months...running rooms for various medical specialties acting as anesthesia residents.
Inpatient procedures: orthognathic surgery, extensive pre-prosthetic surgery (ie: calvarial or iliac crest bone graft), alveolar cleft sx, trauma, TMJ surgery, surgical management of major odontogenic infxn involving airway and requiring inpt abx and fluid resuscitation, medical management of immnocompromised pt s/p oral sugr procedure, major pathology requiring extensive reconstruction etc.
Lastly, going into OMFS residency as MD will be an uphill battle, because it is a dental specialty. ALthough I've heard it can be done, all the stories I have heard are anecdotal, and I have never personally met any of these guys.
