Med School: Right now, residents are paid all 6 years at UMKC but they also do a lot of med school. It seems to be structured in such a way that they go on service for a few months, then some med school, then some service, more med school, etc. They start off w/ 6 months on service however. Now that said, Dr. Ferguson told me that starting THIS year, residents will not be paid all 6 years but will only have to do 2 years of medical school. A second year resident told me that he was told the same thing 2 years ago so who knows.
Training: UMKC OMFS takes all the facial trauma at Truman Med Center which is a busy level 1 trauma center. I got the impression that the vast majority of their OR time is spent doing trauma. That said, they also do approximately 40 orthognathic cases/year as well as a fair amount of TMJ. Dr. Poon is fellowship trained in oncology and is doing cases regularly as well. Dr. Ferguson told us that they do "500 faces/year". There is a parttime attending who is cosmetic trained who said he would like to get the residents more involved in his cases. Dentoalveolar training seemed pretty good here. The residents have their own clinic in the hospital and also go over to the dental school to do implants. The residents at UMKC were all really nice and seemed pretty laid back.
KC has an extremely low cost of living. For $200,000 you can get an unbelieveable house. The city seemed like a fun place to live as well with lots to do.
Weaknesses: Light on orthognathics. Seems like trauma is the main thing going in the OR.
I was very impressed w/ Dr. Ferguson in my interview with him and feel that he will make sure that the program graduates are well prepared.