I will begin dental school at Colorado in the Fall. I am an HPSP applicant. Since touring the Center For The Intrepid in San Antonio, I have begun thinking more about OMFS residencies. Assuming I ultimately decided to shoot for OMFS training (and I won't know whether this is really for me until some time down the road when I've garnered much more experience) there are some things that I would like to know regarding the army HPSP program. I need to get definitive answers to these questions.
1) Every OMFS residency has its own emphases. Applicants should be able to choose which residency they would like to attend according to the types of skills which they would most like to develop. If I were to go through the 4 years of dental school and decide that I want to become an OMFS, would I be allowed to apply and attend a civilian residency program or would I be required to go through the army?
2) Lets say that the army is in particular need of general dentists during the year that I complete my DDS. What is the probability that I would be barred from going straight into an OMFS residency (or any other residency) because the army is in immediate need of my services as a general dentist?
3) If I were to do a civilian OMFS residency and then begin my military payoff, I understand that things would go like this: 4 years dental school, 4 years OMFS residency at a program of my choice, 8 years active duty in the Army, 4 years inactive duty in the army. Is this correct?
4) If I were to do an ARMY OMFS residency, I understand that things would go like this: 4 years dental school, 4 years OMFS residency in the army,4 years active duty in the army, 4 years inactive duty in the army. Is this correct?
5) For anyone who is in or has completed an ARMY residency in OMFS (or in anything else, for that matter) please share with me some details. a) Do you feel as though you received good training with respect to the number and diversity of cases you were able to do? b) How would you compare the training that you recieve in the amry to training at an average civilian institution (I know that this is difficult, as all civilian institutions differ.) c) Please tell me about the family life as a resident in the army. For OMFS in particular, I know that residencies can be grueling and potentially ruinous for marriage/family life. How have you coped with the difficulties of managing your education while still attending to your families?
6) I have heared that since the army tends to take its own that sometimes HPSP students wanting to get into OMFS are able to get matched with an army residency even if they would have little chance of getting matched at any civilian institution (esentially, if you're in the army, you have a decent chance of getting into an army OMFS residency even if you're not good enough to get in anywhere else.) Comments on this?
Thank you in advance for answering these questions!
1) Every OMFS residency has its own emphases. Applicants should be able to choose which residency they would like to attend according to the types of skills which they would most like to develop. If I were to go through the 4 years of dental school and decide that I want to become an OMFS, would I be allowed to apply and attend a civilian residency program or would I be required to go through the army?
2) Lets say that the army is in particular need of general dentists during the year that I complete my DDS. What is the probability that I would be barred from going straight into an OMFS residency (or any other residency) because the army is in immediate need of my services as a general dentist?
3) If I were to do a civilian OMFS residency and then begin my military payoff, I understand that things would go like this: 4 years dental school, 4 years OMFS residency at a program of my choice, 8 years active duty in the Army, 4 years inactive duty in the army. Is this correct?
4) If I were to do an ARMY OMFS residency, I understand that things would go like this: 4 years dental school, 4 years OMFS residency in the army,4 years active duty in the army, 4 years inactive duty in the army. Is this correct?
5) For anyone who is in or has completed an ARMY residency in OMFS (or in anything else, for that matter) please share with me some details. a) Do you feel as though you received good training with respect to the number and diversity of cases you were able to do? b) How would you compare the training that you recieve in the amry to training at an average civilian institution (I know that this is difficult, as all civilian institutions differ.) c) Please tell me about the family life as a resident in the army. For OMFS in particular, I know that residencies can be grueling and potentially ruinous for marriage/family life. How have you coped with the difficulties of managing your education while still attending to your families?
6) I have heared that since the army tends to take its own that sometimes HPSP students wanting to get into OMFS are able to get matched with an army residency even if they would have little chance of getting matched at any civilian institution (esentially, if you're in the army, you have a decent chance of getting into an army OMFS residency even if you're not good enough to get in anywhere else.) Comments on this?
Thank you in advance for answering these questions!
