OMS Residency AMA

[PhansterZ]

I’m in a 6-year integrated OMS program. Just finished my OBGYN rotation, and have some free time. Ask away!

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[surfline]

Thanks for doing this!

• Why did you choose to do a 6-year over a 4-year?
• How many hours per week do you work?
• Do you plan on practicing in the same state that your residency is in?
• Do you plan on practicing full scope?
• If you plan on working in a hospital, how do you plan on fitting in low reimbursement rate procedures?

 

[caffeine jitters]

If you would be so kind as to post a brief rundown of your stats and experiences, that would be awesome! I am sure there are a lot of students that would like to see what it takes to match. Also, if you could elaborate on the political differences between an OMFS w/ and w/o the MD, that would be awesome. From what I have gathered, the MD is more beneficial for someone wanting to get fellowship training and/or academia jobs - is that correct?

Thanks for doing this!

 

[PhansterZ]

• Why did you choose to do a 6-year over a 4-year?

Doing the MD was a personal choice. My goal is to become an academic surgeon so having the MD is another card I can use when dealing with hospital politics. I'm also planning on doing a craniofacial fellowship once I've completed my training, so having the MD will help me towards that. Also, with 6-year programs, the MD is time to slow down and learn everything from first principles and your hand is held through the initial year as you acclimate to the hospital. Both 4 and 6 year OMS guys are expected to know the exact same amount in terms of OMS, and go through the same board certification procedures. AAOMS has done a great job educating the legislators in giving the same hospital privileges, regardless if we have the MD or not, but the public is extremely confused on our scope. While some landmark events such as 4-year degree guys can finally get the FACS designation in 2014, there are also laws that limit scope for non-MD such as the one in California where you cannot perform elective cosmetic procedures without the MD.

• How many hours per week do you work?

Right now as a med student, it really depends on the rotation. More involved rotations are surgery and OBGYN, where you work 60ish hours, and then there's psychiatry ("psychation"), where you work 8 to 12 every day.
If you're talking about OMS residency, intern year is definitely the worst in terms of hours. OMS is a dental speciality so it's accredited by CODA, which to my knowledge has not imposed any work hours limitations. The ACGME accredits all the medical specialities are very strict in their 80 hour-average work week. We've falling through the cracks a little and do I believe that OMS residents work more hours than any other fields, dental or medical. When I was on OMS service, I never felt that I ever did a day of work. I sometimes forget the hours because I was having so much fun. I woke up every day wanting to learn more, and although call can be extremely tiring, it feels good to helping someone in an emergency. But for those who worry about work hours, then definitely do not get into this field. Even if you're not on service, you'll be doing tons of reading, or doing research that will take up your other time.

• Do you plan on practicing in the same state that your residency is in?

I'm still early in my training, so I do not know exactly where I will be practicing once I'm finished my training. I haven't exactly looked for jobs yet.

• Do you plan on practicing full scope?

OMS is a HUGEEE field. Along with traditional "bread and butter" dentoalveolar procedures such as teeth extractions and implants, full scope can include dealing with malignant cancer cases, craniofacial cases and facial cosmetics. If you're interested in any of these 3 topics, then a fellowship would serve you well. Procedures that every OMS should obtain in residency include trauma, TMJ, orthognatics, complex implant cases and benign cancer.
I still love the dentoalveolar procedures, and extracting teeth is one of the most enjoyable procedures for me, so I'm never going to give that up. Also, it's extremely lucrative. Then you'll have other procedures that don't pay as well, such as trauma, orthognatics, craniofacial etc that are super cool to do but won't pay as well. These will be my cool hobbies.

• If you plan on working in a hospital, how do you plan on fitting in low reimbursement rate procedures?

As an academic surgeon, you will be paid a salary by the hospital you work at and a percentage of any income you produce for the hospital, so it shelters you from some of the free work you'll be doing for some trauma patients.
As a private practice surgeon, you can choose to take call at smaller hospitals where it doesn't get as busy, or not taking call at all if you want.
In both ways, doing trauma is pretty much charity work. It's a way to give back to the community after having your education funded by the public for all these years. The insurances from the trauma victims will vary, as some will pay you well, and then you have those without insurance that you will be doing for free.

 

[0rgansm]

What’s your repayment plan (10 vs 20 year)?

Can you work as an academic surgeon part time, or is it only a full time gig?

What are your thoughts on working corporate for a year to pay off loans/open a private practice? (I’ve heard people making $1M+ their first year out).

 

[ColdSensitive]

1) How many externships do you recommend partaking in? What was your experience like at your externships and what did you do to prepare for them?

2) At what point did you start studying for the CBSE? What was your study schedule like?

Please let me know! Thank you!

 

[PhansterZ]

If you would be so kind as to post a brief rundown of your stats and experiences, that would be awesome! I am sure there are a lot of students that would like to see what it takes to match. Also, if you could elaborate on the political differences between an OMFS w/ and w/o the MD, that would be awesome. From what I have gathered, the MD is more beneficial for someone wanting to get fellowship training and/or academia jobs - is that correct?

Thanks for doing this!

Stats wise, the most important factors are your class rank and your CBSE score. The better those are, the more interviews you are going to land. When you get to the interview stage, it’s all about how well you fit into a program. Programs only have 1-3 spots per year, so it can be competitive to match into your first choice. The program may choose to rank someone with lower stats if they feel that that applicant will fit into their program better. Other factors include doing research, externing at the program, your reference letters, your ECs etc. Saying that, if you are top 20% in your class with a 65+ cbse score, you should obtain enough interviews to match. The match rate is still unforgiving at around 50% of those who got interviews.

I worked hard in dental school and managed to be top 20% of my class along with 75+ on my cbse. I decided very late in deciding to go on the OMS route. I did not match the first time I applied due to a combination of not being able to obtain good letters, being very restricted on where I want to go, not applying to enough programs, and not interviewing well. I spent a year doing an non-categorical internship that set me up very well to match the following year.

There are many people who match with less than what I had. With lower your stats, the less likely you’ll match, but you can improve your chances with an intern year. You may even have to do multiple intern years, with no guarantee of acceptance. It can be extremely frustrating because you can come straight out of dental school and make good money as a general dentist, but you’re following your dreams and taking a massive paycut.

In terms of 4 year vs 6 year, there are about the same number of spots for each track. The 4 year tends to have a greater number of applicants, so it’s more competitive in that there are more people applying per spot. The 6-year programs tend to require a higher minimum requirements as the med school has to approve you in addition to the OMS program.

Of course, these are great generalizations and programs vary widely in terms of quality. There are broad scope 4-year programs that are better quality than some 6-year programs. Also, the term better is very relative. For me, better means having a broader scope and learning more than just dentoalveolar, while for another person it is the complete opposite.

Another thing I want to add is that not having an MD does not mean you cannot have a career in academic OMS. After all, the majority of the surgeons who greatly expanded our scope doing cancer cases and creating a big footprint in the hospitals did not have the MD.

 

[PhansterZ]

What’s your repayment plan (10 vs 20 year)?
Right now, I'm currently in med school so I get my loans deferred. During residency, you get paid a stipend, but it won't be nearly enough to pay back much of the loans you accrued from dental school +/- med school. Most of my coresidents are on the Income Based Repayment (IBR) or Pay as you earn (PAYE) repayment plans.

Can you work as an academic surgeon part time, or is it only a full time gig?
It really depends on the institution. Most would want you there full time, while I have seen attendings having their own brick and mortar practice outside of academia. Others may have a deal with the institution where the see private practice patients one day a week and collect a portion of their earnings. So the answer is, it depends.

What are your thoughts on working corporate for a year to pay off loans/open a private practice? (I’ve heard people making $1M+ their first year out).
Graduates are being burdened with an insane amount of debt these days, way more than past graduates. It is already bad with dentistry, but if you are putting off loans for 4-6 years, the interest really accrues. At this point, many just go to where the money is. People do what they have to do to survive, because bankruptcy is not even an option.

 

[PhansterZ]

1) How many externships do you recommend partaking in? What was your experience like at your externships and what did you do to prepare for them?
Most people on the interview trail externed from 5-8 weeks, and that should be sufficient to show that you know what you're getting into.
Externships are all different on what they allowed you to do. I went on 3 externships and all were completely different. I did 7 weeks total (3+2+2). All were southern programs. I externed at the programs I was most interested in getting accepted at. You have to know that when you are externing is that you are doing a long interview. The residents will have a better idea of who you are and will have a huge impact on whether they will interview/accept you or not. I prepared by watching videos on youtube on how to scrub in, reading about procedures that were about to be done etc.

2) At what point did you start studying for the CBSE? What was your study schedule like?
I started studying for the CBSE around September during my 3rd year, and took it the following February.
The first 2 months was going through Doctors in Training, First Aid and Pathoma. I would say I would be studying around 4-5 hours a day when I got the chance. Then I got very serious the last 2 months and studied every single free minute. I would be studying with a classmate for 4 hours after clinic, then would go home and study another 4 hours solo. Luckily we had a 3 week Christmas break, and I used all of those days to do around 120 questions of Uworld timed random per day, and reviewing them afterwards. The only time I took off was Christmas eve and Christmas morning. I kept track of my progress with NBME CBSSA forms, which were very similar to the CBSE.

 

[Life of Pablo]

How would you recommend studying for the CBSE for individuals not attending a dental school with a medical based curriculum? Would you recommending reviewing FA while simultaneously taking basic science classes during your first and second year?

 

[PhansterZ]

How would you recommend studying for the CBSE for individuals not attending a dental school with a medical based curriculum? Would you recommending reviewing FA while simultaneously taking basic science classes during your first and second year?
The earlier you study for the test, and the more you keep up with it, the more you will learn how each system is connect with respect to certain diseases. So yes, reviewing first aid along with your basic sciences classes is always a good thing. I didn't feel that the exam was particularly hard, it was just the insane amount of information that had to be known. But the more you are exposed to it, the more it goes inside your head and the harder it is for you to forget.

 

[Life of Pablo]

What’re your thoughts on attending a school with a ranking system vs one without one (UCLA, Columbia, Harvard etc)? Having gone to a school with a class ranking, do you think it would’ve been better to go to a school without one?

Thanks for taking the time to do this thread; it means a lot!

 

[predental21250]

D1 here. Was wondering if you have any advice on how to maximize success in dental school?

 

[786783]

1) How many externships do you recommend partaking in? What was your experience like at your externships and what did you do to prepare for them?
Most people on the interview trail externed from 5-8 weeks, and that should be sufficient to show that you know what you're getting into.
Externships are all different on what they allowed you to do. I went on 3 externships and all were completely different. I did 7 weeks total (3+2+2). All were southern programs. I externed at the programs I was most interested in getting accepted at. You have to know that when you are externing is that you are doing a long interview. The residents will have a better idea of who you are and will have a huge impact on whether they will interview/accept you or not. I prepared by watching videos on youtube on how to scrub in, reading about procedures that were about to be done etc.

2) At what point did you start studying for the CBSE? What was your study schedule like?
I started studying for the CBSE around September during my 3rd year, and took it the following February.
The first 2 months was going through Doctors in Training, First Aid and Pathoma. I would say I would be studying around 4-5 hours a day when I got the chance. Then I got very serious the last 2 months and studied every single free minute. I would be studying with a classmate for 4 hours after clinic, then would go home and study another 4 hours solo. Luckily we had a 3 week Christmas break, and I used all of those days to do around 120 questions of Uworld timed random per day, and reviewing them afterwards. The only time I took off was Christmas eve and Christmas morning. I kept track of my progress with NBME CBSSA forms, which were very similar to the CBSE.

8 hour hardcore study session AFTER 8 hour clinic session for months? That’s not even including all the Clinic work outside these 8 hours (tx planning, specialist consults, incomplete soap notes, dentures, etc, etc.) How can you do that?

 

[wtayjay]

How many co-residents did you have? Did the number factor into where you wanted to go? Also, where there any places you researched the programs other than here and the program websites?

 

[TitusstheDentist]

Did you run into many Canadians during the interview trail? I am a Canadian dental student who will be applying next year. My class rank is good and my CBSE score is 70. Do you think these stats will land me interviews in the states, or I should retake the CBSE? Thank you!

 

[PhansterZ]

8 hour hardcore study session AFTER 8 hour clinic session for months? That’s not even including all the Clinic work outside these 8 hours (tx planning, specialist consults, incomplete soap notes, dentures, etc, etc.) How can you do that?

I was possessed.

 

[PhansterZ]

How many co-residents did you have? Did the number factor into where you wanted to go?
I am in a program where we have both 4 and 6 year residents. I have 2 co-residents that are with the 6-year track, and there will be another 4 year resident joining us. Having more coresidents can be a good thing since you go thru the same things together become closer to each other than family members. I mostly applied to programs that have more than 1 resident because I thought the chances of me getting that one spot is pretty slim if I haven’t externed there. Although, I did like many of the 1 spot /year program and ranked them high.


Also, where there any places you researched the programs other than here and the program websites
It’s very hard to know what a program entails unless you externed there. You can have a broad idea of what the program is like, but unless you see it for yourself, you won’t know what you like or don’t like. That’s why they want you to extern at multiple places to know what you’re getting into.

 

[PhansterZ]

D1 here. Was wondering if you have any advice on how to maximize success in dental school?

Your grade is proportional to the amount of effort you put in. Everyone has a different approach to dental school, and people are all coming in from different backgrounds. Just work as hard as you can if you want to specialize, or at least keep that door open.

 

[PhansterZ]

Did you run into many Canadians during the interview trail? I am a Canadian dental student who will be applying next year. My class rank is good and my CBSE score is 70. Do you think these stats will land me interviews in the states, or I should retake the CBSE? Thank you!

I’ll give you some perspective on the American interview trail as I did not apply to any Canadian programs.

I did not run many Canadians during interviewing. It seems like they are a rare bunch, and the ones I did run into had exceptional stats. They tend to have better luck in matching into the private programs in the North East. Unfortunately, you may have to do your own research on this, and get in touch with Canadians who survived the match. A good start would be to google “Official OMS Match Results” and private message the ones that matched.

I would say a 70 is good enough to get interviews, but as a Canadian you’re fighting an uphill battle, and many of the Canadians that I interviewed with scored in the 80s. They also attended American dental schools. Your stats are very important and both your class rank and cbse will be evaluated and screened. If you feel that you can achieve a higher cbse score without sacrificing class rank, then by all means do it.

If you’re wanting to stay in Canada, there are like 7-8 positions in the entire country, with 2 of them being at Laval, which is in French. I’d say those are tough odds, but you can increase those odds by doing externships and getting programs to love you. You just need 1 interview to match.

 

[PhansterZ]

What’re your thoughts on attending a school with a ranking system vs one without one (UCLA, Columbia, Harvard etc)? Having gone to a school with a class ranking, do you think it would’ve been better to go to a school without one?

From my experience during the interviews, it seems that the schools that have no rankings had very stellar applicants with great CBSE scores and many amazing ECs.

Programs have the CBSE to standardize applicants from schools across the country. While breaking an 75 going to a state school is a big achievement, it is common occurrence at the Ivy’s, Uconn and UCLA. Programs will give many applicants the benefit of doubt with regards to class rankings if they can nail the CBSE.

If you go to a state school with a low class ranking and score 75+ on the CBSE, that class ranking will eliminate you from many programs. You can also look at it in reverse. If you are top 5% of your class from a state school but have trouble breaking a 60 on the CBSE, you won’t be automatically shot down by 4 year programs. Your high class rankings shows that you are dedicated over a long period, which means you will likely survive a grueling residency. Plus, CBSE scores matter less to 4-year programs because they don’t have to worry about losing you to Step 1.

 

[thenextcarnegie]

Now I know this might sound silly BUT can you do an AEGD then do an OMFS residency? Or you know become a practicing dentist (for a few years), take your CSBE and then apply for OMFS residency. I know quite a few doctors that have done IM for a few years and then ended up doing specialization quite a few years after.

 

[PhansterZ]

Now I know this might sound silly BUT can you do an AEGD then do an OMFS residency? Or you know become a practicing dentist (for a few years), take your CSBE and then apply for OMFS residency. I know quite a few doctors that have done IM for a few years and then ended up doing specialization quite a few years after.
Most of the residents either match out of dental school or OMS internship(s). This is the most traditional route into an OMS residency. I have also seen people who have done AEGDs/GPRs match into OMS programs due to them having a late interest in OMS.
It is harder though, to work as a general dentist and successfully match into OMS residency. I'm not saying it's impossible, but there may be barriers from both sides that would make the marriage harder. From the dentist perspective, you're already making 120k+ a year, with increasing income every year, great hours and being your own boss. After seeing the good life, why would they give up 4-6 years of their youth and income, and go through a grueling residency. From the program's perspective, matching a dentist, who has gotten a sense of autonomy, it's harder to get them to do all the low-brow tasks that is the required to keep the residency running smoothly. Every situation is different though, I have seen general dentists, who has finally completed their service requirements apply to residency and match. I have also seen a general dentist who had to pay back the loans from their Church, apply to OMS later on and match. It's just a tougher road, and you have to really stand out.

 

[Star-Lord]

Is it normal for you or your co-resident to go on less than 5-6 hours a day of sleep? If so, how do you handle this?

 

[PhansterZ]

Is it normal for you or your co-resident to go on less than 5-6 hours a day of sleep? If so, how do you handle this?

It is common when you are taking call. If it’s a slow call night, you’ll be able to catch some sleep, but on some nights it gets so busy that sleeping isn’t possible.

5-hour energy drinks work for me. Others drink a lot of coffee. Intern year is when you take a lot of primary call and not very efficient. It gets a lot better the farther along you are in residency.

Programs range widely on the amount of trauma you get per night. The southern programs, like the one I’m in, are notorious for having busy call nights. I have a friend in one of the North East programs that gets 1 consult a night. We get about 5-10 consults a night.

 

[Star-Lord]

With that, will you explain how your schedule/work hours are like? I hear people work 100+ hours. Is that like for 7 days averaging 15ish hours a day? Do you get a day off a week? How often are you on call? What is that like? Are you home waiting for trauma calls? How do you rotate on call days with other resident? Thanks so much for being willing to answer all these questions!

 

[PhansterZ]

With that, will you explain how your schedule/work hours are like? I hear people work 100+ hours. Is that like for 7 days averaging 15ish hours a day? Do you get a day off a week? How often are you on call? What is that like? Are you home waiting for trauma calls? How do you rotate on call days with other resident? Thanks so much for being willing to answer all these questions!

Every program has their own method of doing the call schedule. This is dependent on how many residents the program has to share the call nights. In general, if you go to a program with more residents, there will be more people to share call with, and the less call you take.

As what you do when you're on call, it will be different for every single program in the country. I can only speak from my experience taking call. The main bulk of what you're managing from an emergency standpoint are facial trauma and odontogenic infections. While your program can split facial trauma call with plastics and ENT, we get to keep all the infection cases. Along with taking care of new patients in the Emergency department, you will also be responsible for your admitted hospital patients. After taking care of the hospital patients on your service the night before, you round with the OMS team in the morning and give brief summaries of what happened the night before. Then, you are off to clinic or to the OR for the rest of the day.

You are supposed to stay at the hospital for the entire time you’re on call, because they would like you to be seeing the patient within 20-30 minutes of being paged, and the sooner the better. So it’s best to stay at the hospital during call nights. If you feel that it is a slow night, you can gamble and go home to shower, have dinner, etc, but you are expected to come back as soon as you get paged. There are many times when I came home, and the pager went off exactly when I stepped inside my house.

Again, this is a huge generalization of what an average call schedule is like as it is very dependent on what your OMS residency decides. There are programs that rotate between 2 interns, each taking a week of call at a time. Other programs do "power weekends", where they take call From Friday to Monday morning, letting allowing the residents to only have to cover 1 weekend a month.

 

[polkadotgiraffe]

Thanks for the great advice above!
What information from the CBSE was most useful for you during residency? I recently took the exam and I want to actively retain some of the information I learned, however I don't know what I should focus on.

I realize I am late to this thread, but I thought I'd see if you were still on a more relaxed rotation.

 

[GoldenDomer11]

How was OBGYN? Do you think that you learned a lot of information relevant to practicing OMFS in a rotation (and other medical rotations) like that..?

 

[PhansterZ]

Thanks for the great advice above!
What information from the CBSE was most useful for you during residency? I recently took the exam and I want to actively retain some of the information I learned, however I don't know what I should focus on.

I realize I am late to this thread, but I thought I'd see if you were still on a more relaxed rotation.

It's always good to have a good background in Medicine, but there will be so many topics to learn in oral surgery residency, that you will forget about things you don't see every day. There are certain skills that other services rely on us, and those are the ones that you want to focus on. If you get called to the ED to repair a facial laceration at 2 AM the morning, no one will care if you memorized the clotting cascade. Many of the facts that you learn in First Aid you will never see again. Although it was cool learning diseases like CREST syndrome and Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, it is highly unlikely that you will ever come across that during residency.

OMS is a long journey and you will be tasked with certain responsibilities every step of the way. As an OMS intern, you will be expected to take primary trauma call, learn how to manage hospitalized patients, and perform well in clinic. This includes laceration repairs, admitting facial fractures, possible flap checks, etc. In terms of clinic responsibilities, you are expected to perform simple and surgical extractions, bone grafts, simple biopsies etc. You will learn how to suture like a boss as an intern.

I did not do anything particular before going into residency. I did not touch the First Aid book again until I started studying for the USMLE Step 1. I found the clinic responsibilities during intern year manageable, but trauma can be overwhelming, especially during the first two months. If you are dying to reading something, I found Kademani's and Tiwana's book "Atlas of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery" a good read, and the Trauma chapters really helped me in determining a right course of action. On call nights, you have to understand that when another department pages you, you are the facial trauma expert, even if you just finished dental school a month ago. It is truly Trial by fire.

 

[PhansterZ]

How was OBGYN? Do you think that you learned a lot of information relevant to practicing OMFS in a rotation (and other medical rotations) like that..?

I do believe that having a proper medical education can only help you as an OMS. The adage "You don't know what you don't know" rings true. I did an intern year, in the hospital, treating patients, before going into medical school and many of the things that are stressed in medicine I brushed by as a OMS in training. For example, I did not know what an "acute abdomen" was. All of our OMS consults were from the neck up, but as part of the exam, I would press on a patient's stomach and asked if they felt any pain, and in almost all cases, they would say no. I would not know what to do if they said yes back then. I have also learned how to read EKGs, chest X-rays, perform a proper physical, including interpreting heart and lung sounds and deal with psych patients, kids, etc.

Although, it is not all glamorous. As I was performing a digital rectal exam on a patient during my surgery rotation, I thought to myself .. "I don't know how, but this apparently helps me become a better oral surgeon".

 

[charcot bouchard]

Thanks so much for doing this thread.

What made you decide to pursue a career in academic OMS rather than private practice? What do you see as the pros and cons of each path? This is something I have been thinking about quite a bit recently, but I don't know many academic oral surgeons so I have only heard one side of the story.

 

[PhansterZ]

Thanks so much for doing this thread.

What made you decide to pursue a career in academic OMS rather than private practice? What do you see as the pros and cons of each path? This is something I have been thinking about quite a bit recently, but I don't know many academic oral surgeons so I have only heard one side of the story.

If you are looking at it from a monetary aspect, then private practice trumps academics in the majority of cases. People tend to go through the path of least resistance, and realize that you can just take out teeth and place implants all day and make tons of money. So this is why most people would go into private practice and perform mostly these 2 procedures. When each set of wisdom teeth takes 15-30 min and pay ~2k per set, your money can add up fast.

In terms of Academics, you will make less but you'll also be responsible for passing on knowledge to the next generation of surgeons. I started tutoring math and sciences starting in high school, and continued it all the way up to dental school to fellow classmates. Teaching is very rewarding to me and I want to continue doing it. In terms of pay, it is still very comfortable, at 250k. I have never lived off more than 50k/year my entire life, so this is more than enough for me to be comfortable. I'm still driving a 2000 Honda Accord with 240k miles on it, and I don't know when it will just suddenly die, but hoping it will last another 5 years.

The money you receive from Academics may pale in comparison in private practice, but you get good benefits, including malpractice insurance, health insurance, retirement savings, etc. In terms of stuff you do, you'll definitely be doing more involved trauma cases if you're at a Level 1 trauma center. You will be on call, but it's tertiary call. If the intern can't handle it, they call the chiefs, who can handle 99% of all calls. Very rarely you would have to come in. If it's something that the residents need your help to operate, they will do all the scut work (history and physical, consent etc) so you can just come in and operate.

You can't afford to take heavy call all night solo when you are in private practice, so many surgeons either choose a less busy hospital (Level 2 or 3), or decide not to take call at all. And with no residents helping you with admitting the patient, waking up at 2 AM for a consult and possible OR time does not help if you have a full day of extractions and implants in the morning.

Overall, go into academics if you love to teach, operate on a variety of cases that will keep you intellectually stimulated, can handle hospital politics and have stable and sufficient salary.
Go into private practice if you want to manage your own business, do easy procedures that make good money and can handle office employees drama.

AAMOS requires both to remain strong. The academic surgeons are in the hospitals, pushing our scope, doing insane procedures and making the other services in the hospitals know how badass we are. The private practice surgeons make the most money and contribute to the coffers, making sure our organization has enough money to fight laws that weaken our field.

For a student not knowing what to do, there is plenty of time to decide. Residency is 4-6- years and you may straddle back and forth, as life is dynamic and there may be new variables that makes you choose one path. In either path tho, you'll make more than enough to feed your family (or trophy wife).

 

[caffeine jitters]

Since you’re planning on going into academic OMFS, I’m wondering if you know anything about how military residencies are viewed when applying for an academic spot?

 

[PhansterZ]

Since you’re planning on going into academic OMFS, I’m wondering if you know anything about how military residencies are viewed when applying for an academic spot?

It will not be a problem at all. I have worked under military trained surgeons.

 

[predent2151]

I appreciate you taking the time to answer questions! I’ll be a D1 in the fall at a school without an OMFS department. I’ve shadowed a craniofacial fellow and a couple of private practice guys and really enjoyed it. I know I have a long way to go before making a decision on specializing but I am going to study like I want to. With that being said do you have any advice for someone interested in OMFS that attends a school without a program. Thanks again!

 

[ifitfitsyourmolars]

It will not be a problem at all. I have worked under military trained surgeons.

Just wanted to follow up on this in regards to the difficulty of getting an academic position. Do you usually have to start as volunteer part time faculty before they offer you full time or are openings frequent enough to come by?

 

[PhansterZ]

I appreciate you taking the time to answer questions! I’ll be a D1 in the fall at a school without an OMFS department. I’ve shadowed a craniofacial fellow and a couple of private practice guys and really enjoyed it. I know I have a long way to go before making a decision on specializing but I am going to study like I want to. With that being said do you have any advice for someone interested in OMFS that attends a school without a program. Thanks again!

One of my co-residents attended a school with no OMS department. In the end, OMS is a stats game, and he had great stats on par with the top applicants. Try to do as many externships as you can at multiple programs. I would suggest 6-8 weeks. You may not be able to obtain a letter from the chair or program director there, but it will show that you are interested in their program when applying. Also, send out letters to private practice oral surgeons in the region and ask if you can shadow. When I applied, we needed 3 letters from oral surgeons, so get to know surgeons in your area well so they can write you amazing letters. And the best advice will come from those from your school who successfully matched into OMS. Get to know them well and ask for their strategies for matching.

 

[PhansterZ]

Just wanted to follow up on this in regards to the difficulty of getting an academic position. Do you usually have to start as volunteer part time faculty before they offer you full time or are openings frequent enough to come by?

There are always openings for assistant professorships. Programs have a set amount of faculty that they can hire every year depending on their case load and budget. The positions are different every year as programs adjust to an increased case load or faculty leaving. It is still very hard to retain young Academic surgeons because of the pay or hospital politics, so there can be a lot of movement. About which positions are available at which programs, you wouldn't know until you are ready to look for a job.

These job postings are from 2015, but it may be helpful to see what a faculty position entails:
https://www.aaoms.org/images/uploads/pdfs/2015_02-3.pdf

 

[capnamerica]

What was the hardest year at your dental school?

 

[PhansterZ]

What was the hardest year at your dental school?

I always found the hand skills tougher than the academics. So second year, where we did RPDs, CDs, FPDs etc. Was always working super hard to perfect every project before turning it in, and I was obsessed with getting perfect grades. Never worked harder.

 

[753698]

@PhansterZ In your opinion, is it better to go to a dental school which pumps out a lot of residents or just go to the cheaper state school? Will a cheaper state school be less competitive in terms of class rank? And what about schools with a med school integrated program? Is that more beneficial or is the CBSE something you can study on your own?

Thanks for your time

 

[PhansterZ]

I have a question; when youre doing your third year of medical school (rotations),do you have the same responsibilities a third year medical student would have? How much do they expect you to do when you're on OBGYN or any other rotation? @PhansterZ

Yes, you have the same responsibilities as a regular med student, including taking all the end of rotation standardized exams (shelf exams). They expect you to know as much as every other medical student in every rotation. As you are older, have taken care of patients for 2 years during dental school, and sometimes have gone through an intern OMS year, you will be more than capable than keeping up with 3rd year medical students who have been studying purely didactics for the first 2 years, and see their first patient ever when they started third year.

Please redirect all questions to the other OMS AMA thread, and mods, please close this thread as it's been 2 years.