I was curious what the OMS residents are planning on doing after residency. Are you going to focus on one area in particular? 3rd molars, implants, orthognathic...? Or are you going to mix it up?

Is it feasible to do 3rd molars 4 days a week and have 1 day at a hospital doing trauma (if you dig it but don't want to do it all the time)?

Also, in private practice, how many days does the OMS typically operate if it's a 5 day work week? 2? 3? There's got to be time to do the consults and planning, no?

I plan on being "the man". I will take all cases and treat them without the fear known by periodontists. Trauma, teeth, pathology, reconstruction, some craniofacial, orthognathic, trachs, whatever--it's like I tell N2S's mom, I'm you're man. I plan on only turning away large cancer cases and elective cosmetic cases. I'll do the smaller ones.

What do i plan on doing when i'm done?


Tx OMFS's daughters. Thats it.

Why turn away the large cancer cases? Those seem like they would be the most challenging, and, therefore more interesting.

You guys planning on doing an associate ship like all the GP's do or do you have enough "experience" to go straight into sole proprietorship or partnership?

Why turn away the large cancer cases? Those seem like they would be the most challenging, and, therefore more interesting.
And harder, and 16 hours long, and require at least one other trained surgeon, and don't pay well. Besides the fact that if you don't do them all the time you shouldn't do them: studies have shown that experience level correlates to long-term survival.

Mind if I probe a little deeper, but the logic you're using seems a little self-defeating (at least on the last point (I understand and agree with you on the others)). If you don't do them, then how do you improve your experience level in order to become more proficient and be more adept at taking care of these cases? It just seems a little odd that if you say not to do something because you don't do it all the time, yet don't attempt to do it, then you are preventing yourself from becoming a suitable surgeon for such a case. See my point (and yes, I know that I'm an SOB for carrying this further, but I really would like to see your line of thinking on this).

Mind if I probe a little deeper, but the logic you're using seems a little self-defeating (at least on the last point (I understand and agree with you on the others)). If you don't do them, then how do you improve your experience level in order to become more proficient and be more adept at taking care of these cases? It just seems a little odd that if you say not to do something because you don't do it all the time, yet don't attempt to do it, then you are preventing yourself from becoming a suitable surgeon for such a case. See my point (and yes, I know that I'm an SOB for carrying this further, but I really would like to see your line of thinking on this).
Speaking for tx for a second, it's pretty simple; if you don't *want* to do those procedures, not being proficient at them isn't something that really matters.

If cancer is what interests you, go do a cancer fellowship.

It's not the cancer that interests me. It's the complexity of cases that attracts me.

Mind if I probe a little deeper, but the logic you're using seems a little self-defeating (at least on the last point (I understand and agree with you on the others)). If you don't do them, then how do you improve your experience level in order to become more proficient and be more adept at taking care of these cases? It just seems a little odd that if you say not to do something because you don't do it all the time, yet don't attempt to do it, then you are preventing yourself from becoming a suitable surgeon for such a case. See my point (and yes, I know that I'm an SOB for carrying this further, but I really would like to see your line of thinking on this).
To do the large cancer cases you need a lot of help both intraop and postop. I'm not sure that I'll have that help in my private office. Also, I'm not sure I want to sacrifice the money and time I would lose to do the big cases. So, I don't think I'll really be set up or willing to do big cases. Therefore, if a big case comes along and the people beg me to do it for some reason, but I haven't done one in two years b/c I don't want to and don't really have the resources, I would be doing the patient a disservice if I actually did their case. They would have a lower survival rate.

You have a good point about the chicken and egg thing. You can't be a good surgeon without experience, so how do you get experience? You work at a large medical center and build up your experience while being guided by those with more experience. It's easier to do at the large center b/c they get a lot of referrals with a high volume. If I really wanted to be a cancer surgeon I'd have to make that a focus at the expense of other areas of oral surgery and I'd have to work at a large medical center. Don't think I want to do either.

Thanks for the explanation.