can orthodontist work as paid dentists in hospital or someone else's practice
or should they open their own practice right away?

I'm not sure why they'd want to work as a general dentist right away--why become an orthodontist in the first place?

oh no i meant 'as paid orthodontist'

that doesnt really clear anything up. what would an ortho do at a hospital?

what i meant was

after ortho residency, can orthodontist find a job (such as at someone else's practice or hospital) just like general dentist finds a job as an associate?

Or

after ortho residency, do orthodontists have to open up their own practice right away to practice orthodontics?

After ortho residency, an orthodontist can either join up with an existing "practice" (private practice, academia, or institutional) or start up on their own, whatever they feel like doing.

The only caveat is that if you call yourself a specialist in orthodontics, then you can't do any general dentistry on the side, whereas even if you graduated from an ortho residency, but don't calll yourself an ortho specialist, then you can work as a general dentist and do ortho too.

that doesnt really clear anything up. what would an ortho do at a hospital?

Majority of orthodontic residents graduate and join an existing private practice as an associate, then buy into the practice, or else start their own practice.

Although very few puruse this, at hospitals with Craniofacial Center, an orthodontist is part of the staff.

some examples:

http://www.mch.com/clinical/craniofacial/craniofacial_team_berkowitz.htm

http://www.uic.edu/com/surgery/plastic/dasilveria.htm

http://www.med.nyu.edu/clinicians/B.Grayson-cln.html

After ortho residency, an orthodontist can either join up with an existing "practice" (private practice, academia, or institutional) or start up on their own, whatever they feel like doing.

The only caveat is that if you call yourself a specialist in orthodontics, then you can't do any general dentistry on the side, whereas even if you graduated from an ortho residency, but don't calll yourself an ortho specialist, then you can work as a general dentist and do ortho too.

Does this apply to volunteer dental work? i.e. can a specialist still go to the free clinic and perform fillings and extractions

Honestly, by the time you specialize, you will not want to do everything else because you won't be used to doing it everyday. If you want to do it all, that is what is great about general dentistry.

Does this apply to volunteer dental work? i.e. can a specialist still go to the free clinic and perform fillings and extractions

From my understanding, if you call yourself an ortho specialist, just because you walk outside of your office into a free clinic, or even a garage, you cannot just start extracting teeth and filling cavities suddenly. You still are only limited to ortho.

The specialists who work at the free clinics I've been to do not do work that is outside of their specialty practice. For example...I've never seen our periodontist do a root canal or a filling. I sdid see her extract a tooth once, but I don't think that is out of her realm to do.