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Member 374626 · 05-01-2012, 01:48 PM

Thought I would share this for any fellow Canadians.

Dalhouse is a 6-YR OMFS Program in Halifax which is a combined MD and MSc program. They accept 1 resident per year. Generally they prefer if their residents have either a GPR or private practice experience before starting residency.

This is the email I received from one of the residents who is currently there:

Currently 2 of our 6 residents have not done a GPR (albeit one of them already had an MD prior to applying). Definitely strengthens your application but I wouldn't let it deter you from applying now.

The program is great so far. Very busy. Tons of OR time. Yes we receive a resident stipend starting at about 55K and goes up to 80K plus call money which add another 5K approximately. We also pay tuition of about 15K a year except for your 6th year you only pay about 3K.

Overall here is what the program looks like:
Year 1- You start June 1st. 4 weeks of buddy call to show you the ropes. Your run the resident clinic!!! Very busy. You have your own patient list in the outpatient clinic and you usually do 3 surgeries in the morning and 4 in the afternoon plus consults 10-15 plus add ons. You will do a few hundred IV sedations (you run it on your own, just an assistant in the room). You go to the OR starting in September 1 afternoon per week, plus when you are on call to fix any fractures that come in. (Call is usually 1 night during the week and 1 weekend a month).
Year 2- In June you show the new guy the ropes for a few weeks then you start operating as a 5th year and go to the OR every day for the rest of the summer until Med school starts (Med 1) in September. When you are in Med school you have to go to the clinic Monday mornings and Friday afternoons, when you med school buddies are drinking beer.
Year 3- In June you start doing Med 3 clerkships (Cardiology and Internal med) then in September you go back to Med 2 in the class room plus in the clinic a bit and in the OR one half day. (Note; you take regular OMF call during the week and weekends during med school which is when you do most of your operating)
Year 4- You continue Med 3 clerkship stuff until September of your 5th year.
Year 5- OR every day.
Year 6- OR Monday, Wednesday. Board exams, Defend masters thesis that you have been working on over the past 6 years.
We do collectively about 150 fractures per year. Mostly mandible but our fare share of orbits, and ZMC's too.
We do about 400 orthognathic cases. Lost of dentoalveolar, hip grafts etc.
A decent amount of TMJ reconstruction.
About 25 primary cleft lip and palate. (6th year only).
We have 6 staff, 2 of them are trained to do head and neck cancer (fellowships at UCSF and Portland) . We don't to a ton of this though, maybe about 8-10 neck dissections per year.
Little to no cosmetics.
Hope this helpful. I have toured all of the Canadian programs except for Lavale (don't speak French) and didn't see McGill. There is no comparison with Dal for how much OR time you will get. I have never seen a fight for OR time ever because everyone gets so much time. You will do hundreds of orthognathic cases before you graduate. Some programs offer more "didactic" time, this is simply because they don't have the OR work load like we do. You can read books in the evenings and weekends, during the day we operate. Any learning sessions that we have (usually Wednesday and Thursdays) are either in the morning before clinic or at the end of the day after clinic.

05-01-2012, 01:48 PM	#368
Member 374626 Junior Member Status Dental Student Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 9	Dalhousie Thought I would share this for any fellow Canadians. Dalhouse is a 6-YR OMFS Program in Halifax which is a combined MD and MSc program. They accept 1 resident per year. Generally they prefer if their residents have either a GPR or private practice experience before starting residency. This is the email I received from one of the residents who is currently there: Currently 2 of our 6 residents have not done a GPR (albeit one of them already had an MD prior to applying). Definitely strengthens your application but I wouldn't let it deter you from applying now. The program is great so far. Very busy. Tons of OR time. Yes we receive a resident stipend starting at about 55K and goes up to 80K plus call money which add another 5K approximately. We also pay tuition of about 15K a year except for your 6th year you only pay about 3K. Overall here is what the program looks like: Year 1- You start June 1st. 4 weeks of buddy call to show you the ropes. Your run the resident clinic!!! Very busy. You have your own patient list in the outpatient clinic and you usually do 3 surgeries in the morning and 4 in the afternoon plus consults 10-15 plus add ons. You will do a few hundred IV sedations (you run it on your own, just an assistant in the room). You go to the OR starting in September 1 afternoon per week, plus when you are on call to fix any fractures that come in. (Call is usually 1 night during the week and 1 weekend a month). Year 2- In June you show the new guy the ropes for a few weeks then you start operating as a 5th year and go to the OR every day for the rest of the summer until Med school starts (Med 1) in September. When you are in Med school you have to go to the clinic Monday mornings and Friday afternoons, when you med school buddies are drinking beer. Year 3- In June you start doing Med 3 clerkships (Cardiology and Internal med) then in September you go back to Med 2 in the class room plus in the clinic a bit and in the OR one half day. (Note; you take regular OMF call during the week and weekends during med school which is when you do most of your operating) Year 4- You continue Med 3 clerkship stuff until September of your 5th year. Year 5- OR every day. Year 6- OR Monday, Wednesday. Board exams, Defend masters thesis that you have been working on over the past 6 years. We do collectively about 150 fractures per year. Mostly mandible but our fare share of orbits, and ZMC's too. We do about 400 orthognathic cases. Lost of dentoalveolar, hip grafts etc. A decent amount of TMJ reconstruction. About 25 primary cleft lip and palate. (6th year only). We have 6 staff, 2 of them are trained to do head and neck cancer (fellowships at UCSF and Portland) . We don't to a ton of this though, maybe about 8-10 neck dissections per year. Little to no cosmetics. Hope this helpful. I have toured all of the Canadian programs except for Lavale (don't speak French) and didn't see McGill. There is no comparison with Dal for how much OR time you will get. I have never seen a fight for OR time ever because everyone gets so much time. You will do hundreds of orthognathic cases before you graduate. Some programs offer more "didactic" time, this is simply because they don't have the OR work load like we do. You can read books in the evenings and weekends, during the day we operate. Any learning sessions that we have (usually Wednesday and Thursdays) are either in the morning before clinic or at the end of the day after clinic.