DDS/PhD

[Accordion]

Any current students out there willing to talk?

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[thewobblytooth]

feel free to message me, i'm currently in my 4th year at UMich.

 

[quigz]

Also willing!

 

[Weakfart]

Do you guys apply before acceptance or during your D1/after acceptance for the program?

 

[quigz]

Do you guys apply before acceptance or during your D1/after acceptance for the program?

I'm pretty sure you can do either! Might depend on the school though as to which would work better for their program.

 

[gabs89]

Don't do it for the money.

I've seen it actually be a pretty stable career. If you can do research / faculty part time, and be a dentist part time - easily 150k+ stable living

 

[Typical Average Student]

During my Pittsburgh interview, my interviewer recommended that if you want to go into academics, that you do not go down the PhD track. He said only go down the PhD track if you are 100% committed to doing dental research.

 

[deleted659902]

During my Pittsburgh interview, my interviewer recommended that if you want to go into academics, that you do not go down the PhD track. He said only go down the PhD track if you are 100% committed to doing dental research.

Agreed. If you wanna teach or become a dental school prof, then just specialize. PhD/DDS will set you up for something different. Like a dean of dental school.

 

[quigz]

You do realize that the whole point of DDS/PhD program is to produce academic dentists, right? Meaning he/she will focus solely on research? Either that, or they will just not use the PhD and go into private practice/specialty program. The vast majority of people coming out from the dual degree program will choose one profession or the other, and rarely will they do both.

Oh and good luck getting an R01 grant from NIH as a "part-time" researcher. lol

This is a huge misconception. You can absolutely do both! I work with plenty of dentists who do research as well as see patients, whether it be in a university clinic or a separate private practice. Academic dentists who only do research part-time generally apply for smaller grants, not R01 grants. Although I'm sure an R01 is still possible if he/she is collaborating with other, full-time scientists.

Pursuing a PhD and a DDS provides you with the training to excel in both arenas- and obviously you have the option to fall back on either one if you don't want to split your time and wear multiple hats.

 

[quigz]

When I say reserach, I mean bench research, not clinical research that just about any dentist without an advanced degree can do...

I'm also not questioning whether someone with DDS/PhD could do both research and treating patients, it's just that the vast majority chooses one or the other, probably because it's very inefficient to do both at the same time.

Right - It may not be common, but it is certainly possible. As I mentioned, I know quite a few practicing dentists who oversee basic science research (benchside). It's a lot of work and it's not for everyone, but it is an awesome career path that many pre-dents may not know about.

 

[thewobblytooth]

I suppose I should shed some light to career paths for DDS/PhD.

I have many colleagues that complete the DDS/PhD and are competitive for specialty programs (ortho, perio, pros, etc). Others will go into good post-doc positions to gain more research training. There are many faculty members at my school are DDS/PhD that have active research labs. NIDCR is our major funding agency for dentist-scientists and if you look up NIH reporter, you'll find DDS/PhD professors that are able to compete for these awards. Science is a highly competitive field, but it's possible for dentist-scientists to thrive. For example, my PI has successfully acquired >40million in research funds over the course of his career (Dr. Paul Krebsbach, DDS/PhD scientist, who completed his specialty in Periodontics). Our dean, Dr. Laurie McCauley (DDS/PhD, which training in Periodontics) is also a highly successful dentist-scientist and still runs an active research lab.

I think it's really what you make of it and you have to be in the right environment. Fortunately, at U of Michigan, we pride ourselves in having the best of both worlds. Not many institutions can support dentist-scientists, and they have a significant amount of their work week for research as protected time. Most people that have graduated from our PhD program have secured faculty positions at dental schools at home and abroad. Other faculty will also teach in the clinics, work part-time in private practice, or give continuing education courses in their free time.

Industry is also an option. Although rare, one of our graduates is the (Erika DeBouver) is the Senior Director for Clinical Development of the Rare Diseases Unit at GlaxoSmithKline.

In terms of salary, faculty who have an active research lab and are in senior positions are our school make >200k/year. The ceiling is not as high as private practice of course, but it's not bad. My PI makes 300k/year as the Chair of a department and our dean makes >400k. Not too bad I'd say.

Hopefully this helps.

 

[thewobblytooth]

since the inception of the program (>15 years), 2 DDS/PhD and maybe 2-3 MS/PhDs? I don't have an accurate count, but we have a high retention rate.