Maxillofacial Prosth

[deleted877918]

Is anybody on here a practicing maxillofacial prosthodontist, current prosth resident looking to go into MF prosth, or a current MF prosth fellow? I am a current third year dental student and am really curious about this field and would love to learn more. Thanks for anything and stay healthy yall!

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[TheBigN23]

Prosth IMO is an amazing specialty, but it's important that you recognize the following now:

1. Prosth requires a ridiculously high amount of branding + self-motivation to succeed.

2. Prosth can do virtually any major rehab procedure start-to-finish. They can take a patient from broken down/edentulous/hopeless condition to amazing cosmetic and functional results.

3. 99% of patients won't be able to pay the $50K+ it takes to afford your services, limiting your demographic and regional opportunities to work (eg. the most saturated lucrative areas occupied by GPs and cosmetic dentists).

4. The dental community won't be clamoring to refer to you. Cosmetic dentists, advanced GPs, other specialities can easily work together providing comprehensive treatment directions for a patient's needs without ever sending it off to you.

5. Prosth residency is 3 years tuition for procedures and techniques you could eventually learn in CE. This is why many advanced GPs can provide good results for people that may not be up to a Prosth's caliber, but the patient doesn't know that.

6. You come out of Prosth extremely knowledgable and seasoned, but oftentimes the grunt lab skills you've learned won't be carried over to private practice due to time + cost considerations on your part.

7. Be prepared to advertise yourself constantly in social media. Your work is extremely driven by visual branding. Patients don't even know what a Prosth is compared to other mainstream dental providers they may see regularly. You'd have to be super aggressive in Instagram/Facebook to separate yourself in a dental community. No other dental career requires the amount of branding a Prosthodontist requires to make ends meet.

8. If you're not working corporate, be prepared for potential lean periods of business growth. The academic realm being a faculty member is pretty much a requisite for any Prosthodontist even if they're working on the outside. Push to work in a small dental group of providers to keep everything in-house.

By far, Prosth is both the Riskiest and Most Rewarding (financially) out of the career moves in dentistry and that won't be changing anytime soon.

 

[deleted877918]

Prosth IMO is an amazing specialty, but it's important that you recognize the following now:

1. Prosth requires a ridiculously high amount of branding + self-motivation to succeed.

2. Prosth can do virtually any major rehab procedure start-to-finish. They can take a patient from broken down/edentulous/hopeless condition to amazing cosmetic and functional results.

3. 99% of patients won't be able to pay the $50K+ it takes to afford your services, limiting your demographic and regional opportunities to work (eg. the most saturated lucrative areas occupied by GPs and cosmetic dentists).

4. The dental community won't be clamoring to refer to you. Cosmetic dentists, advanced GPs, other specialities can easily work together providing comprehensive treatment directions for a patient's needs without ever sending it off to you.

5. Prosth residency is 3 years tuition for procedures and techniques you could eventually learn in CE. This is why many advanced GPs can provide good results for people that may not be up to a Prosth's caliber, but the patient doesn't know that.

6. You come out of Prosth extremely knowledgable and seasoned, but oftentimes the grunt lab skills you've learned won't be carried over to private practice due to time + cost considerations on your part.

7. Be prepared to advertise yourself constantly in social media. Your work is extremely driven by visual branding. Patients don't even know what a Prosth is compared to other mainstream dental providers they may see regularly. You'd have to be super aggressive in Instagram/Facebook to separate yourself in a dental community. No other dental career requires the amount of branding a Prosthodontist requires to make ends meet.

8. If you're not working corporate, be prepared for potential lean periods of business growth. The academic realm being a faculty member is pretty much a requisite for any Prosthodontist even if they're working on the outside. Push to work in a small dental group of providers to keep everything in-house.

By far, Prosth is both the Riskiest and Most Rewarding (financially) out of the career moves in dentistry and that won't be changing anytime soon.

I really appreciate this response, thank you for taking the time to go so in depth. Everything you say definitely resonates with everything else I have heard about completing a prosth residency. To add, you also end up working with the hardest cases and most challenging patients etc etc.
Do you by chance know anything about maxillofacial prosth? I have seen some opportunities where they are actually employed through hospital systems and work on tumor boards to help create maxillofacial prosthodontics for patients that had aggressive tumors or trauma or other obturators.
I would assume that these positions would be more hospital and academic based, and less dependent on social and visual media?

 

[dentistrydmd]

I really appreciate this response, thank you for taking the time to go so in depth. Everything you say definitely resonates with everything else I have heard about completing a prosth residency. To add, you also end up working with the hardest cases and most challenging patients etc etc.
Do you by chance know anything about maxillofacial prosth? I have seen some opportunities where they are actually employed through hospital systems and work on tumor boards to help create maxillofacial prosthodontics for patients that had aggressive tumors or trauma or other obturators.
I would assume that these positions would be more hospital and academic based, and less dependent on social and visual media?

I have heard that there is a great need for maxillofacial prosthodontists, as there are not many graduates every year and patients needing this specific type of treatment will seek you out.

 

[deleted877918]

I have heard that there is a great need for maxillofacial prosthodontists, as there are not many graduates every year and patients needing this specific type of treatment will seek you out.

This is great to hear, are you involved in the prosth world?
I am a current third year and honestly prosth has been the most fun I have had and I find it the most interesting. We barely cover any maxillofacial prosth material at my school, and I am mainly worried about running out of time (graduating may 2022).
I have seen several posts online of maxillofacial prosthodontists that work on tumor boards at hospitals to replace lost facial segements from advanced head and neck cancer resections. Any clue if this is the normal type of job in maxillofacial prosth?

 

[dentistrydmd]

This is great to hear, are you involved in the prosth world?
I am a current third year and honestly prosth has been the most fun I have had and I find it the most interesting. We barely cover any maxillofacial prosth material at my school, and I am mainly worried about running out of time (graduating may 2022).
I have seen several posts online of maxillofacial prosthodontists that work on tumor boards at hospitals to replace lost facial segements from advanced head and neck cancer resections. Any clue if this is the normal type of job in maxillofacial prosth?

I remember reading about it. It is a super specialized treatment that a lot of prosthodontists are not comfortable treating. I take it that most will find a job through connections to their prosthodontics residency program. You can also go into academia/teaching if you complete that fellowship.

 

[Svart Aske]

I’m a current prosth resident. I see a fair bit of maxillofacial cases come through our clinic. PM me if you have questions.

 

[deleted877918]

I’m a current prosth resident. I see a fair bit of maxillofacial cases come through our clinic. PM me if you have questions.

PMing now, thank you!

 

[PreDentTechySon]

I really appreciate this response, thank you for taking the time to go so in depth. Everything you say definitely resonates with everything else I have heard about completing a prosth residency. To add, you also end up working with the hardest cases and most challenging patients etc etc.
Do you by chance know anything about maxillofacial prosth? I have seen some opportunities where they are actually employed through hospital systems and work on tumor boards to help create maxillofacial prosthodontics for patients that had aggressive tumors or trauma or other obturators.
I would assume that these positions would be more hospital and academic based, and less dependent on social and visual media?

Hey,

Not a max-face prostho but Im in a residency where we work with a few. There arent many max-face prostho docs out there, I think there are two in the state Im in now and they both work at the residency program Im at. Its my understanding max face is usually a fellowship you complete after a prosth residency where you are taking on more than just dental cases (obturators for cancer patients, trauma, congenital defects etc). You can go a couple directions with that training. One of the max-face docs I work with did a lot of his max-face prostho for patients with cancer resections during his residency and eventually went on to have a successful private practice. He still saw patients needing obturators etc in his private practice but was able to take on other prosth cases.

Theres also a lot you can do with it in the military too. I have seen a number of max-face docs in the military restoring body parts lost from trauma, explosions. They dont just do dentoalveolar there either, the ones with fellowship training also restore eyes, ears, noses etc. I would imagine that would be a good place to practice as there is a need for docs to do it and you wouldnt have to worry about resources or lab bills.

If thats what you’re interested in Id say pursue it. A lot of people will say you can get the same training as a prosthodontist from doing ce, but you‘ll find thats not necessarily true, especially not for max-face. Theres also probably going to be more of a need for prosth with more full mouth treatment options (all on fours, hybrids etc.) and many new dentists coming out not knowing how to take on some of those bigger cases. Food for thought. Best of luck.