Orthodontic Fellowships/Internships

[Slinden13]

Hey all,

I applied to orthodontics this year and unfortunately did not match. I am trying to figure out what I want to do next year. I am currently doing a GPR and could potentially be the chief next year. I am fully committed to becoming an orthodontist and want to make my application as strong as possible for next cycle. That being said, I have done a little research on internships/fellowships in orthodontics at a few programs. They are around $30,000-40,000 for 1 year and you are expected to be there full-time. That's a pretty significant financial investment. Has anyone gone through an internship/fellowship and found it to be useful in the application? Would it be just as useful in my application to have dental work experience on my application? Love to hear some feedback!

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[Montgomeryburns]

Slinden13, I feel it is a crapshoot. I attended a fellowship in ortho. I got in luckily but there were others that did or didn't. Definitely not a shoe in and if you are unfortunate to be accepted by an expensive ortho program and/or and a program in an expensive area while attending your fellowship then it becomes a bigger financial challenge to dig out of. The upside is you get a year (really less) to impress the program where you are at for the fellowship. That is your best bet. I'm not saying to not do it but I am saying it won't be your savior either. It becomes a calculated risk and a bet.

 

[InformMe123]

What do you actually do on these fellowships?

 

[Aetherius]

What do you actually do on these fellowships?

It varies -- some internships/fellowships have you tend to your own set of patients, some only let you shadow/assist.

 

[BracesRock]

Hi All, I am trying to get into a ortho program. Do you have any fellowships in ortho that you recommend? Has anyone heard about CTOR Fellowship? Thanks

 

[bsmcga0]

how many orthodontist have to be unemployed before people stop applying

 

[DDS2017]

how many orthodontist have to be unemployed before people stop applying

How many are unemployed now?

 

[bsmcga0]

How many are unemployed now?

I know several without jobs, or working 2 days per week

 

[CaliDDS1986]

I know several without jobs, or working 2 days per week

This is complete nonsense. Most orthos I know are making 1000-1500 per day. Yes it is harder now and some places are more saturated than others, but you can still find work. Same exact thing can be said for GP except you make less and it is a much harder job. You can also work as a GP if you can’t find work, you have the degree to. Those that you know either are just starting out or are in saturated areas. Do you have your own office? You can make double or triple that.

 

[bsmcga0]

I have my own office and am doing well, but I know people that can't find full time work at a chain, location to open, etc

look at all the schools that have opened in the last 15 years and how many spots they take

 

[charlestweed]

I know several without jobs, or working 2 days per week

It's the same for periodontists, endodontists, and oral surgeons….none of them have a F/T job in one place....they all have to travel to multiple offices in order to get F/T 5 days/week work schedule. Since an orthodontist can see 50-80 pts a day, for a practice to offer a F/T job to an associate ortho, it must have at least 1000 active patients (or at least 40 new starts every month). Bsmcga0, you are an orthodontist… you should know that there are NOT very many of such multi-million dollar practices in the country. I don’t have 1000 active patients (all 4 offices combined), my fees are low, and I am extremely happy with my income.

Since an ortho can handle a large volume of patients in a day, his daily wage is usually 2-2.5x more than that of a GP. So an ortho who works 2 days/week should make nearly the same as an associate GP, who works 5 days/week. If an an ortho is not lazy (ie staying home the other 4-5 days/week), is not picky, is willing to travel to more offices (ie driving/flying to a nearby state, doing in-house ortho for a GP), and works on weekends, he should have no problem paying back his student loan and be in a much better financial shape than the general dentists.