Originally posted by thisisit
I think you should just get out in the real world as soon as possible. What is this deal with mentors? Why do you need a mentor? You need a philosophy in life and in practice. You don't have a philosophy because you don't have the experience yet. Get out there and form your own philosophy.
I'll strongly differ with my opinion on this one. I'm a huge fan of a GPR/AEGD. Simply put, the experience you can gain in a "controlled" environment is invaluable, or atleast it was for me. In dental school, essentially all of your patients are "screened"before you get to see them. Even though as a dental student you get some challenging, extensive, multi-disciplinbe cases, the real toughies goto the residents in the school, or even in some cases the research and faculty side. That doesn't happen in private practice, they're yours(atleast if the patient likes and trusts you after meeting with them)
Dental school, and frankly it doesn't matter which one you graduate from, will give you a solid platform from where to start. However, you've basically been trained with one school of thought, and hey, you've done maybe 100 restorations and 25 to 40 crowns, a bridge or two, 10 or so sets of dentures, 50 or so extractions and seen a half or dozen or so "behavior management" kids. You've got the basic skills, but relatively speaking, your very green, and now your patients aren't the stereotypical welfare based population that most dental schools have(mainly because the dental schools are often the only acces to care they have in the area). Your pateints now have the cash to pay full fee, and often have the demands and expectations to match.
I can honestly say that in my residency(1st alone and I won't even get into the 2nd year I did now)Not only did I see new and different views of techniques and procedures, but I basically increased the number of procedures I had done by 10 fold, my speed increased immensely(although this would have happened in private practice too), and the most important thing I feel is that I learned where my "comfort zone" is with respect to patient management and procedures. I learned what teeth I feel comfortable doing endo on myself vs. referring, I learned what teeth I'll extract and what goes to the surgeon, I leraned what perio surgeries I keep in the office and which ones goto the periodontists. And in all these disciplines I got in over my head, and was able to just walk down the hall and get an attending, or even talk the case over with another resident and the instant help/feedback I needed then was there.
There is a strong reason why an number of states are considering a PGY1 clause INSTEAD of a regional board exam for licensure, beacuse in general you'll get alot more out of your education(and you'll always be learning throughout your career, after all thats why we "practice" dentistry). And while I'll admit that I definately would have made more $$ in private practice had I not done a residency, I more than feel that I've already made up that difference(and alot more) with the higher level that I was functioning at, and the bigger cases that I was tackling right from the start. What you'll see when you hit private practice and your treatment planning a big case, is that many times that treatment plan is not only some current and immediate production, but also years of future production. Very few patients when they first meet you and you tell then that they need 3 endos and 7 crowns will jump and start everything now. Often the scenario goes with them wanting to do "just a filling or two now" to test the waters so to speak, and then if they feel comfortable with you, thats when they'll start in with the bigger stuff. If you can present a confident, humble chairside manner, and have a very good explanation of disease processes that your average adult can understand, you'll do fine. Just get as much experience as possible as soon as possible.