AEGD/GPR

[jaro]

I consider myself extremely lucky. I have received a handful of acceptances and trying to weigh the positives and negatives of each school. I noticed at Penn and other Ivies that a good percentage of their class go on to do a GPR/AEGD. Is this because they aren't fully prepared to be a GP upon graduation or is it because they do the GPR/AEGD as a way to reapply for a specialty?

The reason I am asking is that I know some schools are known to focus their curriculum on producing specialists while other schools focus on providing excellent general practitioners. The schools that focus on providing excellent GPs probably do not have a lot of students who go do a GPR/AEGD and go straight into practicing. If I am probably not planning on specializing, should I still go to a school that focuses their curriculum on producing specialists?

I could be totally mistaken on my reasoning regarding this so I do appreciate the responses. thanks.

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[sgv]

if GP is the goal, the "choose the cheapest school" rule becomes ever more important. people from clinical schools still do gpr and aegd. most of the time, it's a personal decision and depends on your confidence level. the three ways that i can see schools helping their students go to specialties is having longer summer breaks, having a conducive ranking or grading system, or having more basic science than operatory classes. if you have longer summer breaks and spend more time in the classroom than lab or clinic, you obviously get less time on the drill. take that however way you want but it doesn't mean that the person who went to this school is any better or less of a dentist. i bet these private schools love getting you to come here thinking they'll help you specialize because it's cheaper for them to just put you in the classroom than in an expensive lab and give you longer breaks where you're not in dental school costing them more on your education. i don't have any proof that clinical time is more expensive than lecture time but it makes sense that an operatory class using up expensive resources and more bench instructors would cost more than paying a single instructor talking in front +90 students.
when we're talking about this big of a difference in cost (state vs private), you should realize that the difference in cost is far more important than any slight difference in clinical time. no one who graduates from any dental school acquired 100% of what they need to know for the rest of their career. there's still a lot of gaps even if you went to a clinical school unless you plan on only doing drillin' and fillin'. schools aren't going to teach you molar endo., decent wizzie pullin' skills, invisalign, ortho., complex restoration, implants, and every other big dollar cosmetic procedure. unless you're g.v. black's prodigy, you're going to be as slow as molasses in january.

gpr and aegd isn't a repeat of dental school. it's on a level above dental school where you hone the skills you already have while building newer skills that dental school didn't have time or money to teach you. i didn't think the price for any ivy was worth it to me. i'd rather work my ass off to save +$200,000. Uconn on the other hand, i would pay that small difference in cost between my state school and uconn to get pass fail, medical school curriculum, and long summer breaks.

 

[gn4]

Also, most of the ivies are in the Northeast. I think to practice in some of those states(New York), you need to do at least a year of residency.

 

[longhornpride]

Just got back from an interview from a VA and the director summed it up best. Dental schools teach you the basics. For the most part, you will feel most comfortable handling basic restorative, fixed, removable cases, and simple extractions. Some schools will let their predocs do surgical extractions and molar endo but that is not common from my experience.

With a residency you will work on intermediate level cases and some difficult cases that specialists will see. You can expect to place some implants, crown lengthening, lots of surgical extractions, alveoloplasty, molar endo, and work on full mouth reconstruction cases. You will probably get training in IV sedation and plenty of experience managing medically compromised patients if it's a GPR. It will also teach you when to refer and when to take on a difficult case.

Some residencies will really expand your skillset and some residencies are just another year of dental school. If you have an opportunity to be a part of a good program, it will make you a better general dentist and is usually a stepping stone into a specialty. If it's not a great residency, find a good mentor and take lots of CE courses.