Where can I find just general dentist residencies and maybe orthodontist residencies, is there a site to look them up?
your name says "hs".... If you are still in hs then....I think its too early for all that
you don't really "find" residencies. To simplify things, every dental school will have specialty programs. For example, my school, has AEGD (its sorta like general practice residency), ortho, endo, and perio department. Every year, they get hundreds of applicants applying to these programs and each program usually accepts between 3-5 applicants per year (so yes its EXTREMELY competitive / selective)...... Ofc, some residency programs are not dental school affiliated (like some oral surgery)
If you are in high school / starting out college, the BEST and most important things you can do are (order of most important to least important):
a) grades, GPA, and the whole shebang
b) get some shadowing done, shadow a dentist, a doctor, a surgeon (if you can handle not passing out).... explore the different areas of healthcare and see which you like. You might like dentistry or orthodontists today, but wait till you shadow a doctor/surgeon.
c) volunteering hours are semi-important (not as important as grades of course). it doesn't have to be dentistry or medicine related, it can be in anything that shows commitment to community
d) finally, and IMO, I don't believe this to be that important, is research. By the way, I did zero research and I was just fine.... so