Aiming for OMS as a D1

[nt243]

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I'm currently a D1 interested in OMS, but I'm not sure where to get started in terms of extracurriculars/research. Due to covid, clubs are not really active at my school and research labs are limited at the moment.
Other than grades, is there anything else I should do/be aware of in the mean time to increase my chances at matching? Any advice is appreciated!

 

[Racquetball3r]

I'm currently a D1 interested in OMS, but I'm not sure where to get started in terms of extracurriculars/research. Due to covid, clubs are not really active at my school and research labs are limited at the moment.
Other than grades, is there anything else I should do/be aware of in the mean time to increase my chances at matching? Any advice is appreciated!

This subject has been covered ad nauseam on this site, believe me. Do some quick searching, and you’ll find it. Basically high grades/class rank, and CBSE trump everything, followed by externships, letters of rec, and extracurriculars/research in that order.

 

[deleted923283]

Hang out in the OS dental clinic if you can. Get to know the upperclassmen applying to OS and the residents.

Grab a copy of First Aid 2021. Start studying.

Save money.

Work out a lot.

Learn Spanish.

Study First Aid some more.

 

[P7898]

extract teeth first and tell me how you like it. IF you want to do that all day then just keep your grades up and study for the CBSE.

 

[PerioDont]

extract teeth first and tell me how you like it. IF you want to do that all day then just keep your grades up and study for the CBSE.

I understand what you are saying but don't completely agree. Most schools you don't extract anything till D3.

Start preparing now. Do you have an OMFS dept at your school? reach out to residents/faculty and see if you can get involved with a research project. If you don't have OMFS reach out to someone in the medical school or any other research thing.

While I am starting in perio, my research is in neurology, pediatric dentistry and oral surgery. I think the fact that I have research experience is more important than exactly what I researched.

 

[P7898]

I understand what you are saying but don't completely agree. Most schools you don't extract anything till D3.

Start preparing now. Do you have an OMFS dept at your school? reach out to residents/faculty and see if you can get involved with a research project. If you don't have OMFS reach out to someone in the medical school or any other research thing.

While I am starting in perio, my research is in neurology, pediatric dentistry and oral surgery. I think the fact that I have research experience is more important than exactly what I researched.

I agree with research.

But I am saying this because it is "almost" a waste of time. Studying and preparing something two years before you can make a logical conclusion about your career in my opinion is overkill. Now what he or she could do is wait until D2 year and shadow and network to get as much clinical exposure as possible. He or she won't even have the didactic info to understand what is on the CBSE. So I guess my view is you should start studying once you know you want to do it. I have friends that were all about OMS life and then did not like extractions.

 

[doktorinprogres]

I agree with research.

But I am saying this because it is "almost" a waste of time. Studying and preparing something two years before you can make a logical conclusion about your career in my opinion is overkill. Now what he or she could do is wait until D2 year and shadow and network to get as much clinical exposure as possible. He or she won't even have the didactic info to understand what is on the CBSE. So I guess my view is you should start studying once you know you want to do it. I have friends that were all about OMS life and then did not like extractions.

My opinion there's not a time that's too early to start CBSE study and to be frank for most dental schools nothing you learn will really help you understand the level of material on the CBSE. I'm not saying you need to study in D1 as if you were going to take it that summer. But there's not really a whole lot of background that you need to start moving through pathoma and sketchy. Knowing those resources cold goes a long way to establishing a baseline to start doing practice questions from.

 

[iluvnetters]

I agree with research.

But I am saying this because it is "almost" a waste of time. Studying and preparing something two years before you can make a logical conclusion about your career in my opinion is overkill. Now what he or she could do is wait until D2 year and shadow and network to get as much clinical exposure as possible. He or she won't even have the didactic info to understand what is on the CBSE. So I guess my view is you should start studying once you know you want to do it. I have friends that were all about OMS life and then did not like extractions.

@ OP: If you think youre interested in OMFS then just go for it. Everyone on here will tell you that you need to pull a tooth or retract on a pec flap before you know that you wanna do it but I think you can know long before that.

I took the CBSE in the summer after my D1 year before we took our systems classes and did great on it without any knowledge from CVS/pulm/neuro/etc. classes. Even so, after taking the CBSE you realize that dental school doesnt provide much info of what will be tested on the CBSE anyways, so why wait?

If you really wanna get involved, start looking at sketchy micro. I say this because if you start looking into pathoma/first aid right now you wont really know what to study or how to study until you start UWorld when you really decide your study schedule. But for sketchy you just pure memorize it and youll be good. Start showing face at your school's OMFS clinic whether that be the hospital-based or DS based one, and then maybe a resident will ask you if you wanna help on a research project. Thats what happened to me and I got a couple publications out of it so it worked great.

Lastly, find a time to take the CBSE and study for 4-5 months for it and youll be good. Keep your class rank up and make sure you develop good hand skills. Controlling your handpiece to work with millimeters will translate to being naturally more comfortable with some aspects of surgery.

Goodluck and dont let kids who dont know what theyre talking about bring you down. Everybody whos been through the ringer and knows what it takes will tell you the same stuff, its never too early to start.

 

[P7898]

@ OP: If you think youre interested in OMFS then just go for it. Everyone on here will tell you that you need to pull a tooth or retract on a pec flap before you know that you wanna do it but I think you can know long before that.

I took the CBSE in the summer after my D1 year before we took our systems classes and did great on it without any knowledge from CVS/pulm/neuro/etc. classes. Even so, after taking the CBSE you realize that dental school doesnt provide much info of what will be tested on the CBSE anyways, so why wait?

If you really wanna get involved, start looking at sketchy micro. I say this because if you start looking into pathoma/first aid right now you wont really know what to study or how to study until you start UWorld when you really decide your study schedule. But for sketchy you just pure memorize it and youll be good. Start showing face at your school's OMFS clinic whether that be the hospital-based or DS based one, and then maybe a resident will ask you if you wanna help on a research project. Thats what happened to me and I got a couple publications out of it so it worked great.

Lastly, find a time to take the CBSE and study for 4-5 months for it and youll be good. Keep your class rank up and make sure you develop good hand skills. Controlling your handpiece to work with millimeters will translate to being naturally more comfortable with some aspects of surgery.

Goodluck and dont let kids who dont know what theyre talking about bring you down. Everybody whos been through the ringer and knows what it takes will tell you the same stuff, its never too early to start.

Not trying to bring anyone down. Just trying to give him/her a dose of reality. If you are fine with studying for the CBSE and knowing that you could change your mind down the road when you are actually doing the procedures then by all means go for it.

Just from experiences I have seen with others. cheers.