Benefits of the 6 year OMFS route

[deleted913442]

Best is a very arbitrary term. Different people look for different things. Those who are interested in bread and butter oral surgery might say that UCLA is the best for their implant volume and education. Those who want a robust trauma experience will say many of the southern programs, or Rutgers or NYU. For Orthognathic, some might say UNC is the best with Tim Turvey or Michigan with Sean Edwards. You want cancer? Dr. Fernandes at Jax is a legend. TMJ? Check out Penn. Some prioritize a top medical education. In that case MGH and Columbia are really good. There’s no best. There is a sizable crop of really strong reputable programs.
Anyway for 4 year programs, I’ve heard great things about Monte, Vanderbilt Medstar, UIC, NYU, Rutgers, Oklahoma.

Of course, I was simply giving an example as @bruin2013 was stating that 4yr programs are more competitive and have some of the best programs, so I wanted to bring up a few great 6yr programs I've heard of. Many, many great programs out there.

To see what a program is "best" in, is it most appropriate to just see what the attendings specialize in mainly? I've struggled with figuring out what a program's strong suit is based on searching their websites since most programs say they do the same procedures or are their websites are outdated.

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[deleted1047421]

Way more applicants to 4 years programs. Many tend to prefer interns. Think this may be true.

There is an interesting article that talks about this in JOMS. It was written in 2011.

Demand for Single- and Dual-Degree Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Positions The T. Phan, DDS, MD,* and Joel M. Davis, DDS†

Purpose: Currently, no consensus has been reached regarding which track, single- or dual-degree, better prepares a resident for oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) practice. It is doubtful that such a consensus will ever exist. The purpose of the present study was to explore the trends in the selection of, and competition for, single- and dual-degree residency positions, with the ultimate goal of determining which degree track is in greater demand among recent applicants.

Conclusions: The proportions of single- and dual-degree OMS residency positions and applicant preference for a single- or dual-degree position have remained relatively constant during the past 14 match years. Recent trends have suggested a significantly greater demand for the single- versus dualdegree OMS residency position. © 2011 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons J Oral Maxillofac Surg 69:242-247, 2011

 

[deleted1047421]

As many have already posted on this board there are some fabulous benefits of being dual degree:
1) can specialize in ENT or plastics. Ex: Dr Dierks, Dr Potter etc.
2) have increased medical knowledge
3) Able to practice expanded scope surgery (H&N surgery, cosmetics) more easily.

As previously mentioned. I am a big proponent of applicants choosing programs that give them the best experience. Regardless of whether or not the program is single or dual degree. Bottom line: choose the program that the attendings are good teachers, are patient, and allow you to actually cut the cases and not just spend years retracting (sounds sad but it does happen). And Volume. You need to cut cases and cut a lot of them. Pretty simple. Avoid the program if there are not enough cases, and the attendings or fellows are too hands on. My purpose is to help you guys make some informed decisions.

One thing that people have not addressed here are the benefits of 4 year OMFS.
1) Let's just get it out of the way and not discuss this further. There is obviously a major financial benefit of doing 4 year.
2) You have 2 years that you got out sooner.
What can you do with these two years?
Many have done fellowships.
Here are some examples that have a track record of taking single degree and dual degree oral surgeons:
a) Marx Fellowship (Pathology/oncology) - Florida
b) Oral facial surgical institute (general OMFS) - Missouri
c) Costello's fellowship (craniofacial, othognathic)- Pitt
d) Douglas Sinn - orthognathic (Texas)
e) Carolina's center for oral and facial surgery - North Carolina.
f) John Griffin - Cosmetics - MS
g) Larry Wolford - TMJ/orthognathic - TX
h) UCSF Fresno - oncology
i) Georgia oral and facial reconstructive surgery - GA

There are many options. You get the point. It's really not that competitive to get into one of these fellowships as most OMFS residents are truly exhausted by the time they are done and are not looking for further education.
The vast majority of OMFS are just doing office based procedures, and practicing within the full scope of OMFS. >95% of us are not doing expanded scope surgery. We are primarily doing office based surgery, trauma, and orthognathic. Many are not even doing orthognathic or trauma.

 

[DDSER1]

The vast majority of OMFS are just doing office based procedures, and practicing within the full scope of OMFS. >95% of us are not doing expanded scope surgery. We are primarily doing office based surgery, trauma, and orthognathic. Many are not even doing orthognathic or trauma.

I was speaking to a 4yr OMS who said the same thing. Said it was purely a financial matter as outpatient procedures pay much better than OR procedures. Its tough to know what you’ll be interested in before residency, but at the end of the day you gotta pay off loans and provide.