Does anyone know if there is a couples-match across disciplines (dental and medical)?
Any advice? Just pick our top choice and put that on our match lists, and cross fingers?
Sadly, I can shed some light on this topic. For all dental specialties that participate in match (all except ortho which matches in November) you will have to rank your sites by 1/11/08, and you will hear on 1/28/08. For medicine, you will rank between 1/15/08-2/27/08 and you will hear on 3/17/07 (if you matched or didn't match) and then specifically on 3/20/08 where you matched (if you did match). So because of these dates the only possibility is the dentist matching and then the physician ranking only places that are in the same location.
There is no official couples match for non-medical couples that I know of (I've searched high and low for one!). Someone is likely going to have to sacrifice and take a less favorable residency in order to remain geographically close.
The no-match-alternative falls onto the dentite because we can practice (except in NY) right out of school. Physicians have to do a residency so it's not really an option for them to hang back while the dentist does his or her residency because they literally can't practice any aspect of medicine until they have completed their residency for licensure.
The dentist applicant could also try to obtain a GPR in the city that your significant other matches in. For me personally, I've accepted a 2 year commitment to general dentistry practice immediately after graduation while my wife starts her residency (hopefully we can all remain in Philly). After your GPR you can hopefully have made some contacts, improved your application a bit, and can successfully obtain a position in the same location (maybe even your ideal position if you really worked all of the angles).
I STRONGLY hope that I have vastly overlooked something and there are tragic mistakes in the information that I've just given. Please, please, please, correct me because I very much would like to match with my wife!!!! But I just don't think it's going to happen unless you can pull some strings with various programs (esp if your significant other is seriously desired by a particular program that could lean on the dental school/hospital to admit you).
Dates for Dentistry:
http://www.natmatch.com/dentres/dendate.htm
Dates for Medicine:
http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/yearly.html
Best wishes,
Marshall
