Hi,
I read your posts regarding Dentistry in the Military and would like to ask
few questions. ?Obviously from your posts, I can tell that you did not enjoy
your experiences in the military. ?Currently I am 23 years old and am
waiting for acceptances at Dental Schools. ?I will be 24 when I enter dental
school. ?furthermore, I would like to goto Harvard and specialize in
endodontics or oral surgery. ?Would getting a scholarship from a military be
a bad thing for me since i want to specialize? ?I am interested in the Air
Force 'cause i heared that it is the most lax out of all the branches of the
military. ?I know that they only offer 3 years of scholarship. My stance
right now is that if i goto a public school i will not take the military
route but if i need to goto a school that i will incur over 250,000 debt,
300,000 after four years with interests, that i will take the military
route. ?I think for harvard total debt with interest will be around 200,000
so i am kind of in a limbo with that school. ?regardless, why is the
military that bad? ?i hear you make 35,000 but the housing is paid for so
the pay actually turns out to be 70,000. ?i live in San Diego, CAlifornia
and i know for a fact that a starting general dentist would only make around
60,000 since there are so many dentists here. ?I dont' exactly know how much
specialists make to start off 'caue if they do get paid a lot then i
probably don't want to commit the years. ?So when you get a chance, please
give me some info, i would greatly appreciate it. ?thank you for your time.
______________________________
I am glad you asked,
I am writing you this reply at 1:03 AM because I am now awake since my downstairs neighbor's dog started barking and woke me up. I couldn't go back to sleep so I am writing you.
I can answer some of your specific questions if you are really interested, but first I want to tell you this. You can substitute "Air Force" for "Army" in the letter below. They are equivalent, for the most part, as far as dental goes.
I have been living in this apartment building for 2 years now. We have 2 bedrooms for myself, my 2 1/2 year old boy and my pregnant wife. We have been living with a barking dog downstairs for all of the time we have been living here. Both of the people who live under us are active duty soldiers and they are often deployed, go to bed early and get up early to do PT with their units. Their dog starts barking when they leave at 5 AM. Sometimes when they get back from the field they stay up talking and drinking with their buddies until the wee hours in the morning. Once when this happened and my parents were here visiting, I went downstairs and confronted them. They insisted they weren't making that much noise but I could hear every word they were saying. He told his buddies that I am just a goddamn dentist and I didn't understand what a real soldier's life was like so I was apt to complain alot.
Nice neighbors, right? I complained about their dog's incessant yipping. And complained, and complained. Their solution- a box that makes noise when the dog barks. Did the dog care? No! Did he stop barking? NO!! Now it was 2 shrieking noises for the price of one! It was so loud you could hear it on the street.
When I got here to my present assignment, I went through the housing assignment office, the same one that all soldiers go through. The first apartment they showed me was a total dump. It was on the American post in an area that looked like a big city project (and still looks that way). This apartment obviously hadn't been lived in for years, but the new area commander was trying to fill it and many other apartments just like it anyway since the previous commander was allowing people to live on the German economy if they wanted to. Too many had taken him up on the offer. Well, I refused to sign for this place, and then the housing officer said that since I had refused the offer then I would have to pay for my temporary quarters myself ($80 a day). Finally after pleading with him he offered me the apartment I am now living in, in a small German town, in a building leased from it's German owner by the Army. I don't have the freedom to choose where I live. The Army is not a democracy. I am a 36 year old doctor living in a 2 bedroom apartment that I was told I had to live in. Does that tell you anything about the Army? Does the Army care that you are a doctor? You are just another "green suiter" to them. Once you sign on that dotted line, you're an owned man.
When I got here 2 years ago, I found out real quick that I am the only Dental Corps Captain in the entire area. The situation is the same now, I am still the lowest ranking dentist here. New dentists are not lining up to work for the Army. There is a little thing I wanted to tell you about known simply as "call". That means you're it. You get the cellular phone which belongs to the local Hospital ER. Whenever a dental patient comes in to the ER, no matter what the time, they call you. Until very recently there were only 6 dentists on the call roster, but about 20 or 21 dentists between the two major posts here. Nobody over the rank of Major was on the call roster. Just Captains, Majors and contract dentists. Well I was the only Captain, there was and still is a Major at the hospital dental clinic (now promotable to LTC), and a few contract dentists, three of which were leaving in December. Replacements were going to be Colonels- not placed on the call roster. (They already paid their dues, right?) So as I saw it I would be on the call roster every few weeks. I began writing letters to the local commander and the chief of the Dental Corps in Washington D.C. and finally there was a change in policy. Now everybody is on the call roster except clinic chiefs. Finally. Well almost, it's still just the same old group of us that were kept on the holiday roster. LTC and above don't have to do call on holidays. But for me that's way better than it was.
Let me tell you this: I don't care how much money the Army (Air Force) paid for you to go to school. When you have to go to the ER at 2 AM to fix somebody's lousy tooth, (you don't have a choice- they call, you go) you are going to be hating it. When your lousy neighbor's dog starts barking at 5 AM, you are going to be hating it. What are you going to do, move? Quit your job? Demand more pay? Good luck! You are an owned man! Uncle Sugar owns you and your life! Not only that, but the Military broadcast systems are loaded with this continunus Honor, Duty, God and Country crap. It really grates on the nerves after awhile.
Do you need to hear any more? There's more! I haven't even talked about the everyday practice of dentistry in a subsidized system. You depend on Uncle Sugar for all your instruments, supplies, dental chair, hygienists, appointment schedule, lab work, whatever. I asked for an electro-surge when I got here 2 years ago! Still haven't got it. Breakdowns happen all the time. Money is tight, mostly, and each pot of money comes with a different purpose. You can't buy cotton rolls with money meant for new dental chairs. We got new money to update our antique x-ray equipment. It was bought, it sat around about a year, and was installed recently. We still can't use it because of some red tape!! And do you know who controls purchasing? NOT dentists, that's for sure. Buying decisions are not, for the most part, made by a clinician. That can be a real problem.
Does your patient want to pay for their own lab work because the Army's crown was lousy and took 8 weeks to get back from the lab? Good Luck! That's verboten! The Army is afraid the patient is going to come back and ask for the money later! You HAVE to use the Military lab. Or just don't do much fixed work, which is the choice of the majority of the dentists here.
Assistants- Oh, here's real gov't wisdom at work. The "Big Guys" have handed it down, no dental assistants are going to get over GS-4 pay unless they work in the OR or something. GS-4 is about $7.50 an hour. Well, here's the problem with that- even the local Burger King pays more than that! So assistants start working here if they can't get a job anywhere else. Then, they start looking for another job as soon as they can. As soon as a better offer comes along, POOF! they're gone! And who can blame them anyway? My assistant is still a volunteer. He's a retired pensioner, and has been offered a position working with me as a GS-2. He turned the offer down saying he would rather come and go as he pleases and not be tied down for 5 bucks an hour. I do think he will accept their offer for a GS-3 position, however. I am the lucky one. My buddy who is a contract dentist hasn't had a steady assistant since he has been here. (2 years)
Well, here's the bottom line. If you have a terminal illness or someting, by all means join the military. That 4 year commitment will last FOREVER!! But, if by chance you're not sick, then STAY AWAY! Don't even THINK about it. Why do you think I am writing these letters? Why am I going through the trouble of posting them on the internet so dental students will see what it is I have to say? I am NOT on a recruiting assignment. Recruiters have to lie. If they told the truth, then no one would join.
Zahnmann
PS As stated in my postings, your letter and my reply will be posted anonymously for everyone's benefit.