difficulty in getting a dental professorship

[mrlantern]

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How difficult is it to get a tenured full-time position as a dental professor? How do you even find one? What qualifications do they look for? I think I would enjoy teaching didactics to students, and doing crown preps, endo, and fillings on dentoforms. I no longer enjoy general dentistry. So I'm considering either teaching dentistry or going back to school for a career change such as nurse anesthesia.

ADEA keeps talking of shortages in dental faculty. Yet, I'm not finding any current openings. The few that I did find, however, were outdated posts and don't seem to available any longer.

 

[mike3kgt]

Positions are out there, defintely. Many times the problem is that full-time professor positions have a rank system that you must begin at a certain level that has a quite low salary and until you teach for a few years and publish, you won't move up very high.

You probably are encounting the same problem as you are with looking for good quality dental jobs... there aren't too many good quality and nice salaried positions available at NYU or Columbia or the GPRs in the city. You may have to leave NYC... which gets us back to recommendation #1 for you, kind sir... get out of dodge.

You can try dental anesthesiology as a career. You don't need to go back to "nurse" school to be an anesthesiologist... just go to one of the dental school based programs. Aphistis... can you comment?

 

[rarm1]

How difficult is it to get a tenured full-time position as a dental professor? How do you even find one? What qualifications do they look for? I think I would enjoy teaching didactics to students, and doing crown preps, endo, and fillings on dentoforms. I no longer enjoy general dentistry. So I'm considering either teaching dentistry or going back to school for a career change such as nurse anesthesia.

ADEA keeps talking of shortages in dental faculty. Yet, I'm not finding any current openings. The few that I did find, however, were outdated posts and don't seem to available any longer.

Many positions are open.... generally at the asst prof level. Tenure is not as common as it once was. Often "clinical track" is used. For tenure... research, publications, national status, and teaching ability..... and all with low pay.

I love teaching, but if i was in pvt practice.... would have atleast double income.

 

[Ostracized]

Dentistry is probably the easiest field to get a tenure-track job in. I was talking to a prof at my school who was saying that they were having a hard time filling positions.

I mean, who wants to do a PhD after dental school and the huge debt load?

 

[The Hammer]

To become an assistant professor generally the schools want you to have a masters in either a clinical program like endo or ortho or a public health type masters. Then generally they want you to work clinical part time and finally they will hire you as an assistant professor. Pay is generally in the 75k area with some benefits and you are expected to do research in your off time at no pay. Any mildly eager dentist in private practice can easily make twice this amount with very little effort and much less politics. Those gifted individuals that give up private practice because they feel that they must teach are very few and very far between

 

[HupHolland]

Just about every school has a demand for clinical instructors, but very few can afford to hire now. In this economy, hiring freezes are the norm, as is the case at my school.

A MS in a specialty or MPH will help, but certainly not required. The poster that said a PhD is necessary is full of crap. Most of our full time clinical instructors, I believe, have only their DDS.

Hup

 

[The Hammer]

Just about every school has a demand for clinical instructors, but very few can afford to hire now. In this economy, hiring freezes are the norm, as is the case at my school.

A MS in a specialty or MPH will help, but certainly not required. The poster that said a PhD is necessary is full of crap. Most of our full time clinical instructors, I believe, have only their DDS.

Hup

Thats interesting. I agree with you about the ph.d but last month I worked with several instructors ( from the north and south east mostly) on a program that was endorsed by the ADEA and I was told that although a MS wasn't necessarily required it was expected 😕

 

[HupHolland]

Thats interesting. I agree with you about the ph.d but last month I worked with several instructors ( from the north and south east mostly) on a program that was endorsed by the ADEA and I was told that although a MS wasn't necessarily required it was expected 😕

Take a look at the list of general dentistry faculty at tufts.. http://dental.tufts.edu/1186056456149/TUSDM-Page-dental2w_1186234234664.html

This should give you an idea of the background of typical dental school faculty.

Hup

 

[Ostracized]

The poster that said a PhD is necessary is full of crap. Most of our full time clinical instructors, I believe, have only their DDS.

I guess it depends on the school. It seems to me that at the University of Toronto, all new tenure-track faculty have a PhD.

 

[The Hammer]

I guess it depends on the school. It seems to me that at the University of Toronto, all new tenure-track faculty have a PhD.

I guess it all depends on what else your CV has on it. Much like getting accepted to dental school an MS or PhD is not required but sure as hell ain't gonna hurt you none👍