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How hard is it and what type of dental school grades/rankings are need to get into a ped program? Any suggestions as toward reaching this goal.
Thanks
Thanks
Getting into a Pediatric Dentistry Residency Program
- Thread starter Minty Fresh
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If you're looking to specialize in dentistry, the response looks like this: "Study hard, get excellent grades, stay near the top of the class, and smoke the boards."
Specialty residencies are much less prolific in dentistry than in medicine, and so matching is much more difficult in our field. A very solid majority of dents go on to become GPs.
Something that tends to fall between the cracks in a lot of people's minds, however, is that a GP is as entitled to perform "specialty" procedures as a specialist. Just take lots of ConEd to stay current with techniques and procedures, and be sure you can perform any procedures to standard before you agree to them.
Most of the high-end GP salaries everyone slings around on these boards come from dentists who are confident and competent to perform a lot of specialty procedures (endo, fixed prostho, etc) in-house to earn the income themselves, rather than farming the cases out to specialists. In the end, it's just like any other profession--you can skate by on bare minimums, but the more responsibility you're willing to undertake, the more success you'll generally encounter.
Specialty residencies are much less prolific in dentistry than in medicine, and so matching is much more difficult in our field. A very solid majority of dents go on to become GPs.
Something that tends to fall between the cracks in a lot of people's minds, however, is that a GP is as entitled to perform "specialty" procedures as a specialist. Just take lots of ConEd to stay current with techniques and procedures, and be sure you can perform any procedures to standard before you agree to them.
Most of the high-end GP salaries everyone slings around on these boards come from dentists who are confident and competent to perform a lot of specialty procedures (endo, fixed prostho, etc) in-house to earn the income themselves, rather than farming the cases out to specialists. In the end, it's just like any other profession--you can skate by on bare minimums, but the more responsibility you're willing to undertake, the more success you'll generally encounter.
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Some additional things one should consider if specializing in pedodontics is your goal:
1) Minor in pedodontics during your upperclassman years in dental school.
2) Do your 3rd-year summer externship at a pedo program or programs you are considering applying to.
3) Make sure to be on good terms with the pedo department chairman at your dental school, and always ask him/her if there are additional extramural programs you can participate in (outreach to elementary schools, stints at area hospitals, etc.).
All this should earn you a letter of recommendation from your dental school's pedo department chairman, which should go a long way towards helping you match to a pedo program you want.
HTH!
1) Minor in pedodontics during your upperclassman years in dental school.
2) Do your 3rd-year summer externship at a pedo program or programs you are considering applying to.
3) Make sure to be on good terms with the pedo department chairman at your dental school, and always ask him/her if there are additional extramural programs you can participate in (outreach to elementary schools, stints at area hospitals, etc.).
All this should earn you a letter of recommendation from your dental school's pedo department chairman, which should go a long way towards helping you match to a pedo program you want.
HTH!
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By the way peds is a way cool specialty, and something that interests me greatly!
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Peds are great. I have been volunteering with a dentist who is a UOP grad. Both he and his daughter went to UOP and it's been great hearing stories from them, she did the same 6 year program at UOP that I start in this fall.
