Going for ortho. Need advise!

[eight143]

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Hi. I will be starting dental school this fall at Loma Linda University in California. I've been observing an orthodontist for the past few months and have been really interested in it. My goal is to get to ortho school after dental school. I know this is kinda of a lofty goal, but I know it can be done. If you were to tell me three things I MUST do to increase my chances of getting into ortho what will it be. I'm really serious about doing my best, so other than ranking top 5 in my class and doing well in the NBDE 1 what are other intangibles that I must do.

 

[Yah-E]

1) Extracurricular activities to boost up your curriculum vitae (CV) [aka acdemic resume]. Things like leadership positions, getting involved in dental organizations (ASDA, fraternities, clubs, etc.).

2) Research related to Orthodontics....if you present a poster at an Orthodontic convention, then you will be highly regarded as an applicant.

3) $3,000,000.00 donation to your dental school will do the trick as well!

 

[eight143]

Thanks! I'm going to start saving for that $3,000,000 donation by auctioning out my third molars on ebay!!!

 

[gryffindor]

To add to Yah-E's list:

4) Try to find a mentor in ortho at Loma Linda. This could be a faculty member in their department, or a private practitioner (if affiliated with Loma Linda, even better). Someone who you can shadow when you get time to keep it real, reminding you why you are sweating in those dental classes. Someone who will be supportive of your choice to pursue ortho, and who will hopefully turn around and write you a good letter three years from now when you apply. Many specialty programs want a letter from that specialty department at your school. A genuine relationship and contact early on can only help.

5) Research is good, but if you can publish something (an abstract, hopefully or even a paper) that would help. Research in ortho would be great, but don't get discouraged if you can't find something and have to go to a different department. There are many ways to apply what you learn in one field in dentistry to another.

 

[XxdtxX]

I was wondering why you need to graduate in the top 5 of your class to get into an ortho program, since there is about 275 spots and about 55 dental schools. That would mean that every person that graduated in the top 5 wants to do ortho.??????????

 

[yosemitesam]

From what I understand, some schools have a little more prestige than others in the view of specialty admissions committees. So if you're not coming from somewhere like Harvard, you've gotta be at the very top of your class to be competitive.

 

[yosemitesam]

Also, the ADA website shows that only 63 orthodontists were certified in 2001. For anyone interested the number of other specialists certified can be viewed here: http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/specialty/natcert.pdf