GPR/AEGD vs working at a dental office

[babytomato]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently in my D2 year and have been going back and forth on whether I should go for a residency or find a job after graduation. I know it's still early, but I'd like to have some more insight and get a better idea of my goal after graduation. Everyone I've heard who's in or has done a residency say it's worth it. However, some of my classmates say they just want to start working and make money. I've been working hard this year because last year put me towards the bottom of the class, and honestly I'm not sure how much that matters with residencies or finding a job. I'm also aware they still pay you (maybe $40-50k?) in residency. If there's someone here who has worked right after graduating, are you glad you chose to do so?

I'd love any insight on this because I know very little on this!

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[2TH MVR]

Just an opinion, but you're in dental school NOW. And you're PAYING for it. Concentrate on learning basic clinical dentistry NOW. Sounds like you're already setting yourself up to fail .... and now are thinking about doing a residency to compensate.

Too many dental students think they have to be masters of implants, invisalign, surgical extractions, and other advanced procedures to be competent dentists. Not so. Learn to be a GOOD clinical dentist 1st. Then afterwards choose a good specialist/generalist mentor or seek CE if you want to learn more advanced procedures. You have plenty of time.

I can assure you ... when you 1st graduate .... no employer dentist/Corp office is going to allow you to place implants even if you've done a few in AEGD/GPR. Why would they take a chance on a new grad with little to no real life experience.

Admittingly ... it's probably difficult to find that perfect dentist mentor/employer in the real world. But they are out there. I would go down that path instead of thinking about doing a residency. IMO.

 

[RMGI]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently in my D2 year and have been going back and forth on whether I should go for a residency or find a job after graduation. I know it's still early, but I'd like to have some more insight and get a better idea of my goal after graduation. Everyone I've heard who's in or has done a residency say it's worth it. However, some of my classmates say they just want to start working and make money. I've been working hard this year because last year put me towards the bottom of the class, and honestly I'm not sure how much that matters with residencies or finding a job. I'm also aware they still pay you (maybe $40-50k?) in residency. If there's someone here who has worked right after graduating, are you glad you chose to do so?

I'd love any insight on this because I know very little on this!

My personal opinion: a great private practice situation with real mentorship and good compensation (hard to find both) beats out an average to poor GPR/AEGD, but a really good GPR/AEGD can accelerate your clinical development by years while getting paid instead of having to pay for it through expensive CE that also requires taking time off of work (like a year of CE for free except you get paid 60k). Definitely don't do a program that treats you like you're in a fifth year of dental school or that is just having you do high volumes of only bread and butter. In private practice you also have to be more conservative with implementing what you learn, because unlike at a good GPR/AEGD there is no OMFS/endo/prosth in the next room that you can call over if you run into trouble.

 

[oralcare123]

Depends on where you want to practice. If you move to rural area to work with a mentor, then you don't need a residency. If you plan to work at saturated area DSO, then you need one, because you will be feeling very uncomfortable straight out of school