HELP: dental schools with specific research focus?

[lussekatte]

As I've begun to brainstorm for applying next cycle, one of the things on my wishlist has been finding schools with faculty who do research in tissue engineering and/or focus on translational research in this area.

I am a research assistant in a wound healing lab at my uni where we research novel blood products to treat non-healing wounds in bone and soft tissue. This is a serious interest of mine that I want to continue to explore after undergrad and eventually combine with my interests in dentistry. My dream is to get involved with guided bone regeneration research and improving existing surgical approaches to treating bony defects, and if it's possible I would like to be at a school where I can make this happen.

I am not looking specifically for DDS/Ph.D programs, just schools that have a significant arm in translational dental research and tissue engineering. I don't quite know where the best places to look are (I'm on the East Coast if it matters) and I feel somewhat lost so I wanted to post something here in case anyone might be able to help me. Thank you!!!!!

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[Ryxndek]

It might be difficult to find the time needed to do this kind of research as a D1/D2 or even D3/D4 without pursuing some type of additional degree - MS/PhD, that grants you the time outside of school. As the dental school will pretty much mandate that you focus on learning the skills needed to be a clinician. It might be possible to find blocks of time throughout the year to focus on the research (or a dedicated research program, UMN has 10 weeks for D1 and 6 weeks for D2), but you will be extremely busy so the time to do this would be slim outside of those blocks.

This certainly would be an interesting master's thesis project to work on and I'm not trying to put you down! Just want to highlight something I noticed. As I was very interested in pursuing research in dental school and participated in the research program, but dental school is just so busy that I struggled to find time to further things. But I guess if you want something bad enough you'll find the time!

Also, my school, the University of Minnesota, has a tissue engineering sector in biomedical engineering. It's also integrated as one of the minors available to the DDS/PhD students.

 

[lussekatte]

It might be difficult to find the time needed to do this kind of research as a D1/D2 or even D3/D4 without pursuing some type of additional degree - MS/PhD, that grants you the time outside of school. As the dental school will pretty much mandate that you focus on learning the skills needed to be a clinician. It might be possible to find blocks of time throughout the year to focus on the research (or a dedicated research program, UMN has 10 weeks for D1 and 6 weeks for D2), but you will be extremely busy so the time to do this would be slim outside of those blocks.

This certainly would be an interesting master's thesis project to work on and I'm not trying to put you down! Just want to highlight something I noticed. As I was very interested in pursuing research in dental school and participated in the research program, but dental school is just so busy that I struggled to find time to further things. But I guess if you want something bad enough you'll find the time!

Also, my school, the University of Minnesota, has a tissue engineering sector in biomedical engineering. It's also integrated as one of the minors available to the DDS/PhD students.

Thank you for the information on UMN's BME department, I didn't know they offered that!
That's unfortunate to know I won't have a lot of time to dedicate to research in dental school unless I go for an additional degree. I would love to participate in summer research programs geared towards dental students when the time comes (programs offered by schools or maybe something at the NIDCR...! I can dream). But I would imagine doing a MS instead of a Ph.D means more debt in addition to more school.

My dilemma is that I just don't think I would be competitive enough for DDS/Ph.D or other kinds of dual DDS/research degree programs due to my GPA and lack of several years of continuous research experience. I love the research I do right now and what it's exposed me to but I've only been in my lab for 5 months. Prior to that I did a summer internship in clinical research.
I have a 3.65 overall GPA which, from what I've read on SDN, isn't competitive for a lot of research-intensive public schools as an OOS applicant and I would imagine that's also under the median for DDS/Ph.D matriculants. It feels like being seriously considered at schools I've found so far with a significant regenerative medicine/tissue engineering focus like Pitt, Michigan, Maryland, UAB is a pipe dream. I don't know what more I can do to make myself competitive for schools like that unless I were to put off applying next cycle (and do what? I'll be graduating Fall '24). I just don't want to completely shelf my research interests.

 

[macsak]

Thank you for the information on UMN's BME department, I didn't know they offered that!
That's unfortunate to know I won't have a lot of time to dedicate to research in dental school unless I go for an additional degree. I would love to participate in summer research programs geared towards dental students when the time comes (programs offered by schools or maybe something at the NIDCR...! I can dream). But I would imagine doing a MS instead of a Ph.D means more debt in addition to more school.

My dilemma is that I just don't think I would be competitive enough for DDS/Ph.D or other kinds of dual DDS/research degree programs due to my GPA and lack of several years of continuous research experience. I love the research I do right now and what it's exposed me to but I've only been in my lab for 5 months. Prior to that I did a summer internship in clinical research.
I have a 3.65 overall GPA which, from what I've read on SDN, isn't competitive for a lot of research-intensive public schools as an OOS applicant and I would imagine that's also under the median for DDS/Ph.D matriculants. It feels like being seriously considered at schools I've found so far with a significant regenerative medicine/tissue engineering focus like Pitt, Michigan, Maryland, UAB is a pipe dream. I don't know what more I can do to make myself competitive for schools like that unless I were to put off applying next cycle (and do what? I'll be graduating Fall '24). I just don't want to completely shelf my research interests.

why not ask the schools rather than assuming you are not competitive?
they could also answer your question on how to improve your application...

 

[macsak]

As I've begun to brainstorm for applying next cycle, one of the things on my wishlist has been finding schools with faculty who do research in tissue engineering and/or focus on translational research in this area.

I am a research assistant in a wound healing lab at my uni where we research novel blood products to treat non-healing wounds in bone and soft tissue. This is a serious interest of mine that I want to continue to explore after undergrad and eventually combine with my interests in dentistry. My dream is to get involved with guided bone regeneration research and improving existing surgical approaches to treating bony defects, and if it's possible I would like to be at a school where I can make this happen.

I am not looking specifically for DDS/Ph.D programs, just schools that have a significant arm in translational dental research and tissue engineering. I don't quite know where the best places to look are (I'm on the East Coast if it matters) and I feel somewhat lost so I wanted to post something here in case anyone might be able to help me. Thank you!!!!!

some general dentists and specialists are using PRP in office to help with regeneration/healing

 

[macsak]

some general dentists and specialists are using PRP in office to help with regeneration/healing

the ivies, UNC, UMich, UCSF/UCLA are more known for research than other dental schools (of course these are the more competitive schools)

 

[lussekatte]

some general dentists and specialists are using PRP in office to help with regeneration/healing

Yes, this is the exact area of research I find so interesting!!!! There's so much work that needs to be done to characterize and fine-tune PRP/PRF for dental applications because clinical results in implant surgery and accelerating tissue regeneration are contradictory. Clinician protocol is often missing important information and there is a lot of variation in the literature so doing a meta analysis is basically impossible.
My lab works with fibrin-based biomaterials and platelet cross-linking to increase the stability of fibrin clots, so this is all we really do. Unfortunately my PI has a focus in vascular surgery, not dentistry lol.

 

[lussekatte]

why not ask the schools rather than assuming you are not competitive?
they could also answer your question on how to improve your application...

TBH it's way easier for me to assume I'm not up to snuff than to step out of my comfort zone and contact individual schools. Thank you for calling me out on that.
Would sending an email to a school's admissions department be a good starting point, or should I also reach out to research deans?

 

[lussekatte]

TBH it's way easier for me to assume I'm not up to snuff than to step out of my comfort zone and contact individual schools. Thank you for calling me out on that.
Would sending an email to a school's admissions department be a good starting point, or should I also reach out to research deans?

Also! Would it be overkill to contact individual faculty at dental schools whose research I'm interested in?

 

[macsak]

TBH it's way easier for me to assume I'm not up to snuff than to step out of my comfort zone and contact individual schools. Thank you for calling me out on that.
Would sending an email to a school's admissions department be a good starting point, or should I also reach out to research deans?

thank you for taking that well
this forum is mostly people who want to be general dentists, with some wanting to specialize
you are asking about a very specific type of research, and if you want it, you are going to have to work for it, you cannot ask a bunch of strangers on the internet...

 

[macsak]

TBH it's way easier for me to assume I'm not up to snuff than to step out of my comfort zone and contact individual schools. Thank you for calling me out on that.
Would sending an email to a school's admissions department be a good starting point, or should I also reach out to research deans?

start with admissions and the research departments

 

[macsak]

Yes, this is the exact area of research I find so interesting!!!! There's so much work that needs to be done to characterize and fine-tune PRP/PRF for dental applications because clinical results in implant surgery and accelerating tissue regeneration are contradictory. Clinician protocol is often missing important information and there is a lot of variation in the literature so doing a meta analysis is basically impossible.
My lab works with fibrin-based biomaterials and platelet cross-linking to increase the stability of fibrin clots, so this is all we really do. Unfortunately my PI has a focus in vascular surgery, not dentistry lol.

tbh, most perio departments and some oral surgery departments are probably constantly looking into these kinds of things all the time...

 

[macsak]

tbh, most perio departments and some oral surgery departments are probably constantly looking into these kinds of things all the time...

you could probably assist the grad students with their research instead of working with PIs at dental schools

 

[lussekatte]

thank you for taking that well
this forum is mostly people who want to be general dentists, with some wanting to specialize
you are asking about a very specific type of research, and if you want it, you are going to have to work for it, you cannot ask a bunch of strangers on the internet...

you could probably assist the grad students with their research instead of working with PIs at dental schools

It seems like there are a bunch of knowledgeable strangers in this corner of the internet so I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.
When you say "the grad students", do you mean where I am right now or in the future? I am at a school without an associated dental school, and I work under a postdoc in biomedical engineering.

 

[macsak]

It seems like there are a bunch of knowledgeable strangers in this corner of the internet so I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.
When you say "the grad students", do you mean where I am right now or in the future? I am at a school without an associated dental school, and I work under a postdoc in biomedical engineering.

oh sorry
grad students meaning periodontal and oral surgery residents

 

[Mr.Smile12]

As an engineer by training, I'm going to throw water in on this conversation.

OP: You're thinking way too much like a premed about your opportunities to do research. Med school curricula often set aside time for students to do research, and there are lots of ways you can petition for a research year to extend your education.

This just doesn't happen at most dental schools. They don't let dental students take a research year before clinicals the way medical schools allow their M3's to (before clerkships). Research happens more among those in the residency/graduate dental programs, especially oral/craniofacial medicine.

Do your homework by looking at dental schools that are part of a university with a biomedical engineering department and faculty that are cross-appointed. Secondly, you need to find specific labs that do the work you want to do. My suggestion is to go for the research master's in biomedical engineering if you are gung ho about it. Find a lab at the NIDCR that does the work you want to do and go for a postbac IRTA before starting the dental school admissions process. Or as I said, get a master's. Work at Stanford.

Once you start dental school, you will be trained in clinical hand skills that require constant practice and application. Taking a year off to do research will let those hand skills start to deteriorate. That won't help you when you have to take dental boards where your hand skills are required.

 

[lussekatte]

As an engineer by training, I'm going to throw water in on this conversation.

OP: You're thinking way too much like a premed about your opportunities to do research. Med school curricula often set aside time for students to do research, and there are lots of ways you can petition for a research year to extend your education.

This just doesn't happen at most dental schools. They don't let dental students take a research year before clinicals the way medical schools allow their M3's to (before clerkships). Research happens more among those in the residency/graduate dental programs, especially oral/craniofacial medicine.

Do your homework by looking at dental schools that are part of a university with a biomedical engineering department and faculty that are cross-appointed. Secondly, you need to find specific labs that do the work you want to do. My suggestion is to go for the research master's in biomedical engineering if you are gung ho about it. Find a lab at the NIDCR that does the work you want to do and go for a postbac IRTA before starting the dental school admissions process. Or as I said, get a master's. Work at Stanford.

Once you start dental school, you will be trained in clinical hand skills that require constant practice and application. Taking a year off to do research will let those hand skills start to deteriorate. That won't help you when you have to take dental boards where your hand skills are required.

Oops, my bad. Didn't mean to come off neurotic... I guess I don't fully understand the time constraints on research opportunities for dental students, relatively speaking. :// that's a shame but it makes sense. It seems like summer programs are the main way to get research experience throughout school?

I'm going to make a shortlist of dental schools that meet the criteria you listed and reach out to their admissions departments from there. Also, though I work in BME I'm not an engineering major. I doubt that I have the academic background a master's program requires for applicants and it's not something I found myself interested in pursuing anyway, so it's okay. I'll read up on NIDCR faculty to potentially do a postbac under and ask around about the program to decide if taking time off for it before applying would be right for me.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

It seems like summer programs are the main way to get research experience throughout school?

You don't know about the curriculum unless you ask the schools before you apply. Many dental schools don't give you a summer break for research, unlike many medical schools. The research you want to do won't take 6 weeks (a summer break) anyway.

Sad to say, but sometimes you have to make a choice because you can't have both. (You could eventually get both, but not at this time point.)

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

The research you want to do won't take 6 weeks (a summer break) anyway.

This.

Big Hoss

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

Summoning @DentistScientist! Care to chime in as a DDS/PhD student?

Big Hoss

 

[lussekatte]

You don't know about the curriculum unless you ask the schools before you apply. Many dental schools don't give you a summer break for research, unlike many medical schools. The research you want to do won't take 6 weeks (a summer break) anyway.

Sad to say, but sometimes you have to make a choice because you can't have both. (You could eventually get both, but not at this time point.)

I'm afraid of making the wrong choice and regretting it later. What time point are you referring to?

Setting the "being competitive" thoughts aside, I'm not sure if a dual-degree program would be right for me. I don't know what academic dentistry is like compared to private practice, so I don't know what will make me happy in the long run. I just know I like research, I feel a pull towards certain specialties (!) and I want to contribute in some way to moving clinical practice forwards. I don't know what that might look like for me, but I'm afraid a dual-degree program might steer me in the wrong direction by taking me out of the clinic entirely.

Not too long ago I spent a week observing in OMS at the dental school in my state and will be returning soon to shadow again, as I look up to the surgeon and residents I was with and loved what I saw in the clinic and OR. It was through them that I was exposed to regenerative techniques in surgery. I fear that being in a dual-degree program would delay my opportunities to explore that ... and being in school until I'm 40 isn't exactly appetizing to me either

I guess the onus is on me to decide what's most important. and to do well with the time I have left in college. God this is hard!!!!!!!

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

I don't know what academic dentistry is like compared to private practice

Big Hoss