Information on Loma Linda OMFS

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DREDAY

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Does anyone have any information on loma linda omfs program? Is it a good program? What does it emphasize on? What experience does one primarily get when going there? What is the schedulle like? any in put from anyone who has interviewed there or goes there is highly appreciated.

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I posted something about Loma Linda on a thread a few months ago...
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=5039406#post5039406
Hopefully this will answer some of your questions.

I think Loma Linda will have a different strategy this year in regards to the interview/match process. I was sort of surprised that they didn't match last year because IMHO the program is strong - of course they only interviewed 6 people for 2 spots...

Has anybody heard if they are doing both 4 and 6 this year or just 6?
 
I posted something about Loma Linda on a thread a few months ago...
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=5039406#post5039406
Hopefully this will answer some of your questions.

I think Loma Linda will have a different strategy this year in regards to the interview/match process. I was sort of surprised that they didn't match last year because IMHO the program is strong - of course they only interviewed 6 people for 2 spots...

Has anybody heard if they are doing both 4 and 6 this year or just 6?

I didnt apply there because PASS is only listing for 6 year spots this year.
 
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Hi I am currently a resident at Loma Linda.

I think the information in the post above is pretty accurate. The Residency covers three hospitals Loma Linda, Arrowhead, Riverside. The patient pool comes from two of the largest counties in Southern California. We cover facial trauma 100% of the time at Arrowhead County. Although Arrowhead is a level II trauma center, it often handles more trauma than Loma Linda which is a level I due to the fact that it is a county hospital. We do not split any of the facial trauma at Arrowhead county. At the other two hospitals we have a rotating system in which we cover every third week of facial trauma.

We have clinics in all three hospitals. The clinics at Arrowhead and Riverside county serve the population with basic needs for an OMFS program such as extractions, follow ups, etc. The Clinic at Loma Linda is run like a private practice in that there are 3-4 assistants and numerous front office staff. The department places the most implants in the dental school despite the presence of an dental implant department.

In our recent site visit we were praised for the variety of cases and the number of cases at the residency. I believe the specific strengths of the program lies in trauma, orthognathics, and dentoalveolar surgery. It is not uncommon for there to be 5-7 orthognathic cases in a week if not more. The one weakness is oncology as stated in the previous posts. We do perform biopsies, resections, and reconstructions but do not do any complicated head and neck dissections and free flaps which are handled mostly by ENT and plastics.

The residents take pictures of cases treated in the operating room and any interesting cases in clinic. The cases are reviewed on a weekly basis with the attending physicians. We also preview the cases that are coming up in the week at that meeting. As a resident you will be responsible for weekly presentations on a variety of topics and cases presentations of patients after adequate long term follow up.

Life as a resident at Loma Linda is very busy. You will spend many hours on call suturing up lacerations in the ER and learning to handle a variety of trauma cases apart from your run of the mill mandible fracture. The program almost requires you to be autonomous with very little hand holding, although there is always a senior available or an attending. You will spend most of your time learning on the job. You will also spend a great amount of time preparing presentations on a weekly basis. There is some didactic coursework but the majority of your education will come from independent self study. The program is a good one for people that want to go to a program to operate rather than sit around and go to meetings or round for hours. You will work hard if you are a resident here, if that doesn't agree with you than you may consider applying to another program.

I am personally happy with the program. It seems that most of our graduating residents are happy with the program also in the sense that they tell me that they feel very ready to make the transition into the next phase of their various careers. The surgical experience here is awesome and you actually do the surgeries rather than watching the attending and retracting. The Oral Surgery department at all three hospitals have a superb reputation.

To those that are curious about the program, I reccomend that you do an externship here and see it all for yourself. Try to take at least two weeks to see the program since we do sometimes have a slow week. Also try to schedule your externship on one of the weeks where we are covering facial trauma for three hospitals since that will give you a fair idea of what a busy week is.

As far as the match and the program spots, I can't give you any good information. I don't have to think about it so I choose not to. I'm busier with other things. I hope this helps some of you. Good luck in choosing good paths to your careers.
 
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The department places the most implants in the dental school despite the presence of an dental implant department.

How many do you guys place? Are they mostly school cases or hospital?
 
How many do you guys place? Are they mostly school cases or hospital?

I'm not sure of exact numbers. But consider that there is a pretty well respected implant department with more residents working than the oral surgery department. Which means that per resident we are placing more than the implant residents (who are in a program designed for implant placement.) Suffice it to say it's enough. A lot of them are done in clinic but we'll do them also with some reconstructions and post trauma cases.
 
I'm not sure of exact numbers. But consider that there is a pretty well respected implant department with more residents working than the oral surgery department. Which means that per resident we are placing more than the implant residents (who are in a program designed for implant placement.) Suffice it to say it's enough. A lot of them are done in clinic but we'll do them also with some reconstructions and post trauma cases.

I was just curious about the numbers... it sounded like you knew since you mentioned that you place more than the implant residents. Not exact, but how many would a typical resident place? I think the implant dept there has 8 residents.
 
Hi I am currently a resident at Loma Linda.

I think the information in the post above is pretty accurate. The Residency covers three hospitals Loma Linda, Arrowhead, Riverside. The patient pool comes from two of the largest counties in Southern California. We cover facial trauma 100% of the time at Arrowhead County. Although Arrowhead is a level II trauma center, it often handles more trauma than Loma Linda which is a level I due to the fact that it is a county hospital. We do not split any of the facial trauma at Arrowhead county. At the other two hospitals we have a rotating system in which we cover every third week of facial trauma.

We have clinics in all three hospitals. The clinics at Arrowhead and Riverside county serve the population with basic needs for an OMFS program such as extractions, follow ups, etc. The Clinic at Loma Linda is run like a private practice in that there are 3-4 assistants and numerous front office staff. The department places the most implants in the dental school despite the presence of an dental implant department.

In our recent site visit we were praised for the variety of cases and the number of cases at the residency. I believe the specific strengths of the program lies in trauma, orthognathics, and dentoalveolar surgery. It is not uncommon for there to be 5-7 orthognathic cases in a week if not more. The one weakness is oncology as stated in the previous posts. We do perform biopsies, resections, and reconstructions but do not do any complicated head and neck dissections and free flaps which are handled mostly by ENT and plastics.

The residents take pictures of cases treated in the operating room and any interesting cases in clinic. The cases are reviewed on a weekly basis with the attending physicians. We also preview the cases that are coming up in the week at that meeting. As a resident you will be responsible for weekly presentations on a variety of topics and cases presentations of patients after adequate long term follow up.

Life as a resident at Loma Linda is very busy. You will spend many hours on call suturing up lacerations in the ER and learning to handle a variety of trauma cases apart from your run of the mill mandible fracture. The program almost requires you to be autonomous with very little hand holding, although there is always a senior available or an attending. You will spend most of your time learning on the job. You will also spend a great amount of time preparing presentations on a weekly basis. There is some didactic coursework but the majority of your education will come from independent self study. The program is a good one for people that want to go to a program to operate rather than sit around and go to meetings or round for hours. You will work hard if you are a resident here, if that doesn't agree with you than you may consider applying to another program.

I am personally happy with the program. It seems that most of our graduating residents are happy with the program also in the sense that they tell me that they feel very ready to make the transition into the next phase of their various careers. The surgical experience here is awesome and you actually do the surgeries rather than watching the attending and retracting. The Oral Surgery department at all three hospitals have a superb reputation.

To those that are curious about the program, I reccomend that you do an externship here and see it all for yourself. Try to take at least two weeks to see the program since we do sometimes have a slow week. Also try to schedule your externship on one of the weeks where we are covering facial trauma for three hospitals since that will give you a fair idea of what a busy week is.

As far as the match and the program spots, I can't give you any good information. I don't have to think about it so I choose not to. I'm busier with other things. I hope this helps some of you. Good luck in choosing good paths to your careers.


Is this still the case or have things changed.
 
Update on Loma Linda University OMFS Program

I am a current resident at Loma Linda and wanted to give an update on our Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery program. The program is currently phasing out the 4-year track and is only accepting applicants to the 6-year combined OMS/MD program. In the 13 years since the above post was written, there have been many changes! First, our program continues to be very strong in orthognathics and facial trauma. We currently have 3 attendings who routinely perform orthognathic surgery. Facial trauma surgery also continues to be a strong point. We currently cover facial trauma 24/7 for Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC), and every 3rd week for Loma Linda University Medical Center, rotating call with plastics and ENT. We treat full-scope facial trauma, including dentoalveolar trauma, mandible fractures, LeFort fractures, orbital fractures, ZMC fractures, NOE fractures, frontal sinus fractures, complex nasal bone fractures, as well as treating soft tissue injuries to the face including scalp, ears, and nose.

The culture of our program is a supportive, faith-based, and family-friendly environment, where residents can learn, grow, and become excellent clinicians. Our program continues to provide a much-needed service to the community in performing hospital-based dentoalveolar surgery for medically compromised patients. We continue to treat benign maxillofacial pathology and have recently begun treating malignant maxillofacial pathology with the addition of a microvascular-trained OMS attending, performing free-flap surgery for patients with malignancies and other acquired defects of the head and neck.

One of the unique strengths of Loma Linda’s OMS program is that as residents we run the ENT inpatient service at ARMC along with ENT attendings, and this brings a greater depth to our training than at many other programs. We learn to manage and treat pharyngeal and tonsillar abscesses, and infections and pathology of the ears/nose/and throat.

We continue to run a basic OMS clinic at ARMC, providing services such as follow ups and surgical planning, in addition to basic extractions and soft tissue biopsies. Our Loma Linda clinic continues to perform routine dentoalveolar surgery under local anesthesia. We also perform 3rd molar extractions, expose & bond, supernumerary/impacted teeth extractions, and soft and hard tissue biopsies under in-office general anesthesia. (Prior to COVID-19, we were performing up to 60 IVGA procedures a month). As a first-year resident, you will have the opportunity to learn how to work up medically complex patients for procedures in clinic and the operating room, and will have invaluable experiences on call, including draining abscesses of multiple facial and neck spaces, repairing scalp lacerations and facial lacerations, splinting teeth, and performing many extractions. (As a reference, I treated at least 36 abscesses and 98 lacerations, and performed 6 splints and 78+ extractions during my 13-month intern year, many of which were on-call, not including many clinic extractions I did not log).

Finally, our academic opportunities on-service include weekly case conference with our attendings, weekly didactic sessions including orthognathics and pathology, and opportunities to teach dental students in our predoctoral OMS clinic. The medical school education as part of the 6-year program emphasizes whole-person care, and provides a strong academic and clinical basis in medicine for the rest of your surgical career. Emerging areas of opportunity in our residency include craniofacial surgery rotations with plastic surgery.

If you want to work hard, grow academically, provide service to many underserved patients, and work with a group of talented and friendly residents, then Loma Linda is the place for you!

Residency Program Webpage
(Attached is a video from several years ago, highlighting one of our current attendings)
 
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