24 month program. 10 residents (5 in each class).
MS/Certificate program. Master's is required for graduation. If your research is accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal no traditional master's thesis is required. 1 or 2 residents each year will spend a week in Greece doing research for their project. Most residents will do materials related projects, although resources and faculty for basic science research is readily available. All this being said, the focus is heavily on a solid clinical education, rather than research.
A typical week has first years and second years in the clinic from 9-12 in the morning and 1-4 in the afternoon Monday-Friday. First year residents operate 1 chair, second years have 2. The residents share the clinical assistants. There is a strong support of clinical part-time faculty from the surrounding area. Treatment is straight-wire technique. Every resident will have a couple of patients who are treated with a Roth-type philosoply with mounted models in CR. This is nice because you are exposed to the technique without it dominating your education. All bracket systems are incorporated, including many self-ligating systems (Damon, Smart-Clip, In-Ovation-R, etc.). It becomes obvious that it is a clinically-oriented program.
All masters courses are taken during first year, typically from 8-9 am. The courses are mostly seminar-type....not many exams, but an occasional project.
The overall feel of the program is pretty relaxed. The residents that match here are usually focused on becoming a solid clinical orthodontist. If you are interested in hard-core research I would suggest a different program. I think the biggest drawback is the tuition, which is around 30k. I'm just glad we are done in 2 years as opposed to 2.5 or 3.
