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I have read up in this forum for quite a while now. While most of the posts are about mil medicine, I am assuming that a lot of the problems and benefits carry over. I wrote this long and convulted post requesting your opionions on my main points/questions.
From what I see as a naive student considering the HPSP scholarship (Army). I will start off by saying that I am not in it just for the money. That obviously would be a major mistake.
Benefits:
There are quite a few, but I really don't need to list them all. I'm sure the recruiter can hook you up with a nice bulleted list.
1. I have heard from a variety of ex mil dentists (it is tough to take everything they say without a grain of salt now, because they were all buddies of my father and entering the service in the 80s was pretty chill) and a few currently in the service that the AEGD/GPRs are very good. You get to experience a whole variety of cases with many specialists to confer with. The 1 year AEGD programs are depending on your contract included in payback time. The downside is you may have more of a chance of deploying.
2. If I am interested in a particular specialty and I leave the service after 4 yrs, the military experience should provide me with a good basis for applying to a variety of civvie specialty programs. At the minimum, it almost seems like an extended period to learn, develop further skills, and speed before entering private practice. Unless of course, I end up doing the same procedures over and over (see below #1).
Issues (in no particular order-I am trying to focus on stuff that I feel would affect me both personally and proffessionaly; perhaps my list is different from others.):
1. Lack of caseload or getting on the amalgam mill. I have read many posts (mainly by md/dos) that docs have trouble with getting enough cases to keep their skills from going to hell. I don't believe that the caseload itself will be too little for dentists, but I have read that you may get stuck doing filings, fillings and more fillings. In certain DENTACs where there are many specialists, you may rarely do any work that the specialists are there for.
2. Paperwork/Admin BS/'Optimized' Care, etc. I understand that in any large organization you will be dealing with an exponential increase in BS paperwork and that as you climb the rank ladder, you become more of an administrator. However, my concerns in this department seem to focus on having overloads of work and not being able to effectively complete correct procedures. Also, considering the fact that many military dentists may be subpar at clinical procedures and that there is little or no liability for shoddy work, I would be concerned about falling into the rut of just doing adequate or poor work since there is no incentive to do well.
2a. I also am wondering the affect that having a nurse or non dental officer commanding a unit or something has on your work.
3. Commitment Time. I know its 4AD/4IRR. I am not as concerned about this since if I did want to cut and run after 4, unless stop loss is in effect, I do not believe IRR would be called up on the Army Dental Corps unless something major happens. Of course this is a possibility but I have yet to hear of docs being called up for IRR, its mainly been engineers, MPs, etc. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.
4. Earning Potential. I don't know how much of a problem this is. If one plans on leaving after 4 yrs I guess you need to consider you make a decent amount in the service vs higher pay outside but with loans to pay off. It also must be hard for a young guy to come out of all the hard work of D school and all your classmates are rolling out to relatively high paying jobs while you head out to Fort XXXX, AR or the like. I have looked at all the pay charts, etc, etc. I am more concerned about issues 1 and 2 as disadvantages than this here.
5. Moving around every so often/deployments. This isn't a big deal for a young unmarried man but with a family I defintiely see it being an issue. But, this is an obvious concern with military duty in general. I have talked to a couple of mil dentists about this.
Well thats all I can think of right now, I'm sure I'll come up with more concerns/benefits later on. Overall, I'm more concerned with the military affecting my clinical ability (either positively or negatively) whether I decide to serve 4 or 20 yrs.
I was hoping some of the posters in this forum could comment on my main points and add their comments. I read a lot of negativity in this forum and I appreciate that you guys spend your time educating us about the good and bad of military medicine. I want to know if some the issues I read about are also prevalent in dentistry.
And on a sidenote, the information I've gotten about this stuff is from retired O6 navy/cg dentist and an O6 army reservist who was just called up to go to Germany about a year ago, both of which are coworkers with my dad. Their experiences and information are good, but they did serve their early years back when mil medicine may have indeed been 'all that'. I am also talking to a new dentist stationed in germany.
From what I see as a naive student considering the HPSP scholarship (Army). I will start off by saying that I am not in it just for the money. That obviously would be a major mistake.
Benefits:
There are quite a few, but I really don't need to list them all. I'm sure the recruiter can hook you up with a nice bulleted list.
1. I have heard from a variety of ex mil dentists (it is tough to take everything they say without a grain of salt now, because they were all buddies of my father and entering the service in the 80s was pretty chill) and a few currently in the service that the AEGD/GPRs are very good. You get to experience a whole variety of cases with many specialists to confer with. The 1 year AEGD programs are depending on your contract included in payback time. The downside is you may have more of a chance of deploying.
2. If I am interested in a particular specialty and I leave the service after 4 yrs, the military experience should provide me with a good basis for applying to a variety of civvie specialty programs. At the minimum, it almost seems like an extended period to learn, develop further skills, and speed before entering private practice. Unless of course, I end up doing the same procedures over and over (see below #1).
Issues (in no particular order-I am trying to focus on stuff that I feel would affect me both personally and proffessionaly; perhaps my list is different from others.):
1. Lack of caseload or getting on the amalgam mill. I have read many posts (mainly by md/dos) that docs have trouble with getting enough cases to keep their skills from going to hell. I don't believe that the caseload itself will be too little for dentists, but I have read that you may get stuck doing filings, fillings and more fillings. In certain DENTACs where there are many specialists, you may rarely do any work that the specialists are there for.
2. Paperwork/Admin BS/'Optimized' Care, etc. I understand that in any large organization you will be dealing with an exponential increase in BS paperwork and that as you climb the rank ladder, you become more of an administrator. However, my concerns in this department seem to focus on having overloads of work and not being able to effectively complete correct procedures. Also, considering the fact that many military dentists may be subpar at clinical procedures and that there is little or no liability for shoddy work, I would be concerned about falling into the rut of just doing adequate or poor work since there is no incentive to do well.
2a. I also am wondering the affect that having a nurse or non dental officer commanding a unit or something has on your work.
3. Commitment Time. I know its 4AD/4IRR. I am not as concerned about this since if I did want to cut and run after 4, unless stop loss is in effect, I do not believe IRR would be called up on the Army Dental Corps unless something major happens. Of course this is a possibility but I have yet to hear of docs being called up for IRR, its mainly been engineers, MPs, etc. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.
4. Earning Potential. I don't know how much of a problem this is. If one plans on leaving after 4 yrs I guess you need to consider you make a decent amount in the service vs higher pay outside but with loans to pay off. It also must be hard for a young guy to come out of all the hard work of D school and all your classmates are rolling out to relatively high paying jobs while you head out to Fort XXXX, AR or the like. I have looked at all the pay charts, etc, etc. I am more concerned about issues 1 and 2 as disadvantages than this here.
5. Moving around every so often/deployments. This isn't a big deal for a young unmarried man but with a family I defintiely see it being an issue. But, this is an obvious concern with military duty in general. I have talked to a couple of mil dentists about this.
Well thats all I can think of right now, I'm sure I'll come up with more concerns/benefits later on. Overall, I'm more concerned with the military affecting my clinical ability (either positively or negatively) whether I decide to serve 4 or 20 yrs.
I was hoping some of the posters in this forum could comment on my main points and add their comments. I read a lot of negativity in this forum and I appreciate that you guys spend your time educating us about the good and bad of military medicine. I want to know if some the issues I read about are also prevalent in dentistry.
And on a sidenote, the information I've gotten about this stuff is from retired O6 navy/cg dentist and an O6 army reservist who was just called up to go to Germany about a year ago, both of which are coworkers with my dad. Their experiences and information are good, but they did serve their early years back when mil medicine may have indeed been 'all that'. I am also talking to a new dentist stationed in germany.