Mission Trip or OMFS Externships?

[ComradeVlad]

Hello,

I am a third year dental student and I am interested in going into Oral Surgery. I have done two externships at programs and they were both hands off experiences. I am planning on doing more externships, but I am wondering if a mission trip is worth it for the experience? There is a mission trip where students were able to do upwards of 100 extractions which I think would be awesome to do. My only dilemma is having enough time to do everything before applying this cycle for oral surgery programs. Would it be worth it to go on the mission trip or should I try to do as many externships as possible? Is it important to go to programs offering hands on externships? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

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[Racquetball3r]

I am applying to OMFS this cycle, and have had several interviews. Here is my humble advice. Use the time for externships. Most oral surgery programs don’t give a flying you know what about mission trips. Programs do however care about externship experience, and I was asked about externships (ie where, how long, what did you learn, what you liked/disliked) at every interview in some fashion or another. The only way I could see the mission trip coming into play is if you’re planning on applying to 6 year programs and the medical school advisors who interview you want to hear about what community service you’ve participated in while in D school. In summary do externships, and try to squeeze in your service elsewhere especially if your total time on externships would be drastically decreased by going on the trip.

 

[sbdento]

I'd do an externship over a mission trip, unless you've already done a lot of them already (maybe 6ish).

That mission trip sounds like it would be great experience. As a 3rd year, you may have time to do the trip and additional externships.