OEC & Meharry

[BlueToothHunter]

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Apparently the OEC people have approached the Meharry dental folks to open up another orthodontic program! Jacksonville, Colorado, Las Vegas and now Nashville??!! As an ortho resident, this is shocking! Anyone else would like to comment?

 

[River13]

You should've done OMFS 😀

 

[onetoothleft]

Apparently the OEC people have approached the Meharry dental folks to open up another orthodontic program! Jacksonville, Colorado, Las Vegas and now Nashville??!! As an ortho resident, this is shocking! Anyone else would like to comment?

Are you worried about the quality of care being substandard, or are you worried about job security for traditional orthodontists?

I think that the less wealthy will be able to take advantage of these programs. They may not get the same standard of care, but on the flip side it makes it so that traditional orthodontists would tend to only see the more wealthy, likely-to-pay patients. Thus it might be good for business. The truth remains to be seen I suppose . . .

 

[DDSSlave]

Apparently the OEC people have approached the Meharry dental folks to open up another orthodontic program! Jacksonville, Colorado, Las Vegas and now Nashville??!! As an ortho resident, this is shocking! Anyone else would like to comment?

Do you know how far into the agreement they are? OEC's previous discussions with dental school deans have been almost entirely secret. Vandy's faculty saying anything? I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that they aren't going to throw OEC Meharry a welcome to the neighborhood party.

 

[kato999]

Are you worried about the quality of care being substandard, or are you worried about job security for traditional orthodontists?

I think that the less wealthy will be able to take advantage of these programs. They may not get the same standard of care, but on the flip side it makes it so that traditional orthodontists would tend to only see the more wealthy, likely-to-pay patients. Thus it might be good for business. The truth remains to be seen I suppose . . .

The OEC is out to make money, it's not there for the less wealthy. It's there to please the stock holders. They will charge a competitive rate, that will not be much cheaper than what most orthodontists currently charge.

I think the OEC has probably contacted almost every dental school that doesn't already have an ortho program by now. I just hope the corporation concept doesn't spread to dental education as a whole.

 

[Jone]

why do you think the quality of care would be substandard? just because the residents who got in did not score 95+ on their NBDE1 and rank top 5%? ortho is a totally different animal from "dentistry" so i would not necessarily equate being a top dental student (or being a good standardized test taker) to being a good orthodontist.

Are you worried about the quality of care being substandard, or are you worried about job security for traditional orthodontists?

I think that the less wealthy will be able to take advantage of these programs. They may not get the same standard of care, but on the flip side it makes it so that traditional orthodontists would tend to only see the more wealthy, likely-to-pay patients. Thus it might be good for business. The truth remains to be seen I suppose . . .

 

[Jone]

true, but flood the market with enough orthodontists, then both OEC and traditional ortho's will have to lower their rates.
law of supply and demand my friend!

They will charge a competitive rate, that will not be much cheaper than what most orthodontists currently charge. .

 

[DDSSlave]

I question the quality of the education. A for-profit corporation organizes, staffs, and funds one of the highest levels of education. Never has this happened in a medical or dental residency, and I think its cause for concern. I would be concerned about any corporate run medical or dental residency which must have profit as it's chief concern rather than patient welfare or quality of care. Would you refer your patient to an OCA (ortho) office or FastBraces office? How about a corporate run dental office, eg Apple, Southern, Monarch? Most reasonable dentists know that there is a likelihood of diminished quality of care. This is taking it one step forward and integrating a purely capitalistic philosophy directly into academia. When they wanted to quadruple the number of UMKC residents from 4 to 16, and when there are rumors that each resident may be handling up to 200 cases, that seems outrageous, and it is formula for diminished quality. However, profits should be great. 🙄

 

[DDSSlave]

true, but flood the market with enough orthodontists, then both OEC and traditional ortho's will have to lower their rates.
law of supply and demand my friend!

This may be true, but at the same time OEC intends on making as high a profit as they can. Therefore they would not be as interested in competitive ortho markets. I don't think they would set up an office with several other orthodontists in town knowing full well that a flood of the market would cause them to decrease fees. Make no mistake, this company is here to make money. But, who knows? With half again as many orthodontists graduating in 2 yrs as today, who knows what may happen to the field?

 

[north2southOMFS]

You down with OEC....yah you know me........you down with OEC....every last homie!

 

[GQ1]

You down with OEC....yah you know me........you down with OEC....every last homie!

plus after 7 years these guys are regular orthodontists, they can charge what they want, work where they desire and no one will know the difference once a referral relationship/practice has been built up.

 

[Dr. Pedo]

You down with OEC....yah you know me........you down with OEC....every last homie!

LOL 🙂