OMS internship

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sandman

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Does anyone know if you can do a one year internship in OMS if you have no desire to continue on in OMS. A lot of places look like they're just stepping stones into the system by students with less than perfect stats.
 
Yes, you can, but you might not get the experience you are looking for. You will be more of a scut monkey at most instututions. You will get more dentoalveolar experience, but I don't believe most places will give you IV certification. You would have to check into that. I would suggest finding a GPR that is surgery heavy if you are looking to do procedures under IV sedation.
 
I've also heard that many public health/IHS sites great places to get lots of experience in surgical extractions and pre-pros. They usually can't afford an oral surgeon on site, so the few general dentists they have do everything.
 
sandman said:
Does anyone know if you can do a one year internship in OMS if you have no desire to continue on in OMS. A lot of places look like they're just stepping stones into the system by students with less than perfect stats.
What is it that you are wanting to get out of that year? That might help us give you a better idea if it would be worth your while.

In most programs, a person doing an internship functions in the same capacity as a person in the first year of the program.
 
I was hoping to get a large amount of surgery experience, but IV certification would also be a big plus. I saw a lot as an assistant working for two years doing OS with a general dentist and would like to do a fair amount when I get out. I've heard the same with IHS that the experience is great, just kinda bouncing ideas around right now
 
sandman said:
I was hoping to get a large amount of surgery experience, but IV certification would also be a big plus. I saw a lot as an assistant working for two years doing OS with a general dentist and would like to do a fair amount when I get out. I've heard the same with IHS that the experience is great, just kinda bouncing ideas around right now
If dentoalveolar "surgery experience" is what you are looking to get, then an internship at a lot of programs would give you that. In addition to that, you'd likely get a good amount of experience in the closed reduction of mandible fractures, soft tissue wound repair, biopsy technique, etc. Certainly, a lot of the experience that you could get in an OMS internship would be applicable and relevant to the practice of general dentistry.

I imagine that you would have to look a little harder to find one that would give IV certification.

If you'll be practicing general dentistry, you just have to make sure, legally speaking, that you can perform the procedures at the level of an oral surgeon. If you f*** up something that would normally be referred to an oral surgeon, you may be setting yourself up for a big malpractice hit.
 
OMFSCardsFan said:
If dentoalveolar "surgery experience" is what you are looking to get, then an internship at a lot of programs would give you that. In addition to that, you'd likely get a good amount of experience in the closed reduction of mandible fractures, soft tissue wound repair, biopsy technique, etc. Certainly, a lot of the experience that you could get in an OMS internship would be applicable and relevant to the practice of general dentistry.

I imagine that you would have to look a little harder to find one that would give IV certification.

If you'll be practicing general dentistry, you just have to make sure, legally speaking, that you can perform the procedures at the level of an oral surgeon. If you f*** up something that would normally be referred to an oral surgeon, you may be setting yourself up for a big malpractice hit.

I don't know what the general opinion on this is, but I feel like a GP treating a mandible fracture is basically off limits. Certainly exposure to lip splits and biopsies would be good, but still wouldn't be done much. Do you know any OMS internships that would give you IV cert? Most of the interns I have been around spend most of their time running scut and not even doing much dentoalveolar stuff. That includes Parkland, Florida and Kentucky. Maybe it is different somewhere else.
 
The interns at Parkland the past few years did a ton of dentoalveolar in the clinic, including foul-mouth extractions, 3rd molars, and pre-prosthetic surgery (tori, alveoloplasty). They also go to the OR with the chief on every case they get from the ER or clinic, including facial fractures and rhinoplasties. Not all that is applicable to the general dentist, obviously, but it still makes them very comfortable laying flaps when they need to. There is no IV certification and most of the guys continue into an OMS residency.
 
toofache32 said:
The interns at Parkland the past few years did a ton of dentoalveolar in the clinic, including foul-mouth extractions, 3rd molars, and pre-prosthetic surgery (tori, alveoloplasty). They also go to the OR with the chief on every case they get from the ER or clinic, including facial fractures and rhinoplasties. Not all that is applicable to the general dentist, obviously, but it still makes them very comfortable laying flaps when they need to. There is no IV certification and most of the guys continue into an OMS residency.
Same here at LSU-Shreve. My first month here, I did countless cases of IVCS thirds, FMX/alveolo, and I&Ds (including submandibular spaces through the neck). I did several torii cases, tongue/cheek biopsies, and CR of mandible fxs (we ORIF almost everything--except S/C fxs). In the ER, I sutured back a halfway avulsed ear, a 2cm through-and-through lip lac, and countless other lacs into the muscle layer. This stuff really isn't all that exciting when you see what the upper level guys are doing, but I felt like I got to get my hands dirty in a variety of ways. Gotta start small...
 
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