Oral Surgery Residency Availability

[Plinko]

Please forigive my intrusion into this forum. I am actually a medical student with a question relating to dentistry. Specificaly, I am curious to know what the current situation is with oral surgery residencies in the US--e.g. are there too few to supply the patient population? The reason I ask is because my father is an oral surgeon and has had a very hard time filling an open slot in his practice in St. Louis, MO. His practice has a long standing reputation of being one of the tops in his area. Neverthelss, he is actually having to turn patients away due to his being understaffed as a consequence of there being a severe shortage of oral surgeons coming out of the gates, so to speak. He recently had a Baylor grad (DMD/MD) work for his practice on a per diem basis and offered him a salay of $100K (plus a new car) his first year out of residency. He told me his contract was guranteed to go up to $200K within the first five years should he choose to become a partner. He worked for the practice for a year and then relocated after his wife became sick. Now my father's practice is left again with only two docs to handle the patient load. He has written numerous residency program directors but to no avail. I feel for the guy being that he is coming up on sixty and still working like a dog because turning away too many referrals will inevitably irreversibly damage his practice's reputation. Does anyone out there, perhaps an oral surgery resident, have any insights into this matter? I'd like to help my Dad out. I'm guessing maybe he's a little out of the game when it comes to the burgeoning trends in oral surgery residency on the horizon and is not looking in the right places in order to re-staff his practice.

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[Yah-E]

I guess I can only hypothesize on this "lack" of OMS residents senario. OMS residencies had been decreasing in popularity due to its program length of 4 or + more years after already a 4-year pre-doctoral dental education. Furthermore, the 6-year and 7-year OMS/MD residencies are even longer! While more dental academic stellar graduates are applying for the 2-year long Ortho and Endo residencies, OMS will really take someone unique to commit themselves for another 4+ years of training.

Each year there are roughly a little over 2 applicants for the 100+ OMS and OMS/MD residency seats in the US. Therefore, 50% applicants will get matched. Remember, out of those that are matched, roughly 50% of that are OMS/MD residencies. If you're in a OMS/MD residency, by the time you finish, there maybe more than one current practicing OMS retiring! Input (OMS graduates) less than output (retirees).

Another possible reason for the decrease in OMS popularity may be the fact that for those dental graduates interested in specializing, they want to stay away from the inconvenience of being on-call which OMS residents do quite a bit just as medical residents! A lot of dental students went into dentistry simply due to the reason that they do not ever want to be "on-call"!

OMS is definitely a rewarding, challenging, strenuous, and fascinating dental specialty. One must be up for the challenge both mentally and physically.

If you want, have your father work for another 9 years and then I'll fill in for him!

OMS rock!

 

[drpduck]

I'll def agree with Yah-E on the decreasing lack of interest in OMS. Most dentists/dental students I have talked to shutter at the thought of 6+ years of residency. I volunteer at a hospital dental/OMS clinic with OMS/MD residents.......they work very hard! Having spent some time in the OR with some of the residents it is def a unique and rewarding field. So i'm with Yah-E......go OMS!

 

[gryffindor]

I don't know about the economics in St. Louis, but here in Western New York, an oral surgeon told me a different story. One of the two OMS grads this year is building his own private practice, from total scratch, somewhere near Binghamton (I think). We were all very much in awe when we saw the blueprints to his brand-spanking-new office. The doctor told us that this resident isn't doing anything too unusual. Building a practice from the ground is sometimes cheaper and more profitable than going in with someone in OMS because some current OMS doctors are charging very high prices to sell their practices (800K +) while you can build your own and hang a shingle outside for maybe half that amount.

But that is NY state economics (as in way outside the NYC metro area). I am not too familiar with the OMS situation around the country. Four - six years isn't so bad in doing a residency if OMS is your passion. Just think of it as a really poorly paying job - you'll make the money back once you graduate and be doing something you love. However, the thought of pulling teeth and putting faces back together, not the 4 -6 years, makes me want to run the other way!