orthodontics

[dental]

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does it matter what dental school you graduate from if you want to get into orthodontics?
and how important is research to get into ortho?

 

[Yah-E]

Dental,

This is a good question. I'm sure a lot of us on this forum will have various thoughts and opinions to share about this topic. I will share with you mine!

From my exposure to current dental students who are interested in specializing or who already have been placed in a specialty training position, all have done some research while they were in dental school. They've all told me that you pretty much need all of the following to be competitive (all specialties in general):

1) Good grades (GPA) => top 5% of your class
2) Good board scores => >90 percentile
3) Research experience
4) Strong clinical training in the particular specialty that you want to pursue (EX: Oral Surgery, you have better extracted teeth like crazy during your Pre-doctorial dental education)

Now, here comes the gray, debatable area. About graduating from certain school that will increase your chances of getting into a specialty training spot....I would say "yes" that may help you a bit, if you have all of the criteria mentioned above (obviously you're competitive enough), but if you lack in GPA or board scores, I really don't think that just the fact you graduated from Columbia or UPenn and you know people (connections) that you'll land a specialty training position while competing with another applicant who has strong everything and is obviously competent from Howard!

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you want to specialize, just make sure you do everything to increase your chances of getting accepted.

Now if you say two applicants are applying for the same specialty position and they both have the same credentials, one from UPenn and one from Nova, and the specialty director is a UPenn alumni, then obviously the UPenn applicant has an advantage. Again, it all goes back to "increase your credentials as much as you can as a Pre-doctorial dental student"! That means, more research, more procedures, more ECs!

It's not which school you graduated from, but what have you done at "YOUR" school prior to your graduation!? Just my opinion! 😎

 

[Ford67]

I don't mean to be confrontational, but I believe the last post is very off. The reason I am saying this is don't trust anything you read on the internet,especially on this board. I have seen alot of false info given out and this reply is just another example. About 25% of dental grads go into post-grad programs to specialize. Therefore you don't have to graduate in the top 5%,even for ortho. The biggest factor in getting into a residency are board scores; which means it DOES matter what school you go to. Also some schools encourage students to specialize while others dont. Like the previous poster stated research and exposure to your field of interest do help along with strong grades and a good letter of rec. What I am trying to say is that specializing isnt as hard as you probably think, yes even ortho. As a side note do what your gut tells you not what someone on this board tells you.

 

[Hope7]

Hey Ford67,

Do you know which schools encourage students to specialize?

 

[DrJeff]

Almost any school will encourage their graduates to specialize if they want to. Not only does it bode will for new potential students to see that many graduates have gone onto specialty training, but the alumni like to see it posted in the alumni new letter to make themselves feel better about their alma matter 😀

The best way to give yourself the strongest chance to get into a residency, is going to the dental school where you feel the most comfortable. If you like the school, you'll tend to flourish and get the most out of your education, and hence the best GPA/Board scores/ faculty recomednations possible. If you goto a school just because everyone says it the best and you don't like it there, your education performance will tend to suffer, and hence your chances to get into a specialty program.

One of the biggest variables though in getting into a specialty program though is how you interview when given the chance. For example in my graduating class, we had 2 guys that were middle of the road in class rank, with board scores in the mid 80's that got into oral surgery programs(both 6 years combined MD programs to be more specific) mainly because the were great interviews. We also had a guy who graduated at the top of my class with a 99 on the boards who didn't get into any of the 6 oral surgery programs that he applied to. Most likely reason, he was an abrassive, arogant S.O.B. both in person and on an interview. This translates into a program director saying that they don't want to deal with this guy for the next 4 or 6 years <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />

Bottom line, put yourself into a good situation, work hard, and remain grounded in how you come across and the rest will take care of itself

 

[Big_Poppa DDS]

Same situation in my class. A guy who was not in the top 10, scored mid 80's on both boards was just accepted to Oral Surgery. However, he is the nicest guy I know and did plenty of research and exterships in the specialty.

 

[dental]

it's good to know that getting into speciality is POSSIBLE! 😀
thanks for the info