It's a solid program. Its a ton of work, but you want your program to be a challenging one so you don't feel like you've wasted three years of your life doing a residency that didn't allow you to gain the skills you wanted to.
A few reasons why the Army Perio Residency is one of the best options in the country.
-You are treating healthy soldiers, so medical histories are short.
-You do I.V. sedation on almost every single surgical case. You graduate doing hundreds of IV sedations versus most civilian programs that try to get 10 IV sedations over their entire 3 years.
- Every single periodontist that goes through the Army program ends up getting board certified (there is a pay incentive in the Army if you are board certified, but it also shows that the program is getting their residents the training they are supposed to. Most civilian programs average around 50% of their graduates that challenge the board and get board certified)
- You don't have to try to sell your treatments to patients from a financial perspective. The government is picking up the bill, so you get to provide top tier treatment, and get trained to do so, without having tons of patients say no to treatment because of finances.
- 4 residents per class per year (12 total residents)
- You get paid your full army dentist salary during residency.