Practicing in a different state

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kittywalker

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Everyone keeps telling me that I should go to dental school in the state in which I want to someday practice. Unfortunately, I am from Ohio and I want to eventually live in Colorado. I'm sure most of you know that it's nearly impossible to get into dental school is CO if you aren't from the surrounding states.

Does anyone know how difficult it is to start practicing in a new state...or am I going to be stuck in the midwest forever!

Thanks 🙂

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You would probably get more responses from folks on the dental board, since we pre-dents can only grasp at straws to try to answer your question (which I shall do below). Dentists would know more about licensing restrictions for different states.

You could try moving to Colorado, working for a few years to establish residency (if that's possible), and then applying to Dental school. 🙂 I moved to Tennessee in 2006 and have been working full-time since then, while taking prereqs on the side. Tennessee considered me in-state when I applied this fall because I was a part of its workforce for a few years... Maybe Colorado, or one of the surrounding states from which CO accepts students, is similar? Anyway, living there for a few years would let you know if you really liked it, before you invested a lot of money opening a practice there. Good luck!
 
It appears from http://www.wreb.org that Ohio and Colorado both accept the results of the WREB for licensure and the WREB is offered at Case Western. I wouldn't stress out about it too much. Many dental students move around the country after graduation. Licensing exams can be a pain and are just another part of the hazing process to be able to practice dentistry. Just focus on getting into dental school and not going into crazy debt.
 
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From what I have read but I am still a predent at least for four more months :laugh:

Where you practice or at least are allowed to practice is determined by the license board test you take. You can take which ever one you want, it just may involve you having to travel or go above and beyond to take the test. However most tests will offer satellite locations such as the WREB is offered at NYU I believe. Note this is just an example, and you will have four years to plan it out.
 
If you want a good shot at getting into CU's dental school it takes a year to establish residency here. Getting residency established here is really tough. It took me a year and a half off from college to do it, but it was totally worth it. Move out here and be a ski bum and shadow a dentist in the mountains.
 
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