I am sure each program offers a unique experience, but I am curious how the experiences of the residents differ from dental school based programs and hospital or med school based programs in general.
Good question. Lots of differences:
1) time in service (mostly for 6years). Some programs have 40+ months on service (I.e. LSU Shreveport, Rutgers), while others are much closer to 30 months on service. Case Western is a 5 year combined MD program.
2) how much ACGME credit you get from General surgery for 6yr programs (1 or 2 years depending)
3) med school cost (for 6yr programs): from totally free (NYU) to paying for 4 years of tuition (Pitt). Some programs pay you to take call during med school years (I.e. Penn) to help offset med school costs, others don’t.
4) location - to some this doesn’t matter, to others this is very important.
5) how many full time faculty are there/what are the full time faculty’s specialties. Faculty is one major source of OR cases (others being what comes into ED, and what cases residents can get from resident clinic). For example, certain programs have faculty that do a lot of cancer (I.e. Michigan, BU), some have 0 faculty that do cancer. Some programs have faculty that are active in craniofacial team in the hospital system, others do not. Penn has some big time TMJ faculty, other programs don’t. So In general (doesn’t apply 100% of the time), the more full time faculty you have — more faculty cases & what they specialize in will Partially dictate what type of cases you operate on.
6) are there Non categorical interns- if so how many (some places have 0 like Columbia, other places have 7 like Rutgers). This will have impact on your intern year and also when you are senior/chief because they will be part of your team. Intern year is approx 33% of your OMFS experience so it definitely matters.
7) being associated with dental school vs not. If associated with dental school:
- how often are you in dental school when on service
- how many implants do OMFS place vs Perio vs Prosth (some dental schools perio runs implant game whereas others OMFS do). Implant turf war is a real thing in some schools!
- where are the referrals coming from (predoc dental students or GPR/AEGD/Prosth)
- what is the OMFS department’s relationship with perio/Prosth/AEGD/GPR -> better relationship means more collaboration means you can learn more stuff
- are OMFS residents responsible for help teaching predoc students (some places yes, some places no)
If not associated with dental school:
- is there associated GPR -> how active is this GPR program/do they place implants/ what is OMFS relationship with GPR
- is there hospital Prosth or not (I.e. montefiore has hospital Prosth residency)
- is there associated VA -> if so, when do you go during residency, how active is this VA, are there associated Prosth/perio departments. More you go to VA, more implants you place.
8) #of cases vs # of categorical residents per year (more cases and less residents = you operate more and vice versa).
9) culture: do you fit in with the residents/faculty? Is the residency more resident driven or faculty driven? Pay close attention to the interns and the senior residents. The senior residents will be your chiefs and the interns will be your chiefs when you are a senior. Do you get along with these people? Do you see yourself working with them?
10) how is your 6year residency structured: do you do intern year then 2 years of med school then go back on service, or do you start in med school then be on service afterwards? I imagine a 2-2.5year gap between your intern year and when you go back on service isn’t as good as if it is all together.
11) how trauma heavy is your program? Some places do not have a lot of trauma, others do.
12) what is the politics of the hospital: do plastics completely run craniofacial? Any opportunity for facial cosmetic procedures? Is trauma split between ENT/Plastics/OMFS?
13) does the program treat jail inmates? Some places yes, some places don’t. If they do, that is potentially an extra source of trauma, 3rd molar exo cases, dentalveolar cases, pathology cases, etc.
14) how old are the full time faculty? If there are old faculty, do you think they will retire within next 4 to 6 years? If so, it can greatly affect your experience. Is the program top heavy—meaning one faculty member brings in a large amount of OR cases—if that faculty member leaves how can that affect your experience?
15) is there a dental anesthesia program at the hospital? If so, what cases do they do? How does it affect your sedation experience?
16) are there fellows? If so, for what? What cases do the fellow do? What is the relationship between the fellow and the residents?
