Recommendations for Dental Students looking to specialize

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HD Dental

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Hey guys, I'm starting my D1 year at UBC this august and I'm looking for some insight on what I should do or maybe some tips in order to make sure I am a competitive applicant for specializing. I've already done around 80 hours of shadowing OMFS and I have always been drawn to surgery. I have done a lot of research within other fields of dentistry and so far I've decided that OMFS is the speciality I am going to pursue. UBC shares its didactic coursework with their med school students so this is going to be a huge help for the NBME CBSE. If anyone is currently an OMFS resident for practicing OMFS or admitted to any speciality program what are some things you did to make yourself more competitive? Thanks everyone and best of luck with whatever you're pursuing or studying for right now.

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Grades are king. Study when you have breaks. But first learn how to do a class I. I know many students that have jumped the gun with studying for that test and have dropped tremendously in rank because they are not practicing or studying as much for their dental classes/skills assessments.
 
You’re a D1 - in the grand scheme you don’t know jack about all specialties yet. Keep an open mind and experience everything first. I went from omfs, to peds, to endo, to settling as a GP and very happy about it. Besides that, you already know the answer - study and do well in school, volunteer/shadow, do a project. Standard.
 
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People will tell you all sorts of things to do - at the end of the day it's all about grades (and in your case CBSE score). Be the best at those two things and nothing else matters.
 
Agree that grades matter, but also networking with the specialty residents, professors and attendings. Assuming you attend a DS with the specialty offered there or at a hospital location (OMFS). I know it helped me. :)
 
This question has been answered many times, and unfortunately there’s no magic involved.

1) Grades/class rank: as high as you can, ideally top 20%
2) CBSE: as high as you can, ideally 65+/70+
3) Good letters of reference from OMFS people
4) Externships and shadowing your local OMFS residency (if your school has one)
5) Research: if you have time

The trouble is figuring out how to achieve all these things simultaneously, while still being a fairly normal person.
 
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