specializing thru military

[jcomplex]

does military dental corps encourage their dentists to specialize?

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[BQuad]

If you are planning to make a career of the military you will have to specialize, or complete the 2 year AEGD program, to get promoted past Major, so it is highly encouraged/required for lifers. To make Lieutenant Colonel or Colonel you will then need to pass the board in your specialty.

 

[shamrock2006]

dusting off an older gem here...mainly b/c i didnt want to get torched for bring up another specialty thread. Does anyone know where you can find info on what slots are open as far as specialities are concerned? I only ask b/c I know whether or not you can get into those programs is based on need pretty much. I also want to know how "likely" it really is to get into one of these right out of school. I was talkin to someone relatively familiar w/ military dentistry and told me that if you KNOW you want to specialize right after school...the military may not really be your best bet..and that you should try to get out of the HPSP b/c the odds of you..say...getting a spot in endo right out of school w/ the military is pretty much not going to happen. Anyone care to comment?

 

[MaxAnn]

I have heard things similar to this, which left me with the impression that you have to push early and often before you are finished with HPSP so that it is known that you want to specialize. This is your best bet to landing a slot if not right after school, then after your first tour at the latest. I am not sure about this. I think a lot of this depends on who you know.

 

[KOM]

I've heard they wave specialty training in front of you right before your commitment is over to coax you into signing on for longer. With this in mind, your chances of specializing are better in the military, but you'll more than likely serve a longer term. I'm sure doing an AEGD also tends to increase your chances, but again, you're just tacking on a longer commitment to serve. I have no intention of being a lifer, but I'll apply for specialty programs regardless and then run the numbers and see what makes most sense financially.

 

[ClickityClack]

I'm also interested, but I'm just pre-dent.

the military may not really be your best bet..

I've been told the exact same thing, and the opposite.

I'm supposing that the branch manager may the best person to inquire about this. It'll be a different person when I've matriculated, so I've delayed making the call. Hope this helps.
It'd be great to see something on paper about this.

 

[Goliard]

I was thinking that you are allowed a delay if you get into a civilian specialty training program.
I was told that unlike the medical hpsp, the dental allows you to choose a civilian residency or the military even if you get accepted to both.

 

[dheav005]

I was thinking that you are allowed a delay if you get into a civilian specialty training program.
I was told that unlike the medical hpsp, the dental allows you to choose a civilian residency or the military even if you get accepted to both.

thats not entirely true. you are welcome to apply for a civilian residency, but you have to make a formal declaration to your particular branch after your third year of your intention to do so. you then apply, interview, get accepted, etc. after all that, the military still has to release you from your immediate contractual commitment to them and allow you to pursue specialty training. if the numbers of that branch's dental corps are not what the leadership would like or if they are not in projected need of that particular specialty, then they can deny your request for civilian training and you go to active duty after graduation. you can still do an AEGD/GPR but it would be in a military setting.

i have to say my AEGD has been great. i would recommend it to anyone, even if it doesnt count as a payback year. specialty training in the military generally comes after your first operational tour, when you are deciding if the military is a career for you or not.

 

[Goliard]

I'm most interested in OMFS or composition. I will definitely try to specialize. Does being in the military make it harder to do so right after dental school?

 

[eric275]

I'm most interested in OMFS or composition. I will definitely try to specialize. Does being in the military make it harder to do so right after dental school?

Composition?

 

[Goliard]

Composition?

Lol, sorry, meant comprehensive.

 

[eric275]

Lol, sorry, meant comprehensive.

Lol, I was trying to be as creative as I could and couldn't relate composition to any specialty. I don't feel so bad now.

 

[Smills91]

Just curious to hear opinions on this, but if you were one that wanted to specialize through the military which branch would be the best for specialization(IN GENERAL). Meaning which branch would have the most slots available/dental applicant etc. I don't know if anyone has any cold hard stats to back this up. But I'm just curious.

 

[eric275]

Just curious to hear opinions on this, but if you were one that wanted to specialize through the military which branch would be the best for specialization(IN GENERAL). Meaning which branch would have the most slots available/dental applicant etc. I don't know if anyone has any cold hard stats to back this up. But I'm just curious.

Just taking a stab at this, but if I had to guess I would think it would be easier to specialize in the branches that have the least amount of applicants/unfilled scholarship slots. Unfilled slots would possibly equal less compitition from new grads. Then again that may be off-set by the size of the dental corps in each branch which could mean less specialty slots availabe due to budgets of smaller corps....so it could be a wash. I don't know about the other branches but the Navy's dental corps is around 1000. Anyone know the size of the corps in other branches?

 

[MaxAnn]

Is that a 1000 dentists alone or does that include the entire dental force such as assistants, hygienists, and dental lab techs? Either way, that is a low number considering there are roughly 331,000 active duty sailors and that doesn't count Marines. That's a huge number of servicemen to take care of.

 

[eric275]

Is that a 1000 dentists alone or does that include the entire dental force such as assistants, hygienists, and dental lab techs? Either way, that is a low number considering there are roughly 331,000 active duty sailors and that doesn't count Marines. That's a huge number of servicemen to take care of.

Only dentists/specialists. As a rule of thumb most civilian dentsits say that you need ~2000 patients in your practice to stay busy. If using those same numbers and taking an arbitrary 400 out of the equation for all specialists, leaves 600 GP's seeing 331000. That only comes out to 551 patients per dentist, not bad. Still leaves plenty of room for the marines. To further break it down if you figure there is 260 actual work days in a year minus another 45 for vactions/holidays that leaves ~215 work days. 551/215 only comes out to 2.56 patients a day.

 

[btizzels]

Is that a 1000 dentists alone or does that include the entire dental force such as assistants, hygienists, and dental lab techs? Either way, that is a low number considering there are roughly 331,000 active duty sailors and that doesn't count Marines. That's a huge number of servicemen to take care of.

Don't we have to take into account the dependents of all of those active duty sailors and Marines? I think they qualify for Tri Care as well

 

[eric275]

Don't we have to take into account the dependents of all of those active duty sailors and Marines? I think they qualify for Tri Care as well

Military dentists only see dependents in overseas duty stations.

 

[btizzels]

Good to know!

 

[chinchaz]

I just got accepted into training with the NAVY OMFS program. I just finished my GPR and I am heading out on a set of orders for a year. It is possible to get accepted to programs right out of school but the reality is that it is few and far between and really depends on the needs of the branch that you are serving in.

The results just came out and a few people were accepted straight out of school into comprehensive dentistry, prosth, and OMFS. The vast majority are people that are accepted have had at least some experience in the Navy prior to their acceptance. In addition to all of that there is a certain amount of manuevering that you have to do to make sure that you are available for training when the training opportunities arrive. IE you cannot be in the middle of a tour somewhere because the logistics of pulling you out for training and getting someone to fill that spot can be difficult. As with anything you need to make sure your ducks are in a row and that you are a strong candidate before applying. Any more questions or specifics let me know.

 

[blankguy]

Aside from rank, board scores, and experience(deployment) what else do they consider in a candidate?