So I did a search on this and found some good info, but I didn't find a direct answer. When interviewing at dental schools I found two major schools of thought with regard to the presence of residency programs at the schools. The schools without residencies claimed that their dental students get a more extensive clinical experience since the hard cases aren't referred to the residents. When I asked the schools with specialty programs about this, they told me that it is a benefit to have residents because you have that many more people to learn from. They said I shouldn't buy too much into it and that I would get the same clinical experience at their schools. I asked a dentist about this and he told me that at schools without residency programs the harder cases will simply be referred outside of the school. When I asked a school without residencies about this, they said that they weren't aware of this needing to happen.
I realize that at no dental school will a student recieve a case that he/she is uncapable of handling. But what do you guys think? Is there an advantage to having or not having specialty programs at your respective dental schools?
Based on my limited experience, I can give you some insight on how it is at my school. It seems like we have every specialty program under the sun. Over all I would say that having a lot of specialty programs at your school does remove cases that dental students should be doing, but in some cases it can help you learn more and faster. Below I have broken it down by the major specialties and how much they take from the dental students.
Perio: At my school they pretty much take everything they want from the students and most of the faculty are a bunch of arses. Sometimes I hate getting perio consults (unfortunately required) because they take everything other than simple prophies. I mean, seriously, I can SRP a 5mm pocket. That doesn't need to go to grad. and if you want to do any perio "surgeries" then get our your typodont because that is as close as you will get. The perio department does make us assist in their clinic so many odd times, but I have better things to do than sit there for 3 hours and watch one of their residents fubmle around at taking out a tooth
...like doing it myself.
Ortho: we can do one limited tooth movement case but we have to find out own patient outside the school as the the ortho department doesn't want us taking any of their cases. everything else goes to grad ortho. I am uprighting a molar for a bridge. whoopie
Pedo: They will give you as many patients as you want, set you up with an assistant, usually a one-on-one facutly member, and let you run the show. the only down side is they make you fill out about a trillion forms per patient of all different colors. we call it "turning in the pedo rainbow". Over all very good clinic.
Pros: Pretty good experience. you can do just about anything you want other than change OVD or place more than 8 fixed units per patient (both of those go to grad pros). Removable is also pretty god as they let us do alot and do some implant supported dentures (minus the implant placement).
Oral Path: They practically beg us to come read slides with them. for some people it is not that interesting and most never go, but if you take the time to go you learn a ton and can get some free lunch. This is the hot spot when I dont have time to pack a lunch
OMS: This place is like some kind of lawless land. You just show up and they let you do/teach you to do anything you want. The main reason most people as school avoid this clinic is because they pimp the crap out of you and have you present different papers and topics to them. But i like this because if forces me to review the literature and learn new things. I mean we are at school to learn, so what if they have a different style of teaching. I spent one day off just hanging out there and one of the residents taught me to shuck teeth all day while pimping me on my pharmocology all day. Not only was it a good experience but I aced my pharm exam the next week. Another resident taught me how to suture. They also invite you on rounds, out to eat, to conferences, to assist in the OR, pretty much they want you to do/learn anything you want to do/learn. Over all this place is the most useful area in the school. kind of like my own personal library.
Endo: they just yell at us a lot for not having 84 sheets of bs paper work filled out before they come to the consult and then take the case anyways. The cases are graded on difficulty by the endo faculty and it seems like 99% go to grad endo. So very limited experience, but we do get to do a crap ton of endo on extracted teeth which they say is like real life
OMF Radio: they are pretty decent at helping us, but they are so darn elusive. kind of like a cobra or a ninja or a ninjobra. when you go to their offices they alwasy have the lights off. They say it is to look at film, but i really think they are all just napping it out all the time.
In the end you can learn from some grad programs during dental schoo but in my opinion most just take cases for themselves and the gladly show you the door out of their clinic.
