Specialties

[Hawkeye]

How does a dental student obtain a specialty of his/her choice? Is the process similar to residency matching as in medicine? What are the more competetive specailties? Would specialties such as orthodontics/oral surgery be considered highly competetive? Thanks to all inadvnce!

Go Hawkeyes

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[DentalDi]

While I don't know ALL the specifics, dental students also go through a matching process and interviews in order to obtain residency. There is a centralized application service (similar to AADSAS) called PASS that people use to apply for post-grad residencies. Applicants need recommendations (and a Dean's Letter, I think) and of course their transcripts and board scores. Supposedly they only have your scores from the Part I Boards before deciding whether you get the residency slot.

Definitely, Oral Surgery and Ortho are the two most difficult specialties to get into. I've heard (but only hearsay from another website) that you pretty much need to be one of the top 1-3 (or at least top 10) in your class to get one of these residencies. I think that Pedo is currently less competitive to get into, but of course that's only relative. Since there are so few specialty residency spots compared to the number of applicants, you have to have great stats to get one. People also have to apply for either of the general dentistry residencies: AEGD or GPR, which provide a year or two of extra general dentistry experience. AEGD is more clinic-based, while GPR is more hospital-oriented.

Hope this helped.

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You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
--Eleanor Roosevelt

[This message has been edited by DentalDi (edited 03-27-2000).]

 

[Robb1818]

I've also heard from my dental school buds that if you practice as a general dentist for a few years you've got a really good shot at one of the slots if you didn't graduate at the top of your class. Just what i've heard.

 

[popoman]

so ortho is hard huh...
man.. i wanted to do this~!!!
geezz..everything is freaking hard...

man...so what is a good speciality..
this just makes me want to go to medical school again....
why is ortho hard~!!!!!!!
if i cant do ortho. i think medicine will be better...man
i dunno

mad confused...

The confused freshman...=P

 

[Baldwin]

Don't sweat it, p...

There are other specialties to consider: Endo, Pedo, Pros, Perio. Not to mention GENERAL. You can make a mint at any of them, if you're so inclined. Oral surg takes too long, anyway. My advice: If you want to go for the $$$, go for Endo. People come to you in serious pain and really need that root canal. At the end of it you're both smiling...

Or you could be a cosmetic dentist (=GP). I know of one who grosses $100,000 a month. A MONTH!!!

If you want to be an ortho for non-monetary reasons, and all this talk about cash is turning you off, I apologize. I was just hoping to cheer you up a bit.

There's always accounting!!!

Later...

 

[popoman]

o yea...i want to make some good money
endo is good and cosmetic is good..
hmmm....

but then is it easy to get into those specaility huh??
answer plz..
hurry...

The confused Freshman....=)

 

[Baldwin]

popo, cosmetic dentistry isn't a recognized specialty...any dentist who graduates can hang out a shingle and call themselves a cosmetic dentist...all general dentists learn how to perform cosmetic procedures...as for endo, it usually requires a year of GPR (slave labor) after dental school before you can get in (i believe that's because it's a very tactile specialty...you MUST be great with your hands, from what i've heard)...it's hard to get into, unfortunately, but i don't think it's quite as hard as ortho or surg (probably have to be top third of your class, as opposed to top ten, but don't quote me on that)...maybe that's because endo is considered very boring and repetitive...i observed an endo briefly, and he didn't seem too satisfied with his job, but occasionally he makes $5000 a day...decide what makes you happy...good luck...

p.s. you can make a fortune at perio and pedo as well...and perio is considered relatively easy to get into (i think it's the most popular specialty after ortho and surg)...people tend to avoid it because it's very bloody, and perio surgery is physically taxing to perform...pedo's deal with all the challenging cases the GP's don't want to treat, and kids often go nuts in a dental chair (i don't think i'd have the patience for it)...but again, big $$$ are to be found in any specialty...don't worry so much: even if you don't specialize, you can take your DDS or DMD and move to an underserviced area and be the only dentist for miles around -- i know of one guy who did this, and patients were lining up outside his office when he opened his practice...i was told he TAKES HOME about $300,000...don't ask me how, i think he must make that money on hygiene...the opportunities are there, my friend...