This thread is mostly directed at Scalpel but others can chime in as well. I don't know much about the program at UMKC and neither do the residents at my dental school. I was wondering if you could give me the 30 second summary of your program i.e. what you do a lot of, what you feel the programs strengths/weaknesses are, how many months of med school you do, etc.
Thanks.
Cancer: The program at UMKC has gone through a lot of flux since I've been here. When I first started we did a lot of cancer/head and neck reconstruction, but 3 years into my residency we lost that staff. We will be starting cancer up again this summer with newly hired staff.
Trauma: Very strong. No ENT/No Plastics and we open and plate just about everything at 2 level 1 major metropolitan hospitals. Although we do our cases at these 2 hospitals, we also see a large number of cases sent to us from the other surrounding hospitals. We also cover all the pediatric facial trauma at the regions only major children's hospital.
Cosmetic: Weak. We don't do much. I've sought out a resource in a part time attending of ours who is fellowship trained and have set up an out of town month to do cosmetics so it's upto the individual resident to do so.
Orthognathic: We do enough cases to get somewhat comfortable but I wish we did more.
Cleft lip/palate: We do atleast 1 month (usually 2, sometimes 3) with a pediatric craniofacial plastic surgeon who is very busy with clefts, craniosynostoses, distractions. He doesn't have anmy residents or fellows so it's just you, him, and his PA.
Implants: We do a lot of basic implants with bone grafting. I think each resident ends up with >100.
Dentoalveolar: We do a lot like most busy programs. I think I've done about 300 or more dentoalveolar sedations, most being thirds.
TMJ: We used to a lot until about a year ago when our TMJ staff passed away.
Gen Surg: We have a nice deal. We do 6 months, 3 of which are plastics, ENT, and neurosurg.
Medical School: Our weakness. We do too much of it. I did 6 months of inpt medicine of whch 4 i essentially spent as an intern. We do about 30 months of medical school (including the 6 months of inpt medicine) but it's spread over 4 years. The good thing is that I really feel comfortable with the medicine aspect of our service. We do get paid during medical school and PGY 1,2,3 (and sometimes 4) will also take OMS call.
Intangibles: The residents get along well for the most part. Cost of living is low in KC.
Hope this helps. This is my opinion. If you asked some other residents they may have a different perspective. You get what you put into it.
