- Joined
- Jul 2, 2007
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 0
I was ask if I wouldn't mind helping to help monitor SDN for questions people may have about career opportunities as a dentist within the United States Public Health Service (USPHS).
There is a forum that was posted about a year ago that has a lot of great information and questions. "Ask a USPHS Dentist"
If you have any questions, please ask!
Background from my colleague's original post "Ask a USPHS Dentist" that has not changed since that forum:
USPHS is one of the seven uniformed services. We have the same rank structure as the Navy and NOAA (another uniformed service) and all wear almost identical uniforms. We have the same payscale as the military, the same great benefits, and similar bonuses. The PHS is made up of officers only, there are no enlisted. As a new dentist you come in as an O3 (Lieutenant) and get promoted to O4 (Lieutenant Commander) after 4 years, which is similar to the other uniformed services. If you have some experience as a dentist already you can come in at a higher rank than O3. For dental and medical officers there is no promotion board from O3 t0 O4, it is non-competitive (ie. if you meet the very easy requirements you are promoted).
Becoming an officer in the PHS is a little different than the military. You need to 1) get commissioned as an officer and 2) choose a job with one of the government agencies that employs PHS dentists. You can do both concurrently, and you probably should in order to speed up the process.
The PHS dental category is a lot smaller than the other uniformed services' dental corps, currently there are only about 225 dentists working at various government agencies. Right now about half of the dentists in the PHS are in the Indian Health Service (IHS). The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the US Coast Guard (USCG) come next with about 50 or so each, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Health Service Corps has about 12. There are also a few positions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Office of the Secretary (OS) of the Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The full breakdown can be found at http://dcp.psc.gov/ccmis/statuscharts/REPORT_Public_Pivot.aspx by selecting Agency vs. Category. This table shows only how many dentists are in the PHS right now and doesn't include any vacant positions.
There is a forum that was posted about a year ago that has a lot of great information and questions. "Ask a USPHS Dentist"
If you have any questions, please ask!
Background from my colleague's original post "Ask a USPHS Dentist" that has not changed since that forum:
USPHS is one of the seven uniformed services. We have the same rank structure as the Navy and NOAA (another uniformed service) and all wear almost identical uniforms. We have the same payscale as the military, the same great benefits, and similar bonuses. The PHS is made up of officers only, there are no enlisted. As a new dentist you come in as an O3 (Lieutenant) and get promoted to O4 (Lieutenant Commander) after 4 years, which is similar to the other uniformed services. If you have some experience as a dentist already you can come in at a higher rank than O3. For dental and medical officers there is no promotion board from O3 t0 O4, it is non-competitive (ie. if you meet the very easy requirements you are promoted).
Becoming an officer in the PHS is a little different than the military. You need to 1) get commissioned as an officer and 2) choose a job with one of the government agencies that employs PHS dentists. You can do both concurrently, and you probably should in order to speed up the process.
The PHS dental category is a lot smaller than the other uniformed services' dental corps, currently there are only about 225 dentists working at various government agencies. Right now about half of the dentists in the PHS are in the Indian Health Service (IHS). The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the US Coast Guard (USCG) come next with about 50 or so each, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Health Service Corps has about 12. There are also a few positions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Office of the Secretary (OS) of the Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The full breakdown can be found at http://dcp.psc.gov/ccmis/statuscharts/REPORT_Public_Pivot.aspx by selecting Agency vs. Category. This table shows only how many dentists are in the PHS right now and doesn't include any vacant positions.
