What job opportunities become available for DDS/MPH dual degrees?
Started by idunnowhattonamemyself
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I did an MPH prior to dental school and I am now currently in a residency program. While I don't do the hard core epidemiology and laboratory bench work that I did when I was in grad school, I will say that the analytical skills that I picked up while in grad school were quite useful to succeeding in dental school and the previous experience formulating questions and hypotheses as well as designing experiments and writing papers have been quite useful for producing publications while in residency.
I'm sure if your concentration within public health was more community oriented, it may be useful to help design community based interventions and educational/outreach programs, but that guess is mostly conjecture as that was not something I have interest or experience in.
I'm sure if your concentration within public health was more community oriented, it may be useful to help design community based interventions and educational/outreach programs, but that guess is mostly conjecture as that was not something I have interest or experience in.
Are you doing a public health residency? If yes, what is your end goal after the residency program? What type of work do you see yourself doing with the residency and MPH?
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I did a DMD/MPH dual program. I'm now working at an FQHC. If you weren't interested in pursuing a career in clinical dentistry, an MPH could help you get into working with several governmental organizations - but if you were wanting to go this route, a public health residency would be more beneficial than just getting an MPH
I understand that an FQHC is a Federally Qualified Health Center, but could you please tell me more about your role and why you chose working there as opposed to a regular practice? Is an MPH or a public health residency required or it just helps get a job at an FQHC?
Do you see yourself working at an FQHC long-term or would you want to step out of clinical dentistry and work with governmental organizations in the future because of your MPH?
I'm simply an associate dentist. I go in, do my work, and go home. No stressors that owner-dentists have to deal with. I also get full benefits including employer matched 401k, a 403b, employer pays part of insurance premium, 30+ PTO per year, sponsored CE, scrubs provided by employers, and more. Hard to get all that in private practice.
MPH is not required, but in my experience, it got me several increased salary offers than those applying at the same places without an MPH. I do plan on stepping into a governmental role at some point in the future - if/when I no longer want to do clinical dentistry
Thank you for your responses! I think I definitely want to head in a path similar to yours - I've always been passionate about working with underserved populations and was interested in governmental or nonprofit roles that an MPH can help me get. Thanks!
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