Dannny Posted January 16, 2014 Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 Hello everyone, From what I understand, getting into a dental residency is a lot harder than matching from med school. Can anyone confirm the validity of this statement? What does one need to match for residency into, let's say, ortho, endo, etc.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dentopia11 Posted January 16, 2014 Report Share Posted January 16, 2014 Hello everyone, From what I understand, getting into a dental residency is a lot harder than matching from med school. Can anyone confirm the validity of this statement? What does one need to match for residency into, let's say, ortho, endo, etc.? gpa, ecs, research, clinical experiences, externships, internships, 1yr gpr, your life, publications, your life, good interview for a few spots here and a few (actually a lot more but still not that many) in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jameskim9 Posted January 20, 2014 Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 gpa, ecs, research, clinical experiences, externships, internships, 1yr gpr, your life, publications, your life, good interview for a few spots here and a few (actually a lot more but still not that many) in the US. is that for US or Canada, or both?? :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contach Posted February 6, 2014 Report Share Posted February 6, 2014 I can talk about US Dental Residencies. It really matters on which specialty you are applying for. OMFS/Ortho are the most difficult in terms of academics. You'll need to be somewhere near the top of your class (not necessarily top 10%, or even 20%). Depends on the school you are coming from as well - GPAs can vary drastically between schools, and perceived difficult varies a lot, whether true or perceived. The most important factor for OMFS is a good NBME score - that is the absolute most important thing. It is basically a USMLE (med school exam). After that, they want to see that you know what OMFS is about, and you are a hard worker. Doing externships, shadowing some OMFS in the hospital all help. For Ortho, they are looking at your class rank and GPA a lot now that the USA NBDE part 1 went pass/fail. GRE is often required for ortho programs, but the score doesn't matter too much, but usually programs will atleast have a minimum cut off. It is sad how important grades are in these two specialties, but it is the easiest way to cut your application pool into a manageable amount. Pedo in the USA is highly personality based. You have to do reasonably well (upper half of your class), and board scores were an 85%+ to get in, now since the P/F, they are relying on GPA/class rank a bit more, but still, not a huge factor in pedo. Being friendly, spunky, able to talk to anything and anyone is what it seems like most programs are looking for. These programs care most about your personality than any other specialty. Most pedo programs are paid, and will be strict about who they accept. There are some that require tuition, and are considerably easier to get into. Endo and Perio don't seem to be too competitive academics-wise. You have to do good again (upper half of your class). Work experience helps a lot with Endo. Perio likes to see some research experience. Paid endo programs are very competitive to get into, but there are very few. OMFS/Ortho and Peds all have about 50-55% acceptance rates. You can check the stats at this site: https://natmatch.com/dentres/ It tells you a lot about the match process. A lot of these programs: ortho, endo, perio can be very expensive. You have to pay a lot of tuition in the USA. So having money is a necessity as well. The good thing about all dental residencies (in contrast to how I understand medical residencies), is that if you don't get in the first year out of dental school: there are things you can do to severely increase your chances of getting in the next year. In Peds and Endo: a GPR / AEGD year goes a long way!! Or even work experience, is a huge bonus for Endo programs. For OMFS, if you do an internship, and make a good impression, you are in a good position for the next round of interviews (assuming you have a fair NBME score). For Ortho, a GPR helps quite a bit as well. A lot of people are turned off by this b/c it "delays" them by a year, but that is a poor way of looking at it if this is really what you want to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dannny Posted February 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2014 Awesome. So really getting into these dental residencies isn't impossible, just takes more time and dedication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
koft Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 Awesome. So really getting into these dental residencies isn't impossible, just takes more time and dedication. Nothing is impossible, (or Impossible is nothing).... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jameskim9 Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 Just want to reinforce that from what I've seen amongst my dent friends - that it's easy to be idealistic while waiting to be accepted into dentistry about long term specialty goals - the reality for the majority is - that by the time you are finished the gruelling 4 yrs of dentistry, the sacrifice required for something like a GPR as your specialty "stepping stone" with no guarantees attached is a huge huge sacrifice. The previous post about "giving up your life" is not exaggerated - it's nice to dream but better to focus on the short term goal of dentistry and then feel the rest much further down the road. or more like people realize it's not as easy as they thought it was for getting into a specialty program Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dentshopeful Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 or more like people realize it's not as easy as they thought it was for getting into a specialty program Could you elaborate on that a bit more? How hard is it to get into a specialty program? What kind of grades/class rank do you need? Also, is there any other benefit to doing a one year GPR/AEGD other than being able to use that as a stepping stone to a specialty residency? Either that or you just don't feel comfortable enough with your skills coming out of school... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshk58 Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 Could you elaborate on that a bit more? How hard is it to get into a specialty program? What kind of grades/class rank do you need? Also, is there any other benefit to doing a one year GPR/AEGD other than being able to use that as a stepping stone to a specialty residency? Either that or you just don't feel comfortable enough with your skills coming out of school... From what I know, speaking with upper years, you will need to rank in the first quartile of your class + research experience and awards + great connections with professors and instructors (even the dean) + extracurriculars etc... This may seem similar to what you may have already done in undergrad but it's much harder when you are competing against top students and juggling 17 courses a year with about 6 hrs of class each day. It's not impossible but to make it into specialty programs in Canada, you will need incredible discipline and motivation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jameskim9 Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 From what I know, speaking with upper years, you will need to rank in the first quartile of your class + research experience and awards + great connections with professors and instructors (even the dean) + extracurriculars etc... This may seem similar to what you may have already done in undergrad but it's much harder when you are competing against top students and juggling 17 courses a year with about 6 hrs of class each day. It's not impossible but to make it into specialty programs in Canada, you will need incredible discipline and motivation. is that just for Canadian programs or for US programs as well?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pshk58 Posted February 17, 2014 Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 is that just for Canadian programs or for US programs as well?? I'm sure US programs are very competitive as well but I was speaking with respect to Canadian programs since the spots are so limited... for example, only 1 spot for OMFS at UWO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contach Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 I'm sure US programs are very competitive as well but I was speaking with respect to Canadian programs since the spots are so limited... for example, only 1 spot for OMFS at UWO. This seems like a poor indicator of how competitive a program is. Shouldn't spots / applicants or spots / capita be a stronger indication? In the USA, the average OMFS program has 2.5 residency spots (~100 programs in total, and 250 spots in total) There is a slightly over 50% match rate for OMFS. Are these numbers available in Canada? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contach Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 Also, is there any other benefit to doing a one year GPR/AEGD other than being able to use that as a stepping stone to a specialty residency? Either that or you just don't feel comfortable enough with your skills coming out of school... I recently graduated from a school that sends about 1/3 of its students to GPRs/AEGDs, and another 1/3 straight into private practice. But I have a hard time of understanding how (as a good student) I am not comfortable going to private practice, but students who didn't do as much as me, can be comfortable to do so... I considered myself a good dental student (graduated in 2013), graduated with more points, was in an advanced restorative dentistry program at my school, was top 20% of my class in grades, always passed d school competencies, passed Canada and USA board exams and NERB licensing, etc. I'm currently in a specialty residency and I have the opportunity to work part-time and so I asked myself: would I be comfortable doing general dentistry with what I know from dental school? I know the answer is no. I feel like I would do a good amount of harm. I know I could probably get away with doing it... and the patients wouldn't know the difference between my care and the next dentist's, but I also know that I wouldn't be doing the best for the patient. So, I then asked myself: How was it, that a third of my class was comfortable enough to go straight into private practice and I am not? The only thing I can think of is that their personalities, or situation in life gave them a willingness to accept higher risk. We could all treat patients with little or no supervision, and patients would come and go, but in my opinion, the determining factor is: How brave are you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dentss Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 different models work for different individuals..theres more to dentistry than just having good manual dexterity...i have seen dentists that have successfully transitioned into associateships after dental school and by success i dont mean their ability to earn but rather their knowledge and clinical skills. i have also seen a few that were forced by circumstances or took upon it themselves to go right out and run their own practice right after associateship..granted these are few and lacked the essential mentorship opportunities, they have succeeded in becoming good dentists. i think the key is to connect oneself with a good mentor for a first couple of yrs of associateship..i would give that a lot more weight than just looking at earning potential. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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