Ortho residencies

[HulkHogan]

Hi Everyone.

A lot of people talk about how gettng into an Ortho residency is a very political thing. Are these just people that hate on Ortho or people that did not get into Ortho? The rumors here at my school are that you have to be a pretty good looking individual to have an edge.

I just want to hear everyone's opinon on the matter. Are there much politics involved in getting into Ortho as opposed to let's say OMFS?

Also, what kind of profile/CV do candidates to these residency programs normally have? I am talking in terms of step 1 board scores, research, and community service. Is community service/extracurriculars all that important compared to the other 2? What kind of scores do you need especially if you go to a pass/fail dental school?

All thoughts are appreiated.

Kind regards,

The Hulk

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[Jediwendell]

Interesting you would ask. I applied for OMS in 2001. I matched at San Antonio. With my board scores and grades I got interviews at all 25 schools that I applied to. I only applied to 6 year programs. Eventually I chose to interview at Parkland, Louisville, LSU-Shreveport, LSU New Orleans, Baylor, San Antonio, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina and Alabama. The interviews were mostly fair and well organized, excepting Baylor which had two guys from Baylor that EVERYONE knew they were going to take.

Move to 2004. I have decided that OMS isn't for me and I am going to apply for orthodontics as it better fits my goals for treating patients. I applied to 22 schools and got interviews at 11, including Buffalo, Kentucky, San Antonio, Baylor, Connecticut, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Illinois-Chicago, and Case Western. Two of these schools were what I would consider to be "top tier", Baylor and Connecticut (gripe if you want, but that is how I feel about them now). Most of the interviews were poorly organized and had way too many interviewees for each spot. There was a lot of time sitting in conference rooms, waiting to interview.

In summary, I feel that orthodontics is much more difficult to get into than OMS, and the interview process is more painful. Granted, I was "damaged goods" as I had dropped a surgery residency, but my scores were the same and I had an excellent letter of recommendation from the director of my OMS program. There is definitely more of an "entitled" attitude amongst the orthodontic institutions that I went to. Some places, like Connecticut, seemed to place a premium on applicant charisma, some, like Maryland, had only men. The UConn interview was the most malignant interview I have ever been on, Ortho or Surgery. I didn't even rank them. Rochester was second most malignant. Very accusatory and negative. Third on the malignant list was Parkland OMS. Good ortho interview experiences included Baylor, Kentucky, Maryland, Pitt and Illinois.

I ended up matching at San Antonio for orthodontics (go figure). I really don't think I would have matched here if it wasn't for my inside connection.


Edit:
Oh, by the way, I was number two in my class and had a 97 on step one. Actually, you can add in an MD for my ortho interview, so I had "better" stuff in reality.

 

[north2southOMFS]

Hi Everyone.

The rumors here at my school are that you have to be a pretty good looking individual to have an edge.
All thoughts are appreiated.

Kind regards,

The Hulk

Actually yes, at my dental school the ortho admissions committee is made up of 5 really hot single horny chicks. So you can see why they only take good looking people into ortho.



?????????? Are you serious!

 

[Jone]

of course looks matters... when it comes to residency acceptance, finding a job, promotions, how well a waitress/waiter treats you, etc... even if it's unintentional.

come on guys, it's common sense.

 

[Jediwendell]

of course looks matters... when it comes to residency acceptance, finding a job, promotions, how well a waitress/waiter treats you, etc... even if it's unintentional.

come on guys, it's common sense.

I think it matters more for ortho interviews, however. Everyone is pretty much the same level on paper, and they get so many applicants that it comes down to very subjective stuff.

 

[esclavo]

I always knew ortho was more difficult that OMFS to get into. Smart, extremely good looking people-sounds like a tough residency to match into. I never knew there were that many dentists out there who didn't like to touch people (anti-dentites) as we called the ortho wannabes in school.

Hand it to them, I never went to an ortho class/lab where I didn't fall asleep. I could never do it and now I get the feeling I never would have matched had I wanted to apply. I guess for me it could get worse than being a slave... bending wires on pimpled kids. Nearest carpule of local is at the Sullivan Schein warehouse... how would that be?!?