Dental Residency Program Enhances Your Chances To Build A Great Career In Dentistry

By Author: Bimol Bee
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Any dental school graduate is faced with a dilemma: should he or she take up a residency program or better not. The problem is caused by that fact that in dentistry the dental school graduates are not required to continue their education in the residency, they are certified to start-up a private practice immediately after they have graduated from a dental school. This situation is totally the opposite of that of medical school graduates, they are required to attend residency for from two to eight years. But in dentistry it is totally up to your decision to complete a residency or not.

Still, as it happens, having graduated from a dental school, many newly-baked dentists do opt to continue their education. For this purpose they enter a dental residency program. What are the reasons behind such a decision? What are the advantages and disadvantages of a residency program, in comparison with starting-up a dental private practice immediately after the graduation? Why a lot of professionals strongly recommend completing at least a year of residency after dental school?

There are several reasons to support entering ...
... a residency program for dental professionals.

Residency Programs Offer a Different Type of Training Environment

One of the reasons that make dental school graduates choose entering a residency program is the ability of the latter to provide a learning environment, which essentially differes from that one can see in a dental school. For instance, a dental school student begins actual practice in the third and fourth year of the training. A student begins to receive actual patients under the supervision of his or her instructors, which means the environment is strictly supervised. The tasks to be performed by a student are essentially quite basic; the number of the patients the student sees usually does not exceed three-four persons per day.

The residency program is quite a different story in comparison with a dental school, because a dental school graduate works in a hospital environment here and takes care of up to ten patients a day – it is perfectly understandable that in such way a newly-baked graduate is given much better chances to grow up professionally, rapidly accumulating precious experience of true-to-life dental practice. This hospital environment presents different, much more appealing and exacting challenges, not like anything a student has experienced in dental school. In this environment a young dentistry professional can efficiently practice the essential skills of his or her profession. Yes, it is true that a dental school graduate is licensed to practice independently, but a wise recent graduate realizes very well that the lack of experience could turn into fatal disadvantage, so before taking up a private practice it would not hurt to gain a hefty volume of actual hands-on experience. A residency student may ask questions that an experienced dentist should not ask for the sake of preserving the professional face. But a residency student can be excused in this respect and this is also a great asset of any good residency program to be given a careful consideration.

The Patients that a Residency Student Deals With are Not Like Private Practice Patients

The patients a student will take care of during the residency program are very much unlike those that can be met in private practice. First of all, the patients that can be met inside the hospital, as a rule, have other health concerns besides the problems with their oral cavity and teeth. In this respect they may take various kinds of medication. In this rather complicated environment a residency student is given an excellent option to perfect professional skills; the student will be required to provide the best care for difficult patients and carefully examine their clinical records before giving dentistry assistance to them. A student, prior to giving a prescription or performing a dental procedure, needs to consult other doctors regarding the particular patient's clinical record, and in this way gain precious experience, expanding his or her professional range of vision! Private practice does not provide this kind of clinical experience on such a massive scale!

A Residency Program is Highly Advisable for Students Aiming Beyond a General Dentist Specialization

It may happen so that you are a student with aspirations reaching beyond becoming a general dentist. In this case a residency program would be an ideal path for you to take. Any specialization in some specific particular dentistry field, for instance, if you want to specialize in orthodontics or oral surgery, will require completion of a residency program. A great advantage of a residency in this respect is a possibility to apprentice with an experienced professional in exactly the type of specialization you might be interested in. Depending on the specialization field you would like to excel in the residency program can be completed in two - four years, as a rule.

Surely, a residency program is just one choice that can be made by a dentistry student upon his of her graduation. Another option is private practice, and this career choice is also approved by a hefty number of students upon their graduation from a dental school. All dental school graduates are entitled to a license for immediate practice after the graduation: a residency program, like it happens with medical schools, is not an absolute necessity. So, if you feel that the private practice is exactly what you want and that you are quite prepared to take it up.

Still, Starting Up a Private Practice Immediately After Dental School Graduation Has Several Disadvantages

Firstly, setting up your own private practice means that you need to make initial investment into renting an office and hiring some employees. So, if you do not have wealthy parents you will need to get a credit at a bank, to be paid off later on. In company with necessity of paying back your dental school student loan that would result in a huge responsibility and rather heavy debt pressure to survive through. Surely, for any ambitious young dentist with an entrepreneurial talent such a venture might be perfectly advisable and highly recommended. Secondly, besides the start-up costs for the office and equipment you will have to hire some stuff for your private practice, such as a dental assistant, a front desk receptionist and so on. You will have to promote your start-up for the purposes of attracting patients and hire staff. Many young dentists prefer to set up a venture jointly with other dentists. In this way the initial costs of renting and office and equipment, hiring assistance and other stuff, as well as promotion and advertising of their newly started dental practice could be shared and significantly lowered.

As you see, joining a residency program has considerable advantages for a budding dental superstar over the immediate set up of a private practice. Essentially, these are just two different options offered to dental school graduates. Before making any commitments you are advised to give each of them considerable consideration. After all, you decision will rest upon your personality type and the kind of career objective you wish to achieve in the dentistry segment of the healthcare industry!

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