{"id":110310,"date":"2016-03-11T15:18:57","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T20:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=110310"},"modified":"2019-01-28T17:00:15","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T22:00:15","slug":"uconn-dental-residency-placement-unmatched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/03\/uconn-dental-residency-placement-unmatched\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Dental Residency Placement: Another Great Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Members
Members of the UConn School of Dental Medicine Class of 2016 celebrate their residency placements. From left: Amaka Amakwe, Daniel Kirk, Eric Silver, Benjamin Noblitt, Adam Abel, Joseph Larson and Neha Grewal all matched into oral surgery residencies. Dr. Michael Goupil, associate dean for students, says, \u201cThis year we placed seven students in oral surgery out of seven people applying. That\u2019s almost unheard of.\u201d (Photo by Samantha Weston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All but one member of the UConn School of Dental Medicine Class of 2016 will start a residency program upon graduation.<\/p>\n

Unlike their counterparts in medical school, who are required to complete a residency before they can be licensed to practice, graduating dental students have the option of becoming licensed and going directly into clinical practice.<\/p>\n

But this is an option rarely exercised at the UConn School of Dental Medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraditionally most dental students in the U.S. do not do residency programs, but at UConn tradition is, and has been for a long time, that we encourage all of our students to consider a residency,\u201d says Dr. Michael Goupil, associate dean for students. \u201cProbably no other dental school has that goal. Here it is the exception for a student not to do a residency. This definitely is atypical of dental schools, but it\u2019s part of our philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another difference from the medical student match process is how dental students learn their residency assignments. While medical students have the tradition of Match Day, when they gather on a specific day in March and open envelopes to reveal their placements, dental students don\u2019t have a single dedicated day. Their specialty determines when they get the news. Some, including those seeking pediatric dentistry, oral surgery or general dentistry programs found out in January. Others, like aspiring endodontists, periodontists and prosthodontics, have known since the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was elated! I was called by the program director himself to congratulate me,\u201d says Benjamin Noblitt, who learned on that Jan. 25 phone call that he\u2019s going to the University of Cincinnati for a four-year oral and maxillofacial surgery residency. \u201cOver the course of the day, other residents called to say congrats as well. It was a great feeling to have finally gotten through the process that will allow me to become a surgeon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UConn School of Dental Medicine does hold a residency placement celebration, albeit a less formal one than the medical school\u2019s Match Day, which is held in concert with medical schools across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was extremely excited to see where I matched, as it was one of my top choices,\u201d says Patrick Cooper, who was accepted into Harvard\u2019s two-year pediatric dentistry residency at the Boston Children\u2019s Hospital. \u201cThe overall process of applying for residency spanned a five-month period, so having a single email let me know my whole future was daunting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nineteen members of the Class of 2016 will enter a residency in general dentistry, while 15 are in specialty programs. Goupil says that\u2019s within the norm for the UConn School of Dental Medicine, as the breakdown is usually close to a 50-50 split between general practice and specialties.<\/p>\n

Eleven students are staying in Connecticut for their residencies, four of whom are staying at UConn; 10 are going to New York, and four to Massachusetts. Historically, a majority of students end up practicing close to where they completed their residency program.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur students who have gone out from UConn to residency programs do exceptionally well,\u201d Goupil says. \u201cTherefore, residency programs are saying, \u2018I know what I\u2019m getting from a UConn student, and I want another UConn student. They perform well.\u2019 The reason we do so well on our residency placement is really based on how our graduates have done with their respective residency programs. They\u2019ve done very well. They\u2019re a known commodity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most dental specialty residencies are two or three years, depending on whether it\u2019s a master\u2019s program. Oral surgery residencies are either four-year certificate programs or six-year M.D. programs.<\/p>\n

Most general dentistry residencies are one year. Dan Beauvais was matched to the general practice residency at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, his first choice. It\u2019s a one-year program with an optional second year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvanced training in dentistry gives new dentists a more marketable skill set,\u201d Beauvais says. \u201cDental school is structured very differently than a private practice, and residencies in general dentistry can facilitate the transition. Residents can benefit from treating patients with complex treatment needs, handling emergency situations, and increasing efficiency and speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goupil says students come out of dental residencies more confident and more efficient, and that makes them more appealing to prospective employers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraditionally, a dental student sees two patients a day. That\u2019s not the reality of the real world,\u201d Goupil says. \u201cIn a residency program, you now are seeing eight to 10 patients a day, so you\u2019ve had to step up your game a little bit to become more efficient about what you do. Now, when you go into private practice, you can be cost effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

When aspiring family dentist Brian Wooley enrolled at the UConn School of Dental Medicine, he wasn\u2019t sure whether he would pursue general dentistry or specialize, but he says he knew he\u2019d be well prepared either way.<\/p>\n

\u201cUConn has provided me with an excellent medical background as well as the clinical skills necessary to be able to treat both healthy and medically complex\u00a0patients,\u201d says Wooley, whose next stop is Danbury Hospital for a general practice residency, his top choice. \u201cThe faculty also maintained an active role in my residency application process itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Goupil\u2019s primary responsibilities is to assist students with the residency application process, which includes facilitating letters from faculty on students\u2019 behalf, practicing interview techniques, and a seminar on writing a CV, offered early in Year 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have students who come here because they know they want to do a residency and they want to be competitive to get into a residency,\u201d Goupil says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All but one member of the UConn School of Dental Medicine Class of 2016 will start a residency program upon graduation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":110311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2166],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-110310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sdm"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 06:18:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/110311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110310"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=110310"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=110310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}