Recruiting the Future: Who Will Our Specialty Be?

Article Outline

• Recruit Young
• Recruit Today’s Dental Student
• Recruit Givers
• Recruit Leaders
• Recruit Diversity
• Copyright

As outlined in last month’s editorial, “Training the Future,” recruitment is the key element in forming the kind of specialty that oral and maxillofacial surgery will be in the coming decades. The qualities of individuals who seek training in the specialty will determine our scope of practice, our position in academic medicine and dentistry, and our role in our communities. If we are to succeed, oral and maxillofacial surgery must strategically determine not just “what” we hope to be as a specialty but “who” we hope to be.

Who we are will determine what we are. Recruiting a next generation of oral and maxillofacial surgeons who are guided by their moral principles to do good, are driven to know all they can know, and who love the art of surgery will ensure the future greatness and relevancy of oral and maxillofacial surgery. If instead we recruit those enamored with the “thrills” and lifestyle of oral and maxillofacial surgery practice, those attributes of our specialty would paradoxically, inevitably disappear. Our scope and prosperity would wither. As stated in last month’s editorial, the stakes on recruiting our successors are existential.

Fortunately, many of today’s applicants exemplify the characteristics needed for the future. We should be optimistic about our future when we examine the personal qualities of these individuals and let them speak in their own words.

I believe that if someone is truly drawn to surgery, there is nothing else that they can do professionally which will be even half as rewarding. I would rather work very hard doing what I love than settle for anything more relaxing but less satisfying.

Jennifer Perkins, application essay, University of California Los Angeles.

To identify these future surgeons and leaders, the following strategies are offered: Recruit Young, Recruit Today’s Dental Student, Recruit Givers, Recruit Leaders, and Recruit Diversity.

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Recruit Young 

Like many happy family members, you have probably sat through at least some of these obligatory yet joyous occasions with your children: graduations, band concerts, dance recitals, high school football games, National Honor Society inductions, boy scout/girl scout awards ceremonies, and parent-teacher conferences. Do you look at the first trumpet player, field hockey captain, or Eagle Scout as a possible future oral and maxillofacial surgeon? Do you recall talking to students (including your own children), teachers, or other parents about a career in oral and maxillofacial surgery? Orthodontists do.

Career decisions are usually made during K-12 education. Those who choose dentistry in secondary school often decide at the urging of a caregiver or because of their life experience.

At age twelve, I watched in a mirror as an oral surgeon enucleated a cyst from my chin. Besides my appreciation for the virtues of local anesthetic, with this first exposure to Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, I was enthralled with the possibility of this discipline as a professional goal.

Tyler Nelson, application essay, Harvard School of Dental Medicine.

Let our teens know about oral and maxillofacial surgery. Talk to your teenage patients about what you do. Invite them into your office. Speak at health career days.

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Recruit Today’s Dental Student 

While no statistics are offered to support this contention, today’s dental students today are made up of essentially 3 groups (none of whom offer easy recruitment potential for our specialty) with just a smattering of others.

How many new dental students are even aware of the specialty of oral and maxillofacial surgery? How are their perceptions molded during the course of their dental education? Most dental students enjoy their rotations in oral and maxillofacial surgery and most find the surgery faculty engaging and enjoyable. However, they can be put off by the length of training or aloofness of faculty. At Oregon Health & Science University, for example, senior dental students were asked to review their OMS rotation. While it received the highest marks of any rotation and students stated they would be more likely to send a patient to an oral and maxillofacial surgeon than any other specialty, our students commented:

These comments were from students who did not apply to OMS but who will likely be lifelong supporters of the specialty. While full-time faculty provide the core experience of today’s student, part time faculty, residents and staff are essential in promoting our image.

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Recruit Givers 

How many students enter dental school with the idea that they are entering the profession in order to care for the sick, to make a positive difference in other people’s lives, and to make the world a better place?

… I could aspire to nothing less than oral and maxillofacial surgery. I want to be able to work in a hospital treating sick people and to be a part of a profession that offers opportunities to do amazing things for others.

Jeremiah Johnson, application essay, University of California San Francisco.

A desire to find the sick and to heal them is a needed characteristic curiously wanting in many of today’s dentists who see themselves in the business of esthetics. However, givers and healers remain in our ranks. We need to find those dental students and recruit them.

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Recruit Leaders 

The high school quarterback, the national merit scholar, the lead soprano in the chorus: they need to choose oral and maxillofacial surgery. However, not all leaders are visible to the naked resume. Parents, volunteers, and athletes must be leaders if they are to be successful since they must take on responsibilities that require planning, perseverance, and cooperation. They have taken responsibility for others. They know the pain of coming up short. They know that hard work often makes the difference. They have learned that with maturity comes acceptance of uncertainty. They often make great residents.

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Recruit Diversity 

Our lack of diversity will adversely alter the perception of oral and maxillofacial surgery in the future. Today’s admissions will leave an unwanted legacy for oral and maxillofacial surgery. The imperative of diversity is that an industry benefits enormously if it mirrors the characteristics of the communities and customers it serves. We have not effectively recruited women or under-represented minorities into oral and maxillofacial surgery. We have a sorry history in recruiting women to oral and maxillofacial surgery. While dental students approach 50% female, oral and maxillofacial surgery applications remain male-dominated. Of 72 applicants this year at Oregon, just 7 were women. We have done far better with African Americans and Latinos for whom oral and maxillofacial surgery is the single most selected dental specialty. We need to work with these communities and their organizations to promote oral and maxillofacial surgery as a profession that seeks diversity.

Who will we be? I hope we will be the quarterback, the singer, the thinker, the missionary, the giver, the leader, the healer … the surgeon.