Expectations for an Army Dental Student
Two weeks ago a guy who is soon applying to Dental School asked me about the Army's tuition assistance for dental students. I told him that my understanding was that the Army pays the full cost, plus gives you a stipend or base pay, but that you must serve two years for every one year of school - a good deal, imo. But, I had no idea what he could expect in terms of choosing his school and, most importantly, what he could expect for his service thereafter. I also don't know any Army dentists.
In terms of money and time, I over-estimated the time commitment (it's only one-for-one), but got the financial piece about right, (see here). But in terms of what to expect for duty assignments, deployments, et cetera, I told him that I have no idea what to expect. A few of the possibilities that I took a wild guess at are below...
a) The Army tries to get most of its dental work taken care of prior to deployments, so you are probably less likely to deploy, but not unlikely (I'm guessing).
b) Dentists are needed at just about every post, so there is no way of predicting where you will be stationed (as opposed to being, say, an Infantry Officer, where you can assume your first duty station will not be Fort Sill or Fort Belvoir). Again, this is a guess.
c) If deployed, you will likely be on a super-FOB, as the Army probably does not want you to be spooked by incoming RPGs while you are drilling a root canal.
d) On the other hand, you might accompany a patrol into an Afghan village to provide dental care to a bunch of folks who have never laid eyes on a doctor or dentist in their lives (this was a wild guess - do they use full-fledged dentists or 18Ds?).
e) Some combination of the above???
Also, I have no idea how smooth the transition is for an Army dentist to move into the private sector. Are they seen as highly experienced? Or are they seen as not being up to speed on the latest technology/procedures (since they probably don't do things like braces, cosmetic work, etc, in the Army)?
Just curious if anyone has any insights or who I should direct him to. He seems like a good kid, a hard worker, able-bodied. But I was very leery of telling him to just call a recruiter and ask. Even as a former IN CPT, I have experienced nothing but the run-around, dead-ends, and bad information with recruiters lately while exploring my own return to duty. It amazes me that we recruit anyone at all given my experience over the past month with recruiters (both Officers and NCOs) not returning calls or emails, giving bad information, not showing up to work on time, leaving early, phone lines being disconnected, emails getting bounced as non-deliverable, et cetera. One recruiter whom I tracked down in person exclaimed, "wow, you're in shape and willing to deploy! Most people come in here out of shape and looking for handouts!" And I was never able to find or contact him again - WTF? The experience so thoroughly turned me off that I gave up and I'm now looking at civilian jobs, rather than the Nat'l Guard, until I finish school. I cannot imagine how disorienting it must be for someone unfamiliar with the process.
