Resident Evaluation of Orthodontic Programs in the United States

Purpose: To investigate the satisfaction of US orthodontic residents with their graduate programs and determine the scope of their training.

Methods: Program chairs/directors of all 65 orthodontic graduate programs in the US were contacted by email and telephone for permission to electronically contact their residents. 335 residents from 37 programs were invited to complete an anonymous on-line 57-item questionnaire in May 2007. Data was categorized and basic statistics including chi-square comparative analyses were performed.

Results: A total of 136 (40.60%) residents completed the survey. Overall, 75.74% of residents were satisfied with their program. Residents felt they receive appropriate formal didactic teaching sessions and dedicated and protected academic time (60.29%). Most residents (92.70%) indicated their program offers training in numerous treatment philosophies, 80.29% said they have sufficient clinically-based training, 59.85% sufficient research-based training and 78.10% indicated dedicated research time is available. Over half (57.66%) will complete no more than 30 cases from start to finish by graduation. On average, resident's caseload included two orthognathic surgical, 13 extraction, 24 non-extraction and nine adult patients by graduation. 92.70% of respondents indicated care for disabled or under-serviced patients were a component of their program. Most residents (92.70%) said they will be adequately prepared to provide unsupervised orthodontic care after graduation and 54.41% thought other specialties have a positive view of orthodontics. Only 58.09% of residents indicated their program includes a formal interdisciplinary program.

Conclusions: Overall, orthodontic residents in the US are satisfied with their program. They receive training in a variety of treatment approaches. However, residents reported a deficiency in interdisciplinary treatment and the limited number of cases they completed from start to finish. These findings may be due to the length of graduate orthodontic programs in the US of which there is a preponderance of programs only 24-30 months in length.