A Survey of Dual-Degree Training Opportunities at U.S. Dental Schools

Depending on both the institution and the interest of the student, obtaining available in-formation about becoming a dental scientist is not a simple undertaking. For the purposes of this article, I use the term “dental scientist ” to describe an individual who has completed training in dentistry as well as rigorous formal research study leading to the Ph.D. Some dental schools offer clinical and graduate training concomitantly, but there are far more schools where research training is not a priority or an easily accessible option. Indeed, in my own case, I chose to transfer from one dental school to another because I was unsuccessful in establishing a combined research training program at my former institution. During this process, I spent many hours talking with directors of different training programs around the country. I thoroughly researched the various options that these dental schools present through their websites. Finally, I spoke with other students in these programs. My experiences in attempting to locate a dual-degree dental scientist training program that met my edu-cational goals indicated that a comprehensive study of all the available D.D.S.-D.M.D./Ph.D. training op-tions would be of value to other dental students and individuals who were considering applying to denta