Motivations and future life, career and practice plans of orthodontic residents in Canada and the United States

Purpose. To investigate the factors influencing career choice and to identify the future plans of Canadian Orthodontic residents.;Results. Of 54 residents surveyed, 44 (81.48%) completed the survey. "Intellectual stimulation/challenge" emerged as the most important factor (40%) influencing the decision to pursue a specialty training program in orthodontics, followed by a "passion for orthodontics" (29%). The decision to become an orthodontist was made by 42% of respondents while they were in dental school, 33% after completing dental school and 24% had already decided prior to starting their dental school studies. The majority of residents (82%) plan on practicing in a private practice environment. Only two residents (4.5%) indicated they will most likely practice primarily in an academic setting. Eighty percent said they will use self-ligating brackets in private practice and almost 80% said they will use InvisalignRTM. A total of 55% indicated that orthodontic residents should be mandated to undertake research leading to a Master's of Science degree as part of their orthodontic program. A total of 77% felt that a 24 to 30 month program was too short to adequately prepare orthodontic residents for private practice.;Conclusions. Intellectual stimulation is the major attraction of most applicants to orthodontic programs and the decision to become an orthodontist is normally made during dental school or even earlier. Most residents intend to enter an urban/suburban private practice setting upon graduation with few considering academic career choices. Modern techniques such as self-ligating brackets and InvisalignRTM are expected to be popular among future orthodontists in Canada.;Methods. All orthodontic residents in the five Canadian residency training programs were invited to complete an anonymous on-line survey in November 2006. Data were categorized by demographic variables and basic statistics including chi-square comparative analyses were performed.