If you don't want to be in the military, the HPSP is not for you. The "military" things die down a little after you finish in-processing to your base but you have to wear the uniform every day and operate in the understanding that you're doing dental work on members of the military to further the mission.
Air Force dentistry is awesome and frustrating at the same time. Having specialists and people who genuinely care deeply about the work they do is awesome. The paperwork can be confusing and redundant and sometimes you'll wish you could "experiment" a little more. By experiment I mean try some more cutting edge things. My base does have a CEREC machine but you won't see us throwing CAD-CAM crowns on any tooth we feel like. Everything the Air Force does is backed heavily with research because they have to do what is going to be the absolute best for airmen and soldiers in deployed situations. A posterior composite may work for a patient on a yearly recall, but amalgam has the better long term track record so you'll see much more of that on posterior teeth, for example.
The military community is special. People understand each other and get that the mission is crucial. There's an overarching feeling of teamwork that is really cool to feel every day. Some things about the Air Force are frustrating when it comes to dentistry but it's hard to ignore how important the dental work is.
Financially the Air Force isn't as lucrative as private practice but as a new clinician, I'm happy to be where I am to further my skills and training for free (and getting paid!). The compensation is more than enough without having student loans and you should be able to live comfortably if you are budgeting and planning correctly.
All in all, I'm really happy with my decision. I've had a few late nights but the weekends are always a welcome time to relax. I try to get absolutely everything done during the week so I don't have to come up and work on weekends. So far it's working out!
If you're about to head to COT, check out the COT guide on the Additional Resources page!
[The title of the post is somewhat of an inside joke but just know that they're very corny jokes about using burs to cut teeth (steel on target) and fluoride (chemical warfare)]
[The title of the post is somewhat of an inside joke but just know that they're very corny jokes about using burs to cut teeth (steel on target) and fluoride (chemical warfare)]
