Position Statement:

Postdoctoral Dental Education Matching Program (the ‘Match’) 

Position Statement of the American College of Prosthodontists
PDF link

The ACP supports an orderly, professional, and fair process for prosthodontic specialty programs to recruit residents. The process should support the program director and applicant’s professionalism and integrity. Resident recruitment and selection difficulties encountered include:

• Programs’ recruitment starting earlier each year
• Inconsistent selection communications between the program directors and candidates
• Applicants pressured to respond to offers before they can evaluate other programs of interest
• Program directors pressured to accept residents before they complete their applicant interview and assessment process
• Temptation by applicants to ignore early acceptance decisions and programs then having selectees cancelling their commitments

The Postdoctoral Dental Matching Program is a method of addressing many of these problems. The following information explaining the process is from the National Matching Services, Inc. website:

“The Postdoctoral Dental Matching Program (the ‘Match’) provides an orderly process to help applicants obtain positions in postdoctoral dental education programs of their choice, and to help programs obtain applicants of their choice.

"After all interviews are completed, each applicant submits a Rank Order List on which the applicant lists the desired programs, in numerical order of the applicant's preference (first choice, second choice, etc.). Similarly, each program submits a Rank Order List on which the program lists the desirable applicants, in order of the program's preference. Each program also indicates the number of positions the program has available.

"The ‘Match’ then places individuals into positions based entirely on the preferences stated in the Rank Order Lists.

"Since all offers, acceptances, rejections, and final placements occur simultaneously; the ‘Match’ is an effective and fair means of implementing a standardized acceptance date. It allows programs and applicants to evaluate each other fully before determining preferences, thus alleviating the pressures to make premature decisions based on incomplete information.”¹ 

The Postdoctoral Dental Matching Program is most effective when 100% of the eligible programs subscribe. Military programs are not eligible.

Programs that don’t join the “Match” have an earlier selectee commitment advantage, but run the risk of settling for residents who otherwise would not be accepted in the program.

The position of the American College of Prosthodontists is that the Postdoctoral Dental Matching Program provides a professional and effective means for resident selection. The decision about whether to use this process should be determined by the program directors of the ADA-recognized prosthodontic specialty programs. If a majority of advanced prosthodontic programs opt into the “Match” program, then the ACP will assume the role of the Prosthodontic Sponsoring Organization of the “Match.” As such, the ACP will become a member of the “Match” Steering Committee. 

References

1. National Matching Services, Inc.: Overview of the matching program. Available online at https://www.natmatch.com/dentres/aboutoverview.html. Accessed April 8, 2016.