Let's Talk Teeth

The Path from General Dentist to Program Director of UCSF OMFS w/ Dr. Sohail Saghezchi

• Saadman Alamgir

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After eight years as a successful general dentist, Dr. Sohail Saghezchi made the bold decision to give up his his career as a general dentist to pursue his true calling in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. In this episode, Dr. Saghezchi recounts his unique journey, from living in a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco to becoming the Program Director of the OMFS Residency Program at UCSF. He shares valuable insights into the rigorous training process, the rewarding nature of oral surgery, and the culture that sets UCSF's OMFS residency program apart. Dr. Saghezchi's inspiring story is a testament to the power of determination and the pursuit of one's true calling. 

00:00 Introduction to Dr. Sohail Seghezchi

00:22 Early Education and Career Decisions

01:28 Dental School and Initial Career

02:23 Transition to Oral Maxillofacial Surgery

03:17 Challenges and Achievements in Surgery

06:25 Balancing Career and Personal Life

10:11 Reflections and Future Plans

18:30 The Intensity of Academic Surgery

18:46 Becoming a Program Director

19:39 Resident Experience and Responsibilities

21:20 Selecting the Right Candidates

22:50 Balancing a Dynamic Work Schedule

23:47 Favorite Surgeries and Their Impact

25:25 What Sets UCSF Apart

28:56 Resident Growth and Development

31:09 Yearly Responsibilities of Residents

34:43 Balancing Work and Personal Life

36:03 Final Thoughts and Reflections





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Saad Alamgir:

Today we have Dr. Sohil Segezchi. Dr. Saghezchi, if you don't mind, just kind of introduce, introducing yourself. Tell us where you went to dental school, what you're doing now, and we can kind of just go from

Sohail Segezhy:

there. Sure. Yes. Hi everyone. Thank you for having me on this podcast. So my background, I would say it's a little bit unconventional. When I was growing up I always knew I wanted to be in healthcare and my father was a general dentist, so that was always there for me. I actually my like professional dream at the time was to be a heart surgeon. My grandfather had open heart surgery and Oh wow. Basically saved his life. So I was always admiring that. So I went to community college for two years out of high school. With a biology major. And then I went to the university of California Davis uc, Davis, just south of Sacramento. And when I was trying to decide what to do is really between medical school and dental school, I kind of weighed the pros and cons and pretty much figured out that, you know, doing med school was gonna require a lot more time. And, potentially having to travel far away to, to do my studies. Dental school on the other hand, you know, my dad was a general dentist. He had two practices and so, you know, I ultimately decided I'm gonna do dentistry, So I I applied and I got into the University of Pacific, UOP School of Dentistry. And, that's where I went. I did UOP for my dental school. And while I was there to be honest with you, I didn't really know anything about oral maxillofacial surgery before going to dental school. Yeah. Once I got there I was intrigued. I said, oh, this is great. Dentistry actually has a surgical path as well. This is nice. But, you know, my initial goal was like, go to dental school, fastest track to get out and start working. So I. I, as much as I loved the concept of oral surgery, I said, well, let me go finish. I'll get out work for a while and then I'll decide what to do. Right. So I graduated from UOP

Victor Razi:

in, was it a three year program still at that time? Three year program? Yeah. Okay.

Sohail Segezhy:

So I literally I mean, I graduated from dental school at 23 years old. Oh, wow. Wow. That's awesome. I graduated at from UP in 2002, and then I went into private practice with my father as a general dentist. And I did that, ultimately, I did that for eight years doing general dentistry. And throughout that time, you know, I, as much as I was enjoying dentistry, I really felt like there was a void professionally for me. Yeah. And surgery was really something I was passionate about throughout my education career. So ultimately I apply, actually I applied once to or to oral surgery. I didn't match. And I ended up saying, well, I guess that's it. That's basically my only shot at becoming an oral maxillofacial surgeon. So I just moved headfirst into really expanding my dental's career. I did his align, I was doing implants and all that stuff. But that void was still there. So, ultimately I applied for and got into the non categorical internship position at UCSF. And then I did that for a year, matched into UCSF's program. I completed the six year residency there and you know, I really didn't have any ambitions of doing academics. Really, my goal was just to achieve this lifetime dream. Right. To be honest. Right. I didn't have, I. Set plan. Right. And I ended up, basically going the academic route because you know, I had a close relationship with our chair and program director and he really, you know, advocated for me, recruited me and said, I think you'd be great in this position. And so that's what I ended up doing. I ended up staying. As a full-time faculty member in 2017. Nice. I've been faculty there since 2017, so eight years now. And I became the program director within two years of being a faculty member. So I've been program director since 2019. Yeah, man,

Victor Razi:

That's an awesome story. I, I'm sure if you asked yourself in dental school, if it played out this way, you'd be like, no way.

Sohail Segezhy:

No, you're right. Totally. I mean, it was this dream, right? It was like, man, maybe one day I can become an oral maxillofacial surgeon, but not today, maybe later, right? Yeah. It took a lot longer than I thought, but it was Sure. Really the best professional decision I've made in my life,

Victor Razi:

right? Well, that's an awesome story. Question for you is what, kind of influenced you to, I don't know, did you apply to four year programs? Only six years. What kind of what were your, what were you speculating to be your scope of training? Like, what'd you decide?

Sohail Segezhy:

You know, at first when I applied the first time, which was probably about three years out from graduating training I, I actually was leaning more towards a four year program. And one of the reasons was because my, my top choice at the time was Highland Hospital in Sure. In Oakland. So I was first focused on probably favoring more of a four year versus a six year after I didn't match. You know, I did a lot of thinking, soul searching, and then. When it came time to decide again, the second time I spoke with people around me, like my family and my close friends.

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah. And all the people who knew me well said, you know, you, if you're gonna do this, just go the furthest, just go the maximum. And they always knew that I love medicine. And the concept of being a, you know, in the medical field was always intriguing to me, right?

Victor Razi:

So

Sohail Segezhy:

ultimately I said, you know. I'm already older than everybody else. What's another

Victor Razi:

few years? Yeah.

Sohail Segezhy:

So I said, I think I want to go and do the six year program. And again I'm really happy that I did that. Yeah. For me at least professionally, it, it was exactly what I wanted to do.

Victor Razi:

Awesome,

Saad Alamgir:

man. It's incredible the fact that you're able to walk away after eight years of general dentistry.

Victor Razi:

Yeah. Really

Saad Alamgir:

to go into first, category non-Cat year and then doing a sixth year. I mean, the amount of fortitude that you gotta have to be making a general dentist salary and then going to be working 120 hour weeks to do that is incredible. But my question for you is transitioning from that general dentist to the OMS field that you were going into, how was the transition like for your, those clinics? Did you end up. Because you mentioned that you were working with your dad. Was it you give, like, selling out your shares or was it you just selling out the practices straight up? How was that transition like?

Sohail Segezhy:

It was it was easy and difficult. So it was easy in that my father, you know, when I went to him and I said, I think I wanna go back he was incredibly supportive. He said, you know what I thought you should have done this years ago. From that standpoint, it wasn't difficult because. I wasn't the owner of these practices. These practices were still gonna keep running, right? Of course he would want me to stay and run the practices, but that wasn't a big deal. So leaving the practices, no problem at all. But the lifestyle was just such a dramatic change. Oh my gosh. I can imagine. I mean, I was, I had a nice life.

Victor Razi:

Yeah, I

Sohail Segezhy:

imagine I was working probably like. From nine 30 in the morning till about four o'clock in the afternoon. Oh. I typically work four days a week. I had a convertible Mercedes. I had bought a house and had just renovated the house. Literally, like tore it down. Right. Built it back up. Four bedrooms, three bath, brand new house. Oh my gosh. All the things that you think are gonna, you know. Provide happiness for you. Sure. But it still felt like there was a void for me. Like all those materialistic things that I had, which were nice, they still didn't fill the void that I had professionally. And so, I went from having that lifestyle to renting out this brand new house that I only lived in for less than a year, renting that out. To move into the living room of my sister-in-law's apartment in San Francisco, an air mattress for six weeks. You're a different breed. Starting my non-Cat year, you know, as a 32 at a 31-year-old when everybody else is like graduating at that age. Right? Yeah. At about five weeks, my sister-in-law looks at me and goes, so when do you think you're gonna be moving out? And as luck would have it, she ended up finding an apartment maybe four blocks from there. And she said, you know what, you just stay here. We're moving to a bigger spot to keep it. We're outta here.

Victor Razi:

Yeah.

Sohail Segezhy:

So I ended up. Staying in that one bedroom, like 400 square foot apartment for my seven years of training. Ended up getting engaged, getting married, having two children in that one bedroom, and it was, you know, some of the best years of my life.

Victor Razi:

Yeah. That's awesome. I mean, I would not expect that situation to be your case. The fact that you made the most of it. I mean, it shows your tenacity to what you wanted to accomplish

Sohail Segezhy:

it, I didn't even think twice about it. I didn't think twice about the money or the materialistic stuff. Sure. I mean, they were nice, but becoming a surgeon was so important to me that was an easy release, you know? Right. And so it, I think now when I talk to people and I share the story I want to give them motivation to say. It anything's possible. Right, right. Because a lot of times people say, well, I'm getting too old, it's getting too late. I've got this. But if you're truly passionate about this I don't think there's really a limit to when you can get started. I try to, you know, motivate, inspire people with my story. Sure.

Victor Razi:

Yeah. It is a motivating story. The void you speak of when you were kind of contemplating the change to ms, is that something that gradually built up and your. General practice was giving you enough headaches where you're like, I want to transition to OMS, or how did that kind of manifest that void you were talking about? Yeah. Or did it, was it later down the road that

Sohail Segezhy:

you described? No, I mean, again, like coming up surgery was really the professional dream for me. I always thought that was the most amazing career to have. So that was there even while I was in dental school. And then when I started my career, obviously there was something that was in me that wanted to do it because I applied the first time. And so it, it was always kind of there. Surgery was really the dream, the goal to become a surgeon and it just built up over time, sure. Year six, year seven, year eight. You know, I said as much as this is a nice career and as much as this can build a comfortable lifestyle for me. It's I couldn't see myself continuing to do that for another 30 years. So it ultimately, despite all the things I had, and really because of the support of like the family around me my, my soon to be wife and my parents and my siblings, instead of going to them and saying, Hey guys, I'm thinking about applying again. And instead of them saying, are you kidding me? What's wrong with you? They all unanimously said, yeah. That's awesome. I think you should do it. Because when I talked to other people who didn't know me, like other oral maxillofacial surgeons that I knew each of them said I was crazy. They said, kidding me, you got a good life. I don't think you should do it. It's not worth it. But the people who knew me personally knew what was my drive, and they all supported me, and that really helps solid solidify my decision.

Victor Razi:

That's awesome. Yeah.

Sohail Segezhy:

So

Saad Alamgir:

Going into that, like what. You're passionate about. Was it more of those big or type surgeries or was it more just, you know, placing single implant?'cause you said in your general practice you had, you were kind of the super GP doing Invisalign, implants, things like that. Was it more of the bigger cases, the cancer resections, the full arches and things like that? It kind of led you back to oral surgery or kind of, what was that? What was the main. Thing that you felt like you were missing from GP to lms?

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah, I think it was definitely the opportunity to do hospital-based larger cases in the operating room. You're correct. The when I didn't match the first time. I really took the mentality of I'm just gonna be, as you said, kind of a super dentist and try and do everything. And I started placing dental implants and by the time I was, you know, eight years into my practice, I had already been placing a lot of dental implants. We also had one of my former UOP faculty who was an oral surgeon would come into my dad's office one Saturday a month just to take out wisdom teeth. And I would go in and kind of assist him and help him, and little by little I was picking up his skills and so soon I was doing the third molars in the office and he stopped coming. Yeah. I was doing third molars. I was doing dental implants, bone grafting, but really the drive to go back was to do the bigger surgeries, you know, really big cases, big impacts in people's lives. So that was the big thing. And. Conceptually I like the idea of head and neck cancer and reconstruction. Those cases seem really amazing and impressive. But as I began my training. We really didn't do much of those as part of my residency, so my interest focused on the area of practice that I was exposed to during my residency.

Victor Razi:

I see. As far as UCSF was concerned, I know you mentioned you had that opportunity there for to get involved with academics. Did you ever consider any other school aside from UCSF or how did that play out?

Sohail Segezhy:

As far as career wise or residents? Sure. CareerWise no I didn't because again, academics wasn't really. The primary career goal for me, it was one of those things that the opportunity presented itself. The situation was right, and so it, I took that opportunity. I. Also, you know, geographically it was imagine like being in a career, in a practice for eight years, having your family close to you your wife's family close to you. Having to then get up and leave to another state or another geographic location. Right. That's tough. That was gonna be hard for me. Yeah. So not only was UCSF, you know, a great professional opportunity, but geographically. It was close to where I grew up. I was raised and so that just made a lot of sense to do it. I really didn't look at any other faculty positions.

Saad Alamgir:

I see. So is your overall, I mean, I guess this is kind of going ways out from here, but do you think that long term tenure plan, do you plan on sticking around as program director of UCSF or is there any idea for you to move to private practice or anything like that?

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah, I think if I was honest and realistic about it, I see myself sticking around. I enjoy what I do and it's really a, like a very gratifying career. Of course there's challenges, right? There's always things that we complain about this and that, but overall, it's an incredibly gratifying career to be able to do. Really big surgeries that have big impacts in people's lives. To be a program director and have a very close working relationship with the residents, for better, for worse, yeah. But I know that, you know, we have big impacts in our residents lives also. Yeah. And, being at a major academic institution like UCSF, it kind of connects you to the world. And it opens up a lot of opportunities. So I. I really enjoy it. I don't have any ambitions to leave. You can't control life. Things can happen at all. And also because I did private practice for eight years, I know what the pros and cons are with that. I think I had gone straight like a con, a traditional kind of dental student who goes into residency and has worked so long and is now looking to kind of reap the benefits. I see. I could see private practice being a big draw. Because of the lifestyle, because of the money especially. But for me, that void was filled, I know exactly what that's like. So that is not really pulling me.

Victor Razi:

Yeah. That's awesome though, that you could portray it that way to kind of experience the high life of having shiny things and doing all this and knowing what you want.'cause some people. They thrive off of stuff like that. And that's like what they really want. And some people kind of want more out of life or something else. Say it's nice that you figured out sooner than later that wasn't what you necessarily wanted your whole career to be centered around, right?

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah. If you're gonna be I, the way I look at it, if you're gonna be an academic surgeon at, at a big hospital, you're going to be seeing. The most challenging, complicated cases. And you have to really thrive in those environments because for the patients, we're the end of the road. Right. Right. If I say no, where are they gonna go? Yeah. Right. That makes sense. I mean, we get referrals from all of the dentists and surgeons in the community. Referrals from other hospitals.

Victor Razi:

Including

Sohail Segezhy:

Stanford and other big, well-respected institutions. So I take that responsibility really seriously. And I always say I'm known for saying yes if the right answer is yes. So if the answer is no, I will tell the patient, I'm sorry, like, surgery is not the right decision for you.

Victor Razi:

Sure.

Sohail Segezhy:

But if surgery is the right decision and everybody else has said no, I'm usually the one that says yes because I want to help'em. And you know, I'm optimistic, I'm confident to note that I'll be able to give them the best chance to get a good outcome. So I think that's my opinion on the mentality of being an academic surgeon. You gotta be willing to say yes when everybody else says no. If the answer is yes,

Victor Razi:

right? It takes a lot of grit.

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah.

Saad Alamgir:

Academic, us, I mean, it is a different beast compared to private practice, like you were saying, just'cause. You do get to do those very big surgeries and they are the, you are the last resort for many of these patients. Yeah. So it's very intense. But going off that, how would you said you've been program director for the OMS residency program for couple years now. How would you describe the the experience that your residents get?

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah, it's been six years now. We just had our graduation on Friday night. Another class, the class of 20. Congrats. Five. Just graduated.

Victor Razi:

Yeah. Nice. And,

Sohail Segezhy:

I had no idea what I was getting into when. I was offered the program director position, my chair. Literally the day I found out I became board certified, which is a requirement for being a program director. He said, all right. The program director now. That was less than two years being into an academic faculty member. And I really didn't know what it involved. So I said, you know, when you're given these opportunities, even if like, that's not something you were setting out to do, you gotta take advantage of these opportunities. So. I've learned a lot about it. You know, it, you have to be comfortable working with, different departments, because we're a, an MD dual degree program. The program director interacts a lot with the medical school leadership. It, I interact a lot with the anesthesia department. With the general surgery department, and I feel like every year the responsibilities have increased. It's always challenging because you're trying to optimize the clinical experience for the residents. While trying to make sure they get a re, you know, a good medical education and all those things. And the medical school's constantly trying to get more time from them and I'm constantly trying to pull them to get more oms. Sure. So that part is every year it's a new challenge. And then, you know, just, I feel like I am the parent to like 26 adult. Adult people, right? Yeah. That's exactly how it is. And so they, they reach out to me for vacation requests and can I, you know, and then I hear about things that didn't go well while they're on anesthesia or medical school, and then you kind of gotta, it's like getting mad at your kid for a second. Yeah. You're in therapist. So, it it's tough. But you're, again I'm invested in this thing. And I care about the residency program. And so if you care, then you're going to do what you can to make sure everything goes well. So it is tough being a program director has its challenges for sure. But I definitely feel more connected to the residents as a result of this job. Yeah.

Victor Razi:

That's awesome that you could manifest those relationships with the students, even though it's the good and the bad sometimes.

Sohail Segezhy:

Right. And it's also, you know, I have a very important. Role in a selection of candidates for our program, right? Interviews and ultimately who gets in. And again, I take that very seriously and I also apply everything I went through when I was applying in the process. I try to look at the numbers, you know, their GPA, their CBSC score, but I also try to consider. Who they are, you know, what they've been through their story and I've learned over time that solid numbers they have their value for sure. But having solid numbers doesn't automatically equate to being a solid surgical resident. So, I look at it as good numbers good letters of recommendation. They often will get you an interview. Once you're there for the interview. Now I just wanna see who you are, what's your story, right? What's your personality? What are your work ethics, and what are the values that you believe in? And sure. Will you match well into the culture that we're trying to establish here at UCSF.

Victor Razi:

I see. That's awesome. So what, sounds like you're a great program with a lot of dynamic parts going on to manage it all with a dynamic lifestyle that you have. You mentioned in your GP life you were working four days a week, nine 30 to like four. What's it like now? Like I know you're the director, I've just never considered your like exact work schedule with so many dynamic things going on.

Sohail Segezhy:

So my current work schedule as a faculty member and program director you know, it's actually it's variable. It depends. For example, this week, this coming week right now, right? I have five orthognathic surgeries scheduled, and oh my gosh, I'm actually, I have probably, yeah, about eight cases. In the operating room schedule. I'll be in the operating room four days this week. This is not a typical week, but this is gonna be a really busy week. Sure. And so, this week is gonna start early and probably end late. Start at about, seven seven, something like that, and then get home maybe around 6, 7, 8 that can happen. But there are definitely days where it's a clinic day where I'll start around eight 30. And I, you know, finish by four 30, something like that. Sure. So it's not just always out, never home. Right. There are times given the schedule that I'm gonna be there early and come home late, and there are other times where my schedule is much more reasonable. For sure. Yeah.

Saad Alamgir:

So this is kind of a very broad question, but with the amount of surgeries and things you've been doing now, what's your, quote unquote favorite type of surgery to do? I.

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah, I get asked this a lot. Yeah. You know, when I first started my favorite surgery was the one I was doing that day. Right. I mean, I just wanted to do everything. That's my personality, even as a general dentist. Sure. I wanna be able to do as much as I can offer my service as to as many people as possible. Sure. And so, I just love operating and for a long time it was like. Whatever I was doing, I loved it. I still feel that way. But if I had to tell you what's my favorite surgery now? It's orthognathic surgery. Corrective jaw surgery. Yeah. I just, I love the the magnitude and the immediacy of the results. Right, right. So you have a patient who has a severe underbite. Functional aesthetic challenges. And by the time we finish the surgery, they've gone from this, one centimeter underbite to a nice occlusion, completely improved profile aesthetics. And so the how dramatic the impact is and how immediate the impact is Right. Is incredibly gratifying. And so, and you know, most of the time you're dealing with relatively young, healthy patients, so it improves the the success rate of your cases, right? So, yes I think Orthognatic if you say, what surgery do you get excited about Orthognatic surgery is number one for me now, man, you got plenty to be excited about this week then. Yeah.

Victor Razi:

You have an exciting week. That's awesome. Yeah. So as a, let's say a potential applicant, what, what are your not, I guess, biased or non-biased thoughts on someone if they wanted to do UCSF as their training for OMFS residency, what do you think sets UCSF apart or what type of experience you think they could get there that is slightly different than other programs

Sohail Segezhy:

program? I think we have a fantastic residency program and of course there's a bias to that. But I talk to a lot of people. I travel, I go to conferences, I interact with people and I interact with residents from other programs. And to be honest with you, a lot of that has reinforced my belief that we have a really solid training program. And there's a number of reasons I could tell you. You know, like we have multiple different sites with emphasis on different things at each site, right? We have. The main medical center, which is very broad scope, does everything you can imagine from orthognathic to mj, pathology, reconstruction, all of that. We have a level one trauma hospital where you can imagine there we get a lot of infections and facial trauma. We have a VA hospital and at the VA there's a ton of TMJ, a ton of dental implants and bone grafting. And then we have a dental school where you get kind of the office based third molars, sedation, implants, and from, so from that standpoint, having multiple different hospitals with different experiences really broadens the scope and training for the residents. But I think the other big thing that distinguishes us is the culture. The culture that we've established over the years here. And it's a culture of respect and collegiality, for sure. It doesn't mean we're always super polite and nice to each other. In fact, sometimes I'm not super polite and not super nice.

Victor Razi:

Be honest.

Sohail Segezhy:

But we, the goal is to provide optimal patient care and to create an a work environment where people can work at their best, right? So supporting one another, even if you don't have to like each other all the time. But in the work setting, everybody helps each other out. People do their best to treat each other with respect. And create a work environment where people want to come to work. That's the environment that I think we've established. We've got really good residents who are I think very good people. You want good people

Victor Razi:

for sure.

Sohail Segezhy:

And. I try to instill high work ethic in everybody like this is surgery. We have to hold ourselves to a high regard, right? And this has to be hard, right? This has to be difficult because it takes that to be the best. So our culture, I think, really sets us apart from many other programs.

Victor Razi:

Yeah. That's awesome. When you're kind of looking at applicants and even current residents, are you like. Are you, do you get most of your gratification out of like, I took this resident from like, I guess not known much at all and now they're fully autonomous and they can do their own thing. Like how's that experience been like to where you could bring in a resident and then they, like after your two or three or four or five, they're completely autonomous to an extent, or they just face big learning growth? How's that been for you?

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah, I mean, it, it's amazing to see because dental school really doesn't prepare you for a hospital training, right, right. Yeah. At all. I mean, medical students are rotating in hospitals. They're doing clerkships and sub internships, so they're getting exposure before they start their actual residency. To transition from dental school to oral maxillofacial surgery is a massive jump, massive change. I mean, I remember when I started. I knew absolutely nothing, and that was coming from eight years of prior practice. I mean, I knew literally nothing. I remember there, one of my co-residents asked me, there was a patient in the ICU on my first day and they said, what are those things on his legs right there? I look, I'm like. Socks and he is like, no, those are like sequential compression devices that help blood clots. I'm like, I have no idea. Yeah. I need nothing. So yeah the, how dramatically they improve from year one to year six is pretty amazing. And even the residents that start, and I'm really worried about them, you know, I'm like, oh my goodness, I don't know if this person's gonna do well. They all eventually just get it. They start to figure it out. And I think going to medical school really reinforces that doing anesthesia for five months really increase, improves that. And again, doing general surgery, all these things just build their professional maturity and their competency. So it is a dramatic change. Even residents that when they first started, I was nervous about them. By the time they're chiefs, it's like they have to rise to the moment. They don't have a choice. Even if they don't have the same work ethic as some of the other residents around them, they don't have a choice. It's like the train is going, you gotta stay on skin of culture.

Victor Razi:

Yeah. Yeah.

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah. It's an amazing change over the years. A dramatic change from where they start to where they end up. Oh, I'm sure.

Saad Alamgir:

Somehow I'm pretty curious about, can you very generally kind of describe the. Workload or things that the residents are responsible for year to year? Just so our listeners can kind of understand the level of responsibility that you have from year one versus year six.

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah, so our program, you know, year one, the first year residents who are gonna be starting July 1st, and we take four residents every year. We take four categorical residents, and then now we're taking two non categorical residents. So year one. The first year residents will start and they'll be assigned to either the medical center or San Francisco General Hospital, and they're gonna spend only one month on service. After one month they go to medical school, so their first year is primarily medical school. Wow. In that first month, it's a crash course. You know, they're basically following their second year and fourth year co-residents. Right. They'll be taking call. Meaning they'll be carrying a pager with them and they're basically an extension of our service to everywhere else. Right. Whether it's the emergency room, the operating room the hospital itself, the transfer center. So they're gonna be carrying the pager, but with help from their more senior level residents. And then, you know, before they know it, it's done. They're in med school. With each successive year they're on service more. And, basically their responsibilities in the beginning are just being in the clinic, handling emergency calls occasionally being in the operating room just to observe and assist. And as the years progress, I. They are getting more opportunity to be first assistants in the operating room and taking on more like surgical responsibilities. So ultimately, when you are a sixth year resident, the chief resident is essentially first assist with every. Surgery in the operating room. Yeah. And first assist with every procedure done in the clinic as well. So, it is a progressive increase in clinical responsibilities. In the beginning it's a lot of clinic and just, scut work stuff. And then as it progresses they get more surgical experience. Yeah. And hours are long. You know, we expect our residents to get there early because they need to round on the patients in the morning Or clinic and the operating room starts. So they're getting there early, evaluating the patients, communicating that information with the attendings if we're not rounding with them. And then they're there all day and then in the evening they're still checking in on the patients, making sure that all the patients who had surgery. Are admitted and they're stable, and while that's going on, they're getting pages from the emergency room saying, we've got this going on, and we've got calls from the hospital saying, we've got a patient who needs a lung transplant, can you do a dental clearance? Stuff like that. So it's busy. And then they take overnight call as well. So it's a long training. It's rigorous, but. There's many breaks along the way. That's one of the nice things about a six year MD program is that when you go to med school, it you know, put your backpack on and you get Yeah. To start learning your pen and paper or whatever, and now you're like doing didactics, you're in class. Sure. So it, it is a nice balance between the clinical work and then the medical school didactic stuff.

Saad Alamgir:

Yeah. And it seems like, I mean, it's very. Thought out. I mean, sequentially, you're not gonna be expected to start doing an orthognatic surgery your first or second year or anything like that. So it makes sense. And like you said, it speaks a lot about the culture that you guys have at UCSF. So kudos to y'all for making such a comprehensive and sustainable program the way y'all have. But the question I have is going away from all of this, you know. Y'all, I'm sure y'all need y'all's breaks every now and then. Do you like to travel or anything like that? Where do you where's your ideal vacation spot? Whenever you finally get the time to get away from all of this? For just a couple days. I.

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah. I, I don't have many hobbies right now. It, I just I love what I do. Like that is my focus. And then I have three children at home 10, eight and three. So they're like the next busy

Victor Razi:

focus energy I can imagine.

Sohail Segezhy:

And so, I do enjoy traveling. I like traveling with my family. And I think our favorite spot is Hawaii. Nice. We love Hawaii. The whole family loves going. There we go. Every year. Actually, that's an easy flight over. Oh. It's an easy flight for us. Yeah. I mean, it's about a five, five and a half hour flight, and every year we have the UCSF, oral Maxillofacial Surgery Symposium. It's a one week conference in Hawaii. It's the Hawaii Symposium, and every year it's on a different island. So we've made it a tradition to go every year. So it's a educational slash relaxation trip. And I usually take my parents with me, so, that's our favorite spot. The kids love it. I love it. It's like my getaway and we like doing it every year if we can.

Victor Razi:

Awesome. Well, doc, thank you for coming on today and telling us a little bit about UCSF and yourself and how your journey got you to where you are today. And. I'm sure many people who listen will enjoy what your story is and be inspired to to live on to something similar to what you've done. So thank you for coming up today.

Sohail Segezhy:

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me. And you know, if anybody has any questions about anything, they're free to Sure. Email me with any questions on life or anything else of choices.

Victor Razi:

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Well, thanks to

Saad Alamgir:

email. Thank you again. I mean, I just want to take a second to acknowledge your journey. I mean it's, it really is nothing short of incredible. I mean, for you to be graduating at 20, working te eight years as a general dentist, realizing that you have something missing like in your life, that takes a lot of willpower realization and self-reflection to kind of realize that's where you are in life. And for you to kind of give up all that glam and glamor of being a general dentist to. Really just rise and grind. That's incredible. So kudos to you, man. Seriously, I appreciate that. Thank you guys for having me. Of course. Yeah, no worries. Thank you very much. Stay in touch. Yeah, for sure.