Insights to Texas A&M's Periodontics Residency w/ Program Director Dr. Carlos Parra

In this episode of Let’s Talk Teeth, we sit down with Dr. Carlos Parra, Graduate Program Director of Periodontics at Texas A&M. Dr. Parra shares his inspiring journey from completing his undergraduate education and dental training in Spain to pursuing advanced periodontal residency training at Tufts University in Boston, ultimately leading to his current role in Dallas.

We dive into his motivations for choosing periodontics and academia, as well as the unique strengths of Texas A&M’s Periodontics Program, including its rigorous clinical training, research opportunities, and admissions process. Dr. Parra also offers valuable advice for dental students at every stage of their journey.

Tune in for an insightful conversation filled with personal experiences, career guidance, and a comprehensive look at what it takes to excel in periodontics.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Background

01:36 Choosing a Career in Periodontics

03:21 Deciding to Stay in the US

06:01 Academia vs. Private Practice

07:45 Day-to-Day at Texas A&M

12:40 Program Highlights and Applicant Insights

16:52 Challenges in Candidate Selection

17:47 Future Goals for Texas A&M's Perio Program

18:31 Importance of Research and Clinical Competence

20:59 Diverse Procedures and Training at Texas A&M

29:41 Advice for Aspiring Perio Students

34:15 Final Thoughts and Fun Questions

Transcript

Saad Alamgir 0:07

All right, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Let's Talk T. Today we have Dr. Carlos Parra. Dr. Parra, if you don't mind just kind of introducing yourself, telling us a little about your background, where you went to dental school at what you're doing now, and we can kinda just go from there.

Carlos Parra 0:21

Yeah. Hello guys. Uh, thank you for having me in the, in the podcast. It's been great. Uh, so yeah, so I'm Carlos Barra. I am originally from Barcelona, Spain. Born and raised there. Uh, yeah, went to um, dental school, uh, over there in Barcelona, and then graduated in 2009. Did um, one year part-time fellowship in per over there. Also at the same time was able to work so for a couple years, and then in 2012. I moved, um, to Boston, to my Perry residency at Tufts. And, um, three years there. Great city, you know, great school. Um, had a blast, learned a lot. And then in 2015, graduated and moved to, um, Dallas, so to Texas and m where, um, yeah, I'm, uh, the program director over there. I've been over four years, I've been the per program director. And, um, yeah, so, um, that's a little bit my, my background.

Choosing a Career in Periodontics

Victor Razi 1:23

Awesome. Um, interesting story that's really cool that, uh, you kind of came over from Spain and I'm sure you've like learned things in dental school there, that it was a little bit different over here and kind of met in the middle with your education. What kind of led you towards the, uh, per route in dental school?

Carlos Parra 1:41

Yeah, so, um. I always I always was inclined a lot into the medical field, so, um, before going to dental school, I was thinking maybe medicine. My father, he's a physician, so I always ha have been inclined on that field, more of the natural sciences, uh, medicine type. Sure. Um, I was debating what to do and, uh, then one of my. Teachers in middle school told me about, I mean, just brought up the topic of dentistry and I, you know, went home, started thinking, talked to my parents, and, um, eventually focused mostly on, on the dentistry part of it. And as I was going through dentistry, I still had in the back of my mind a little bit of the medical. Sort of, uh, thought process on how or how the overall body, and I think perio, uh, involves a little bit of that, you know, involves the systemic health and also has some surgical parts, which I think resembles a little more medicine than maybe other parts of the dentistry. So that was a little bit, um, how I started thinking about perio. Also, some of the teachers in my school, back in Barcelona, they had studied at ts. In Boston. So that also was also a little bit of an influence to try to move to the us right? So I saw you know, they had studied in the US how good they were. They were always, you know, they were very passionate. So that opened a little bit, my, my mind to maybe. Try to go to, to the US to, to Tufts, to Boston to pursue, um, periodontics. So that's a little bit how it all, uh, started. Yeah. Yeah.

Deciding to Stay in the US

Saad Alamgir 3:16

Yeah. That's, that's awesome. That's a really unique story, especially coming from overseas. What kind of made you want to stay after your residency at Tufts? Was there any thought of maybe going back to Spain or were you kind of fell on sticking around in America at that point?

Carlos Parra 3:31

Mean, my, my first original plan was, um, to go back to Spain. I mean, I didn't have, well, at the time I had a girlfriend back in Spain. But I mean, I didn't have any, any reason to either to go back or to stay in the us but I was like, you know, I'm from Spain or my family, my friends are from Spain. All the people I knew that had studied in the US came back. To Barcelona. Yeah. Teaching my school back in Barcelona. Mm-hmm. So I thought it was kind of the normal process, but then as I went through, through my residency at Tufts I started also thinking about. Where it was a little bit, what would be easier to have, like a career? Where would it be easier? Right. So I, I realized that a lot of the, my friends or my mentors that went back to Spain, a lot of them had family offices. They had already like a lineage of dentistry. Whereas for me, I would've to start from scratch.

Victor Razi 4:25

Yeah.

Carlos Parra 4:25

And, um, I think it's a little easier to start from scratch. In the, in the US also the loans, I mean, were a little higher Oh yeah. In Spain. So I had the feeling that maybe going back to Spain, the patients itself wouldn't maybe appreciate the fact that I had studied in the us Yeah. Other dentists, colleagues, they would be like, oh wow, cool. You went to the us but patients, no. So maybe I wouldn't get that much value back home. From the patient's perspective, from the, from the career, from the, the economic point of view. So I said, you know, me, stay in the, in the us, uh, try to make a career here. Also, I wanted to spend a good amount of my time in academia. I ended up being full-time currently. Right? But at the time at least I wanted to be like. 50%, uh, part-time in academia. So back in, in Spain or in Europe in general, it's very hard to make a living from academia. Uh, whereas in the US you could definitely, you can, you can. I'm the example, right? You can leave as a full-time faculty, right? So that was also something that I, I always thought about it and, you know, I always had have the chance to going back to Spain whenever I wanted. So it's like, you know, I'm gonna stay in the US or try to stay in the us. And I can always go back to Spain, whereas if I decided to go back home, uh, just after finishing residency coming to the US would would've been a lot harder. Right. So I just mm-hmm. Decided to lengthen a little bit my, my stay in the US. And see what happens. And it's been, uh, like 11 years so far.

Saad Alamgir 5:58

Yeah.

Victor Razi 5:58

Obvious. You like it enough.

Academia vs. Private Practice

Saad Alamgir 5:59

Yeah. I'm flies. So you mentioned, you know, you wanted to do at least 50% academia. What was the, I guess what was the poll for that reason? You know, a lot of people finish up residency and they swear up and down on gonna private practice. But you, even with your story as you know, as unique as it is also deciding to do academics, what kind of led you to that field?

Carlos Parra 6:21

Yeah, so I think a lot of, uh, the reason is part of it is, or part of it at least, is mentors. So you see, you have some of your professors that you see how good and how much passion they have, and they are their professors in academia. So you want to sort of resemble a little bit what they're doing, you know, how they are giving back to the students.

Victor Razi 6:42

Sure,

Carlos Parra 6:42

I always knew I wanted to have that in my life, in my professional life. Even when I was. Back in Spain. I graduated, as I said, 2009. For those two and a half years I was, I was still in Spain before moving to the US I was spending, I did this part-time fellowship, but then I spent, uh, one day a week I was going into the school and I was helping in research and I was also teaching the pre-doc students. So always since I graduated. Uh, from dental school, I had at least one day a week I've been, um, linked, uh, with academia, either teaching or research. So I knew I wanted to keep that. And then when I, once I, I was in, at Tufts, uh, the opportunity to come to teach at Texas a and m full-time, uh, which full-time in our school, in Texas, a and m means four days a week, and then one day you can do private practice. So I think that that was very appealing to me and I, I, that's what I chose to do.

Day-to-Day at Texas A&M

Victor Razi 7:35

Sure. Yeah. That's awesome. And it sounds like you had, uh, just from listening to your story, some good mentors on the way to kind of guide you into the position you are today. I know right now you're at Texas a and m. So kind of leading into our next part of the discussion, uh, what's typically your day to day look like at Texas a and m, uh, within the period department? Is it pretty diverse? Are you doing, you know, relatively the same thing each day? How does that look?

Carlos Parra 8:01

Yeah, so. I started 2015. I moved junior faculty, so I was mostly teaching in pred. Well, all, all pre-doc, basically. We cannot teach in grad unless you become a board certified periodontist, which at least it takes a year after you graduate. Dental, dental, uh, period program. Sure. It could be more, you know, but at least it's one year. So for that first year, I knew I was pre-doc mostly, so I thought mostly pre-doc at that point. I didn't have, you know, when you were just new to the place, you don't have much research projects. You're at the bottom of the, of the, you know, the food chain. Yeah. So I was teaching Preoc. Quite a bit. I was giving, uh, lectures also in preoc, mostly in the, mostly I was doing like teaching the floor, uh, which I, I think was great introduction to the teaching world, right? Um, then I became board certified periodontist. And then slowly I started transitioning, um, a little more into grad, maybe one afternoon a week. Two afternoons a week. So now I have the mixture of pre-doc, which is more bread and butter, more, um, diagnostic workups. Mm-hmm. Therapy to maybe, um, now transitioning to grad per which I was. Able to supervise some periodontal surgeries, implants, uh, soft tissue grafting, regeneration procedures, which was a great combination. And slowly, I, I, I kinda got a little more, more weight in grad, became the assistant program director, and finally, like, uh, four years, around four years ago, I became the, the program director. So now the role is basically we have nine residents. Three per year, and I'm, I'm obviously the responsible for them, right? Yeah. So we have the, we have usually a few days a week that is like everyone's in the clinic. So Monday after 10 o'clock. All the way through 5:00 PM except for the one hour break for lunch. Mm-hmm. We all the residents are in the clinic. Uh, so I'm mostly in the clinic that day. Wednesday afternoon also, all the residents are in the clinic. And then Friday all day, all the residents are in the clinic. So these are the common clinic times. And then Tuesday and Thursday is where we have a little more variation. The first years, usually they have a little more of a classes, uh, more didactic component.

Saad Alamgir 10:18

Sure.

Carlos Parra 10:19

Then the second years have a little more in between. So they have some classes they teach. The pre-doc students a little bit, and then they have a little bit of clinic on Tuesday and and Thursday. And then the third years, mostly they have clinic on Tuesday and Thursday. So the Thursday year, the third years mostly they have clinic all every day of the week. Except, uh, one session that they, they teach, um, the pre-doc students. Then we have these two main blocks of classes, which is classic literature review. Sure. Which will review classic articles of perio, which all the residents are, are in the class. And then we have current literature review. Uh, which will review Corona articles. And again, all the residents are always in the class. So those, those two classes or seminars would be the, the common ones. And then as I said, Tuesday, Thursday, there's a little bit of variation, which, uh, each class, first years go to take this class, the second years take this other class. So that's mostly the schedule.

Victor Razi 11:12

Sure.

Carlos Parra 11:13

And I'm running between. Classic lead. I'm always there. Monday Wednesday is a journal club, which is a current literature review, and then I'm in the clinic, uh, the rest of the sessions, not all the sessions. I also have a couple of office out of sessions for office hours to work on some research and then to work on admin staff because there's a, a lot of admin staffed. Yeah. All the residents and make sure everything and everyone is, is, you know, stays within the line. But um, yeah, I think we have a very balanced program for sure. Quite clinical. They also have like have a session a week for research to spend time in the re because we have a combined per and and a and a masters. Project. So they get a certain, the para certificate and the master's of science. So they are required to do this master's project. So they have around one session a week to work on their, on their project also, which could be a clinical project. So a couple of my residents are doing surgeries on that, on that research time. Or it could be an in vitro or in vivo project. So one of the residents is doing some implants on a, on a, on a. Pig ribs. So he's placing implants on pig ribs and checking the, the torque, torque of those implants.

Saad Alamgir 12:21

Yeah.

Carlos Parra 12:22

So, um, that varies a little bit. So yeah, that's mostly the, the program.

Program Highlights and Applicant Insights

Saad Alamgir 12:27

Yeah. Well, thank you for that. Pretty in depth and. Pretty robust review of, you know, your program. I'm, I feel like you kind of went through everything day to day as far as what the residents are expected to do. I guess my question is, you know, you've taken over for the past four years. What's, as far as an applicant's standpoint, what do you think stands out the most about a and m's area program in comparison to other programs in general?

Carlos Parra 12:54

Yeah, I think, I think our program is, is quite appealing. We have a lot of applications like around 200 oh much,

Saad Alamgir 13:02

wow.

Carlos Parra 13:02

200 ish. Not all of them are completed. Maybe 150 are completed so that those 150 have to review each of them, go through all of them, and it's always very hard. I mean, it's, it is very appealing because. I think, well, Texas in general, I think is a state that currently is attracting a lot of people. Then within Texas, I think Dallas also is a quite attractive city. Mm-hmm. As I said, the program is. Is we have the program since 19 55. So it's quite a historic program. There's a couple of older programs, but it's a quite of a historic program. It's very clinical, which is also quite appealing for the applicants, at least the people that want to Yeah, definitely communicate their life. Private practice mostly. And then also the, it's a state school, so it's relatively. Cheap, very cheap. Uh, the residents get a stipend, so it, it, they end breaking even tuition and stipend. It mostly breaks even. So, so that's also pretty appealing. The only thing is that we only accept three, three residents.

Victor Razi 14:07

Yeah.

Carlos Parra 14:07

Per year. So it's very competitive. Um, we go through the, the pass match system. Mm-hmm. So everything is relatively standardized. As you may know, some of the problems is that, well, problems for on our side is that some of the schools they don't, for example, they don't rank their students. Right. I mean, rank is not. The only parameter we look at, right. One of them. Sure. We all think it's important. Um, so some of the schools don't rank. So that could be, um, I think, I think it's

Victor Razi 14:36

tricky. Huh?

Carlos Parra 14:37

It's tricky.

Victor Razi 14:37

Yeah. It's tricky.

Carlos Parra 14:39

And I think the ones that the ones that are harmed the most are the good students, which are in those non ranked schools.

Victor Razi 14:45

Right.

Carlos Parra 14:45

cause then they're in the same backend. They

Victor Razi 14:47

know

Carlos Parra 14:47

these are bad students. Right. So,

Victor Razi 14:48

yeah. So,

Carlos Parra 14:49

um, so yeah, if your school is ranked. And you're a good student.

Victor Razi 14:54

Sure.

Carlos Parra 14:54

In your favor. If it's not rank, then you have to look at other parameters. Right. Uh, some schools may not rank, but they give honors or some sort of awards. Sure. So that's something that you can look right. And then some people ask me, you know, some applicants ask, you know, what's the rank? How important it is. I mean, I would say it's not absolute. So I'd rather have someone that's. 20% of their class, but is a team player serious and can work and is good. That rather someone that's top 2% and then they are, they don't really, they do their own thing. Right. Based on other people's feet, you know, so, so, so I think it is not absolute, but definitely within equal candidate, I mean we, in, in the end, we, we see what we see, we see the application. And if with within two equal. Candidates, critical research background, et cetera, et cetera. Obviously the one that has, uh, the highest rank has most likely more chances of getting into the program. Sure. Or at least getting in invited for an interview, right? Mm-hmm. Then on the interview, of course, then you have the human part, which is important. Very important. And that's, um, that's key. You know, the interview, uh, we usually bring 24 people for interviews. So, uh, which is also really hard to select those 24, but I think once you are within those 24, then the academics or more, the, the written part of it takes a little second, second, uh, paper second, you know, and then the interview part gets a little more, more force. Right? Yeah.

Victor Razi 16:30

Right.

Carlos Parra 16:31

That's awesome. Yeah. And ultimately we want someone that, you know, is ready to. Work hard is a team player and can follow the rules. Sure. I mean, the learning, you know, I don't really care too much. If someone really knows a lot about per versus someone that knows less, I mean, people will, you know, will learn. And if you're willing to learn, uh, you know, they'll keep going. Jump

Saad Alamgir 16:50

quick. Yeah.

Carlos Parra 16:52

Right. So that's, um, the main, uh, the main thing. But again, it's very difficult to know. Exactly who's willing to learn, who's a team player, who's willing to follow the rules by, by what? Reading the CV or even, or even interviewing them. A lot of people, uh, they, they rehearse the interview you talk to, they interview with them and they seem like they're reading in their mind some sort of chat GBT statement, right? So that's also something that we can sometimes notice, right? So,

Future Goals for Texas A&M's Perio Program

Victor Razi 17:20

right. Yeah, man. Uh, credit to you on keeping such a, like, organized and like. Fair process on like how you select your applicant. I felt like sod and I could both agree that I think you value the right things. You know, obviously you want someone that's academically up to par, but also like somebody that you enjoy being around that's eager to learn. And I think that it sounds like you do a great job of just selecting who you want to be a part of your program. I'm sure ADA's word wondering the same thing, but as far as Texas a and m is concerned, what are your goals kind of for the future of the program? Like do y'all focus more on like, you know, let's say research or surgery and do you see that in y'all's future? What, how do you see Texas A and M's Perio program kind of moving forward? Is there any new things you kind of want to incorporate?

Importance of Research and Clinical Competence

Carlos Parra 18:08

Yes. I mean, definitely excuse. We want to get people out, get periodontists that are very, very competent, right? That that they really are confident and when someone really hires them, it's like they're proud of. Hiring them or, or when a patient goes to them, patients are, are, are, are happy with them. And so that will bring the name of Texas NM the school high. Right. But, but also I think the, the way that the school gets more visibility is by research or lecturing in meetings. Right. So for example, this Friday we have the Southwest side of perio meeting. So where all the residents from the Southwest program? So we have all the Texas schools, we have Colorado, we have Nebraska schools, we have, um, LSU. So we have all these residents. They come here to, that is is in Irving, which is like 25 minutes driving from Dallas. To give a lecture for example. It's important that the. The 30 years resident of each program present, right? So it's important that they show, and it's mostly cases. So it's important that they show good cases, well plan and well executed cases because that will bring the name within these schools of Texas a and m high further. Now, if you see a school that really does a good job, it's like, wow, this cool is good. So that, that would be one way, you know? So presenting, having the residents. Out there, or the alumni out there presenting and presenting good stuff. And then another stuff would be by publications, right? Doing, doing research, putting our name out there. Ideally we wanna do more of a clinical research, like relevant research, that that's something that's applicable for daily, uh, daily practice. That would be the type of research we want to do. And now we just got actually a new chair, a new department head. Started Mar uh, like February 1st. So I started like, oh wow. So, um, yeah, so he's gonna, he's basically my boss now, so he's gonna oversee the whole period department. And he's, um, he's a senior guy. I mean, he's been out. Quite a while. He was a pro director at, uh, Ohio State University for over 25 years. Wow. So I think he's gonna bring, um, good stuff. He's, uh, he is kinda research heavy, but clinical research, which I think that's the final research. Sure. So we'll see what, what happens. But I think he wants to, we want to bring also this part of clinical research out there so the people will know a little more about our, our school and our program.

Diverse Procedures and Training at Texas A&M

Saad Alamgir 20:30

Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, that's basically, and that's why Perio is such an interesting field. You know, it's, it's one of those places where you have to be constantly educated on the latest research. You know, if there's a new bone grafting me method or this new material, it's what you're gonna end up using. And, you know, staying on top of that, that's what kind of helps lead you into the next generation of, periodontics. So kudos to y'all for recognizing that and taking advantage of that. So that's cool. But I had another question about you know, just procedures in general. What kind of, is it just bread and butter? Pareo, like a lot of soft tissue grafting, implants. What's y'all's, do y'all have a, by the time you're graduating from Texas and Ontario, is there a certain number that you're kind of expected to have, or is it just kind of depend on what walks in to clinic week to week?

Carlos Parra 21:24

Yeah, I mean that's, that's a good question also because I feel that sometimes some of the pre-doc students, they don't understand or they don't know exactly what. Period does, because what they see is SRP prophy maintenance. The SRPs.

Saad Alamgir 21:40

Oh man, you're speaking my language.

Carlos Parra 21:42

Yeah, exactly. And we notice it many times with some of our pre pre-doc students. Uh, they, we, we have like a summer fellowship of two weeks, and some of them, they come to do the, the ones that are a little interested in per they come. To this fellowship, which basically they observe in the clinic, they assist and they come to the lectures and a lot of them say that, oh, that it opened their eyes because they, they didn't know exactly what was, or what per was it or what did we do. Right. And I have also some, I, I have the same, when I received the interviews, the, sorry, did YMC, the applicants?

Victor Razi 22:13

Sure.

Carlos Parra 22:14

I know that there's some schools, which I get a lot of applicants and others I don't, for example, particularly. I'm gonna promote a little, my friend UCSF, Alex Lin, he's a program director over there at Per, yeah, but I think. He gets the pre-doc students very involved in perio. So every year I get six or eight applications from UCSF because I, I think over there, the, those dental students, they get to see what is perio. They understand and then they apply to all the programs. Right, right. Whereas maybe other schools, I never, I barely get a per an applicant. For per right. So I think it's, uh, it's important to get the pre-doc students exposed or at least be able to see what perio is, right? So, so, uh, usually, uh, the residents, they, we don't have hard, uh, limits, uh, but we have some sort of. Written expectations a little bit, right. Uh, usually, I mean, usually if they stay busy within their clinic time, they'll do more than what it's expected of. Uh, from there, uh, usually they, they can get any case that they comes to them, but, but it ends being mostly the most advanced cases go to the 30 years, the more basic to the first years. Also, I'm the one that distributes most of the referrals from, you know, pre-doc or other programs within the school. We'll refer to perio. So I'm the first person that receives the, the referral. So then I'll, I'll assign usually if it's um, crown lengthening basic perio. Surgeries. So a patient that has advanced period and needs periodontal surgery, that will go also to the first years. If it's extraction, bone grafting, that will go also for the first years. Um, then, uh, if I see something a little more advanced, like soft tissue grafting. Or guided tissue regeneration for a vertical defect around the tooth. Mm-hmm. That goes to the second years, or if I feel, if I see a referral maybe from a GV or pros, which usually those cases are a little bigger, uh, they're a little more complex, they have implants. Mm-hmm. But if I see the case that may. May take a little longer to be completed. I'll, I'll assign to a second year because if I assign it to a third year, I know the case, they won't be able to finish the case. Right? So maybe this case goes to a, a second year. If there's a case that maybe needs a lateral window, sinus lift, or maybe a hybrid, so full mouth extractions, implant placement or a big guided bone regeneration to, to create, to prepare the site for an implant in the future. That goes most for the 30 years. So those more or less are the distribution, but again, maybe a first year. They get this perio patient, they have to do their perio surgeries, and then the patient needs a soft tissue grafting. They can do the soft tissue grafting, or the patient needs an implant, they can do the implant. So if once they have the patient assigned, if they need more stuff, they can do the, the stuff. But I try to distribute the cases based on difficulty. They, regarding numbers, it, it's very dependent on the person, right? So, um, and their interests. But usually it's relatively straightforward to get to a hundred implants. When you finish residency again, maybe there's someone that's a little less interested in implants and software and maybe they place 80 implants, but maybe they do a lot of soft tissue graft. Right. Or maybe there's another one. There's more interest in implants. They do 120 implants and a little less soft tissue grafting. Uh, we're very strong. I sedation. So the res, uh, by state rules, you need to have at least 20 cases to get the IV license, right?

Victor Razi 25:34

Sure.

Carlos Parra 25:34

So we get the residents do 80 to a hundred, 120 cases. Easily so nice. They, they're very prepared with, with the, all the IV sedation training, which is, I think it's important because I visit sedation is, you know, it's, it's a serious thing that, that I think, uh, residents need to have a lot of experience. Uh, and I think they get that quite well in our program. Yeah.

Victor Razi 25:56

Yeah. That's awesome. And it sounds like, I don't know a lot about every program, but it sounds like your program has a nice diversity of procedures, research culture. It kind of sounds like y'all, from what I gather, from everything you've told me, it sounds like y'all pretty well-rounded and y'all have good values in place on taking care of your residents too, which I appreciate and I'm sure many other people, uh, appreciate. Kind of backtracking a little bit on, uh, UCSF, I know you mentioned you get a lot of applicants there. And you're in a unique situation, man.'cause you're in Texas, so you're basically in your own country. So, uh, I know you gotta take care of your own people too, in Texas, which puts you in a neat, unique situation for applicants in a way. How do you go about like, you know, let's say you get an applicant from like, I don't know, I'm in the south, we're in Mississippi, so let's say you get one from like New Hampshire or something. Does that. Is that from a program director standpoint, ever? Like pique your interest, like, oh, I've never gotten an applicant from here. Let me look through their, you know, uh, file a little bit more and see kind of what they do. Yeah, I don't know. Something along those lines. Is it, is that something you value, like diversity within programs or do y'all take a decent bit of Texas people only,

Carlos Parra 27:13

No, I think, um, what I try to think is, or look at, uh, the school, right? I mean, how, how, what's the reputation or how good is the school? Sure. That's important because, you know, there may be two schools with, um, the same number of students but you know, the, I don't know, like someone that's ranked 25 in one school is not the same as someone that's ranked 25 in another, in another school. Right. So, right. Um. Maybe the newer schools, they're, uh, I feel that Mary, they're a little weaker in the sense that the school hasn't been that long out there. Sure. Maybe the, maybe, and I'm not, I'm not sure. I'm sure it's not all the cases, but I would say that some of the candidates maybe, uh, or the, the students are a little weaker maybe from, from those newer schools, because many times you'd rather go to a more. Classic school. You'd rather go to a Harvard than to, uh, one of the schools that has been out five, six years only, right? Yeah. Always the case, but I don't really. Think too much geographically wise. I think more like school, you know, how is the school, what's a reputation? But ultimately, you know, you have to look a little bit about everything. Regarding Texas a and m students. Well definitely we know them a little more that people on Texas a and m, so that may give them an advantage because, you know, ultimately if you know someone that's good already, you know, they're good. You'd rather take the chance with them, right. Than someone that you don't know as well. Right. Understand. Just by the fact of being in Texas, not by, not because they are in Texas, we want Texas people, but because they're in the same school that we are,

Saad Alamgir 28:46

it's familiar.

Carlos Parra 28:47

It's a more familiar, right. If someone comes from it, San Antonio or Houston. I don't know them, so I don't really care too much. They're coming from this place or from New Hampshire, right, but the ones that's from the own school, Texas a and m, it's a little easier to see how good they are to know them, to talk to the faculty directly that have been teaching them their, it's a little easier in that sense.

Advice for Aspiring Perio Students

Saad Alamgir 29:08

Yeah. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And yeah, like, like you said, it goes down to a lot of factors, not just school and bus rank, but also just how you interview and what you have researched. I mean, there's a lot of factors to it. So I know that's not an easy decision, but seems like, you know, for the past four years, and based off what you were saying with, you know, just the procedures y'all do, it seems like a very, very robust program that will. Leave you plenty prepared to be a periodontist, whether you wanna pursue academics private practice or whatever. So as we kind of wrap up here, do you have any just kind of final advice for maybe a dental student who's maybe interested in perio or getting ready to apply to perio? Just let's, let's do three different situations. Uh, dental student who's just started, D one, uh, D two, who's thinking about perio and a D three, who's getting ready to apply. Do you have kind of advice for each of those?

Carlos Parra 30:04

Yeah, I mean. The D one is, so D one is thinking about per, but it's in D one, right? That's the first scenario.

Saad Alamgir 30:10

Yeah. Right.

Carlos Parra 30:10

Yeah. Yeah, I mean definitely you wanna be academically strong. But I think at D one you still have some, you know, I think you should maybe close yourself to only per, if you're. I mean, if you know, you wanna do per a hundred percent yeah. Go for it. Start talking to the Perial people. See if you can get involved in some research projects with some of the residents, or, you know, you show up. I think that'd be good. But I think D one still, there's time to, to observe other fields if you're unsure. Mm-hmm. It's not gonna make a big difference. Um, we, I don't think we get a lot of D ones. Interested in per and you know that it's not a problem. Yeah. Or, or we may get, but we, I don't see them. I don't know about them. They don't go in the clinic. Mostly they have classes. Right. Yeah. So D one still, you know, if you like, per it is good to show up, but it is not that critical. I definitely, ID one I would focus on your academics on, you know, starting, creating the foundation. I think D two. Uh, is when you can start a little bit more, uh, heading into, um, talking to Perial people and, and you know, if you can get involved in a project, in a research project that, uh, with, uh, someone in Perial, I think that would be great. And then D three also, you can maybe shadow some of the faculty, uh, go to the, even go to their practices every now and then. They get, they get to know you go to the local per meetings where the, the, the residents or fa or per faculty may go, may attend. I think that's, um, that's good. Uh, but it is, it is, there's a, a fine line also. You don't wanna overwhelm the people or Right. Sometimes people try so hard that they become a little annoying, quote unquote. Right. So, so, mm-hmm. I think. Just be natural and, um, you know, do what you like. If you really like perio, go to the meetings, talk about perio. Sure. Do all that. But, but I would say don't fake it or don't overdo it, or, you know, don't fake it to do it in excess. Pretending or thinking that's gonna help you because, uh, I don't think, I think it has to come out naturally from right from each person. Um, I think that also, that's mostly when someone is in residency. Uh, but I think that the most important thing is each. Person. So, so the thing of residency is that there's a lot more freedom in the sense that we live is a little more open-minded. So people. Have to read on their own. They have to create, start creating their own opinions on their own. So I think in dental school everything is more like delineated. Sure you have to this and standardized and that's how it is. And no, don't do this because it doesn't work, or No, you have to do this way because it's like this. But in per residency, I think it's like, oh, why do you wanna do it? Oh, why you wanna do it this way? Okay. Okay. Let, okay. I agree. Let's do it this way or, I think it's a little more freedom of mind, but that's a double-edged sword. If you are a very driven person that you are willing to learn, you are willing to read, you are willing to, to get, to try things, to discuss things. And then I used to think is very good because then you can, you can keep learning, keep enhancing a lot. But if you're a person that really is laid back that is waiting that they would, uh, spoon feed them, then it's gonna be bad. Residency you won't learn. It must. Yeah. So I, I've seen. Both sort of examples. You have people that are very driven. They are like all in, and they work really hard. So those, the, the experience that they get and the amount of information and period that they learn is up here, whereas someone on their same class. Same classes, they have the same faculty, they have the same clinic time but they, they really, they just stay down. Right. So I've seen mm-hmm. I've seen that. And so it's down to the person to learn, you know, you can be in the best. Program with the best faculty. But if you just don't wanna learn, if you're late to class, if you're trying to cut corners, you won't learn as much. And someone may be in a program which is a little weaker. Maybe there's less faculty, maybe there's less reputation. But if they really like it, they're, they're go getters, they will learn a lot more. Right. So I think that's something that, that people need to, need to have in mind.

Final Thoughts and Fun Questions

Victor Razi 34:14

For sure.

Saad Alamgir 34:15

Yeah.

Victor Razi 34:15

Dr. Perro, we have, uh, 50 seconds left here, but, uh, Sona, I wanna thank you very much for, uh, taking your time this evening to. Talk about you, your program, and your journey, and how you, uh, contribute to the field. Um, we really appreciate it and we think that our listeners will get a lot from this, uh, podcast. 30 seconds left. Last, and most important question, arguably FC Barcelona or Madrid.

Carlos Parra 34:40

Well, thank you guys for, for having me. Uh, the the answer is, uh, tricky because as I said, I am from Barcelona, but I go for real mad. Oh my. That's crazy,

Victor Razi 34:52

man. The PO in the podcast. In the podcast.

Carlos Parra 34:54

Are you guys Bara, Madrid, or what? Varsa.

Victor Razi 34:55

Bara.

Saad Alamgir 34:57

Yeah, man.

Victor Razi 34:59

How Dr.

Saad Alamgir 35:00

We're so close. Yeah, we enjoyed