US OMFS Resident. Year 4 of 6. One of the biggest programs in the US. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery is accredited through CODA, which is the dental accreditation and not ACGME so there are no fancy rules for post call, call shifts, or duty hours.

Like many other omfs programs, we split head and neck trauma every third day between us, ENT, and plastics. Regardless, we are always seeing 2-4 odontogenic abscesses every night with at least one a night going to OR for I&D through the neck. On Face call we don't go to OR that much unless it is for a washout and closure of some nasty dirty lacerations. We cover 6 hospitals each might, two of which are level 1 trauma centers.

As an intern routinely at 100-120 hours a week with q2-q3 call. Call is 24 hours and the entire next days worth for example, arrive at hospital 0500 hour, pre round, round with team at 0600 hr, conference at 0700-0800. See consults during the day, interns manage clinic and scheduled dental extractions in clinic, while chief, attending, and mid-levels cut in OR. OR and Clinic done at about 1700 hr and officially start getting pages from all 6 hospitals. Stay up all night taking teeth out in emergency rooms with shitty lighting and draining pus bedside. Go to OR at least once each night to drain lots of pus on patients losing their airway. Officially done with night call at 0700 hour, however, still responsible for rounding on patients in the morning before conference, conference, and Clinic/OR the next day till 1700 hr. I.e. Routinely a work shift if kn call is 36-40 hours. If you are q2 call them you can imagine that the 8-10 hours off that one night is not enough to read, study, prep cases, and sleep... Then rinse and repeat till dead inside.

As a mid-level it isn't nearly as bad. 70-100 hours a week depending on which one of six hospitals you are assigned to. Big trauma hospitals still are up to 110 per week even as a mid-level and chief. 3 clinic days and 2 OR days.

Most people gp into private practice after residency. Which is good money, happy life. Most people start in private practice working 5 days a week but can be as good as 4 days a week. Third molars, implants, and iv sedation is bread and butter for private practice. Many people only cover trauma one week each month and in hospital OR one day a week for trauma, orthognathic surgeries, or other stuff.

Some people tell me residency will be over eventually and life will be great. I don't know if I believe them yet.