Career Change to Dentistry

[vr111718]

Greetings everyone!

I have finally decided that I want to pursue dentistry (It's something I should have pursued years ago..but life happened).

Information about me:

- I am 32 years old (URM) and I work as a litigation paralegal (civil litigation defense) I have been working in the legal industry since 2014. I am married and we don't plan on having kids. We already own a house.
- I graduated from university from 2015 with a BS in Business Administration - I was at a community college before this and transferred.
- My undergrad gpa was not great 2.95
-I took a general chemistry 1 in 2018 - I should have not taken this as a I got a C in lecture and B in lab. I took it at SCUHS without ever taking a chem class before. I was working 60 hours a week during this time and the class was held on weekends from 8am to 5 pm (Saturday and Sunday) - no excuses. I plan to retake this class again.
- I have worked as a dental assistant for 10 years during my high school and undergrad - full time.

What should I do first to transition into this? Can I take pre-reqs at a community college? I want to take as much as I can there since I can afford them while I am in school. I plan to take some at a 4-year university.

The school that I am looking at is Western University Health Sciences in Pomona, CA and Loma Linda University for dentistry. Should I get a Masters after completing pre-reqs?

Any advice would be appreciated. Tia.

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[Blueshirts]

Look at the prices before you make your next move

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I would first talk to the admissions staff at the schools you are interested in. You may have classes to take, and you definitely have to take a DAT exam. I'm not as certain about needing more experience, but recent experience would definitely be necessary and help you.

 

[doc toothache]

Your reasoning is akin to wanting to start a manual transmission car in 5th gear. Your love affair with chemistry does not appear to have had a good start. If your heart is set on dentistry, you will need to see if a relationship with the science can withstand the stress you are likely to encounter.

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

You’ve got at least 2 years of prerequisites ahead of you. It may then take a masters degree to help repair your GPA to give you a realistic chance. Tack on the 4 years you’re in dental school and you’ll be around 40 years old when you start practicing. Given your lower stats, expect if you do get in, it likely will be to a very expensive school. Given average tuition increases between then and now, you very well could owe $900,000 in student loans. Schools like NYU and USC are already leaving students with $700,000+ in loans. Would I want to be 40 years old trying to dig myself out from under that debt load? Absolutely not.

Big Hoss

 

[Chief's Pineapple]

If you're looking at LLU and Western, I'm guessing you're in the LA/Riverside/San Ber-doo area? If so, the only public school (usually cheaper) option in the area (off the top of my head) is UCLA, a very hard school to get into, and I don't think they'll take CC credits. But you aren't looking there, and as far as I know if the school doesn't explicitly say no CC classes, you should be able to take your prerequisites there, therefore saving you some sweet cash.

Also since you have your home there, I'm assuming you want to stay in LA/Riverside. I can't speak about the cesspool of garbage that is San Ber-doo, and correct me if I'm wrong, but Riverside is gaining a massive population of people from LA who don't want to move out-of-state, so that may work in your favor in terms of practice demographics, potentially. But let's assume you get into a school and are now in debt, are you willing to relocate/commute to practice in somewhere like, say Bakersfield or Visalia or small-town San Joaquin Valley, where competition may not be as fierce, but letting you practice where your income could potentially be slightly higher? Stuff to think about.

 

[UnwisdomTeeth]

Greetings everyone!

I have finally decided that I want to pursue dentistry (It's something I should have pursued years ago..but life happened).

Information about me:

- I am 32 years old (URM) and I work as a litigation paralegal (civil litigation defense) I have been working in the legal industry since 2014. I am married and we don't plan on having kids. We already own a house.
- I graduated from university from 2015 with a BS in Business Administration - I was at a community college before this and transferred.
- My undergrad gpa was not great 2.95
-I took a general chemistry 1 in 2018 - I should have not taken this as a I got a C in lecture and B in lab. I took it at SCUHS without ever taking a chem class before. I was working 60 hours a week during this time and the class was held on weekends from 8am to 5 pm (Saturday and Sunday) - no excuses. I plan to retake this class again.
- I have worked as a dental assistant for 10 years during my high school and undergrad - full time.

What should I do first to transition into this? Can I take pre-reqs at a community college? I want to take as much as I can there since I can afford them while I am in school. I plan to take some at a 4-year university.

The school that I am looking at is Western University Health Sciences in Pomona, CA and Loma Linda University for dentistry. Should I get a Masters after completing pre-reqs?

Any advice would be appreciated. Tia.

I think you have to take all prerequisites first before applying. Not only science classes (physics, gen chem, ochem, bio, biochem, ...) but English, Calculus, Psychology .... because these classes in your first BS in Business Admins may be expired.
Taking them at a CC is a good choice because most dental schools still accept CC credits, even competitive schools (Ivy leagues, UCLA, UCSF...), but the bottom line is that you have to get good grades (straight A) in all prerequisite. And you should do the math that if all prerequisites get A's, how much will your overall GPA be (including classes of your Business degree)? is GPA competitive enough?
In addition, you should have a high DAT score later on.
I believe you have a good background in dental clinic + maturation, but you better consider other factors (GPA, DAT, science classes) before deciding to switch to pursue a dental career.
Good luck

 

[underbite_frenchies]

Contact both the schools you are interested in Loma and Western.

Ask them what pre-dent classes are required and if any of the credits can be taken at a community college. Ask them what are their average acceptance GPA for science and non-science classes.

Ask them what their shadowing requirements are, many schools have minimum general dentistry shadowing hours.

Also ask what their average DAT scores are, and if they have minimum scores for select subjects.

Additionally, you can purchase this ebook. Most people buy it the year they are applying to schools. But, this book (Adea Official Guide to Dental School) has all the stats for each school and their application requirements. Might be a helpful starting point.

2023-24 ADEA Official Guide to Dental Schools

www.adea.org

Best of luck!

 

[allDAT]

You’re making a mistake, I can guarantee it based on the 2 schools and state they’re in + your age.

If you’re dead set on being in healthcare, at your age and in CA you’re better off going to med school and pursuing PSLF.

You’re welcome to PM me but you should talk to dentists in CA that are your age (maybe 28-34). Then imagine being in their shoes, but you’ll be 40

 

[Chief's Pineapple]

You’re welcome to PM me

May I PM you? I'm not in OP's shoes but I am a non-trad/career change applicant and would welcome willing feedback.

 

[allDAT]

May I PM you? I'm not in OP's shoes but I am a non-trad/career change applicant and would welcome willing feedback.

Sure.

 

[liquidblue123]

I was in a similar boat as you. Graduated in 2015 and decided I wanted to pursue dentistry. First thing is to decide if this is truly your passion. The cost of dental school is absurd right now but if it is a passion of yours it’s doable with scholarships. Your first order of business is to start taking prereqs. Community courses are fine for most dental schools but some will only accept classes from a university. While you are taking pre reqs, you should start studying for the dat and plan to do very well to make up for your gpa. Ultimately you may have to do a masters and do well in that as well to even be looked at by dental schools. Once you start getting interviews, you should look into a military scholarship (HPSP) or public service (NHSC) scholarship to pay for school. Goodluck.

 

[247_sandwich]

I think you have to take all prerequisites first before applying. Not only science classes (physics, gen chem, ochem, bio, biochem, ...) but English, Calculus, Psychology .... because these classes in your first BS in Business Admins may be expired.
Taking them at a CC is a good choice because most dental schools still accept CC credits, even competitive schools (Ivy leagues, UCLA, UCSF...), but the bottom line is that you have to get good grades (straight A) in all prerequisite. And you should do the math that if all prerequisites get A's, how much will your overall GPA be (including classes of your Business degree)? is GPA competitive enough?
In addition, you should have a high DAT score later on.
I believe you have a good background in dental clinic + maturation, but you better consider other factors (GPA, DAT, science classes) before deciding to switch to pursue a dental career.
Good luck

I was kind of in a similar situation. I was enlisted in the Navy for about 5 years, and got a BS in Psychology. I ended up doing a post-bacc program at SFSU. I literally just took the minimum units of science needed to apply (Chem 1/2, Physics 1/2, Bio 1/2 etc.) I applied to about 12 schools since I wasn't sure what my chances would be. Did well in the sciences granted I only took 40 units and got a DAT 20. Ended up choosing LLU over USC and WesternU since I wanted to stay in California.

As far as the GPA it's just the BCPM that really matters. Having fewer science units but a higher GPA is a much better situation than being a science major with a low GPA. I would be wary about a master's since those units although they may be "sciences" may not count towards the BCPM science GPA you need.

 

[Clar1]

I am a dental
hygiene student, and I see many many many older dental students in my school. I am 35 and I am planning on applying to dental school , too. It is never late & don’t listen to these negative comments. Try it at least ! Trust me if it is meant to be , it will be ! Plus the dentist I was working for , he was making 5000$ a day by just having cleaning & xray patients and basic fillings. So financially you can do it. Ifnore all these negative comments. Just saying ! Good luck !

 

[New_Vegas]

I am a dental
hygiene student, and I see many many many older dental students in my school. I am 35 and I am planning on applying to dental school , too. It is never late & don’t listen to these negative comments. Try it at least ! Trust me if it is meant to be , it will be ! Plus the dentist I was working for , he was making 5000$ a day by just having cleaning & xray patients and basic fillings. So financially you can do it. Ifnore all these negative comments. Just saying ! Good luck !

$5,000 per day? I very highly doubt that.

 

[PNWLO]

I am also a non-traditional pre-dent. Did my undergrad in business, spent 4 years as a project manager before finally deciding to do a career I should have done all along - dentistry. It's never too late to follow your passion / dreams. Is it a lot of work and money? Yes, but if you know it's what you want to do - then go for it. I'm 28 right now and at first thought I was crazy for wanting to change careers. I took all my pre-reqs at a community college and I'm currently up to 8 interview invites from the 12 schools I've applied to this cycle. You can 100% do community college - it's more cost effective and a lot of the time works better with schedules. Feel free to direct message me if you have any questions / how I made the transition from working full-time to being a full-time student.

 

[Kenshen]

I'm 27 and took some classes at my community college too. First time applying this cycle and received multiple interviews as well.

 

[PerioDont]

$5,000 per day? I very highly doubt that.

He might be producing 5000 per day.

Including overhead, taxes, student loans etc...yeah.

 

[Clar1]

$5,000 per day? I very highly doubt that.

You can doubt it, I believe what I see !

 

[doc toothache]

The problem is, others are not convinced of exactly what you saw. For a 5K share for the good doctor, he would have had to produce ~20K, which would mean of heck of a lot of “just having cleaning & X-ray patients and basic fillings”.

 

[PerioDont]

The problem is, others are not convinced of exactly what you saw. For a 5K share for the good doctor, he would have had to produce ~20K, which would mean of heck of a lot of “just having cleaning & X-ray patients and basic fillings”.

just for the sake of imagination...let's say the doc is doing 400$ per patient.

He would need to be seeing 50 patients per day to produce 20k.

Quite unlikely but theoretically possible with an excellent RDH, EFDA and team.

But I certainly wouldn't want to be patient 47.

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

just for the sake of imagination...let's say the doc is doing 400$ per patient.

He would need to be seeing 50 patients per day to produce 20k.

Quite unlikely but theoretically possible with an excellent RDH, EFDA and team.

But I certainly wouldn't want to be patient 47.

But remember, all the predents on SDN will be outliers just like your example. So, they shouldn’t worry.

Big Hoss

 

[PerioDont]

But remember, all the predents on SDN will be outliers just like your example. So, they shouldn’t worry.

Big Hoss

everyone on SDN will be class valedictorians, get into OMFS and Ortho and be in the 1%

 

[Chief's Pineapple]

everyone on SDN will be class valedictorians, get into OMFS and Ortho and be in the 1%

Not to mention that their three-quarters-of-a-million debt load will be easily serviced by all the cash money they be makin', yo. Yearly inflation and insurances paying less? That's everybody else's problem, not mine, dude. I'm gonna be different...somehow.