Dental School after Medical School

[Hashirama Senju]

After a decade of committing my life to medicine I want to give up and start over. I graduated from a top 4 Caribbean medical school and was not able to secure a residency for the life of me. Mainly due to my struggles with the USMLE...and the fact that I just don't think medicine is for me. I was able to pass all the board exams, but I just don't have any more passion for medicine. So here I am, 31 years old with no job prospect and an useless MD degree...and after a couple months of shadowing a dentist...I am now considering dentistry.
My question is...where do I start? DAT? Post bac programs? Where?

My undergrad GPA was 3.2 both science and cumulative.
My medical school GPA is 3.4 cumulative

Where do I go from here if I want to get into Dental school?

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[Ferneezy]

How much med school debt are you carrying?

 

[Hashirama Senju]

How much med school debt are you carrying?

Thanks for your reply. Well...I flipped a couple houses and had a small business for about 2 years trying to pay the debt...it is almost all gone. I have about 50K left to pay.

 

[mosaiczn]

You should definitely check this. Good luck!

 

[ktran17]

Perhaps you need the rinnegan as well? haha, just kidding.

I think you have a decent shot at getting into dental school, but it would ultimately depend on your DAT scores.

 

[Ferneezy]

Thanks for your reply. Well...I flipped a couple houses and had a small business for about 2 years trying to pay the debt...it is almost all gone. I have about 50K left to pay.

Word.

It goes without saying your situ is unique. First, there seems to be no indication that adcoms will care about your med GPA...mostly because not many med to dent switchers post about their path on SDN.

Also, despite your low GPA, I wonder if doing a post bac wouldn't be stepping backwards seeing as you completed a medical program and have an MD.

The easiest place I could think for you to start is by contacting admissions offices of schools you're interested in. Get the low down straight from the horse's mouth then make a plan.

Good luck.

 

[Hashirama Senju]

You should definitely check this. Good luck!

Thank you. However, the part about getting letters from your boss...I never really worked for anyone...apart from observerships/externships...which were usually for medicine. Would that not work since you are applying for dental school? Thanks again.

 

[Hashirama Senju]

Perhaps you need the rinnegan as well? haha, just kidding.

I think you have a decent shot at getting into dental school, but it would ultimately depend on your DAT scores.

Thanks. Lol great to see another Naruto fan on here. I concur...I may need a rinnegan or a sennin mode sage of the 6 paths cloak and staff.

 

[mosaiczn]

Thank you. However, the part about getting letters from your boss...I never really worked for anyone...apart from observerships/externships...which were usually for medicine. Would that not work since you are applying for dental school? Thanks again.

I think they would be appropriate as long as they can attest to your academic abilities, character strengths, and professionalism.

 

[Hashirama Senju]

Word.

It goes without saying your situ is unique. First, there seems to be no indication that adcoms will care about your med GPA...mostly because not many med to dent switchers post about their path on SDN.

Also, despite your low GPA, I wonder if doing a post bac wouldn't be stepping backwards seeing as you completed a medical program and have an MD.

The easiest place I could think for you to start is by contacting admissions offices of schools you're interested in. Get the low down straight from the horse's mouth then make a plan.

Good luck.

Thanks. I think you are right about the low GPA. From what I understand the basic science classes I have taken in med school were very similar to those taken in dental school (I had a dentist friend.) However I don't know how much they will help since they were taken at a Caribbean school...should I not even try to include the med school grades?

 

[Ferneezy]

At the very least you'll be required to disclose the fact you applied to/or attended med school.

 

[dieanotherday]

i would think you can just take the dat
gather some lors now
and straight apply this cycle as early as possible

i mean you already finished all the prereqs plus gross anatomy as well
i doubt you need to study that hard to wrap your mind around perceptual ability portion
good luck

 

[ktran17]

I would like to point out that schools are very lenient with the age of your prerequisite classes. Despite what it says on several sites my friend told me many schools were able to grant him a waiver. I'm sure you would get the same one, it's not like you have not been challenging yourself mentally these past years

 

[Sublimazing]

Just make sure you realize you're going to be 35-36 with 200-450k debt and making a general dentist's salary.

Might take you 5-10 years after grad to catch up financially.

 

[Miley Cyrus.]

If you feel that you don't have the passion for medicine, I'd be very careful and make sure you have a passion for dentistry before applying.

Don't think the practice of dentistry is a cakewalk. I recommend you search around these forums and lookup about threads discussing student debt, the rise of corporate dentistry, the rise of mid-level providers, oversupply of dental schools, and oversaturation of dentists. These are problems in dentistry that are serious and negative and might change your mind.

 

[Ferneezy]

better yet, send him to dentaltown. if he doesn't toss his cookies all over his keyboard or want to put a bullet in his brain, he might have a shot.

 

[dieanotherday]

are you absolutely sure you can't do anything with that md degree?
couldnt you go into research or teaching?

 

[Hashirama Senju]

Well...I just got a reply from a Dental school admissions assistant.

"Yes, you need to input all of your schooling, both undergraduate and graduate. We do not have a time limit on when your undergraduate work was done.


There is absolutely no way that I can tell you what your chances of an acceptance would be. We have 2,500 applications and only 85 positions in the freshman class.


The average GPA for acceptance is 3.53 and the average DAT for acceptance is 19 on the Academic Average and Total Science and 20 on the Perceptual Ability."

 

[Hashirama Senju]

Thanks for all the replies. After doing observerships/externships and comparing primary care doctors with dentists, I find that dentists are generally much happier...better lifestyles and more time for family. I'm not in it just for the money...mainly want a job where I would be more independent and feel somewhat important....without all the government BS.

 

[ktran17]

Thanks for all the replies. After doing observerships/externships and comparing primary care doctors with dentists, I find that dentists are generally much happier...better lifestyles and more time for family. I'm not in it just for the money...mainly want a job where I would be more independent and feel somewhat important....without all the government BS.

The amount of government involvement was one of the main reasons why I chose dentistry over medicine.

 

[Hashirama Senju]

The amount of government involvement was one of the main reasons why I chose dentistry over medicine.

Yeah...I'm a first generation college/med graduate. Had no idea whatsoever....naive...just thought I wanted to be a doctor...and didn't even know what it entailed. Should have done more research.

 

[Hashirama Senju]

Just make sure you realize you're going to be 35-36 with 200-450k debt and making a general dentist's salary.

Might take you 5-10 years after grad to catch up financially.

I see your point...worse comes to worst I'll just flip a couple more houses to even the debt. lol...J/K. Flipping houses is harder than it looks. But I digress. I just want a job where I feel happy and gratified. The last family doctor I spoke to told me: "I hate my job, I just want to win the lottery and fly my ass to the Bahamas for retirement."
Not here to bash on the MDs. I do know several physicians who are loving their lives. I guess in the end it all boils down to personal preference....and for me, I think dentistry is where I want to go. There's always going to be debts to pay, but not everyone has a job that offers self gratification and a sense of accomplishment.

 

[Hashirama Senju]

are you absolutely sure you can't do anything with that md degree?
couldnt you go into research or teaching?

Thanks for the reply. I simply despise research...had a traumatic experience...and the last person I taught got more confused. So not really for me...and yes, not much you can do with a MD without residency.