dentist contemplating going back

[guest]

I'm a dentist. 8 years out and just bought my own practice.
Wife's an anesthesiologist.

Dentistry has been good to me. Financially it allowed me to retire my student debt as well as my wife's debt while she was in residency. It has afforded me a lifestyle that has been pretty decent, I work 32 hrs a week with patients. Admin, add in another 8 hrs. But in reality I'm always thinking about the practice. Running a business is stressful.

At the peak of my career, I was in corporate dentistry making 350K working about 32hrs, and the number would just keep climbing. So this is not a financial decision.

There's a lot of "selling" in dentistry. When patients come to see me they want to hear all is well, not that they need a filling or a crown. And I'm not extroverted enough to do it day in and day out. Feels like a confrontation. My wife on the other hand. Goes into work and theres so much work to do, no selling.

Love the prestige that doctors tend to have over dentists. Love to keep getting better clinically vs. getting better selling. Because at the end of the day the most successful dentists are the ones that are extroverted, great at selling. What good are your clinical skills if you can't use them...

One of my dentist friends and I were talking about going back to school just in theory.

Could I do an OMFS route and go into anesthesia like some of the other anesthesiologists have?
Or would it be better just to apply to medical school and start all over again?
I'm about to turn 34. Is this too old?

Thanks for any input.

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[Mman]

I wouldn't be an anesthesiologist for the "prestige". We get blamed for everything and dumped on by everybody. It's how it works. While we think we are special, nobody else in the hospital has much idea of what we do and what we know. Even some surgeons have no idea how or why we do what we do. You also have a lifestyle that is nice. You aren't working nights, weekends (unless you want to), and being on call at all hours. All your patients are insured or paying for your services.


I could go on and on. I have several family members that are dentists and their lifestyle is much better than mine.

 

[BLADEMDA]

I'm a dentist. 8 years out and just bought my own practice.
Wife's an anesthesiologist.

Dentistry has been good to me. Financially it allowed me to retire my student debt as well as my wife's debt while she was in residency. It has afforded me a lifestyle that has been pretty decent, I work 32 hrs a week with patients. Admin, add in another 8 hrs. But in reality I'm always thinking about the practice. Running a business is stressful.

At the peak of my career, I was in corporate dentistry making 350K working about 32hrs, and the number would just keep climbing. So this is not a financial decision.

There's a lot of "selling" in dentistry. When patients come to see me they want to hear all is well, not that they need a filling or a crown. And I'm not extroverted enough to do it day in and day out. Feels like a confrontation. My wife on the other hand. Goes into work and theres so much work to do, no selling.

Love the prestige that doctors tend to have over dentists. Love to keep getting better clinically vs. getting better selling. Because at the end of the day the most successful dentists are the ones that are extroverted, great at selling. What good are your clinical skills if you can't use them...

One of my dentist friends and I were talking about going back to school just in theory.

Could I do an OMFS route and go into anesthesia like some of the other anesthesiologists have?
Or would it be better just to apply to medical school and start all over again?
I'm about to turn 34. Is this too old?



Thanks for any input.

Forget med school. Univ of Miami has an DDS/DMd to MD program which I think is 2 years long so if you must go back then that is the way to do it.

I've got a buddy earning $600K doing OMFS so I'd recommend that route over Anesthesiology.

Program Overview
The six-year integrated Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery/MD Program includes the awarding of a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, a two-year certificate of General Surgery and a certificate in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS).

Accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation*, the dual-degree track has been carefully designed to provide a comprehensive approach to both the medical school and residency components of the program. Candidates who complete the program are eligible for examination by the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

The hallmark of Penn’s medical school is based on an innovative, and highly acclaimed curriculum, which fuses basic and clinical sciences. This, coupled with core clinical clerkships, allows the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery resident to receive a medical education without compromise. The core rotations in medical school are structured to include rotations which also meet mandated residency requirements.

- See more at: http://www.dental.upenn.edu/academi...gery_residencymd_program#sthash.ttHFCKXv.dpuf

 

[BLADEMDA]

Vanderbilt offers a 4 year OMFS program without the MD:

http://programpages.passweb.org/view/1026

 

[BLADEMDA]

Big money in braces or root canals so that may be the way to go for you.

 

[Urzuz]

I'm a dentist. 8 years out and just bought my own practice.
Wife's an anesthesiologist.

Dentistry has been good to me. Financially it allowed me to retire my student debt as well as my wife's debt while she was in residency. It has afforded me a lifestyle that has been pretty decent, I work 32 hrs a week with patients. Admin, add in another 8 hrs. But in reality I'm always thinking about the practice. Running a business is stressful.

At the peak of my career, I was in corporate dentistry making 350K working about 32hrs, and the number would just keep climbing. So this is not a financial decision.

There's a lot of "selling" in dentistry. When patients come to see me they want to hear all is well, not that they need a filling or a crown. And I'm not extroverted enough to do it day in and day out. Feels like a confrontation. My wife on the other hand. Goes into work and theres so much work to do, no selling.

Love the prestige that doctors tend to have over dentists. Love to keep getting better clinically vs. getting better selling. Because at the end of the day the most successful dentists are the ones that are extroverted, great at selling. What good are your clinical skills if you can't use them...

One of my dentist friends and I were talking about going back to school just in theory.

Could I do an OMFS route and go into anesthesia like some of the other anesthesiologists have?
Or would it be better just to apply to medical school and start all over again?
I'm about to turn 34. Is this too old?

Thanks for any input.

You should have an honest talk with your wife about it. She will probably give you a more balanced, unbiased answer than you're going to get on an anonymous internet forum that 99% of people use to vent and b**** about how horrible their lives are.

 

[BLADEMDA]

You should have an honest talk with your wife about it. She will probably give you a more balanced, unbiased answer than you're going to get on an anonymous internet forum that 99% of people use to vent and b**** about how horrible their lives are.

Not really. If the OP specializes in an area of dentistry like Braces or Root Canals (which means doing a residency most likely for 2 years) the income potential exceeds 95% of all Anesthesiologists without doing a single night in the hospital not to mention weekends. Quality of life is FAR better in dentistry.

 

[guest]

You should have an honest talk with your wife about it. She will probably give you a more balanced, unbiased answer than you're going to get on an anonymous internet forum that 99% of people use to vent and b**** about how horrible their lives are.

My wife is not that thrilled about her job. She doesn't like getting up early and coming home late and the weekends. She says its stressful but doesn't ever go into the details. I on the other hand would love the guaranteed busy-ness. Stable pay, as opposed to dentistry during strong months vs weak months. She gets free meals at the hospital and eventually 8 weeks paid vacation. As a dentist, I could take off whenever, but rent is still due at the office when I'm not there. It's a different type of stress. I always tell her that I'd love to trade places with her. And she tells me she needs to drop down to part time.

 

[Urzuz]

Not really. If the OP specializes in an area of dentistry like Braces or Root Canals (which means doing a residency most likely for 2 years) the income potential exceeds 95% of all Anesthesiologists without doing a single night in the hospital not to mention weekends. Quality of life is FAR better in dentistry.

I agree with you. But how is what I said at ends with your post? His wife is an anesthesiologist and can sit down with him and give him a more detailed and much more contextualized opinion (the pros and cons) much better than any of us can.

 

[Psai]

there's no amount of money or prestige that can replace the feeling of being your own boss

 

[Guillemot]

to the op: dont do it

 

[nycitygas]

Your best bet is to do a dental anesthesia residency. It's only a 2 year residency and they are all paid. Hours are also reasonable.

OMFS is ultracompetitive to get into and if even if you were accepted, are you prepared for the workload? A 32 hour week is pretty nice. The OMFS interns I knew in residency were Q3 in house call the entire years-when one was on vacation, they were Q2.... with NO POST CALL OFF. In other words, 30+ hour shifts every 2-3 days.

One of them told me since they were dentists and not MDs they weren't subject to the same duty hour rules we are. I'm not sure how true that is but our hospital adhered pretty tightly to the regs for the MDs so there must be some truth to it.

Also in response to Blade, the orthodontist and endodontist market is terrible. The job market is extremely saturated and their debt loads are staggering. I am talking 500-600k before buying a practice. College + dental schoool + tutition based residency programs.

 

[chocomorsel]

Don't do it. Please. You are making great money. If you don't want to be your own boss, go back to corporate or sell your practice to one of these dental chains.
As a dentist you have much more freedom. Medicine and especially anesthetia is getting taken over by Wall Street. You will just be an abused cog in the wheel making less than you are now and in a much more stressful environment.

Don't do it. Find out the stresses that your wife is talking about and you will see.

 

[RustBeltOnc]

There's a lot of "selling" in dentistry. When patients come to see me they want to hear all is well, not that they need a filling or a crown. And I'm not extroverted enough to do it day in and day out. Feels like a confrontation.

Love to keep getting better clinically vs. getting better selling. Because at the end of the day the most successful dentists are the ones that are extroverted, great at selling. What good are your clinical skills if you can't use them...

Think MDs don't have to engage in "salesmanship"? O boy.

 

[DaleDoback]

I'm an OMS that did a 4-year residency. We did 6 months of anesthesia as a CA-1. I have a tremendous amount of respect for anesthesiologists and realize that my 6 months is nothing in comparison to the 4 years that you guys put in.

That being said, I would never go back at 34 and start an OMS or anesthesia residency. If you are truly bored with dentistry, I would just find an expensive hobby to take up the other hours of your week. While it is fun for me to be in the hospital and do some bigger cases, I've realized that I get paid 10x as much for the same amount of time in the office doing dental-based procedures. Avoiding the troubles and chaos of the hospital is a true blessing sometimes that dentists take for granted.

 

[guest]

there's no amount of money or prestige that can replace the feeling of being your own boss

Being my own boss is not that great. With freedom, there's a lot more responsibility. I really miss going to work and just going home. It's hard to explain. But yes, if the day looks slow, I just close the office and hang out at home. Or if my toddler son gets sick, I go pick him up from daycare and tell the girls we're closed. Nobody tells me what to do. But at the end of the day, all the risk is on me. If we have a crappy month, that means I don't get paid. On the flip side, if we have a great month, I get paid well. It evens out.

At the end of the day, I would love to go home and shut it all off. I'm constantly thinking about marketing the practice to bring in more patients. Debating on changes that needs to take place in the office.

Your best bet is to do a dental anesthesia residency. It's only a 2 year residency and they are all paid. Hours are also reasonable.

OMFS is ultracompetitive to get into and if even if you were accepted, are you prepared for the workload? A 32 hour week is pretty nice. The OMFS interns I knew in residency were Q3 in house call the entire years-when one was on vacation, they were Q2.... with NO POST CALL OFF. In other words, 30+ hour shifts every 2-3 days.

One of them told me since they were dentists and not MDs they weren't subject to the same duty hour rules we are. I'm not sure how true that is but our hospital adhered pretty tightly to the regs for the MDs so there must be some truth to it.

Also in response to Blade, the orthodontist and endodontist market is terrible. The job market is extremely saturated and their debt loads are staggering. I am talking 500-600k before buying a practice. College + dental schoool + tutition based residency programs.

I don't mind working hard. I actually prefer going to work and working my butt off vs. going to work and relaxing and worrying about how I should be working harder. Because if I'm at work I need to be working hard.

Don't do it. Please. You are making great money. If you don't want to be your own boss, go back to corporate or sell your practice to one of these dental chains.
As a dentist you have much more freedom. Medicine and especially anesthetia is getting taken over by Wall Street. You will just be an abused cog in the wheel making less than you are now and in a much more stressful environment.

Don't do it. Find out the stresses that your wife is talking about and you will see.

This is probably the route I'll most likely do. Although having recently purchase the practice selling it isn't as easy as it seems. They'll be financial penalties involved and we won't know how long the practice will sit on the market. I've been in talks with my former corporate job and they have a potential job I can take over next summer, which gives me time to think things over.

 

[teeva]

As already said by others, don't do it. Take the idea out of your head.

You are rich, stable for the most part, and at the top of your career/field. It would be silly and even stupid to drop it all and forgo reliable income to go into anesthesia or OMFS. Diversify your interests and joys in life that will bring you acutal happiness and satisfaction. Collecting degrees, diplomas, and extra lines on your resume won't change the fact that you're in a medical field and have to deal with everything that comes along with it.

 

[Sublimazing]

Your best bet is to do a dental anesthesia residency. It's only a 2 year residency and they are all paid. Hours are also reasonable.

OMFS is ultracompetitive to get into and if even if you were accepted, are you prepared for the workload? A 32 hour week is pretty nice. The OMFS interns I knew in residency were Q3 in house call the entire years-when one was on vacation, they were Q2.... with NO POST CALL OFF. In other words, 30+ hour shifts every 2-3 days.

One of them told me since they were dentists and not MDs they weren't subject to the same duty hour rules we are. I'm not sure how true that is but our hospital adhered pretty tightly to the regs for the MDs so there must be some truth to it.

Also in response to Blade, the orthodontist and endodontist market is terrible. The job market is extremely saturated and their debt loads are staggering. I am talking 500-600k before buying a practice. College + dental schoool + tutition based residency programs.

Dental Anesthesia is 3 years now. That'd be a great route for OP, but it definitely doesn't come with "prestige"...most physicians compare you to a CRNA...and you spend the rest of your life explaining why a dentist is doing general anesthesia. It's fun though...and it definitely is a far cry from traditional dentistry. They are also more apt to accept a non-traditional applicant as opposed to OMFS.

 

[pjl]

This is not a financial decision for him, he just doesn't want the stress of running a practice. Also dislikes the up-sell.
You will have similar as a PP anesthesiologist, and similar monetary concerns if you are in a productivity based group. Only by being employed can you drop those concerns, but then you lose the control.

If what you want is less stress of the business, go be an employed dentist. Money is worse, but you will be fine financially with you plus spouse. Much better lifestyle in general as dentist.

Stresses as anesthesiologist:
Productivity pressure-surgeons want you available for them when it is convenient, not when they are scheduled only. They don't want any downtime during their day, want to quit cutting, call family say "everything went well" and start cutting while assistant closes first. Hospital wants you always there "just in case"
Employer stress-you are likely to supervise and/or employ CRNAs. Second to physicians they are the most entitled people you will meet. "It is 15:33 and I was supposed to be done at 15:30, I am not staying to finish the 5 more minutes" this is despite making 150-200k a year and time and a half for those extra 15 min.
Medical stress-patients will have bad outcomes, potentially death despite you trying your best. You may even hasten that process, and you have to live with it. You will frequently take poor candidates to be even getting out of bed, and ushering them through assassination attempts by surgeons.
Patient stresses-the expectation of many is that you will get them through surgery without pain, nausea, and will smile at them as they treat you with disrespect.
Lifestyle stress-no set end time, your last scheduled case ends at 14:00? Well the surgeon just clipped an artery and vascular is coming for 4 more hours, then there is a stat cesarean section. Call. Etc.

 

[Consigliere]

I've got one question for the OP: What are you an as_shole?

 

[pgg]

I've got one question for the OP: What are you an as_shole?

Dude, that's not helpful, or even entertaining.

 

[Consigliere]

Dude, that's not helpful, or even entertaining.

Hey, it's a legitimate question given everything he described.

 

[mja75]

You'd be surprised how important the "prestige"part of the equation is. OP knows the difficulties of gas first hand via his wife and has no objective reason/benefit to become an MD yet is still seriously considering it. Being told through jokes and mass media that "you're not a real doctor" for your whole career is something that will bother you to a significant degree. We take our positions for granted as MDs in the daily grind but I remember how prestigious and God-like my premed anesthesiologist preceptor was to me at that time.

 

[DaleDoback]

You'd be surprised how important the "prestige"part of the equation is. OP knows the difficulties of gas first hand via his wife and has no objective reason/benefit to become an MD yet is still seriously considering it. Being told through jokes and mass media that "you're not a real doctor" for your whole career is something that will bother you to a significant degree. We take our positions for granted as MDs in the daily grind but I remember how prestigious and God-like my premed anesthesiologist preceptor was to me at that time.

Nail on the head. I'm completely fine with my place in the "doctor" food chain, but I've got a bunch of friends that can't even laugh at the hangover "he's a dentist" scenes. That may play a bigger part in the OP mind than we think or he admits.

 

[deleted171991]

Smart people work for money, suckers work for titles.

 

[GA8314]

I'm an OMS that did a 4-year residency. We did 6 months of anesthesia as a CA-1. I have a tremendous amount of respect for anesthesiologists and realize that my 6 months is nothing in comparison to the 4 years that you guys put in.

That being said, I would never go back at 34 and start an OMS or anesthesia residency. If you are truly bored with dentistry, I would just find an expensive hobby to take up the other hours of your week. While it is fun for me to be in the hospital and do some bigger cases, I've realized that I get paid 10x as much for the same amount of time in the office doing dental-based procedures. Avoiding the troubles and chaos of the hospital is a true blessing sometimes that dentists take for granted.

I like what I do. Don't get me wrong. But, I often reflect peacefully about an office based practice (not really available to we anesthesiologists unless you do pain), and how the stress and, yes, chaos of the hospital is "overrated"..... I'm doing an overnight (in house) OB shift right now, as a page for rapid response just went overhead....LOL

 

[Twiggidy]

Smart people work for money, suckers work for titles.

and EVERYBODY who does anesthesia is in it for the money, regardless of what they believe

OP, I, for a minute, thought about switching specialties. I even had a long talk with someone in the specialty I wanted to switch to. He came at me straight. Being 5 years out myself (8 for you) would you really want to from being in the top 10% in salaries, back down to 50k/yr for 4-5 yrs. Yes, great money for alot of people, but you've already driven the Porsche, why go back to a Honda?

Something the guy I talked to brought up really opened my eyes.....Instead of switch and going backwards in you 30s (i'm 35 btw), ask yourself, what can you do to make your current job situation better? I took that to heart, especially after the thought of doing another residency, more exams, and being bossed around.

Oh, yeah, notice how almost everyone is talking about savoring "being your own boss"......unless you open a pain practice, you won't find that in anesthesia, so this is the wrong forum for that. You already have a practice open. I say, figure out a way to make that business work better for you.

 

[epidural man]

OP -

PLEASE oh PLEASE oh PLEASE don't do it.

I like twiggidy - he said - make your current situation better. YOu have a sweet gig. I totally get that perhaps your personality doesn't jive with a few things - the biggest being the guy that everything depends on. I also get that it totally stresses you out when you are not at work - that would suck. Also, I get that you are the type of person that can't stand not being busy. I know people like that too.

However, I think you could change a few things and keep your money and time and freedom and get rid of the stresses. Maybe hire a business manager. Or hire another dentist and make him CEO.

but DO NOT leave dentistry for medicine. That would seriously be the dumbest thing ever. I think all of us should leave medicine and become a dentist.

 

[CD4+ T]

OP, being a dentist IS being a real doctor. You are making more of a difference in people's lives than you can imagine.
I would argue that dentistry is just as important to a person's health as any other medical specialty is.

Please take some time to think or go volunteer to help some people in a foreign country who can't afford dentists and really need them.
I think dentistry gets a bad rap, but you guys are appreciated. I know without my dentist my quality of life would be terrible. I keep getting cavities despite my youth, and I'd probably be toothless or dead of some tooth-related infection by now without my wonderful doctor who keeps drilling. The same dentist fixed my aged father's mouth which was an absolute horror show, and took care of some abscesses that probably would have killed him, too. He "hates" going to the dentist, as the majority of people do, but he and most other people just don't get it.

Part of working a thankless job is that you don't often get thanked. Thank you for what you do. Try to find a way to be a dentist that you can live with, because we need you. You need to be the Batman of medicine. You went into dentistry for a reason, try to think back to why you did and to rekindle your inspiration. What you do is truly an art.

Forget the status and the money and the administrative headaches- they are a part of the daily struggle, but you can handle it. You are a healer and what you do is noble.

 

[EtherBunny]

I'm a dentist. 8 years out and just bought my own practice.
Wife's an anesthesiologist.

Dentistry has been good to me. Financially it allowed me to retire my student debt as well as my wife's debt while she was in residency. It has afforded me a lifestyle that has been pretty decent, I work 32 hrs a week with patients. Admin, add in another 8 hrs. But in reality I'm always thinking about the practice. Running a business is stressful.

At the peak of my career, I was in corporate dentistry making 350K working about 32hrs, and the number would just keep climbing. So this is not a financial decision.

There's a lot of "selling" in dentistry. When patients come to see me they want to hear all is well, not that they need a filling or a crown. And I'm not extroverted enough to do it day in and day out. Feels like a confrontation. My wife on the other hand. Goes into work and theres so much work to do, no selling.

Love the prestige that doctors tend to have over dentists. Love to keep getting better clinically vs. getting better selling. Because at the end of the day the most successful dentists are the ones that are extroverted, great at selling. What good are your clinical skills if you can't use them...

One of my dentist friends and I were talking about going back to school just in theory.

Could I do an OMFS route and go into anesthesia like some of the other anesthesiologists have?
Or would it be better just to apply to medical school and start all over again?
I'm about to turn 34. Is this too old?

Thanks for any input.

Very bad idea but I can understand why you're considering it. My dad is a dentist who has owned his practice for 30+ years, and I'm an anesthesiologist who subspecialized in interventional pain. A few reasons why you should forget about going back to med school...

1. More debt to service and a huge opportunity cost: Do you really want to incur an additional $200,000 to $300,000 of debt? The fact that you make over $300,000/yr now means that your opportunity cost in going back to med school, assuming a minimum of 8 years of training with $50,000/yr for half of them is at least $2,200,000. You will never recoup that opportunity cost. Incredibly bad financial decision.

2. You will absolutely hate being a trainee at this stage in your life. Right now you're an independent doctor and you're the boss, since you own the clinic. If you go back to med school, you'll be treated like dirt as a medical student on the wards and certainly as an intern and junior resident. The saying "s$&t rolls down hill" DEFINITELY applies to medical training. You will go from a situation of high power and authority to the complete opposite.

3. The crappy hours will get on your nerves in medicine, especially as a trainee. You're used to 35 hour work weeks with fairly predictable days and very rare emergencies that require you to come into the office. Undoubtedly you get all your weekends off and you get to sleep at home every night with no interruptions in your sleep by a pager. Your life as a trainee will be COMPLETELY different. 80 hrs/wk on average plus reading on top of that. 30 to 35 hour call days every 4th night, during which you're expected to be in the hospital the entire time. A pager that goes off every 15 minutes all night. Dealing with crazy situations during the wee hours of the morning.

4. Prestige comes at a price and it's not worth it.

There's an old adage in surgery: "the enemy of good is better." Right now you have a very good set of circumstances: high income, great hours, independence. It's very difficult to do better.

Just my $0.02

 

[Jay K]

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

- Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech (whether you liked the guy or not, his statement still resonates)

As others have said, as long as you're making a well-informed decision, have at it...

 

[Baller MD]

OP should go to medical school so that a few years down the line we can all say, "we told you so."

 

[MatCauthon]

DO IT!!!

You seem like you aren't content to just relax and enjoy your life, family, and fat bank account statement. Since you like to torture yourself, toil unnecessarily, and think endlessly about how unprestigious you are, you might as well indulge in your own suffering for the rest of your life.

 

[deleted547631]

I like @BLADEMDA's suggestion about doing an accelerated MD after getting the DDS/DMD. Have you also considered a dental anesthesia residency?

 

[yappy]

OP - Have you thought about changing your work situation to escape the aspects of the job you don't like? ie. are there hospital based dental departments where you live? Are you interested teaching at an AEGD or GPR program? Perhaps you can do a hybrid of teaching and private practice?

 

[Dr.p53]

OP, being a dentist IS being a real doctor. You are making more of a difference in people's lives than you can imagine.
I would argue that dentistry is just as important to a person's health as any other medical specialty is.

Please take some time to think or go volunteer to help some people in a foreign country who can't afford dentists and really need them.
I think dentistry gets a bad rap, but you guys are appreciated. I know without my dentist my quality of life would be terrible. I keep getting cavities despite my youth, and I'd probably be toothless or dead of some tooth-related infection by now without my wonderful doctor who keeps drilling. The same dentist fixed my aged father's mouth which was an absolute horror show, and took care of some abscesses that probably would have killed him, too. He "hates" going to the dentist, as the majority of people do, but he and most other people just don't get it.

Part of working a thankless job is that you don't often get thanked. Thank you for what you do. Try to find a way to be a dentist that you can live with, because we need you. You need to be the Batman of medicine. You went into dentistry for a reason, try to think back to why you did and to rekindle your inspiration. What you do is truly an art.

Forget the status and the money and the administrative headaches- they are a part of the daily struggle, but you can handle it. You are a healer and what you do is noble.

Inspiring ☺

 

[Ronin786]

If the selling portion is what you hate so much, why don't you hire a fresh grad who will do it for you? It will cut into your income but might make you more money in the long run as well as free you up to do the things you actually want.

 

[soorg]

Are you f$&ing crazy?! You're crazy, right? You HAVE to be crazy. This just reeks of craziness. I'd give my left nut (possibly even my right) for your gig. Please be sane. You won't give two ****s about prestige when you get up at 3 am for emergencies.

My prestige = having a good life bc I made right decisions in my youth. Don't be like us. Swim far, far away...

 

[Robotic Wis-Hipple]

I actually think it's refreshing to hear you're not completely satisfied and are looking/willing to put yourself thru more to acquire a higher level of satisfaction.

However, if you do anything, definitely discuss with your spouse the nitty gritty details of anesthesia, the things that you wouldn't know and the things that get to her. If you do anything Id say go the dental anesthesia route, it's shorter, you won't acquire a new $200k+ in debt, and you'd still end up with a sweet lifestyle gig. Plus you'd probably have more prestige among your peers/within you're own field (dentistry) which is part of what drives you.

With all that said, anesthesia is not the lifestyle field people think, nor do we have anywhere near the prestige people thing, atleast not in the hospital/medical community. Everyone thinks they can do our job, every bad outcome is blamed on us (see the seizure thread on the first page of this forum), nobody respects our management (drop a sick patient off in the ICU and see how nurses, little lone intensivists question your every move) despite none of these people being able to describe how it works or the physiology of anesthesia, and hospital admin thinks you're just an expense.

The grass is always greener....... With that said, I'm glad I'm here and I can't imagine doing anything else.

 

[ranvier]

Good discussion. Good luck. I wish I could be home more. We have toddlers.

 

[caligas]

I'm thinking of going to dental school. I could even do my own sedation.

 

[Machinery]

Again, I will use the spouse analogy. Asking people on SDN what specialty or career to choose is like asking random dudes what kind of wife you should marry. If you are the type that should be with the girl next door, you might take the wrong advice and end up with the freaky ho, or vice versa. It always boils down to what fits you best.

 

[badasshairday]

Do not do it.

You will 100% regret it.

OMFS is worth trying to do since it would be abbreviated slightly since you are already a dentist(?). Heard it is competitive as hell, so if it doesn't work out, no biggie. Keep working way less than any physician while making physician dough. Good luck.

 

[Crash cart]

OP:

I completely agree with almost everyone on this thread that has encouraged you to improve your current situation in favor of reinventing yourself. I won't rehash all the reasons that others have so eloquently presented.

I will say this:

You mentioned you have a toddler. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not throw away what you currently have for what (financially, anyway) is a lateral move. You will spend her formative years studying for many, many difficult exams, working on call in the hospital overnight 80+ hour/week, being exhausted - physically and emotionally unavailable for your children when they really need you. Call schedules will make you miss birthdays and holidays - and (at least as a resident), these are not flexible. Between you an your wife's schedule you will be paying someone else to raise your children.

I fear ultimately, you will deeply regret this decision.

As others have said, dentistry is noble. You can really help people. If you need to get the monkey off your back, sell the practice and be a company man. Nothing wrong with that. Do some missionary work, whatever you need to do.

But think about your children. YOU WILL NEVER GET THAT TRULY, TRULY PRECIOUS TIME BACK.




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