Help me decide DDS vs DH

[H2O genie]

I am a teacher recently going back to school, I was thinking a career as a dentist or a dental hygienist but I really can't decide between the two. I plan on doing some shadowing of the two careers. I am leaning toward DDS but I worry about the fine motor skills, I am talking the very fine motor skills. The kicker is that none of my undergrad course work will count as I am 6 years out of school and the limit is five years. This is funny as I teach Biology and basic chemistry and those are the courses that I will need to take again. Point being I would have to go back to school for 2 years before even applying for Dental school or I could spend one year a community college and apply for the BA Dental Hygienist at the same school.
I am very much in need of guidance and help from other people in the field.

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[BeaverLover]

Your better off shadowing both and figuring it yourself

 

[1passbbsSHAVE]

I am a teacher recently going back to school, I was thinking a career as a dentist or a dental hygienist but I really can't decide between the two. I plan on doing some shadowing of the two careers. I am leaning toward DDS but I worry about the fine motor skills, I am talking the very fine motor skills. The kicker is that none of my undergrad course work will count as I am 6 years out of school and the limit is five years. This is funny as I teach Biology and basic chemistry and those are the courses that I will need to take again. Point being I would have to go back to school for 2 years before even applying for Dental school or I could spend one year a community college and apply for the BA Dental Hygienist at the same school.
I am very much in need of guidance and help from other people in the field.

Some of my prereq classes are very old, I'd say at least 9~10 years. If you take upper level science courses, maybe that will alleviate the time limit of your prereqs.

My
bio 1/bio 2 are from 2004
chem 1/ chem 2 are from 2004
orgo 1 2005, orgo 2 2006
physics 1 2005 physics 2006
biochem 1 2007
microbiology 2007

I did take more classes afterwards (immunology, biochem 2, advanced microbio, advanced organic chemistry, neuroanatomy)

I think you should definitely check out both careers by shadowing. Two have completely different scope of practice. Personally, I don't think I would ever want to do same thing over and over again like hygienist clean teeth all day.

Things you should consider
-hygiene school is either 2 or 4 years, but it's not a doctorate degree, associates or bachelor
-dental school is 4 years, but you get a doctorate degree and you get to be your own boss (and of many others)

 

[1passbbsSHAVE]

on the bright side, since you are teaching bio and chem, you should do really well on science part of the DAT.
I have been a tutor for the longest time and I think that has helped me tremendously on my DAT. Stuff that I teach to students, I can never forget them. It's like they are ingrained in my brain my verbalizing it many times. I am sure you would benefit from your teaching job as well (that is if you decide to go d-school route)

 

[distressstudent]

So why do you even want to be a dentist or hygienist to begin with?