Dentistry Pep Talk, anyone?

The amount of depressing threads in the dental forum has skyrocketted lately. I don't understand why, though it seems to have gotten worse since DDS students ventured into the MD forum and MD students have come into here. Now more than ever, we need to drive up our enthusiasm and realize that there are tons of people who would give anything to be in our shoes. We all know oral health is important to overall health and well being. Anyone have positive things to say? Regardless, here are my 2 cool life altering dental stories...that I have seen personally.

Story 1: Woman in her late 40s comes in with a large gap between her 2 front teeth. She won't smile, you can tell her self esteem is very low. After her visit with the help of a dentist, some resin and bonding, she was the happiest woman I have seen in my life.

Story 2: The cancer hospital I work in, a patient gets a new eye and nose (and everything in between) thanks to her maxillofacial prosthodontist.

This doesn't touch on the work of Oral Surgeons, ortho, endo, perio etc because I haven't personally observed them.

Anyone have a dental pep talk?

It was an old warehouse down by the river. A fire broke out from some wiring gone bad on a security light. Four alarms. Three trapped persons up on the roof. Speeding through traffic under a full moon, hoping against hope we would be there on time.

Wait, this is the dental forum. It was in an old warehouse down by the river, I had been paged to respond and was instructed to come and come quick. All I had was my pocket knife. Then it came to me. The first TV sitcom about dentists - MacGyver, DDS.

Toddler smashes into soccer post, baby teeth and permanent teeth start coming in improperly. By age 8, begun to extract teeth in order to "make room". Doesn't really help as now the problem is still just as bad. By this point, the kid hates smiling. Age 12, extract even more teeth. This time novocaine doesn't do **** and the kid has to see an oral surgeon. Kid gets braces a short time after... fast forward 3 years... braces removed. Totally different person... An orthodontist's "masterpiece". 6 years later... the kid is entering dental school.

See, those are some cool stories... well except for that lovely irrelevant fire story, but I can see how how that would be cool too. Just 3 weeks ago my husband and I followed smoke to a huge warehouse fire (3 buildings). It was really interesting. I never stood so close to one (200 feet)... I had no desire to get closer, but we watched for 2 hours.

How about this article... accents the schedule, earnings, stress factors

http://mdsalaries.blogspot.com/2007/04/dentist-versus-primary-care-doctor.html

Another great pep talk

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IQVr6f6FL5Y

djeffreyt said:

Another great pep talk

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IQVr6f6FL5Y

Click to expand...

Hey... that motivational speaker is me in 7 years

saw a lady get a crown that looked so good she wasn't sure which tooth was real and which was the crown. that was so awesome to see how happy she was with the work.

Dr. Trey Wilson, a dentist in NYC, was featured tonight on a CNN special CNN Heroes. He goes on dental missions to kenya where there is 1 dentist for every 60,000 people. he provides education and tx...

Here is the story.

if this doesn't solidify our decision to enter this profession, i don't what does!

jb!🙂