Advice Needed: Dental or Medical School?

[DentistryInMyFuture]

So heres my dilema. I can honestly say I love both Medicine and Dentistry. I have been actively working on my Dental School application for the application process this June and thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do (General Dentistry but do alittle bit of everything: fillings, crowns, Perio, Ortho, and Endo) given my personality and my tendency to get bored very quickly. HOWEVER, I stumbled upon Oral Pathology one day and that got me into looking at Anatomical/Clinical Pathology. Quite honestly, I really feel like Pathology itself is a great fit for me. I love science, and I LOVE the diagnostic aspect to Pathology. I considered Oral Pathology but it didn't look as appealing to me as Pathology did (both opportunities wise and the fact that it is a limited focus of the maxillofacial region).

The dilema is I work as a Dental Assistant and all my shadowing experience is with Dentistry so far. I retake the DAT in April (didn't do so well my 1st attempt as I tried studying while full-time in school). I would love to shadow a Pathologist to get a feel for it and see if it is really what I envision it to be, but back when I was looking to shadow a Physician I had no such luck and instead only heard from a Dentist. Seems like a Pathologist would be even harder to shadow than a family or internal medicine physician (correct me if I am wrong). I love the hands on aspect to Dentistry, but I really love the human body and love the idea of working in a field like Pathology. I have seen on some forums here that Pathology residencies are starting to be hard to get into and it looked as if the job market is saturated already, is this true?

Any thoughts or suggestions? Any light that can be shed on Path? I can say that I am not interested in Family, Internal, or any other form of general medicine. Would it be worth the risk to attempt to get into Medical School based on my interest in one speciality? I also don't know if I could be satisfied with just doing fillings and crowns as the majority of my business as a Dentist, nor if I am really cut out with running a Dental Practice? Would Oral Pathology be the best of both worlds?

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[DentistryInMyFuture]

There is always someone trolling forums trying to poke at others I guess

 

[Baller MD]

There is always someone trolling forums trying to poke at others I guess

Dude, if you have to retake the DAT, you're likely not smart enough for Derm. Life is not fair.

 

[W19]

Dude, if you have to retake the DAT, you're likely not smart enough for Derm. Life is not fair.

That is harsh

 

[DentistryInMyFuture]

I am interested in Pathology, lol. I don't get why people are focused on Dermatology, that was mentioned once in my post and not even my top choice by far??? I'll just take it out, jeeze. To be fair, someone who comes up with the username "Baller MD" doesn't exactly strike me as brillant either, just saying. As a side note, I don't know why everyone bashes the DAT, I took an MCAT practice test and found it much easier than the DAT IMO. I come on here to get good opinions, and instead am getting called stupid. Great community we have here. But seriously, can I get some helpful advice?!?

 

[Frazier]

If you get into med school and pass med school, you can be a pathologist. In other words, it isn't very competitive to just match.

That said, it sounds like you could potentially be content with a career in dentistry.

If someone can be content in both fields, they should choose dentistry every time, IMO. (Assuming dentistry doesn't mean "OMFS or bust"...which doesnt sound to be your case.)

 

[OnePunchBiopsy]

I was once interested in pathology. My idea of what I wanted to go into has changed many times since starting first year. I once wanted to go into family medicine, general internal medicine (hospitalist), emergency medicine, PM&R, pathology, and Hematology/Oncology IN THAT ORDER throughout first and second year. If you choose to go to medical school, do so with an open mind and with a general interest in ALL aspects of medicine.

I have seen on some forums here that Pathology residencies are starting to be hard to get into and it looked as if the job market is saturated already, is this true?

The problems facing Pathology is not the number of residencies, but the number of FELLOWSHIPS many pathologists have to complete after residency to even land a job. You could be looking at 4 years medical school + 4 years Anatomical/Clinical Path Residnecy + 1 or 2 years of fellowships JUST to get a job. Many pathologists are not even able to get a starting job where they want and have to be willing to move around the country.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Any light that can be shed on Path? I can say that I am not interested in Family, Internal, or any other form of general medicine. Would it be worth the risk to attempt to get into Medical School based on my interest in one speciality?

The first 3 years of medical school are filled with topics to learn besides pathology. First year is all about anatomy of the whole body, and the biochemical processes of how cells work at the submicroscopic level. You also have to learn how to take a full history and physical, something pathologists never do.

I am in 3rd year right now, and even though I am NOW heavily interested in general surgery (based on my experience during clinical rotations), I have to learn about pediatrics, OBGYN, family medicine, internal medicine, and psychiatry. If you were to go into medical school with such a focused view of what you wanted to do, I would worry about your willingness to finish medical school.

 

[Smurfette]

Moving to PreAllo....

 

[jokersmiles]

Do you want to have a life and raise a family with a stable marriage while having plenty of time for hobbies while making 160K? Choose Dentistry

Wanna save lives and work night shifts and a divorce? Choose Medicine

 

[OnePunchBiopsy]

Wanna save lives and work night shifts and a divorce? Choose Medicine

Ouch.
Based on the statistics though, I would rather be a physician and divorced than a dentist who commits suicide.

 

[W19]

Do you want to have a life and raise a family with a stable marriage while having plenty of time for hobbies while making 160K? Choose Dentistry

Wanna save lives and work night shifts and a divorce? Choose Medicine

Terrific advice coming from a pre-dent!

 

[lalex]

Ouch.
Based on the statistics though, I would rather be a physician and divorced than a dentist who commits suicide.

What stats? It would seem that a physician would have higher suicide rates?

 

[lalex]

Do you want to have a life and raise a family with a stable marriage while having plenty of time for hobbies while making 160K? Choose Dentistry

Wanna save lives and work night shifts and a divorce? Choose Medicine

lol I wonder how many dentists actually make that.

 

[OnePunchBiopsy]

What stats? It would seem that a physician would have higher suicide rates?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3642721/

Above source says dentists > physicians.

However, it really depends on the data source I suppose. The general sentiment now is veterinarians > dentists > physicians

 

[Dr Tony T. Chopper]

Werent there threads from purportedly veteran dentists who were bitter about large practice acquisition and less than ideal job market conditions? It sounded grim but then again you should take all things SDN with a large pinch of salt.

 

[Psai]

,

 

[DentistryInMyFuture]

I was once interested in pathology. My idea of what I wanted to go into has changed many times since starting first year. I once wanted to go into family medicine, general internal medicine (hospitalist), emergency medicine, PM&R, pathology, and Hematology/Oncology IN THAT ORDER throughout first and second year. If you choose to go to medical school, do so with an open mind and with a general interest in ALL aspects of medicine.



The problems facing Pathology is not the number of residencies, but the number of FELLOWSHIPS many pathologists have to complete after residency to even land a job. You could be looking at 4 years medical school + 4 years Anatomical/Clinical Path Residnecy + 1 or 2 years of fellowships JUST to get a job. Many pathologists are not even able to get a starting job where they want and have to be willing to move around the country.



The first 3 years of medical school are filled with topics to learn besides pathology. First year is all about anatomy of the whole body, and the biochemical processes of how cells work at the submicroscopic level. You also have to learn how to take a full history and physical, something pathologists never do.

I am in 3rd year right now, and even though I am NOW heavily interested in general surgery (based on my experience during clinical rotations), I have to learn about pediatrics, OBGYN, family medicine, internal medicine, and psychiatry. If you were to go into medical school with such a focused view of what you wanted to do, I would worry about your willingness to finish medical school.

Great insight, thanks! Thats just the thing, it makes me nervous to settle on something that forces me to focus on the mouth only when there are so many other awesome parts of the body! I took Endocrinology this past year and loved it, for example. I am also unsure if I have the hand dextricity for dentistry and I already have a bad back. On the other hand Dentist have a great lifestyle and I think if I performed a variety of procedures I could be happy doing it. I guess there is that fear of getting bored with it like I have read from Dentist on here before. Medicine has so many other options. Its a hard decision. I'd be afraid I felt like I was just settling with Dentistry when my interest spread far beyond the scope of oral health.

 

[OnePunchBiopsy]

Great insight, thanks! Thats just the thing, it makes me nervous to settle on something that forces me to focus on the mouth only when there are so many other awesome parts of the body! I took Endocrinology this past year and loved it, for example. I am also unsure if I have the hand dextricity for dentistry and I already have a bad back. On the other hand Dentist have a great lifestyle and I think if I performed a variety of procedures I could be happy doing it. I guess there is that fear of getting bored with it like I have read from Dentist on here before. Medicine has so many other options. Its a hard decision. I'd be afraid I felt like I was just settling with Dentistry when my interest spread far beyond the scope of oral health.

Usually the practice dynamics of a field (the day to day life) of a specialty is different than how the relevant material appears in the text book. This is why I originally loved internal medicine. The pathophysiology of diabetes, COPD, and many chronic health conditions really captivated me.

....Then I started 3rd year of medical school, and realized that managing the patients with those chronic diseases was not only difficult for me mentally, but at the end of the day I was aching to leave. With surgery, I could stay in the OR all day and actually want to see more. Surgery patients were some of my best patients to round on.

You say you like endocrinology, I do too, but I would not like managing diabetic patients 8-5 every day for the rest of my life, let alone diabetic patients REFERRED to endocrine by an internal medicine doctor (imagine how bad those patients must be). That is just not me.

I really recommend that you brainstorm your real interests, write them down, and shadow a few of them. You never know what you will see! Best of luck to you!

 

[Dral]

Hi OP:

You've learned your first lessons about posting on the medicine side of sdn: Maybe 1/5 of posts fulfill both the criteria of addressing the OPs concern or question and are actually being helpful. Also, mention competitiveness and Derm is almost always brought up...usually in a negative light. Just straight out mention of Derm and BAM you asked for it...as you found out. (I'm not saying that anyone who mentioned Derm in this thread is necessarily wrong in anything they said though)

Anyway, as alluded to in one of the useful posts earlier, Pathology job market is not that good. Check out the pathology forum as most of the threads there touch on the horrible job market. Remember that SDN isn't the end all of information, but there has to be something to it if it is discussed so much. I went the Derm/Dermpath route. I can verify that the job market for Derm vs Dermpath is night and day. Derm jobs are plentiful...Dermpath (and path) jobs are scarce. I signed on to an awesome job that will be starting with a lot more derm than dermpath, with the dermpath to hopefully increase in the near future.

As an aside, the Derm/Dermpath combo is pretty unique in that you can balance clinical (derm) and non-clinical (dermpath) fields. Things like interventional rads can as well. Not everyone wants to be split up like that, but it's nice for those who like a change of pace. You alluded to that personality characteristic of yourself (bored easily), so I thought I'd throw in that info.

You need to know about the path job market before you get in much further. Also, shadowing a pathologist should in theory be easier than clinical shadowing since there are increasing issues with non med students or doctors being able to have access to patients without a bunch of verification and patient permissions. That may be less of an issue with pathology since most of it does not involve direct patient contact.

You may look into oral pathology training after the dentistry route. Here is a link to Columbias program as an example:
http://dental.columbia.edu/page/residency-program-oral-and-maxillofacial-pathology-0

 

[Dr.Smexy]

Lol if you think the MCAT is easier just by taking "a practice test" from some random prep company, you are in for a rude awakening. Sorry to burst your bubble but I have a few friends already who either took both test or ace the MCAT and tutor both test for a company...the consensus is that the DAT is NO where near the level of the MCAT (two guys score 21 and 22 respectively on the DAT while both have <29 on the old MCAT) If you have to retake the DAT, you will likely not able to get a decent score on the MCAT unless you put in three or four times the effort.
As for as pathology, if you get into medical school, you'll likely get a spot unless you're fail at med school hardcore.

 

[DentistryInMyFuture]

Lol if you think the MCAT is easier just by taking "a practice test" from some random prep company, you are in for a rude awakening. Sorry to burst your bubble but I have a few friends already who either took both test or ace the MCAT and tutor both test for a company...the consensus is that the DAT is NO where near the level of the MCAT (two guys score 21 and 22 respectively on the DAT while both have <29 on the old MCAT) If you have to retake the DAT, you will likely not able to get a decent score on the MCAT unless you put in three or four times the effort.
As for as pathology, if you get into medical school, you'll likely get a spot unless you're fail at med school hardcore.

An old AAMC MCAT test is considered a Prep Company!!?? Sign me up with them then!!! BTW, making an 18AA on the DAT while taking 25 credit hours and studying only 2 months a couple of hours a day is pretty decent. I think it all boils down to what kind of test you prefer, I actually like the critically thinking involved with the MCAT and found quite a few passages gave away the answer if you read it. Some of these people shouldn't be on here giving advice, as one reply points out. I am sorry to hurt the ego but there are some people who find the MCAT easier due to preference. It is what it is. Anyways, I appreciate the HELPFUL advice I have gotten thus far. I think all there is to do now is to take a week and really decide which route I want to go based on the pros and cons on my list.

 

[Psai]

An old AAMC MCAT test is considered a Prep Company!!?? Sign me up with them then!!! BTW, making an 18AA on the DAT while taking 25 credit hours and studying only 2 months a couple of hours a day is pretty decent. I think it all boils down to what kind of test you prefer, I actually like the critically thinking involved with the MCAT and found quite a few passages gave away the answer if you read it. Some of these people shouldn't be on here giving advice, as one reply points out. I am sorry to hurt the ego but there are some people who find the MCAT easier due to preference. It is what it is. Anyways, I appreciate the HELPFUL advice I have gotten thus far. I think all there is to do now is to take a week and really decide which route I want to go based on the pros and cons on my list.

Your username says it all

 

[Biochemistry2014]

An old AAMC MCAT test is considered a Prep Company!!?? Sign me up with them then!!! BTW, making an 18AA on the DAT while taking 25 credit hours and studying only 2 months a couple of hours a day is pretty decent. I think it all boils down to what kind of test you prefer, I actually like the critically thinking involved with the MCAT and found quite a few passages gave away the answer if you read it. Some of these people shouldn't be on here giving advice, as one reply points out. I am sorry to hurt the ego but there are some people who find the MCAT easier due to preference. It is what it is. Anyways, I appreciate the HELPFUL advice I have gotten thus far. I think all there is to do now is to take a week and really decide which route I want to go based on the pros and cons on my list.

A week of contemplation likely won't cut it. These are life-changing decisions. Do not make such a decision unless you are completely sure you know what you want out of your career and your life. Both processes are expensive, do you really want to be thousands of dollars in debt before you realize you made the wrong decision?

Also, AAMC practice test 3 (the free old one) was incredibly easy compared to the actual old MCAT. On top of that the new MCAT is more broad and more draining. Don't underestimate it based on an easy practice test, especially if you have had trouble with getting a competitive DAT score. Study twice as hard and earn a good score if you decide to go that route.