Can I ask a question to pre-dents.

[PDizzle]

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Does this post not confuse anyone else? Why in the world would someone with no training be doing oral surgery even in a latin america country?! WTF!?

Well, extractions and opening up an abscess are pretty easy things to do. Much easier than a class 2 composite! I guess you could glorify the above two procedures as "General oral surgery", especially on a resume or personal statement. 😀

 

[219122]

This is absolutely true. If you have anything in the form of a hobby, interest or talent you want to nurture, medicine will squeeze it out of your lifestyle. Your family and friends will not see you very often. Spending time with your pets and going on long vacations will also be a thing of the past (unless you're a derm). And when you're 80, almost dead, and looking back, I guarantee that in one way or another, you will wonder if you didn't miss out on a giant chunk of your life.
Also, your idealized perception of "saving people's lives" is an immature view. Thousands of people are in engineering for everything from telecommunications to designing toys and love what they do. Chefs, writers, chemists and optometrists all love what they do, and none of them are directly "saving people's lives" but are affecting people nonetheless. If you chose medicine because of its heroics factor, reconsider, because you're ultimately not going to leave any greater mark on the universe than any other person who made money, gave to charity, volunteered somewhere, or made some sort of impact through their work. 99.999% of the greatest people in the world whom we admire were not medical doctors. And despite your insistence that you're not "talking down" to dentists, your complete lack of understanding that your career is not a determinant of what you will actually do in the world is immature at best, arrogant at worst.

👍

 

[armorshell]

Does this post not confuse anyone else? Why in the world would someone with no training be doing oral surgery even in a latin america country?! WTF!?

Also, I don't think just writing that you copyright something makes it true, either.

 

[eight sat up]

So one of the man reasons is not because you would love what you were doing...it is more a lifestyle and salary choice?

As a pre-med (and accepted medical student for 2009), money and lifestyle are not even in the top 10 reasons why I want to be a physician. Love for what I am doing would be #1

I'm sorry, but even though I'm premed, that is a pretty bold and ignorant statement to make. Not considering your lifestyle as a factor in career choice is highly idealistic and regrettable. I don't know if you come from a background of physicians, but I sincerely hope you have enough knowledge to know that the medical field isn't all about "saving lives" and flowery thank you's. Secondly, how many physicians have you met in your extensive volunteering/shadowing that, 25 years down the line, still "LOVE what they do?"

Anyway, I'm premed, but I agree with the vast majority of predents who've posted thus far.

 

[preOMFS]

Wow. Some folks have too much free time on their hands. I thought I was on SDN too much.

Anyways, I also enjoy working with my hands: woodwork, gardening, fixing stuff, playing music blah blah blah. So I am applying to dental school for this reason and for the lifestyle, owning my own biz, ability to increase someones health, and get my DDS so I can apply to an OMFS residency. That rounds out the top five. I've really enjoyed working as an OMFS assistant. Cuttin' on people (or helping at least) is tons of fun!

Oh, and by the way skankonbest or whatever your name is. I save people's lives all the time at work when we put patients under IVGA and sometimes they have laryngospasms and I gotta bag 'em. But, nobody ever dies. Its a great deal!

 

[NyCzPeter]

I'm sorry, but even though I'm premed, that is a pretty bold and ignorant statement to make. Not considering your lifestyle as a factor in career choice is highly idealistic and regrettable. I don't know if you come from a background of physicians, but I sincerely hope you have enough knowledge to know that the medical field isn't all about "saving lives" and flowery thank you's. Secondly, how many physicians have you met in your extensive volunteering/shadowing that, 25 years down the line, still "LOVE what they do?"

Anyway, I'm premed, but I agree with the vast majority of predents who've posted thus far.

Finally a pre-med who doesn't lie to himself with his head up his ass. I love the ones who think they are gonna graduate and be just like House. Thank You sir, you helped me regain faith in pre-meds.

 

[bleech]

:troll:

 

[armorshell]

Finally a pre-med who doesn't lie to himself with his head up his ass. I love the ones who think they are gonna graduate and be just like House. Thank You sir, you helped me regain faith in pre-meds.

I wonder if applications to infectious disease or nephrology have increased since House started?

 

[btizzels]

I would like to point out that many times Dentists see their patients more often then Physicians do, which means they can many times find things that would otherwise go untreated until the situation got far worse. For example, on of my friends was found to have a cancerous lymph node during a routine intra oral exam. Turns out they found it in time, but had it not been for the dentist it probably would have metastasized before it was discovered.

And at my school we take many of our classes with med students, because like everyone has said, oral health has system effects beyond just the oral cavity. To the OP I sincerely hope that you enjoy med school, because in my opinion you don't seem to have a good grasp on the big picture of medicine, especially the part after med school. Anyway best of luck

 

[NyCzPeter]

I wonder if applications to infectious disease or nephrology have increased since House started?

I highly doubt it, because by the time they graduate, most get a much better picture of reality and the amount of debt they have procured. Then it becomes a matter of simple economics.

Heres a good poll. How much you think House gets paid? I'd guess around 200k. I'm pretty sure in one of the episodes about Taub, it said he gave up his plastic surgery millions for the job with House that barely cuts six figures.

 

[armorshell]

Heres a good poll. How much you think House gets paid? I'd guess around 200k. I'm pretty sure in one of the episodes about Taub, it said he gave up his plastic surgery millions for the job with House that barely cuts six figures.

He actually became a dentist: http://www.jefferson.edu/omfs/faculty/faculty_profile.cfm?key=dit101

 

[bjhath]

Heres a good poll. How much you think House gets paid? I'd guess around 200k. I'm pretty sure in one of the episodes about Taub, it said he gave up his plastic surgery millions for the job with House that barely cuts six figures.

Woah there turbo! Confusing fantasy with reality there just a little bit. Cut down on the TV. Actually, Hugh Laurie gets paid $400k per episode. http://www.actressarchives.com/news.php?id=12190

 

[219122]

^^ Pretty sure he was talking about how much House the fictional doctor character would get paid if he was a real person

 

[alanan84]

Well, extractions and opening up an abscess are pretty easy things to do. Much easier than a class 2 composite! I guess you could glorify the above two procedures as "General oral surgery", especially on a resume or personal statement. 😀

I guess that's true. My Dad used to "extract" our loose baby teeth with pliers from the garage.

 

[happyasaclam88]

this thread only confirms my desire to go into dentistry because all of the predent's responses to what could be perceived as a hurtful question have been so kind and honest!

 

[NyCzPeter]

He actually became a dentist: http://www.jefferson.edu/omfs/faculty/faculty_profile.cfm?key=dit101

ROFL its TAUB! haha

And yea I was talking about how much House the MD would get paid if he were real, not how much Hugh Laurie gets paid per episode.

 

[JamesOSU]

I like House as much as the next guy, but I really like Hugh Laurie. Have you ever heard him speak (he's English after all), his American accent is frickin' impressive!

Check this out:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/21598/house-house---hugh-laurie-on-houses-appeal#x-4,vclip,1

 

[crimsonite2099]

I guess that's true. My Dad used to "extract" our loose baby teeth with pliers from the garage.

I thought I was the only one!

 

[lhtran07]

The problem with students in the PRE- stage of education is that they think they know everything. There is no right or wrong career choice. The right career is the one you want to do when you are 40 for 25 more years until retirement. It's very absurd for 20 year olds to come on these boards criticizing other 20 year olds career path. People who shadow docs or dentists think they know all there is about that career but do not see in the details of that choice.

Not every doc/dentist/any other career is going to be happy with what they do when they are 40. People choose different paths for different reasons. The problem is most 20 year olds don't actually know whats going to be important to them in 20 years....if you can predict that early in life then you will be better off. You may think your career is going to be the most important thing in your life when you're 20, but by the time you get to be 40 if that is still the case then you lost out on a lot that life has to offer.

👍

I can't wait to hear how much you've changed people's lives for the better and all this mushy stuff when you're 3 years deep in your residency at some hospital where you have 5 min with each patient and are sleep-deprived, working for someone else, and numbingly unpassionate about individual patients anymore.

That's been known to happen to many students who think going in that they'll be influential and will change people's lives....but what they don't know is that they'll encounter numerous patients who don't give a rat's a** about their own health and won't do what's recommended after treatment to care for themselves.

After that, you will become numb and jaded, and then you'll start to care more about making choices that affect your lifestyle.

 

[murff05]

Just to reiterate what some pre-dents have already said - oral health can affect the rest of your body's health. My dad is a periodontist and has found cancerous lesions in more than one patients mouth. He helped them catch the cancer early. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

 

[219122]

This thread

Is why I could not be a doctor.

 

[David1991]

He actually became a dentist: http://www.jefferson.edu/omfs/faculty/faculty_profile.cfm?key=dit101

Had to bump this thread. The above was so weird...I was just thinking about how I'm going to see this guy on Monday and then a link is posted about him lol.

 

[ASuw]

I respect both; dentistry and medicine. I would choose dentistry because of two main reasons:
1) medicine requires long hours often night shifts
2) going into medicine means a lot of physical contact, which im not comfortable with.

I absolutely respect people who choose medicine, my mom and my two sisters are doctor and since childhood it was decided that i will go into medicine but after doing a lot of research about both professions..i feel dentistry suites me better.

 

[wwdaffodils]

I had a lot of pre-med friends in undergrad, and a lot of them sound like Sankondbest. At first I used to get annoyed, but then I started to pity them, because they were so completely doused in idealistic expectations. It's like they just put idealism in a bathtub and splashed around in it.

The medical field is not what it used to be, and here's a couple of examples I can think of off the top of my head. "Modern medicine" has slowed down the process of aging so much that most of your patients will be extremely old people suffering from dementia who should have died a long time ago. Patient interaction? Much, if not most, of your time will be spent satisfying the bureaucracy's need for paperwork, more paperwork, and... yes, even more paperwork. Insurance companies often will dictate which procedures you can and cannot do, regardless of the patient's need. Saving people's lives, a la Grey's or ER? Please. Have fun disimpacting the bowels of complete strangers, and then repeat that fun 18 times a day. There's a reason why dermatology/radiology is such a highly coveted speciality. It's because enchanted pre-med ideologs like you have finally realized what pre-dents have realized way back when: that no matter how "important" your job makes you feel, at the end of the day, it is still just a job. No more, no less. If you realize that, and still want to go into the medical field, good for you. But you should know that its not all excitement and trauma and fairy dust all the time. Sometimes... you have to disimpact bowels.

And by the way, one of the reasons I switched to dentistry is because dentists (as well as ophthalmologists) are some of the most sought-after professionals for health realted mission trips. Food for thought.

 

[BiomajorPreDent]

I chose dentistry for several reasons:

I will be able to do surgical procedures without having to go through a 5+ year residency, and be able to do so with normal hours.

I won't ever have to tell anyone they will die (unless you diagnose oral cancer but that's not quite the same)

I will be able to own and run my own business and make a very nice living.

Once I am established I can accept fee for service only, and I can choose to not have to deal with insurance that has been slowly crippling the medical profession.

Thats just a few that I was able to think of off of the top of my head.

To each his own 🙂