Concerned... Dentistry is... Boring?

[ElPedorro]

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As I transition into my second year of dental school and the course load is becoming increasingly focused on dentistry rather than basic sciences, I can't help but feel a little bored. Cutting preps and restoring teeth can be fun, but I suspect once the excitement of using a handpiece for the first time wears off that will become fairly mundane and dull.

I go to a school where there are med students as well, and I can't help but feel like I made the wrong choice going into dentistry after seeing what/how they learn. They took several months to learn individual systems, whereas we just got an incredibly basic physiologic overview. I'm interested in biomedical sciences and I feel like we get so little of that in dentistry - the difficulty and depth of our courses is so much less than medical students. Furthermore, the level of instruction at my school is atrocious - most of the basic science teachers treat the dental students like grunts who don't need to know anything. They come to class disinterested in teaching us and want to teach us as little as possible. What's even more infuriating is that most of my class is pumped if a teacher decides to skip a lecture or a slide out of sheer laziness. For the amount of money I'm paying to be here, I expected far better instruction and enthusiastic instructors.

I know I'm still fairly new in school, but lately I've been feeling like this is all an incredibly overpriced joke of a curriculum and education. I guess I just wanted to see if anyone else was feeling the same way on here. I'm going to stick it out, because frankly I don't have much of a choice with the loans I've taken, I just hope school and ultimately professional practice becomes more stimulating.

 

[psiyung]

the best thing you can do is get into a 6 year omfs program and keep your grades up in the meantime...you will continue to transition out of the sciences and more into dentistry during years 3 and 4...if you really despise it maybe you can go back and do medical school

 

[mrdocta]

You did choose to go to dental school.. you seem surprised that med students go into more detail when learning about the individual systems. And I'm sure the med students at your school and students at any other dental/med school get just as pumped when a lecture is canceled...

 

[Saddleshoes]

Dentistry IS boring!

It's the people we do the dentistry for that make it so very interesting. If you find the basic sciences are more interesting than the interactions with the people, I would suggest looking into the academic end of the dental game and staying away from the clinical part.

I suspect the same is true of medicine too.

 

[yappy]

I am not a DDS graduate yet but at one time I thought very similar to you, OP. Let me offer you two ideas that I have been thinking about lately.

1. It's true that medical school curriculum is very interesting if you enjoy the bio-medical sciences; however, once they're in practice everything they do is much more clinically oriented. They stay in the sand-box of theory longer than dental students do but soon enough they're also dealing with mainly a subset of diseases, medications, and methods of treatments. I've decided that this is because dental education is designed to prepare you for practice right after graduating; therefore, the "training" begins sooner. Conversely, medical students spend much longer learning theory and rely on residency for training.

2. Actual dentistry on people is nothing like what you'll do in the simulation clinic. Treating real patients is much more difficult and variable than doing ideal preps. The amount of time you'll spend thinking about how to treat people, consolidating information, is greater than what you do while learning techniques during first and second year.

EDIT: I 100% support your criticism of the quality of professional school didactics. I'm beginning to suspect that they're universally poor compared to undergrad. I suggest doing all the readings, reading relevant journals, and setting your own standards. I promise you the effort will not be wasted; soon enough you'll be seeing patients who will be placing a ton of trust in you.

 

[Mackchops]

I am not a DDS graduate yet but at one time I thought very similar to you, OP. Let me offer you two ideas that I have been thinking about lately.

1. It's true that medical school curriculum is very interesting if you enjoy the bio-medical sciences; however, once they're in practice everything they do is much more clinically oriented. They stay in the sand-box of theory longer than dental students do but soon enough they're also dealing with mainly a subset of diseases, medications, and methods of treatments. I've decided that this is because dental education is designed to prepare you for practice right after graduating; therefore, the "training" begins sooner. Conversely, medical students spend much longer learning theory and rely on residency for training.

2. Actual dentistry on people is nothing like what you'll do in the simulation clinic. Treating real patients is much more difficult and variable than doing ideal preps. The amount of time you'll spend thinking about how to treat people, consolidating information, is greater than what you do while learning techniques during first and second year.

EDIT: I 100% support your criticism of the quality of professional school didactics. I'm beginning to suspect that they're universally poor compared to undergrad. I suggest doing all the readings, reading relevant journals, and setting your own standards. I promise you the effort will not be wasted; soon enough you'll be seeing patients who will be placing a ton of trust in you.

This is a great post.

If you're so drawn by the biological sciences, then why did you choose dentistry? Especially in school, procedural learning is king - everything else is "foundational knowledge" and this will follow suit for your career. I would recommend doing some soul searching and figure out why you're training to become a dentist. If it's because you're a biochemistry nut and couldn't really care at all about cutting teeth, playing with wax, and making pretty smiles then I would recommend reconsidering your career decision - it's not too late when a lifetime of subpar satisfaction is on the line...

 

[toothdriller2k17]

let me tell you, the first 2 years of dental school suck. before you know it, you'll have your own living and breathing patient. it'll change your views, i promise you.

 

[Kayaker89]

I would think being a medical doctor would get pretty boring after a while. If your a primary care, or internal medicine all you really do all day is interview patients , do a test, then prescribe a drug based on the test, or refer, over and over again. Also be sure not to miss something or you can get sued. I guess being a surgeon or ER doc may be pretty exciting but have fun working 80 hour weeks and hope you like getting woken up at 3am. At least with dentistry who work normal hours with little or no residency, get to know patients and then do the procedures on patients (a lower stress form of. surgery really)

 

[Kayaker89]

Also if you look at the toughest residencies to get out of med school, it's not surgery , it's.... Dermatology. Why because they make a lot of money have normal hours and the profession is pretty low stress for the most part. Well you can do all that as well. I've shadowed dermatologists and from what I gather it's 10x as boring as dentistry is. You just look for cancer all day and then cut it off on a specific surgery day. Just my two cents anyway

 

[Miley Cyrus.]

Finishing up D1. Dentistry is hella boring!!!