I have shallowed a dentist and a pharmacist, but I still can’t decide which one I like more. Both professions have something that I like and I don’t like.
I have listed out the things I like/don’t like or good/not good at both professions.
Dental school
Good:
- I love microbiology, physiology and anatomy
- Good future (high paying, can find a job)
- High status
- Provide treatments (more fulfilling because you are making people better rather than doing checking and making recommendations as a pharmacist)
- Work with hands (less boring)
Bad:
- No feeling to teeth (I won’t get excited whenever I see a real or a picture of tooth)
- Not good at doing business
- Not good at talking to people (I can talk to people and explain treatment, but I’m not good at doing small talks)
- High tuition (75k)
- May need to deal with patients with gross teeth or bad breath
Pharmacy school
Good:
- I love chemistry and physiology
- Get excited whenever I see drugs (I don’t know why, probably they look like candies?)
- I love drugs because it’s amazing and help treating people
- Have a deep knowledge in this field. Since I’m a pharmaceutical sciences major, I took some pharmacy classes and attended pharmacy conference. I know pharmacy issues eg. automation, saturation, etc.
- Relatively less expensive tuition (40k)
- Not need to own a business
- Many different pharmacy fields
- I know a lot of pharmacy students (connections)
Bad:
- Job saturation
- Less recognized as dentists
- Salary doesn’t increase much after working for many years
- Not good at memorizing drug names (I can remember medical terms easily, but not drug names)
- Have to stand for all day
Go Dentistry. Back in the day, I was about to enter a Pharm.D program. I was a naive youngster who thought it was an easy, relatively high paying job. Then I realized how boring it was, and I'd probably kill myself if I went into pharmacy as a wage slave. I ended up switching to dentistry and it was probably the best career decision I could have made. Personality-wise, my fellow pharmers back in the day were pretty anal, and I think this reflects a lot on the rules and regulations that their profession is bound to. In dentistry, you have pure autonomy. Do what you want as long as you can justify it to the board (if you ever have to), with minimal regulatory oversight.
You don't have to love teeth, but you should love to make money. Dentistry has a lot higher income potential, better future outcomes, and you're wearing a mask and gloves. This isn't your grandpa's gloveless dentistry. If you hate the smell, go wear a duckmask (N95's) with a fragrance strip in the mask. I'm more grossed out by patients who don't bathe or shower. I've had a time where I had to do a hand signal to my DA's to ninja some glade plugins in a patient room due to severe BO.
You should try to learn business and you should learn to establish a relationship quickly with patients. You don't have to change who you are, but think of it like being an actor. You have your work persona and your own identity out of work.
Edit:
Stop right there.
You cannot want to become a dentist without the love of the job all centered around teeth.
At least you like drug things for pharmacy.
Status? Tsk, man.
Totally not true, you don't have to love teeth to become a dentist, but you should want to treat/help patients via their teeth/gums. I, sure as hell, am not IN love with teeth, but I like getting patients out of pain and making money. It's a relatively easy and financially rewarding job. Status doesn't matter, being a dentist is awesome because when things go right, I'm a doctor, when things go wrong, I'm just a dentist. See the greatness of that duality?
