Dentist or Physician...

[Chuckde]

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It's been about a year since I decided to stick to dentistry. Recently I've been having a change of heart to switch to general physician.

It's not the money that concerns me, but rather the work I will be doing. and both have similar work hours as well as similar lifestyles, so neither is a concern for me.

I picked dentistry before because I wasn't to fond of seeing blood or open wounds. But after shadowing my dentist, I have learned its not much better. And I have adapted more to the sight of flesh and blood.

So my question to myself was, if the only reason I picked dentistry was because of a trivial problem, should I begin considering medical school rather than dental?

I'll probably have to dig within and find which one I can love more. But if anyone else can give some advice, perhaps tell me about how they coped with this, or steps I can take to find out which is more fit for me, or any other insight would be great

 

[dinostars]

So my question to myself was, if the only reason I picked dentistry was because of a trivial problem, should I begin considering medical school rather than dental?

I'm thinking you should seriously re-consider both professions. If you really want to do something, for whatever reason, it should take waaaay more than a little blood to scare you off.

 

[JamesOSU]

Not to mention 50% of GPs wish they could leave the profession... sounds like a happy bunch.

 

[lhtran07]

Not too fond of blood and open wounds? You have to remember that before you get to a be a GP, you have to go through med school and residency. In med school, you'll have to rotate through a majority of the specialties, in which you'll be exposed to a lot of blood and open wounds. Not to mention, gross anatomy is in both dental and med school...so not sure if working on a cadaver would bother you.

You really need to have more exposure to both fields to find out what you like and don't like. I really don't have any advice on how to cope with the sight of blood and such. It never bothered me and I've been working as a pathology assistant for the past 4.5 yrs so I see surgical specimen, amputations, etc. all day, everyday. But if it bothers you that much...you might really have to consider a different career path. Maybe pharmacy?

 

[iJackTeeth]

It's been about a year since I decided to stick to dentistry. Recently I've been having a change of heart to switch to general physician.

It's not the money that concerns me, but rather the work I will be doing. and both have similar work hours as well as similar lifestyles, so neither is a concern for me.

I picked dentistry before because I wasn't to fond of seeing blood or open wounds. But after shadowing my dentist, I have learned its not much better. And I have adapted more to the sight of flesh and blood.

So my question to myself was, if the only reason I picked dentistry was because of a trivial problem, should I begin considering medical school rather than dental?

I'll probably have to dig within and find which one I can love more. But if anyone else can give some advice, perhaps tell me about how they coped with this, or steps I can take to find out which is more fit for me, or any other insight would be great

if you cant stand blood, maybe you need to look into pharmacy

 

[RAK1987]

i agree with the posters above. i really think you should shadow both professions and do your own research about them before you make a decision.

...if it's blood that got ya, then maybe consider other professions within the medical field too... something like pharmacy won't expose you to tons of blood.... or physical therapy.... just a couple of suggestions. just dig around the professions and find out all that you can about them. good luck.

 

[Chuckde]

thank you for the feedback, but I think my post was a bit confusing. What I meant to say was blood and wounds DON'T bother me as much anymore and perhaps I should keep medical school insight.

 

[shinbone86]

It takes a lot more training to be medical doctor. You have to go through 3-4 years of residency for most programs after medical school, while after dental school, you can starting practicing as a general dentist. Also many GPs are closing down their private practices because of the poor economy. So I am not so sure you want to head in that direction.

 

[lhtran07]

The best insight you can get into whether or not med is for you is to talk to/shadow attendings, residents, and med students at a teaching hospital. They're more in touch with the "current events" within the medical field and the road that medicine is heading toward within the next 10 yrs.

I did that this summer and it allowed me to really see the in's and out's of the medical field......and from there I decided that pursuing an MD was not for me. DDS here I come!


Also take a peek at the pre-med and md/do forums. They might be able to give a little insight, or at least a different perspective...we pre-dents tend to be a bit biased when asked about med vs. dent. 😉

 

[Lurchdubious]

The best insight you can get into whether or not med is for you is to talk to/shadow attendings, residents, and med students at a teaching hospital. They're more in touch with the "current events" within the medical field and the road that medicine is heading toward within the next 10 yrs.

I did that this summer and it allowed me to really see the in's and out's of the medical field......and from there I decided that pursuing an MD was not for me. DDS here I come!


Also take a peek at the pre-med and md/do forums. They might be able to give a little insight, or at least a different perspective...we pre-dents tend to be a bit biased when asked about med vs. dent. 😉

This is good advice.
Sounds like you need to do a lot more research on what you want to do with the rest of your life. Time to shadow like crazy! Good luck.

 

[Contach]

The best insight you can get into whether or not med is for you is to talk to/shadow attendings, residents, and med students at a teaching hospital. They're more in touch with the "current events" within the medical field and the road that medicine is heading toward within the next 10 yrs.

I did that this summer and it allowed me to really see the in's and out's of the medical field......and from there I decided that pursuing an MD was not for me. DDS here I come!


Also take a peek at the pre-med and md/do forums. They might be able to give a little insight, or at least a different perspective...we pre-dents tend to be a bit biased when asked about med vs. dent. 😉

This seems like an awesome experience..
What things did they say to turn you off of being a physician?

 

[lhtran07]

It wasn't anything they said or did...just certain things I noticed about the career that I didn't think suited what I was looking for. It really was more of a personal decision than a concrete pro-con list.

Being a physician...it's more about managing a patient's care. You see the patient for maybe 3 minutes and then you're off charting and ordering more labs, workups, procedures. You don't do daily procedures unless you specialize and the only specialty that I was even interested in was interventional radiology. I like to be more hands-on with treatment...and dentistry is very hands-on and there's a lot of direct patient care involved. There's less "behind-the-scenes" care. Lifestyle is a big factor also.

One of the attendings I shadowed was talking about the growing trend of hospitals hiring more hospitalists, the decreasing reimbursements from insurance companies, and the decrease in GP's with more and more nurse practitioners coming in....all that just didn't sit well with me either.

On top of that, my boyfriend is a 4th year med student so seeing what all he's had to go through with boards, rotations, residency interviews....it all pushed me to go in the other direction. If you think applying to dental school is hell....it's nothing compared to applying to a residency program. Also if you go the med route, you'll have step 1 boards, step 2 boards, and then residency boards as well. The testing is non-stop...whereas with dental school you don't need to go through residency unless you want to.

All this is just my take on things....don't let it skew your decision, Chuck. If you don't think you'll be happy as a dentist, then take a look at med and make up your own opinions about the field. Only you know what's right for you.

 

[rewJW]

Being a physician...it's more about managing a patient's care. You see the patient for maybe 3 minutes and then you're off charting and ordering more labs, workups, procedures ... with dental school you don't need to go through residency unless you want to.

I totally agree, the lack of patient interaction is one of the things that turned me away from going down the medical path. I love that as a dentist I'll get to be the one doing most of the interaction with my patients (although it is true that in some cases the assistant does more of the talking than the dentist).

But just a correction, you do need to do at least a 1 year residency after your 4 years of d-school to practice in the state of New York. It's still true that if you don't want to do a residency you don't have to - you can choose not to practice in NY. lol

 

[lhtran07]

Yea, I'm from the south and plan on staying here. My family is all here so having the support would be great.

 

[Hawkeye7685]

The biggest problem that I learned when I took a MD internship one summer was that insurance companies are murdering general medicine. All of the doctors I spoke to had one continuous complaint. They felt they spent more time dealing with insurance companies and doing their mounds of paper work then working with patients. When I shadowed my dentist he did say that insurance was part of the deal but he also said that he spends most of the time at work actually performing procedures. Which, should be the goal of anybody pursuing a career in health. I want to deal with patients all the time. I personally love the idea of fixing peoples problems using my training. That's why I chose dentistry and turned down the idea of being an MD.

Also that 50% statistic listed above was a pretty good sign that I made the right choice.

 

[Chuckde]

"I totally agree, the lack of patient interaction is one of the things that turned me away from going down the medical path. I love that as a dentist I'll get to be the one doing most of the interaction with my patients"

This was probably the main reason I was thinking of MD. To me, it seems as though I'll be able to interact and have better verbal conversations with my patients as an MD because a dentist works on the mouth which renders the patients ability to speak.

I'm going to shadow both this semester and figure out which is for me. But all of your post have definitely helped me out in figuring out if I am making the best decision for my life.

 

[Jake8]

I'm going to shadow both this semester and figure out which is for me. I am making the most important decision in my life.

Shadow both like crazy and longer than a semester so that you can see the ins and outs of each profession and after you have seen the highs and lows you will know which is the right profession for you. We can all give our opinions to you but ultimately you have to pursue what you think is the best field for you. Be able to list the pros and cons of each and don't be afraid to ask in depth questions because this is the most important decision and it should not be made on a whim.

 

[peterngu]

"I totally agree, the lack of patient interaction is one of the things that turned me away from going down the medical path. I love that as a dentist I'll get to be the one doing most of the interaction with my patients"

This was probably the main reason I was thinking of MD. To me, it seems as though I'll be able to interact and have better verbal conversations with my patients as an MD because a dentist works on the mouth which renders the patients ability to speak.

I'm going to shadow both this semester and figure out which is for me. But all of your post have definitely helped me out in figuring out if I am making the best decision for my life.

I think it would be a good idea to start asking the physicians that you shadow about how they feel about the future of primary care physicians, especially with the prominence of Nurse Practitioners, emergence of both Doctors of Nurse Practice, and the Kaiser model of health care (at least from what I hear from specialists at UCLA Medical that have their own practice). It seems like the private practice for primary care physicians won't be around much longer with nurses being able to do a few extra years of school to earn diagnosing and prescribing privileges, independent of a physician. If you're looking for increased patient interaction, general physicians won't fit the bill for long, if at all anymore.

Try Doctor of Nursing Practice! They probably have the most patient interaction!

 

[Lurchdubious]

To me, it seems as though I'll be able to interact and have better verbal conversations with my patients as an MD because a dentist works on the mouth which renders the patients ability to speak.
.

Since when has that ever stopped dentists from asking questions?

 

[Dentgirl09]

"I totally agree, the lack of patient interaction is one of the things that turned me away from going down the medical path. I love that as a dentist I'll get to be the one doing most of the interaction with my patients"

This was probably the main reason I was thinking of MD. To me, it seems as though I'll be able to interact and have better verbal conversations with my patients as an MD because a dentist works on the mouth which renders the patients ability to speak.

I'm going to shadow both this semester and figure out which is for me. But all of your post have definitely helped me out in figuring out if I am making the best decision for my life.

that point doesn't really make much sense to me. sure they can't really talk when you're working on them, but you can talk to them before and after?

I don't know many doctors that just sit around talking to their patients about casual stuff for more than 1-2 minutes. I certainly agree that some conversation is needed to make it personal, learn more about the patient, pick up on other problems they may not express, gain trust etc..... but other than that shouldn't you be doing your job and not making excessive conversation? It's not like they walk in, you say open wide and start shoving stuff in their mouth. At least... that's never happened to me and that's not the type of dentist i plan on being.

I think fields like OBGYN, Cosmetic Surgery, Phychiatry... those are fields where you talk to patients, work them through everything,a nd see it all the way through. The rest seems sort of... "behind the scenes" as a previous poster said..where you just do the work for the day, charts.. etc. I don't know. So many patients and faces to go through in a day let alone a week or month.

You can clearly tell I never even considered getting an MD for a lot of reasons... so I may just be biased.
Oops lots of rambling.

 

[Andre3k]

I would think that more general dentists would close down their offices in a poor economy because dentistry is unfortunately perceived as being more of a discretionary expense than a priority expense like medicine...

Good point. Straight/clean teeth aren't necessary.

 

[doc3232]

Good point. Straight/clean teeth aren't necessary.

This is true but dentists do other procedures than just whitenings and braces.

 

[soapall16]

I’ve shadowed several physicians in different specialties (plastic surgeon, orthopedic surgeon, pediatrician, oncologist, and family practice) who have ALL said that they regret choosing medicine at one point when I was shadowing them and would have opted for a career in dentistry (or something else), not because dentistry is easier in their mindset, but the lifestyle allows you to enjoy your life and earnings. Do dentists complain about their work and wish they would have gone to med school? Does everyone just hate their job and vent out frustrations that they might not really mean? I don't think they understand how impressionable remarks like these can be.

 

[DrReo]

I’ve shadowed several physicians in different specialties (plastic surgeon, orthopedic surgeon, pediatrician, oncologist, and family practice) who have ALL said that they regret choosing medicine at one point when I was shadowing them and would have opted for a career in dentistry (or something else), not because dentistry is easier in their mindset, but the lifestyle allows you to enjoy your life and earnings. Do dentists complain about their work and wish they would have gone to med school? Does everyone just hate their job and vent out frustrations that they might not really mean? I don't think they understand how impressionable remarks like these can be.

= glorified pharmacist

 

[Quattro DMD]

I’ve shadowed several physicians in different specialties (plastic surgeon, orthopedic surgeon, pediatrician, oncologist, and family practice) who have ALL said that they regret choosing medicine at one point when I was shadowing them and would have opted for a career in dentistry (or something else), not because dentistry is easier in their mindset, but the lifestyle allows you to enjoy your life and earnings. Do dentists complain about their work and wish they would have gone to med school? Does everyone just hate their job and vent out frustrations that they might not really mean? I don't think they understand how impressionable remarks like these can be.

I work in a pathology laboratory, and on my first day one the pathologists straight out told me that if he could do it all over again he would have been a dentist....haha.

 

[aphistis]

= glorified pharmacist

You can't possibly be serious.

 

[DrReo]

You can't possibly be serious.

 

[nitrolegs]

.

 

[nitrolegs]

I work in a pathology laboratory, and on my first day one the pathologists straight out told me that if he could do it all over again he would have been a dentist....haha.

a podiatrist told me the same thing