Dentist Wanting to Switch to Medicine

[eldenringsamurai]

Hi Everyone,

I am a practicing dentist of a couple years seriously contemplating going to medical school. Long story short, I find no fulfillment in my career as a dentist and feel burnt out despite only practicing a few years. I find what I do is not meaningful and appreciated by my community, my family, my patients, and most importantly, myself. I have worked in many settings from public health to private practices catering to different socioeconomic and diverse populations. While before I enjoyed art and working with my hands, I find that now I find it tedious and rote(which I why I don’t want to take the OMFS route). I did well in dental school, not exceptionally, but in the middle of the pack/top 1/2. Anyone out there who’s made the same transition(or thinking of making it)?

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[PikminOC]

find no fulfillment in my career as a dentist and feel burnt out despite only practicing a few years. I find what I do is not meaningful and appreciated by my community, my family, my patients, and most importantly, myself..
...
No different from medicine

 

[eldenringsamurai]

From what I’ve seen, that is very dependent on specialty. There is also the respect factor, most patients I’ve seen in both settings just see dentists as “selling treatment” and “making a quick buck”. Physicians seem to be respected far more. When I advise a patient regarding a health condition many times am met with “but you’re not a doctor”. At 3-4 times per day I hear “ugh I don’t want to be here. I hate the dentist!(if the patient is nice, he/she might add “no offense” or “it’s nothing personal”). In order to make money, you often have to convince patients to undergo treatment like a crown or root canal which I find more to be “selling healthcare”, and it just makes me feel so dirty…sleazy almost, even though all of my recommended treatments are what in my view, is best for the patient.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

How much of your debt have you paid off? And as pointed out, how do you know this will be different when you get into medicine?

 

[eldenringsamurai]

I don’t have any more debt. I think my main issue is working with my hands and the lack of respect from patients and lack of appreciation. I feel, at least based on my observation and I’ve actually done several hours of shadowing, that things are generally better in medicine both in terms of respect and patient appreciation. And of course, unless you’re doing surgery, not really a whole lot of working with the hands or being bent/stooped over.

 

[Goro]

I don’t have any more debt. I think my main issue is working with my hands and the lack of respect from patients and lack of appreciation. I feel, at least based on my observation and I’ve actually done several hours of shadowing, that things are generally better in medicine both in terms of respect and patient appreciation. And of course, unless you’re doing surgery, not really a whole lot of working with the hands or being bent/stooped over.

I'm not finding your reasons to leave dentistry to be any more credible than your lack of reasons to go into medicine

 

[operaman]

That’s funny - I think about switching to dentistry every time I go to the dentist! Also every time we did a big cancer case and OMFS would do full extractions before our part and I realized they got paid just as much for those few minutes as my attendings did for the 8 hour case that followed.

Sorry I’m not really answering your question. I will say that in my experience, people with existing professional careers have a very high dropout rate in Med school. Something about the slog of preclinical work when you could easily jump back into a comfortable 6 figure income. In my M1 class alone we had an attorney, a pharmacist, and a dentist, and not one of them made it to Christmas and they were strong students academically and passing with flying colors. They just decided the opportunity cost wasn’t worth it in the end.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Why not dental residency?

 

[PikminOC]

From what I’ve seen, that is very dependent on specialty. There is also the respect factor, most patients I’ve seen in both settings just see dentists as “selling treatment” and “making a quick buck”. Physicians seem to be respected far more. When I advise a patient regarding a health condition many times am met with “but you’re not a doctor”. At 3-4 times per day I hear “ugh I don’t want to be here. I hate the dentist!(if the patient is nice, he/she might add “no offense” or “it’s nothing personal”). In order to make money, you often have to convince patients to undergo treatment like a crown or root canal which I find more to be “selling healthcare”, and it just makes me feel so dirty…sleazy almost, even though all of my recommended treatments are what in my view, is best for the patient.

Patients don't listen to physicians either. They have Dr Google you know.

 

[Dral]

Think long and hard about this. If you are doing this for respect of others and self, it's likely not worth all the extra years of lost income and all the education hoops to jump through just to gain a small amount of perceived respect. If you're no longer interested in working with your hands, you've in general (but not absolutely) decided that if you go medicine, you're going to end up in one of the lower end fields in term of pay (the higher paid ones are in general procedural based). I think rads comes to mind as a (in general) non-procedural that makes decent money. However, ophtho, derm, ent, plastics, surgery, uro, anesthesiology, etc all involve at least a decent amount of procedural work.

Shadow, shadow, shadow and ask the physician to REALLY let you know about day to day. If you can see yourself making the switch after that, then maybe consider moving forward with it.

 

[eldenringsamurai]

@Goro i respect and appreciate your opinion, even if I don’t agree with it. What in your opinion would be a worthwhile reason to switch?

@operaman you had a dentist in your class? So it has been done, switching from dentistry to medicine??

@voxveritatisetlucis I did do a residency and it’s probably the only reason I am even practicing up until now. My dental school experience was awful and my main attending really, really destroyed my confidence and any chance of joy I would’ve had being a dentist. My GPR built me back up enough that I could even practice.

@Dral I appreciate your insight. My impression was even the “lower paid” specialities in medicine made way more than the average general dentist with even peds pulling in well over 200k on average…I would prefer something like psych or anesthesia(although procedural, no minute “surgery” as in dentistry we’re literally working in mm in a tiny orifice).

 

[Goro]

@Goro i respect and appreciate your opinion, even if I don’t agree with it. What in your opinion would be a worthwhile reason to switch?

It's less about reasons than proving. Words are cheap, doing is harder. So, go shadow doctors and engage in clinical exposure. Sorry, your DDS exposure doesn't count.

You also didn't answer my question, which is telling: WHY do you want to be a doctor?

 

[eldenringsamurai]

I'm not finding your reasons to leave dentistry to be any more credible than your lack of reasons to go into medicine

It's less about reasons than proving. Words are cheap, doing is harder. So, go shadow doctors and engage in clinical exposure. Sorry, your DDS exposure doesn't count.

You also didn't answer my question, which is telling: WHY do you want to be a doctor?

I’m sorry, but unless I missed something, nowhere did you ask or IMHO even imply the question “why do you want to be a doctor?”…It would be telling if you asked that and I avoided answering it. I have not.

I want to be a medical doctor because I would rather have more knowledge and be able to treat my patients in a more meaningful way rather than having very limited knowledge of the human body(as a dentist) and thus being limited in my means of treating my patients(only in the oral cavity). I also find the means of diagnosis and treating patients as a medical doctor to be more meaningful and interesting, and from the shadowing I have done, I find that medical doctors are treated more respectfully by peers and patients and also are appreciated more by their patients. I also do not like how dentistry is very “money driven” - there is always pressure to produce, produce, produce to keep your job, and many times this involves over treatment or “selling” treatment. In medicine, I find medical doctors are actually treating their patients, be it via medicine or surgical intervention. From what I have seen and the physicians I have spoken to, you are not “selling treatment” in medicine unless maybe you are in private practice. Basically, I feel as a dentist, I am more of a salesperson as opposed to an actual physician/doctor/healthcare provider. I don’t like that feeling…I feel it compromises my integrity or at least that in a private practice setting, I am being pushed towards that. I didn’t go into healthcare to be a salesman, I went into it to, on a fundamental level, treat my patients in the best possible way. I feel as a physician, I can actually meaningfully treat my patient without having to “sell” treatment or be pressured to “produce”.
So in summation, I want to be a doctor so I have greater knowledge to use to treat my patients without the pressure to produce or be a “salesmen”, and as a result, I feel I would have greater respect for myself, and thus have greater respect from my peers/community. I also do not like working with my hands and there is limited/no way to get out of that as a dentist/dental specialist.

No need to “be sorry” that my “dds exposure doesn’t count”, I am of course aware of that.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Curious question: at the DS you attended, what Interprofessional activities or courses did you have with any medical students (MD/DO)? Are there opportunities in public health clinics that are one stop shops that combine medicine and dentistry?

Can I ask why not PA? How much do you know about the coding system for medicine when it comes to insurance? What do you think about NP and PA encroachment?

 

[wholeheartedly]

I’m sorry, but unless I missed something, nowhere did you ask or IMHO even imply the question “why do you want to be a doctor?”…It would be telling if you asked that and I avoided answering it. I have not.

I want to be a medical doctor because I would rather have more knowledge and be able to treat my patients in a more meaningful way rather than having very limited knowledge of the human body(as a dentist) and thus being limited in my means of treating my patients(only in the oral cavity). I also find the means of diagnosis and treating patients as a medical doctor to be more meaningful and interesting, and from the shadowing I have done, I find that medical doctors are treated more respectfully by peers and patients and also are appreciated more by their patients. I also do not like how dentistry is very “money driven” - there is always pressure to produce, produce, produce to keep your job, and many times this involves over treatment or “selling” treatment. In medicine, I find medical doctors are actually treating their patients, be it via medicine or surgical intervention. From what I have seen and the physicians I have spoken to, you are not “selling treatment” in medicine unless maybe you are in private practice. Basically, I feel as a dentist, I am more of a salesperson as opposed to an actual physician/doctor/healthcare provider. I don’t like that feeling…I feel it compromises my integrity or at least that in a private practice setting, I am being pushed towards that. I didn’t go into healthcare to be a salesman, I went into it to, on a fundamental level, treat my patients in the best possible way. I feel as a physician, I can actually meaningfully treat my patient without having to “sell” treatment or be pressured to “produce”.
So in summation, I want to be a doctor so I have greater knowledge to use to treat my patients without the pressure to produce or be a “salesmen”, and as a result, I feel I would have greater respect for myself, and thus have greater respect from my peers/community. I also do not like working with my hands and there is limited/no way to get out of that as a dentist/dental specialist.

No need to “be sorry” that my “dds exposure doesn’t count”, I am of course aware of that.

Allied health professional (not a doc) with decade a half hospital based healthcare experience .

I like most here feel like you’re going to put in a ton of time and effort to jump out of the fry pan and into the fire. you’ll get new variations on the same exact problems just in new scenery.

Respect for all healthcare workers is in sharp decline, people trust facebook more than docs, and healthcare workers are constantly in a battle with admins and the system to do what’s right for patients. A lot of us feel we’re continually being asked to sell our souls for someone else’s bottom line.

Spend a lot of time researching “moral injury” in healthcare workers.

Whether or not you feel your work is valuable really needs to come more from internal sources than seeking external validation. Changing jobs won’t fix this. It would really suck to tackle this huge transition only to find yourself with the same set of problems. Dentistry at least hives you flexibility.

You might benefit talking to a professional about the burnout and also shifting your mindset to more internal validation.

 

[deleted968861]

Allied health professional (not a doc) with decade a half hospital based healthcare experience .

I like most here feel like you’re going to put in a ton of time and effort to jump out of the fry pan and into the fire. you’ll get new variations on the same exact problems just in new scenery.

Respect for all healthcare workers is in sharp decline, people trust facebook more than docs, and healthcare workers are constantly in a battle with admins and the system to do what’s right for patients. A lot of us feel we’re continually being asked to sell our souls for someone else’s bottom line.

Spend a lot of time researching “moral injury” in healthcare workers.

Whether or not you feel your work is valuable really needs to come more from internal sources than seeking external validation. Changing jobs won’t fix this. It would really suck to tackle this huge transition only to find yourself with the same set of problems. Dentistry at least hives you flexibility.

You might benefit talking to a professional about the burnout and also shifting your mindset to more internal validation.

good ol' Dr. Facebook and Twitter

 

[Sleepingdoc]

From what I’ve seen, that is very dependent on specialty. There is also the respect factor, most patients I’ve seen in both settings just see dentists as “selling treatment” and “making a quick buck”. Physicians seem to be respected far more. When I advise a patient regarding a health condition many times am met with “but you’re not a doctor”. At 3-4 times per day I hear “ugh I don’t want to be here. I hate the dentist!(if the patient is nice, he/she might add “no offense” or “it’s nothing personal”). In order to make money, you often have to convince patients to undergo treatment like a crown or root canal which I find more to be “selling healthcare”, and it just makes me feel so dirty…sleazy almost, even though all of my recommended treatments are what in my view, is best for the patient.

What i have noticed recently in healthcare is that respect factor is gone. If you work corporate, there are medical assistants that are put incharge of you, they control your schedule, they are much more respected by management that the physicians. The patients just demand service nowadays, have no patience and are some are just disrespectful. Management goes by patient experience with a physician rather than treatment, everything is about google ratings which is rediculous because you are asking sick people, how do you feel after seeing this physician. Its no different than going to a restaurant and being served a steak.