Differences between Dental School and Med School?

[hs2013]

What are the differences? Which is tougher, which keeps you up at night the most? How are the class schedules different? Is it harder to specialize into Dermatology or Ortho? I know I would enjoy both but I'm not sure to go into Dental or Med. I know that it's really tough to specialize into the ideal Med programs like Derm because the lifestyle is so great, but isn't a general dentist or orthodontists lifestyle just the same as say a derm? If I was looking for more of a better lifestyle; less hours, no calls, relaxed environment(non hospital), would Dental make much more sense?

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[Drrrrrr. Celty]

What are the differences?
A lot is different, generally the first two years are similar except that Dental focuses a bit more on oral path and dental skills.

Which is tougher,
Generally this is dependent on you as a person. Can you operate both your hands skillfully?
which keeps you up at night the most?
Eh, both will work you hard.
How are the class schedules different?
I'm pretty sure they generally are not much different the first two years, then medical becomes more work.
Is it harder to specialize into Dermatology or Ortho?
Ortho is top 5-10% of your class req. Derm is probably easier to get into.
I know I would enjoy both but I'm not sure to go into Dental or Med. I know that it's really tough to specialize into the ideal Med programs like Derm because the lifestyle is so great, but isn't a general dentist or orthodontists lifestyle just the same as say a derm?
Don't be a doctor if you want to just have a good lifestyle. Be a doctor because it interests you and working with people interests you. Also don't go into derm just because it is a good lifestyle, go into Derm because you like the lifestyle and like Dermopathology
If I was looking for more of a better lifestyle; less hours, no calls, relaxed environment(non hospital), would Dental make much more sense?
I'd say not to go into medicine then. But it seems like you don't have any genuine or person reasons for going to dentistry honestly. Like the lifestyle is good, but if you don't find teeth interesting or other crap then it will be a hellish specialty for you.

Hope that helps.

 

[mmmcdowe]

What are the differences? Which is tougher, which keeps you up at night the most? How are the class schedules different? Is it harder to specialize into Dermatology or Ortho? I know I would enjoy both but I'm not sure to go into Dental or Med. I know that it's really tough to specialize into the ideal Med programs like Derm because the lifestyle is so great, but isn't a general dentist or orthodontists lifestyle just the same as say a derm? If I was looking for more of a better lifestyle; less hours, no calls, relaxed environment(non hospital), would Dental make much more sense?

Medical school tends to be tougher during third year, whereas dental school can be much more rigorous during the pre-clinical years depending on the school curriculum (for example my schools dental school has to take most medical school classes during the pre-clinicals and additional courses). Dermatology is definitely more difficult to specialize in than ortho, in terms of the average stats of applicants and number of spots available.

Yes, based on the criteria you site dental would probably be a better choice. That being said, dentists can work just as much as an orthopedic surgeon, but most tend to have more relaxed schedules.

 

[sonofva]

the dental students at my school usually have less detail to master and less volume of material. but they must learn it all in a more compressed time period, so they work just as hard as the medical students, if not harder.

 

[Kahr]

Look at all these questions! And it certainly looks like most of it has little to do with your original thread question, and more to do with what's beyond dental/medical school.

What are the differences?
Don't know too much about medical school, though I do know that several dental schools have their students take various classes with their medical students during the first 2 years (the didactic years). Dental school requires much more lab time/work as far as I know, and much of the clinical portion of the curriculum is spent at the school, whereas much of the clinical portion for med students is spent at hospitals.
Which is tougher, which keeps you up at night the most?
Impossible to say, few people have gone through both medical and dental school, though there are a few oral surgery residents here that attend medical school now, they could probably give some insight. From what I've heard, both require late nights studying, but it highly depends on what kind of student you are and how badly you want to specialize (ie how much effort you put into studying).
How are the class schedules different?
Class schedules are 5 days a week, how they specifically differ between medical and dental school would be based on specific schools. Like I said before, at a school where med and dent students take classes together, the curricula might be similar, but comparing two different dental schools, or a dental school at one school against a medical school at another school, they could be extremely different. I recommend looking at the curricula for both at a specific school, say Columbia or Harvard (I only use these as examples because I know they have several combined classes for their dental/medical students).
Is it harder to specialize into Dermatology or Ortho?
Both are difficult to specialize into, you'd need to look up statistics on applied/accepted for both. Honestly though, they're so vastly different careers, why even compare the two? Are you actually interested in doing both? My point is it shouldn't matter which is more difficult to get into, it should matter which you're actually interested in or more interested in for what you'll be doing.
If I was looking for more of a better lifestyle; less hours, no calls, relaxed environment(non hospital), would Dental make much more sense?
Yes.

I think you should shadow both professionals in various settings before making any decisions, this will help more than anything. Knowing what you will have to go through in school is important, but that's only 4 years versus the 20-40 years you'll have to do the job itself. Once you've decided which profession you feel more strongly attracted to, then just focus on getting in, don't get so hung up on specializing before you've actually done anything, wait till you're in dental or medical school, doing your clinicals, that's when you'll (probably) know what you really want to do.

 

[Moose A Moose]

I've heard that certain schools- such as Temple University- have the first two years of medical and dental school intertwined (as In the students from each respective professional program take classes together). I'm assuming that a lot of the preclinical work is going to be similar. Of course, this is a topic that I haven't broken into aside from a few conversations so I could be way off, but it makes sense.