Drawbacks of Becoming Family Physician

[hnh]

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What r the drawbacks of becoming a family physician vs. a general dentist vs. a dental specialist (like an endodontist) ?

 

[476515678234896]

DNP's/NP's are trying to take over the role of the PCP. Too much paperwork, less pay than most physicians but more pay than general dentists. To me, dental specialties are always better than FM (hell, dental specialties are better than pretty much any job). Family doc's need to know a little bit about everything (considered to be one of the least competitive specialties). Most dental students don't specialize so GP's need less training to practice *start making the $$ faster*

i dunno...go shadow a PCP and a GP and find out for yourself

 

[hnh]

What i mean w/ regards to my question is:

All I wanna do is make >$100k in 3 workdays per week, take 3-week vacations 3x a year, be less afraid of having my license revoked and sent to jail for manslaughter due to malpractice. So here's my reasoning how:

If i become a general dentist, I may not have enough patients to fill 3 whole workdays (since that's all i wanna work). Family docs prolly get more patients thus can easily fill 3 workdays per week, since there r many more body parts to treat than just the mouth. In general dentistry, where u can do a bad job & it's harder to tell (don't get mad at this statement. It's the truth. Other than the patient feeling pain or the tooth does not APPEAR nice and functional, it's hard to detect bad dental work.) . As a family doc, u have to cure the patient--that's how s/he can tell whether u're doing a good job or not. As a general dentist, as long as the teeth are functional & look nice enough, that's all most patients care about. So u have to be really good as a family doc & much more careful than as a general dentist. One small mistake can cost a life as a family doc, such as accidentally writing an extra 0 after 15 mg, so the patient overdoses on 150 mg. Family docs are ppl too, so mistakes can happen. So it seems like, as a family doc, u get more financial security than as a general dentist (cuz u supposedly get more patient cases), but that financial security depends on u being really good, not making life-costing mistakes or ur MD license is revoked, & u less able to work part-time cuz ur patients have chronic problems like heart disease that needs to be monitored every few weeks. In dentistry, there aren't too many of these chronic life-threatening problems to worry about.

So I figure it's better for me to become a general dentist than a family doc. If I'm afraid of not filling up my 3 workdays per week, I can work in 3 different counties in the same larger city, so that I do have enough patient cases. I can teach to supplement my income, if need be, I can travel to several different senior homes treating their teeth as needed, which is every 6 months mostly for check-ups. If I still can't make at least $100k doing all these things in my 3 workdays per week, I'll specialize in endodontics/perio/ortho, and work as both a dental specialist & general dentist.
How does that sound? Recall that all I wanna do is make >$100k in 3 workdays per week, take 3-week vacations 3x a year, be less afraid of having my license revoked and sent to jail for manslaughter due to malpractice.

 

[NobodyCanStopMe]

What i mean w/ regards to my question is:

All I wanna do is make >$100k in 3 workdays per week, take 3-week vacations 3x a year, be less afraid of having my license revoked and sent to jail for manslaughter due to malpractice. So here's my reasoning how:

If i become a general dentist, I may not have enough patients to fill 3 whole workdays (since that's all i wanna work). Family docs prolly get more patients thus can easily fill 3 workdays per week, since there r many more body parts to treat than just the mouth. In general dentistry, where u can do a bad job & it's harder to tell (don't get mad at this statement. It's the truth. Other than the patient feeling pain or the tooth does not APPEAR nice and functional, it's hard to detect bad dental work.) . As a family doc, u have to cure the patient--that's how s/he can tell whether u're doing a good job or not. As a general dentist, as long as the teeth are functional & look nice enough, that's all most patients care about. So u have to be really good as a family doc & much more careful than as a general dentist. One small mistake can cost a life as a family doc, such as accidentally writing an extra 0 after 15 mg, so the patient overdoses on 150 mg. Family docs are ppl too, so mistakes can happen. So it seems like, as a family doc, u get more financial security than as a general dentist (cuz u supposedly get more patient cases), but that financial security depends on u being really good, not making life-costing mistakes or ur MD license is revoked, & u less able to work part-time cuz ur patients have chronic problems like heart disease that needs to be monitored every few weeks. In dentistry, there aren't too many of these chronic life-threatening problems to worry about.

So I figure it's better for me to become a general dentist than a family doc. If I'm afraid of not filling up my 3 workdays per week, I can work in 3 different counties in the same larger city, so that I do have enough patient cases. I can teach to supplement my income, if need be, I can travel to several different senior homes treating their teeth as needed, which is every 6 months mostly for check-ups. If I still can't make at least $100k doing all these things in my 3 workdays per week, I'll specialize in endodontics/perio/ortho, and work as both a dental specialist & general dentist.
How does that sound? Recall that all I wanna do is make >$100k in 3 workdays per week, take 3-week vacations 3x a year, be less afraid of having my license revoked and sent to jail for manslaughter due to malpractice.

ok i must say i have NEVER seen a family doc working 3 days/week. Not sure if that's his/her choice or not but it is definitely more common for dentists. and i'm sure u can have enough patients to fill up THREE days omg...just be willing to work n take on jobs.

sounds like u being a dentist suits u better, from these monetary/lifestyle view only! ultimately, u should do what u wanna do for the rest of ur life...

so how many threads in SDN do we have now comparing med vs dent? 🙄

 

[yappy]

476 - do you believe the NP/DPN cut into physician practice extends into internal medicine the same way it does FM? just curious.

 

[476515678234896]

476 - do you believe the NP/DPN cut into physician practice extends into internal medicine the same way it does FM? just curious.

probably to a lot less of a degree but then again...IM is more competitive than a lot of specialties and they deal with more complex cases than FM.

Ask a physician what it's like to be a physician, ask a dentists what it's like to be a dentist. Don't ask a pre-dent forum what it's like to be a physician or dentist.

 

[PaulieGualtieri]

I would think your best bet would be orthodontia. You can make your own schedule, work that little amount of time per week, make a good amount of money, and not have the stress of huge malpractice and being on call.

 

[youknowthedrill]

It doesn't matter. If you don't love the profession you choose you will hate life. Both fields have their stresses. You need to decide if you want to be a physician or a dentist. They are completely different.
My husband is a physician and we know few physicians that work less that 60 hrs/wk (many work even more). I know ER and hospitalists physicians that work every other week. They are so run down from working a week that it takes a couple of days to recoup. The week off is nice, but they aren't going on vacation every other week.
Do you want to take one week off three times a year or three weeks at a time three times a year? In most private physician practices you can take one week at at time, two tops (if none of the other partners are off). But, if you own your own dental practice, I don't think you will be able to go away for more than a week at a time.

 

[hnh]

It doesn't matter. If you don't love the profession you choose you will hate life. Both fields have their stresses. You need to decide if you want to be a physician or a dentist. They are completely different.
My husband is a physician and we know few physicians that work less that 60 hrs/wk (many work even more). I know ER and hospitalists physicians that work every other week. They are so run down from working a week that it takes a couple of days to recoup. The week off is nice, but they aren't going on vacation every other week.
Do you want to take one week off three times a year or three weeks at a time three times a year? In most private physician practices you can take one week at at time, two tops (if none of the other partners are off). But, if you own your own dental practice, I don't think you will be able to go away for more than a week at a time.

Why can't u go away for more than a week at a time if u own ur own dental office?
I know of an associate dentist who goes on vacation for 3x a year (3 weeks each). He doesn't own the practice--he's an associate. I don't want to own a practice if I have to work all the time. I know of another endodontist who works 3 days/week & takes vacations all the time (at least 2x, 3 weeks per time). This endodontist associates w/ 2 other endodontists in the same office.

If physicians work in the ER, they're hired by the hospital & the hospital has a lot of physicians to schedule work schedules/vacations, so no, u can't choose to work 3 days/week & go on vacation 3x a year (3 weeks each)..not if u have a boss (which is the hospital, which has to try to pls all physicians working at the hospital--u can't have ur pick all the time). But as an associate dentist, u can work smthg out w/ ur 2-3 colleague dentists and alternate when u each have vacation times. The good thing abt dentistry is u can own or co-own ur own office, thereby being able to set up ur own hrs. Only family medicine, dermatology, otolaryngology, ophthalmology, & plastic surgery allow u to own/co-own ur own office thereby allowing u to set ur own hrs. But those last 4 medical specialties r really hard to get into.

I'm just wondering if it's possible to work 3 days/week & take 3-week vacations 3x a year as a family doc? I'm afraid that since patients have chronic problems that r life-threatening, they'll want u to b available for more often than that. Otherwise, they'll find sum1 else who is more available. In dentistry, there r few chronic, life-threatening problems that prompt u to be there at a patient's beck-and-call, that ur colleagues can't take care of while u're on vacation. As an associate family physician, there might be lots of miscommunication mistakes if the 3 colleagues in the family practice take off for vacation so often. For ex., I write smthg on a patient's chart before I leave on vacation, but my colleague misunderstands what i wrote & prescribes the wrong meds.

 

[Oracle DMD]

already posted in the dental forum/ there are a billion med vs dent threads.