Easier to get a job in the Dentistry or Medical Field?

hs2013

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Is it easier to get a job straight out of Dental School or the 1 year Dental residency for a general dentist or for a Medical student after residency? I understand that there are much more specialties and fields in Medicine so that creates a lot more opportunities but lets say General Dentist vs Dermatologist or something similar to that...

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Haha, what makes you think you can become an MD or a Dentist?😀
 
Is it easier to get a job straight out of Dental School or the 1 year Dental residency for a general dentist or for a Medical student after residency? I understand that there are much more specialties and fields in Medicine so that creates a lot more opportunities but lets say General Dentist vs Dermatologist or something similar to that...

Medicine, but honestly I wouldn't base your decision on this fact, as it isn't particularly hard to get a job with either degree.
 
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I wouldn't base your decision on something like this. It won't mean much if you hate the job that you choose. Shadow a few doctors and dentists and see which profession you would rather pursue. Good luck.
 
There is no real data suggesting one career path is better for ease of employment.

Both medical doctors and dentists are in demand. Generally speaking, either will be able to find work rather easily. Both professions offer immense job security.

Although it could be perceived that it would be easier to find work as a medical doctor, there is something to be said about the fact that dentistry is still largely isolated to the private sector.

A graduating general dentist will likely go into private practice - either as an associate or business owner. On the other hand, a newly trained physician may work for a large public/private practice or, more likely, a hospital system. Hospital systems market to large populations and can make employment opportunities known in a very public manner. Dental employment often rises out of spoken networking opportunities - family dentists, classmates, school connections, etc... It's just different.

As to your comparisons - they are fairly weak. As others have noted, comparing a general dentist to a dermatologist is a stretch, at best. However, within dentistry, a GPR trained dentist would be more competitive than one without the added training. I think this is fairly obvious, though.

With the exception of oral and maxillofacial surgeons (dental specialty), it takes MUCH longer to become a trained physician.

General Dentist - 4 years of dental school.
General Dentist + GPR Residency - 4 years dental school + 1 year of residency.
Dermatologist - 4 years of medical school + 1 year internship + 3(+) years of residency/fellowship.

Given the time of education, general dentistry remains one of the best 'bang for your buck' career paths - A general dentist with an extra year of GPR training could easily earn between 200k and 500k per year in private practice. Even if the salaries matched, the general dentist has a 3+ year head start on the dermatologist.
 
I wouldn't base your decision on something like this. It won't mean much if you hate the job that you choose. Shadow a few doctors and dentists and see which profession you would rather pursue. Good luck.

Yeah, applying "easy" to either career path just weirds me out.

If you're looking for guaranteed jobs, then the military and police aren't usually turning people away. If you're looking for easy, then Wal-Mart usually has plenty of openings as well.

The job security offered by the medical field comes at the cost of not actually having a real job for at least four years after college, and getting paid poorly for a LOT of work for another three to eight years. So it's kind of hard to answer the question without specifically knowing what your ideal situation is.
 
It seems like if you're not a complete dolt, and are willing to relocate to anywhere in the US for work, you'll have a job.

I think one can look up the levels of unemployment for these individual career fields. Remembering that unemployment is people who are looking for work but cannot find it, and that 5% is considered "full employment", you can make some decisions about which one is more safely employed.

But like others have said, go with what profession you want to spend 30+ years in rather than a hairs width of seperation between unemployment levels.
 
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The job security offered by the medical field comes at the cost of not actually having a real job for at least four years after college, and getting paid poorly for a LOT of work for another three to eight years. So it's kind of hard to answer the question without specifically knowing what your ideal situation is.

I think the "job security" notion for doctors is overplayed on SDN as well. There are plenty of physicians who struggle to find suitable jobs. Right now there's a big job crunch for radiology, anesthesiology and pathology. Radiologists in particular are sometimes doing second fellowships just to stay out of the job market an extra year. There are still jobs out there, but its not like you leave residency and get grabbed. I have a friend who is a young cardiologist who has been between jobs for a very long period of time, unable to find something longterm in his region (he has kids in school and a spouse in a job). If you can relocate to anywhere that helps a lot, but honestly most people after 4 years of med school and more than 4 years of residency plus fellowship are going to have some roots. In both medicine and dentistry, there are supersaturated locales and underserved locales. If you want to hang up a shingle in either field in a popular city, lots of luck. So the job security notion is greatly exaggerated on here. You will get a job most likely, but it will involve far more effort than some on here would lead you to believe. And if you are picturing choosing the locale, expect it to be even harder.
 
pretty much every mall cop you see has been turned away by the police.

The majority of mall cops I see have RETIRED from the police force...

Obviously, it would require you to be in sufficiently good health. Good enough health that most people without a medical problem can achieve it.
 
The majority of mall cops I see have RETIRED from the police force...

Obviously, it would require you to be in sufficiently good health. Good enough health that most people without a medical problem can achieve it.

Depends on the part of the country I guess. Where I am, these are all 20-ish year old policeman wannabes. The retired policemen tend to be guards at warehouses etc, things where you can sit in an office and you aren't expected to chase after shoplifters.
 
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