Family Man Issues

[broken scapel]

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Hello, I would like to run through my situation. I am doing pre-reqs now however, I have only taking anatomy and genetics with some math. The goal is med school but, I am married with two kids (2 and 6 months). My wife wants me to go to dental school to get our finances in order first. After, I graduate from dental school and work for a year or two, she said I can apply to medical school and she will support me fully in that choice. My question is, can this be a bad route and will ADCOMS look poorly on a dental degree first. Anyone who has gone the same route or can give an insight, thank you very much.

 

[Jojokarade]

I would pick one or the other. Think about how much time that would be to go to dental school, make money from that, do the things to get into medical school, go to medical school, complete residency, and complete fellowship. I don't think ADCOMs would look poorly on it, but they would still question why you would do dental school if you never had the intention of staying as a dentist.

I have a friend with a 2 and 5 year old who is doing fine financially because he takes full loans and lives very conservatively. It can be done.

 

[sunflower18]

Both dental school and medical school are very expensive... I feel that it would be financially unwise to attend both, especially if you don't work for long enough to pay off your debts for one before you jump into the other. I don't think a year or two as a dentist will pay for 200k+ debt, though I could be underestimating dentist salaries.

I do think that adcoms might look down on this too. If you were so willing to change your mind from dentistry to medicine, they might think you'd do the same after getting your medical degree. Adcoms want to accept people who are interested in being physicians; if they think that you are a habitual career hopper, they may pass you up to give a shot to someone who seems more reliably passionate about medicine. It seems like this viewpoint is incorrect in your case, as you really do want to be a doctor, but just try to think about it from their perspective. They don't know you or your motivations.

 

[lobo.solo]

Is not a good plan; you gonna take loans for dental school and then later for medical school. Also you will waste 4 years of work while in dental school. I will say pick one career and commit.

 

[theseeker4]

Hello, I would like to run through my situation. I am doing pre-reqs now however, I have only taking anatomy and genetics with some math. The goal is med school but, I am married with two kids (2 and 6 months). My wife wants me to go to dental school to get our finances in order first. After, I graduate from dental school and work for a year or two, she said I can apply to medical school and she will support me fully in that choice. My question is, can this be a bad route and will ADCOMS look poorly on a dental degree first. Anyone who has gone the same route or can give an insight, thank you very much.

Not a good idea at all. As mentioned, you are taking on a huge amount of debt just to jump back into another school that will require another huge amount of debt a bit later? Choose to be a dentist, or a physician, and go to the school that will allow you to be the profession you want to be. What your wife is suggesting isn't like you are already a dentist (or an engineer) and she wants you to work at a good-paying job for a few years before starting med school; she is suggesting you take a year or two to get ready for dental school, apply to and get into dental school, attend there for 4 years, then work another few years to get your "finances in order" before applying to medical school, getting in hopefully, attending for 4 years, then completing a minimum of 3 years of residency. This plan makes no sense. If there is something you can do now that pays well, it might make sense to delay applying for a couple years to earn some money and get your family on better ground (no clue what your situation is like right now, of course). Going to dental school to work a couple years, then going on to medical school makes no sense. If you want to be a dentist, go to dental school. If you want to be a physician, go to medical school. There is nothing wrong with waiting a bit, but don't go through another professional program at the expense of huge amount of debt with the idea that it will help you "get your finances in order."

 

[broken scapel]

I agree 100% however, what should I do instead just work and put a hold on school? I want to work in a hospital, I do now but it is part-time only, but I can only find jobs that require a certification. Any job search ideas? I am willing to do whatever it takes to get into med school, and if that means tons of debt than so be it because I do not have any other options.

 

[cdistel]

I think asking for advice on here is fine but you need to talk to your wife, ask her how going to dental school and working for a year or two is going to get your finances in order??? Dentists do well but you will be in the red by a wide margin so your finances will certainly not be in order. Sounds to me like there is an underlying issue and you two need to have a heart to heart.

 

[WhippleWhileWeWork]

What does "get your finances in order" mean in this scenario? Also, have you considered the PA route?

 

[LizzyM]

I know one person who was a dentist before he became a physician but he had years & years of experience as a dentist working with head & neck surgeons and trauma surgeons before earning an MD specializing in cancer of the head & neck.

Run the numbers: what does it cost to run your household including tuition?
What do you expect the cost and your debt to be year by year for the next 22 years (to the point where your little one is through college). Try some different scenarios including if your wife worked and you had daycare expenses or if she went to work after your little one starts 1st grade.

4 years of dental school: debt = ?
2 years of income (younger child starts 1st grade)
4 years of med school: debt = ?
3 years of low income as a resident (older child starts HS)
practice of primary care OR 2 years of fellowship training/additional residency for a specialty
2027: you start making a physicians salary and can start paying off the debt you accrued over the previous 13 years and saving for retirement.

 

[DokterMom]

I suspect that when your wife says "Dental School" she is thinking about Dental Hygienist or Dental Assistant school, and misunderstanding both the degrees/certificates and paychecks. She needs to become more informed before dispensing the career advice.

 

[deleted480308]

Hello, I would like to run through my situation. I am doing pre-reqs now however, I have only taking anatomy and genetics with some math. The goal is med school but, I am married with two kids (2 and 6 months). My wife wants me to go to dental school to get our finances in order first. After, I graduate from dental school and work for a year or two, she said I can apply to medical school and she will support me fully in that choice. My question is, can this be a bad route and will ADCOMS look poorly on a dental degree first. Anyone who has gone the same route or can give an insight, thank you very much.

If by "in order" means she doesn't have to work, neither dentistry or MD makes sense because she will need to do so (unless you do the military/NHSC options). Doing both programs is mathematically a stupid idea...if you are smart enough to get into dentistry and MD, you are smart enough to know not to do both.

With loans, you will essentially provide an income equal to a non-skilled job to the family and she'll have to the rest. once you graduate, she can literally chill for the rest of her life.

My wife (we also have 2 kids) has some fears about the whole thing but we sat down and talked it through. I also had her talk it over with some of her elder family members so that she could hear some logic from more than one source. She's on board fully now and we're in it together. You need her on board, no career/school is worth more than your family

 

[SpaceLeftBlank]

Hello, I would like to run through my situation. I am doing pre-reqs now however, I have only taking anatomy and genetics with some math. The goal is med school but, I am married with two kids (2 and 6 months). My wife wants me to go to dental school to get our finances in order first. After, I graduate from dental school and work for a year or two, she said I can apply to medical school and she will support me fully in that choice. My question is, can this be a bad route and will ADCOMS look poorly on a dental degree first. Anyone who has gone the same route or can give an insight, thank you very much.

Unless you're also interested in dentistry, or perhaps being an oral surgeon (my wife's surgical residency program had a few dentists each year who are oral/maxillofacial surgery residents who are also joint MD students, basically going to medical school in their "spare time."), this sounds like a horrible idea. It's generally a bad idea to pursue a professional degree in any profession you're not committed. Plus if you're just doing this because your wife wants you to be a dentist before she'll "let you" go to medical school, I'm not thinking you're going to come up with good answers to a dental school's "why dentistry?" question. And dental school is both expensive and not easy to get into. Also, I have a lot of DDS friends who had a hard time finding work.

Seems like a recipe for disaster. At the same time, though, if you're married, and especially if you have kids, your spouse has to be on board if you're going to make it work.

 

[masaraksh]

What @LizzyM is tryin to say is that this is a CRAZY idea. You either become a dentist or a (real) doctor.

If the next 2 years require money, you can get a job (perhaps in healthcare), make sure your family is OK, apply to medical school, and then become a doctor.

Edit: don't forget the MCAT.... Or the DAT if you decide on dentistry.

 

[LaceyMD]

You ought to point out to your wife you'll need the same prereqs, testing fees, application fees, etc for dental school that you would for med school...and that depending on the school, dental school tuition can actually cost MORE than medical school. It's not exactly something you do to "get your finances in order". I agree with DokterMom that your wife either doesn't understand what's involved in going to dental school, or is thinking of another type of degree/job. In either case, she needs to educate herself before she starts dictating your career.

 

[lmn]

Umm what exactly is your wife's idea behind that suggestion?? Why would it possibly make more sense to spend all that time and money to get a dental degree and only make a year or two of salary (not enough to pay off dental school loans even), to then jump into medical school and take out more loans? Also 4 years of dental school + 2 years working (going to assume you somehow take the mcat, apply, and interview during that second year while working full time as a dentist - good luck with that) + 4 years medical school + 3-5 year residency = 13-15 years until you will be a practicing physician and you will likely have spent around a million or more for all the loans you are taking and going to have to repay. Your wife's plan doesn't make any sense, you and her both should educate yourselves more about what the situation looks like in terms of training and money, and what is best for your family.

If you and your wife decide you really want to be around more for your family, consider options such as PA.

 

[NYCNative]

I think at this point you should go to dental school. Does your wife stay at home with the kids? If so, then definitely dental. If not, then it would be acceptable to keep vying for medical school. The problem is that you are going to be piss poor for the next 8-10 years -- if she has an income, that should offset it. Honestly, with the ACA and all that goes along with it, if you can handle dealing with mouths for the next 30 years I would go with dental (given the assumption that you are a nontrad).

 

[Goro]

Please approach this process with more rationality than your wife does.

This is a HUGE committment, if not a calling. Adcoms will be suspicious of you abandoning one career for another. It will make us think you'll bail on med school too. Just work until you have the money, and then go for eemd school.

If my single mom students can do this, so can you.

Hello, I would like to run through my situation. I am doing pre-reqs now however, only taking anatomy and genetics with some math. The goal is med school but, I am married with two kids (2 and 6 months). My wife wants me to go to dental school to get our finances in order first. After, I graduate from dental school and work for a year or two, she said I can apply to medical school and she will support me fully in that choice. My question is, can this be a bad route and will ADCOMS look poorly on a dental degree first. Anyone who has gone the same route or can give an insight, thank you very much.

 

[QofQuimica]

Before you go off on two half-baked professional school boondoggles for half a million dollars you presumably don't have, you should spend some time considering where you hope to end up. What is your ultimate career goal? If you want to be a physician, then you should focus on doing what is necessary to become a physician. Becoming a dentist will do nothing to help you advance down that path.

If your wife's main concern is the financial hit you'll take by going to professional school, then as the other posters have said, what she's proposing would be taking an already bad situation (six figure debt due to med school) and making it much, much worse (even higher six figure debt due to dental *and* med school). Because of the time and expense needed to complete both medical and dental training, this particular dual professional degree combination would be a poor choice for most people. Unless you want to go into oral and maxillofacial surgery, which is a surgical subspecialty whose practitioners sometimes do obtain both a DDS and an MD, you should pick one degree or the other, not both. And even OMS surgeons are not required to have MDs. (Most are dentists with surgical residency training.)

The first step (for both you and your wife) is to educate yourselves about both training pathways so that you have a realistic understanding of what would be involved and what sacrifices your family would have to make in order for you to achieve your goals. As things stand now, the two of you have no ability to make an informed decision about whether you should go to dental versus medical school, never mind both.

Edit: Also, please don't cross post the same thread in multiple forums. I have combined both of your threads here.

 

[broken scapel]

Before you go off on two half-baked professional school boondoggles for half a million dollars you presumably don't have, you should spend some time considering where you hope to end up. What is your ultimate career goal? If you want to be a physician, then you should focus on doing what is necessary to become a physician. Becoming a dentist will do nothing to help you advance down that path.

If your wife's main concern is the financial hit you'll take by going to professional school, then as the other posters have said, what she's proposing would be taking an already bad situation (six figure debt due to med school) and making it much, much worse (even higher six figure debt due to dental *and* med school). Because of the time and expense needed to complete both medical and dental training, this particular dual professional degree combination would be a poor choice for most people. Unless you want to go into oral and maxillofacial surgery, which is a surgical subspecialty whose practitioners sometimes do obtain both a DDS and an MD, you should pick one degree or the other, not both. And even OMS surgeons are not required to have MDs. (Most are dentists with surgical residency training.)

The first step (for both you and your wife) is to educate yourselves about both training pathways so that you have a realistic understanding of what would be involved and what sacrifices your family would have to make in order for you to achieve your goals. As things stand now, the two of you have no ability to make an informed decision about whether you should go to dental versus medical school, never mind both.

Edit: Also, please don't cross post the same thread in multiple forums. I have combined both of your threads here.

 

[broken scapel]

Thank you to all who have given very good advice. I will keep everyone informed. PS Thank You Qof Quimica for combining the two threads sorry about that.