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I know it's long, but please bear with me because I really need these questions answered.
I'm currently a student at a community college (because it's cheap) where I'm taking my pre-requisites for pharmacy school. However, I've become very concerned about the outlook for pharmacy and am considering abandoning it in favor of dentistry, which is far more interesting to me. I've begun to read a lot about it and would like to ask some questions. I intend to begin shadowing dentists in my area and ask them these questions, but I want to get a better understanding here first. Please try to answer in as much depth as you can. Thanks! 🙂
1) Are there residencies you have to complete after dental school? How soon after dental school do people usually open their own practice? It seems like it would be daunting to open a practice soon after dental school and go into even more debt when you already owe some $150,000 in students loans. How easy is it to get financing for that, and how long does it typically take to pay off that loan? Do most people buy an existing practice or start a new one? Are there many dentists who choose to work at existing practices instead of opening their own? How easy is it to find work that way (especially part time)? Is the salary for a dentist who works at an existing practice far lower than that of a dentist who owns their own practice?
2) For any dentists on here who own their own practice, or know someone who does, what is it like? Is it very stressful? What were your hours like when you first started, and how did that change? Would you say dentistry is a low-stress profession? I read that dentists usually work 4 days a week with one hour lunch breaks -- how does that work when you run your own practice? Do you always employ another dentist to work on the days you don't? What happens when you want to go on vacation for a week?
3) Something that saddens me is the fact that I'm really sqeamish. As someone very interested in teeth and has the grades to get into dental school, it would be absolutely devastating to me if my squeamishness forced me to give up on dentistry. I know I could never be a doctor because of it (I have SO much respect for med students and doctors because of what they can see and do without being physically sick!). I've been watching a lot of procedures online to get over my squamishness and I'm okay with basic wisdom tooth removals, but things like suturing and cutting the gums all apart gets to me. This is just about too much for me:
So my question is, what procedures to general dentists usually perform in a typical week, and how many times? What do most patients come in for? Do you have to perform a lot of gory surgeries like in the video I linked, or would you refer the patient to a specialist for that? Do you always refer patients needing a root canal to endodontists or do you perform some yourself? What if I became an orthodontist and opened a practice specializing in that -- would I still need to do gory surgeries regularly? Could I hire another dentist to do the more gory procedures at my practice?
I'm currently a student at a community college (because it's cheap) where I'm taking my pre-requisites for pharmacy school. However, I've become very concerned about the outlook for pharmacy and am considering abandoning it in favor of dentistry, which is far more interesting to me. I've begun to read a lot about it and would like to ask some questions. I intend to begin shadowing dentists in my area and ask them these questions, but I want to get a better understanding here first. Please try to answer in as much depth as you can. Thanks! 🙂
1) Are there residencies you have to complete after dental school? How soon after dental school do people usually open their own practice? It seems like it would be daunting to open a practice soon after dental school and go into even more debt when you already owe some $150,000 in students loans. How easy is it to get financing for that, and how long does it typically take to pay off that loan? Do most people buy an existing practice or start a new one? Are there many dentists who choose to work at existing practices instead of opening their own? How easy is it to find work that way (especially part time)? Is the salary for a dentist who works at an existing practice far lower than that of a dentist who owns their own practice?
2) For any dentists on here who own their own practice, or know someone who does, what is it like? Is it very stressful? What were your hours like when you first started, and how did that change? Would you say dentistry is a low-stress profession? I read that dentists usually work 4 days a week with one hour lunch breaks -- how does that work when you run your own practice? Do you always employ another dentist to work on the days you don't? What happens when you want to go on vacation for a week?
3) Something that saddens me is the fact that I'm really sqeamish. As someone very interested in teeth and has the grades to get into dental school, it would be absolutely devastating to me if my squeamishness forced me to give up on dentistry. I know I could never be a doctor because of it (I have SO much respect for med students and doctors because of what they can see and do without being physically sick!). I've been watching a lot of procedures online to get over my squamishness and I'm okay with basic wisdom tooth removals, but things like suturing and cutting the gums all apart gets to me. This is just about too much for me:
So my question is, what procedures to general dentists usually perform in a typical week, and how many times? What do most patients come in for? Do you have to perform a lot of gory surgeries like in the video I linked, or would you refer the patient to a specialist for that? Do you always refer patients needing a root canal to endodontists or do you perform some yourself? What if I became an orthodontist and opened a practice specializing in that -- would I still need to do gory surgeries regularly? Could I hire another dentist to do the more gory procedures at my practice?
