How does a D1 know what specialty they want to be in without exposure?

[kashyranz]

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Hello,

I'm a D1 and I am faced with the dilemma of not knowing what area of dentistry I would like to be a part of. I always had the goal of specializing in some field, but I find it challenging to gain exposure to the daily procedures these docs do. I have shadowed Endo but honestly cannot see or learn much of anything as they are looking through a microscope the entire time. I also won't be able to do my first root canal until the start of D3. The thought of being an Endodontist is nice, but i've never even done a root canal before and I don't know if I will like it. I have been shadowing, but I get the impression that I will never know what is right for me until I have done it on an actual patient several times which won't be for a long time. My peers who seem to know what field they want to be apart of have already begun adding to their applications with field-specific research and started getting to know the specific faculty chairmen which is quite intimidating. I do Perio research, but am not even sure I want to go into Periodontics from the sheer lack of exposure. Bottom line - How do I know what I want to do this early in the game? Is shadowing the only option?

 

[Vicviper]

Everyone goes through this. The short answer - you don't know. I was 100% sure I wanted to do Ortho when I was a D1. I wasn't until maybe the end of D2 that I realized I found the actual work an Orthodontist does incredibly boring. You are very correct in that until you actually start doing some of these procedures, you won't find out what you actually like to do.

That said, the other thing you need to realize is that 70-80% of dentists are GPs, and do not specialize, so don't put yourself under the expectation that you will specialize, because it is very likely that you will not - and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! I love being a GP, a good part because I can do whatever the heck I want to do, and focus on what I enjoy. I was thinking about doing Endo or Pedo, but I came to the conclusion that I liked too much of the other areas of dentistry to do either just Endo all day, or just Pedo all day.

Bottom line - don't stress, you've got time to figure this out, but you have to reassess your mindset of definitely specializing, because again, you don't want to put blinders on, it is very possible that you won't, and there's nothing wrong with that! Hope that helps!

 

[monreal]

To answer your question, I have no clue how a D1 knows squat about specialty. You simply don’t. I went from loving prostho to hating it after I did extensive courses in dentures till I became good at it. I also went from love to hate to love-again relationship with Endo. I hated Maxillofacial surgery, but few years later I almost accepted a position as a non-categorical intern in OMFS. All this happened after graduation mind you. I wouldn’t finish today if I were to tell you what my passion was in DS.
Now I’m a GP/ owner and I love doing what I want and treating who I want... and referring those I don’t like. Yea sometimes I fantasize about specializing in radiology so I can spend more time in front of the screen and less time talking to nutcases, then I change my mind when I run the numbers

 

[PhansterZ]

I don’t think anyone is expecting you to know what you’ll specialize in this early. I had my head set on prosth after a great shadowing experience as a predent. Your third year is where you’ll be exposed to more specialties and find out what you’re excited for waking up every day. I didn’t “switch” to OMS until my third year, after shadowing my home program and seeing the cool surgeries that they do, such as reconstruction of a patients face after a self inflicted gun shot wound. At this moment, I felt a calling in life. The only thing to focus on the first 2 years of dental school is to keep up your grades, as low grades will automatically close doors for specialization in the more competitive programs. And it’s completely fine if you don’t specialize, most don’t. It’s more years of school and there’s a high cost for it, as you may be paying more tuition while your former classmates are making bank. It’s been almost 3 years since I graduated, and I see on Facebook and Instagram how my general dentist classmates are going to more and more exotic vacations, while I stay at the hospital overnight managing patients and sewing lacerations. It’s a lot of work now but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and I know I would have a life time of happiness after completing the residency.

 

[deleted659902]

blah blah blah

It’s a lot of work now but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and I know I would have a life time of happiness after completing the residency.

yeah it's called taking out thirds and placing implants.

 

[HOPAone]

Hello,

I'm a D1 and I am faced with the dilemma of not knowing what area of dentistry I would like to be a part of. I always had the goal of specializing in some field, but I find it challenging to gain exposure to the daily procedures these docs do. I have shadowed Endo but honestly cannot see or learn much of anything as they are looking through a microscope the entire time. I also won't be able to do my first root canal until the start of D3. The thought of being an Endodontist is nice, but i've never even done a root canal before and I don't know if I will like it. I have been shadowing, but I get the impression that I will never know what is right for me until I have done it on an actual patient several times which won't be for a long time. My peers who seem to know what field they want to be apart of have already begun adding to their applications with field-specific research and started getting to know the specific faculty chairmen which is quite intimidating. I do Perio research, but am not even sure I want to go into Periodontics from the sheer lack of exposure. Bottom line - How do I know what I want to do this early in the game? Is shadowing the only option?

Don’t fret about it. It will come to you. If it doesn’t that’s fine. You’d do fine as a GP. The specialty will have to fit your personality, your skills, the lifestyle of your choice and more importantly your academic level. Let just start with doing well in school first. If you can’t get to the top tier to separate yourself from your classmates forget about residency. In my opinion, the specialty will choose you. I went to dental school not planning to specialize at all and now I’ve been practicing orthodontics for 16+ years.

 

[BYU4you]

A lot of people will say things like “How can you want to do a specialty if you havent done it yourself” and such claims.

Didnt many of us decide to invest 4 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to go into dentistry based on just shadowing and never having done it ourselves?

Obviously doing it can help solidify what you want but for OMFS at least you will unlikely place any implants or remove impacted thirds so thats not even an option. The same goes with many specialties.

 

[kashyranz]

I have the competitive gpa at a 3.9 which is around top 10-15% in my school. However, I feel that my time attaining the highest marks almost feels wasted if becoming a GP is my endgoal. I could be practicing new techniques and perfecting my skills in lab but instead Im here memorizing facts for a craniofacial biology exam that will lead me realistically nowhere. My friends who are gunning for endo and ortho already are lining up research with their respective specialties and making strides in their own specialty organizations. By the time the application cycle rolls around they'll have a full 3-4 years of an extensive resume built solely on that field. How do I compete with that without knowing what I want yet? Like I said, my perio research is great and it has opened several doors for me as I always had surgery in mind (perio, endo, os), but Im not sure if I should continue it going forward or if it will make my app for another specialty look worse. I really wish there was more insight given to D1s but sadly this is not the case. A big goal of mine for dentistry is to maximize the time I spend at work ($/hr). Sad truth. I do enjoy the field but I will not fall into a ridiculous amount of debt without the ability to maximize my return on investment when I come out. I may be naive in thinking this but that ideology coincides with specializing. I do not live to work. I want to work fewer hours and use the extra time to do things that I love doing. Not sure I even love dentistry (i do like it), but I find it can provide for a good life.

 

[deleted659902]

I have the competitive gpa at a 3.9 which is around top 10-15% in my school. However, I feel that my time attaining the highest marks almost feels wasted if becoming a GP is my endgoal. I could be practicing new techniques and perfecting my skills in lab but instead Im here memorizing facts for a craniofacial biology exam that will lead me realistically nowhere. My friends who are gunning for endo and ortho already are lining up research with their respective specialties and making strides in their own specialty organizations. By the time the application cycle rolls around they'll have a full 3-4 years of an extensive resume built solely on that field. How do I compete with that without knowing what I want yet? Like I said, my perio research is great and it has opened several doors for me as I always had surgery in mind (perio, endo, os), but Im not sure if I should continue it going forward or if it will make my app for another specialty look worse. I really wish there was more insight given to D1s but sadly this is not the case. A big goal of mine for dentistry is to maximize the time I spend at work ($/hr). Sad truth. I do enjoy the field but I will not fall into a ridiculous amount of debt without the ability to maximize my return on investment when I come out. I may be naive in thinking this but that ideology coincides with specializing. I do not live to work. I want to work fewer hours and use the extra time to do things that I love doing. Not sure I even love dentistry (i do like it), but I find it can provide for a good life.

Sounds like you are a D1? No offense but wait until the end of second year. I've seen so many students at the top of their class get burned out by the first semester of D2. 3.9 GPA from just a single semester DS, while commendable, isn't enough to gauge how you will rank by the end of D3. Also, you have oral surgery written all over you, especially the 4yr route (salary all four years and you get to do surgery).

 

[Big Time Hoosier]

A lot of people will say things like “How can you want to do a specialty if you havent done it yourself” and such claims.

Didnt many of us decide to invest 4 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to go into dentistry based on just shadowing and never having done it ourselves?

This is a gamble we all had to make. The argument is really you hardly know you want to be a dentist, so how on earth do you know you want to be a dental specialist?

Big Hoss

 

[charlestweed]

I do not live to work. I want to work fewer hours and use the extra time to do things that I love doing. Not sure I even love dentistry (i do like it), but I find it can provide for a good life.

You are not the only person who wants this. Everybody wants to work less and make more. I do too. I hate work. Humans are biologically wired to be lazy. In dentistry, you have to actually sit down and perform the procedure in order to get paid. The more patients you treat and the harder you work, the more $$$ you make. Unlike other jobs that offer paid vacation time, dentists don’t make money when they take vacations. And if you are a specialist, in order to get a lot of new patients to come in for you to perform the procedures, you can’t just sit around….you have to go around begging the general dentists. And you also have to continue work hard to keep the patients happy (ie call patient after a surgical procedure, fill the pain med prescription in the middle of the night, be ready to come in to treat the pt who is in pain etc) so the referral GPs continue to give you more patients.

I think the only specialty that doesn’t follow the rule I mentioned above is ortho because 90% of the procedures can be performed by the assistants. The total doctor’s time spent on each patient for a 2-yr treatment is under an hour for some fast and experienced orthos and under 2 hours for some other orthos. Patients continue to send in their monthly payments while the orthodontist is taking his vacation. So why do many orthos on this forum keep saying that orthodontists don’t make money anymore and it’s not worth pursuing ortho? They are not wrong. We don’t have an unlimited supply of ortho patients. There are more GPs and pedos, who start doing ortho in their practices. There are also more new ortho programs that pump out more new ortho grads every year. In order to survive in ortho, you have to learn to treat high patient volume at lower treatment fee. You have to travel to multiple offices in order to get enough patients to keep you busy. Nothing is easy. Everything in life is a trade-off. After graduation, I could have worked 5 or less days/week, lived in a smaller house, and drove an entry level BMW 3 series but I didn’t want to. I wanted the same nice house that the big shot orthodontists have. I wanted a big beautiful BMW 7-series. So I worked 6-7days/week.

 

[gyngyn]

This thread can be followed here:How does a D1 know what specialty they want so early in the game?