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Interest in both Ortho and Optho
- Thread starter sswang00
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Wow, I'd say the two fields are completely different in almost every way. The only similarity, really, is that both are medical fields that involve surgery.
Ortho is OR-heavy, whereas Ophtho is clinic-heavy.
Ortho involves macrosurgery with chisels, drills, hammers, etc., which many liken to carpentry work. Ophtho is a microsurgical field, involving fine movements with brittle instruments within spaces less than a centimeter in diameter.
Ortho call is more intense and weighted toward trauma. Ophtho call typically involves phone calls and same day/next day clinic follow-ups.
Pay is somewhat higher for General Ortho compared to General Ophtho, while Retina is close to most of the Ortho subspecialties. Ortho Spine tends to pay considerably better, however.
The real question is what are YOU looking for in a medical career? The fields of Ortho and Ophtho are so drastically different, you have to determine what are the important aspects for you. No one can make that decision for you.
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Really, this isn't like saying you are torn between ortho and general surgery or neurosurgery or plastic surgery.
As Visionary said, they are both surgical disciplines, but on nearly opposite ends of the spectrums of OR time, clinic time, hospital work and probably working hours.
I am not sure what attracts you to ortho. Plenty of students want to train in the field, and I can guess why: generally successful results from surgery, lots of different procedures, interesting variety of subspecialties: hand, spine, joint replacement, etc. Orthopedics is clearly heavily skewed to working the operating room. That isn't to say ophthalmology can't be also, but the intensity is generally much lower.
Ophtho is largely microsurgery. Of course, you can do oculoplastics, which has a slightly more macro orientation, but the working area is still fairly small. Clinic is a much greater part of the typical workweek, and a typical ophthalmologist will have many more clinic encounters per case in the OR than will an orthopedist. Sure, there are orthopedists that deal with non-surgical treatment of bone disease, and not all fractures or injuries require surgical management, but the emphasis is much more on surgical treatment.
In medical school, I was interested in both plastic surgery and ophthalmology, and my choice had as much to do with my wish not to have to do an entire general surgery residency and then a second plastic surgery residency, as was the training requirement at the time I chose ophthalmology. It just seemed a waste of time to spend the final two or three years of a long general surgery residency learning complicated abdominal surgery, endocrine surgery and other surgical procedures only to turn my back on that and do something in a specialty that was very different.
They are both great fields. I considered pretty much every surgical subspecialty but ultimately decided on ophthalmology. Ophthalmology is very special. 🙂 The field of Ophthalmology and vision research in general are very fascinating and you can help people in a way that you can't in any other field. I am also interested in public health and no other surgical field is as suited to international work and public health as ophtho. Also, I just found people in ophthalmology much more pleasant to be around.
I did a bunch of orthopedic cases as primary surgeon (most as an assistant, though) and rotated through it 2 months as an intern. A good orthopedic surgeon is not a gorilla. It takes skill and precision. Even a simple ankle ORIF is not "just a simple case" much as cataract surgery can result in huge complications.
They also make more money. They tend to work harder and not run away from hard work the way ophthalmology does. Ortho is a great field, just not for me.
They also make more money. They tend to work harder and not run away from hard work the way ophthalmology does. Ortho is a great field, just not for me.
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