Hi all....I was taking a break from studying (on a Friday night!
) and was surfing SDN and bumped into this thread. I just wanted to add my $0.02 to this topic.
I am currently a first year dental student and I am loving it. I must admit tho, I was seriously considering going into medical school during my college years at UCLA. However, shadowing my research PI, talking to friends and families and dentists made me decide against having a career as a physician. My reasons were two fold.
One..I realized that dentists have much more autonomy when it comes to managing their practice compared to MD's.
Two...it seemed to me that an avg dentist will make more annually than an avg MD.
You guys may flame me for my reason #2...but hear me out. I think it's very admirable that so many of you in this board want to go into this field for the sake of helping people, regardless of your income. HOWEVER, one must draw a line and decide for him or herself at which point will you say enough is enough. I know first hand how difficult medical education is (dental school isn't exactly a walk in the park...and I have many friends in med school). Now imagine yourselves 10 years from now as licensed medical doc. If you were making less than say a really successful plumber, do you think you would still have the same kind of satisfaction, the same level of enthusiasm that you have now? I think it would be really difficult when you realize at the end that you have put so much investment (time, energy, tuition $$) into your career and your return is less than satisfactory. I am not trying to sound greedy, but I think it's something that every one in this board has to think about......objectively.
Having said that, I applaud many of you who show such enthusiasm for your future career in medicine. If you need dental work in the future, hit me up, Steve Choi DDS...
Good luck all....and fight the power! (the insurance companies that is!)