I had every intention to be a general dentist. Then 2 years in .... I started to envy what the ortho residents and Ortho attendings were doing.
Motivation: I can tell you it had nothing to do with money. I just felt that ortho was more interesting than general dentistry. Picking shades, crown preps, cleaning teeth, composite restorations, etc etc just seemed so mundane to me. It's not so much the mechanics of straightening teeth. It's the process of understanding how children grow and predicting the appropriate treatment direction based on that's child pattern. It's about how faces are put together. It's about working with an adult's current malocclusion and improving it.
The biggest reason? I enjoy bending wire. I jest somewhat.