This is MY own perspective.
I prefer pharmacy over dentistry. After dental school, you need to have a plan as to how you are going to pay back those loans. Dental residencies are competitive (as are pharmacy) and you need to get top grades to get into those slots (likewise for pharm) if you want a residency. On the other hand, if you're going to be a general dentist which is what most people who graduate school do, you need to frame your to mindset more in the business side and decide on location, hire assistants, and get clients. It's still a long road before you actually make the salary that "successful" dentists earn. Overhead costs, dental equipment, and you need to consider that where you practice and make the time and investment. You also should be in charge of the hiring. And the possibility to start a clinic. If you want to be more the boss, then dentistry is also a positive. You get well respected, a professional degree, you can frame your hours to your needs, less liability that a physician, and you can earn good dollar per hour wage. Shadow a dentist and talk to dental students. That will get you really interested in what you could do in the profession. Pharmacy has opportunities other than retail, mainly in the hospital dispensing in different units. It provides a professional and respected job, flexibility in family-raising, you could be a pharmacist till you are very old (longevity), earn decent salary for hours worked, you don't have to take the work home with you and have personal liability, opportunities to move and relocate should your significant other need to relocate, job security, and you do not have to deal with blood, saliva, bodily fluids and see emotional/disturbing/scarring/crying moments that entails others. Pharmacy is also intellectually challenging and you have to be precise. Clinical pharmacy questions are difficult and the exams are no cake walk. You won't necessarily get to be the boss, you take script orders from others and deal with nurses, or insurance companies but overall for me, being able to find time off work and spend family time is the most important job of all. Downsides are that you are a health provider, but you're not as respected as other health professionals (whatever, yell at me all you want). But when people behind the counter want their medication they demand it now and I've seen people act totally disrespectful to pharmacists. Not realizing they have had to go through 4 years of education to have the privelege of filling their script. Even customers at retail have awful attitudes towards pharmacists. Also income is stagnant and does not increase. Not much room to get the bigger paycheck as opposed to dentists. If you're willing to put in the time and effort that dentistry requires then, that would be a great job too. All jobs are somewhat repetitive eventually. And at the end of the day, it's a job afterall. Both are great fields, get to help others, intellectually demanding and require a professional license. But they both have different bottom lines which is why that the pay scale is different. Primarily dependent on how much liability you have to your services delivered. And that, is just my OWN opinion. Bottom line: Make sure you shadow others for extended periods of time so you can actually experience what a day would be like, and that you know what you're getting yourself into. Because you'll be doing this for a good portion of time.
