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Pharmacy vs. Dentistry
- Thread starter jaypea65
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it depends on what type of person you are.
do you like to work with pyscho depressed patients or work with patients with bad breath?
do you like to work with pyscho depressed patients or work with patients with bad breath?
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Oh goodness.....I could go on and on and on.....then Caverject would come & harrass me!😱
But....I'm probably your best resource here since I'm a pharmacist & married to a dentist....so I know both fields intimately😍 (no......we're not going there!😳 )
I'm not going to try to convince you of either one. Obviously...they have both been of benefit to me. But, I do believe the individuals that like each one have different mindsets.
First...I'll tell you about my husband. He is smart - a biochemist who really tried that field by working at Harvard, but just didn't like the lab bench & repetititon reality of that job. So...he became a dentist & actually didn't spend a whole lot of time agonizing about the choice. A few characteristics he shares with our dentist friends......they are really, really good with their hands - adept at "fine & detailed" hand work. As a matter of fact, years ago, one of the admissions requirements for the UCSF dental school was to carve a tooth from a bar of Ivory soap. He actually had to do this during his interview - they were testing dexterity & how well they could translate what they saw to what they could carve. I don't think they do this anymore.
For fun, he does woodworking (altho not the big saw & hammer stuff...the carving stuff) and ties flies. My women dentist friends love needlepoint & stuff like that. So...I think its a general good ability to do well with your hands. They are also quite artistic (I think that's where our son gets his creative ability). I see colors like anyone else...white, pink, green, aqua....my husband sees about 20 shades of white along with all the other colors.
They also don't mind working in very small spaces....the mouth! I couldn't work in such a small space all day, but thats just me. He doesn't even visualize that anymore, but I do remember when he was in school & went from the typedont (which is the practice model) to actually working on a patient - he noticed the difference.
They have this ability - and he's told me what the name is, but I can't recall it - to process information in his brain rapidly from a direct image to a mirror image & back again. When he works in a mouth...he always has a mirror in one hand & goes back & forth looking directly at the tooth or site or whatever to looking at it in the mirror then back again....over, & over & over. My brain doesn't process information that way. I have to sit & think about which way to turn the steering wheel if I want to back up a trailer attached to a car. He picked up on that very fast & I think its because their optical processing part of their brain rapidly sends the correct interpretation from their eyes. This may be a learned thing. But...its really hard for me.
They have to be really friendly people with thick skins. No one - absolutely NO ONE loves going to the dentist and they are very willing to share that with the dentist. There are tons of awful dentist stories. Every dentist I know (& I know lots - both men & women) are people-friendly.
Now...the down sides....you have to be able to run a business, unless you want to work for someone or a big clinic & then you're like a hygienist. So..you have to tolerate this - my husband hates this part. You work primarily with women.....and this may be a huge & unnecessary generalization on my part...but, it has held true for him & our friends - the female ancillary help in the dental field are troubled people. They have so many family, depresssion, kid, money, relationship issues he sometimes feels he is in a living Dr Phil show. You are the boss, so you get every personnel issue (Zpak has heard them all). You spend literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment. No joke! Because of that - once you've started your practice...you have no mobility.
As for pharmacy....click on my name & find the many posts on why I love my job. I could go on and on about it here - but there's that whole Caverject thing - he gets on my case😀 . My husband has envied my job...not because of what I do - he would find that boring actually. But, he has indicated that he thinks I'm more mentally stimulated than he is & I have more colleagues I interact with daily than he does. As a boss & a solo practioner, he doesn't interact easily, daily with other dentists. He sees them at lunch & social events....but, the calls to them during the day are only about cases & need to be short because he needs to see patients so he gets paid. If he doesn't work (like take a vacation.....) he actually loses money since he's not generating income, but has to continue to pay his overhead. I get paid regularly - I can count on it & know what it is from week to week. He doesn't. Some weeks are busy, others are not & his income is always delayed from when he generates it since he waits for insurance reimbursement. In this regard, its like a pharmacy owner.
We wouldn't trade places....thats for sure. But....I've always said there is a different type of personality which is drawn to each field. Given that, you'd think one of our children would follow one of us....but our daughter decided on & is thriving in medical school & our son is in graphic design....go figure.
pm me if you want more info - I can hear Caverject growling already!
But....I'm probably your best resource here since I'm a pharmacist & married to a dentist....so I know both fields intimately😍 (no......we're not going there!😳 )
I'm not going to try to convince you of either one. Obviously...they have both been of benefit to me. But, I do believe the individuals that like each one have different mindsets.
First...I'll tell you about my husband. He is smart - a biochemist who really tried that field by working at Harvard, but just didn't like the lab bench & repetititon reality of that job. So...he became a dentist & actually didn't spend a whole lot of time agonizing about the choice. A few characteristics he shares with our dentist friends......they are really, really good with their hands - adept at "fine & detailed" hand work. As a matter of fact, years ago, one of the admissions requirements for the UCSF dental school was to carve a tooth from a bar of Ivory soap. He actually had to do this during his interview - they were testing dexterity & how well they could translate what they saw to what they could carve. I don't think they do this anymore.
For fun, he does woodworking (altho not the big saw & hammer stuff...the carving stuff) and ties flies. My women dentist friends love needlepoint & stuff like that. So...I think its a general good ability to do well with your hands. They are also quite artistic (I think that's where our son gets his creative ability). I see colors like anyone else...white, pink, green, aqua....my husband sees about 20 shades of white along with all the other colors.
They also don't mind working in very small spaces....the mouth! I couldn't work in such a small space all day, but thats just me. He doesn't even visualize that anymore, but I do remember when he was in school & went from the typedont (which is the practice model) to actually working on a patient - he noticed the difference.
They have this ability - and he's told me what the name is, but I can't recall it - to process information in his brain rapidly from a direct image to a mirror image & back again. When he works in a mouth...he always has a mirror in one hand & goes back & forth looking directly at the tooth or site or whatever to looking at it in the mirror then back again....over, & over & over. My brain doesn't process information that way. I have to sit & think about which way to turn the steering wheel if I want to back up a trailer attached to a car. He picked up on that very fast & I think its because their optical processing part of their brain rapidly sends the correct interpretation from their eyes. This may be a learned thing. But...its really hard for me.
They have to be really friendly people with thick skins. No one - absolutely NO ONE loves going to the dentist and they are very willing to share that with the dentist. There are tons of awful dentist stories. Every dentist I know (& I know lots - both men & women) are people-friendly.
Now...the down sides....you have to be able to run a business, unless you want to work for someone or a big clinic & then you're like a hygienist. So..you have to tolerate this - my husband hates this part. You work primarily with women.....and this may be a huge & unnecessary generalization on my part...but, it has held true for him & our friends - the female ancillary help in the dental field are troubled people. They have so many family, depresssion, kid, money, relationship issues he sometimes feels he is in a living Dr Phil show. You are the boss, so you get every personnel issue (Zpak has heard them all). You spend literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment. No joke! Because of that - once you've started your practice...you have no mobility.
As for pharmacy....click on my name & find the many posts on why I love my job. I could go on and on about it here - but there's that whole Caverject thing - he gets on my case😀 . My husband has envied my job...not because of what I do - he would find that boring actually. But, he has indicated that he thinks I'm more mentally stimulated than he is & I have more colleagues I interact with daily than he does. As a boss & a solo practioner, he doesn't interact easily, daily with other dentists. He sees them at lunch & social events....but, the calls to them during the day are only about cases & need to be short because he needs to see patients so he gets paid. If he doesn't work (like take a vacation.....) he actually loses money since he's not generating income, but has to continue to pay his overhead. I get paid regularly - I can count on it & know what it is from week to week. He doesn't. Some weeks are busy, others are not & his income is always delayed from when he generates it since he waits for insurance reimbursement. In this regard, its like a pharmacy owner.
We wouldn't trade places....thats for sure. But....I've always said there is a different type of personality which is drawn to each field. Given that, you'd think one of our children would follow one of us....but our daughter decided on & is thriving in medical school & our son is in graphic design....go figure.
pm me if you want more info - I can hear Caverject growling already!
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snd1977, that was a wondeful response, I don't think it could get much more detailed. It also confirms for me that I definately want to be a pharmacsit 🙂 Also congrats on your children...me and my fiancee hope to be in you and your husband's shoes in the distant future...good meaningful jobs and productive children 🙂
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Working in a pharmacy gives you an idea of what my job entails. Working in a dentists office gives you an idea of what the dentist does when he/she is there....but you can't see what's going on - there is just not enough room to watch the actual drilling/filliing/surgery. And....my headaches end when I go home (for the most part anyway...). The dentist's do not. While I worked last weekend, my husband was at the office for 8 hrs both Sat & Sun doing things he could not do while he worked on patients - the business side.
If you know a dentist real well....they'll share the time & financial outlay involved, which is significant.
But..yes...my daughter grew up going to her Dad's office, but decided to visit other friends of ours - a periodontist, an oral surgeon & an orthodontist before she knew she didn't want dentistry. But..she knew them all well enough to ask the pertinent questions. Otherwise she would have watched the hygienist, receptionist & assistant and seen the dentist with his/her head bent over the pts mouth. If you're lucky...there might be an oral camera which you could actually watch the procedure on a screen.
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Yeah I see what you mean. I am actually contemplating hardcore between pharmacy and MD . I am gonna start a shadowing position this december at a saint barnabas hospital to get a view of the doctor's life in the hospital. I already work at a pharmacy and really enjoy it so that makes it even harder to decide.
