Hey SDNers. I know you guys are just trying to help but please don't encourage unethical behavior such as recommending to predents that they hide or conceal a disability such as blindness in one eye. Although you may only be joking, some people may take you seriously and follow your advice. A person who has a disability that may effect his ability to perform dentistry to the level of the standard of care and could potentially seriously injure his patients should excuse himself/ herself from treating patients. For many dentists, it means the end of a career in dentistry. One of my faculty advisors from dental school had the same problem. He retired from dentistry due to problems in one of his eyes. How would you feel if your dentist had a disability such as HIV and kept it a secret? Accidents happen all the time in the dental office even when you take all the precautions. I've had a few accidents happen to me over the course of my own career as a dentist. Thankfully, none of them have been serious. It is impossible to prevent accidents from happening. What if this HIV positive dentist accidently cut himself on his dental drill and bled all over the patient? Although having HIV and blindness in one eye are totally different afflictions, they share one thing in common...they both place patients in danger and that is all that matters to a licensing board. They will take revoke the dental license without even losing sleep over it. Furthermore, a dentist who is aware of his disability and continues to practice dentistry on his patients is intentionally placing his/ her patients in danger and is guilty of negligence. If that dentist ever caused even the smallest injury to a patient, the lawyers will find out about the disability and use it to send that dentist to jail and sue them for everything they own. That dentist's life will be ruined and they will lose everything, even their freedom. Just do a google search on this topic and you'll see what I mean. There are tons of cases like this in California alone. You'll see that the punishment is extremely harsh. As many posts have already pointed out, I agree that someone with a serious affliction who is thinking about dentistry should seek the advice of the state licensing board and let them decide. I personally have no problems with dentists who have disabilities. I think it's admirable that they can overcome thier difficulties. Not all disabilities will prevent a person from practicing dentistry. However, I have strong feelings about actively hiding and concealing disabilities that are relevant to the ability to perform dentistry at the level of the standard of care. Patients entrust their safety in the hands of others. The dentist also has a moral and ethical obligation to not risk the well being of their patients. I hope I made my point clear. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade but it's important to remember that many people come to SDN for help and advice and may blindly follow your suggestions because they are clinging to even the slightest bit of hope. I also just wanted to mention a side note. SDN is well known by many dental school faculty people. Many of my dental school professors who are also members of the admissions committee regularly go on SDN to read what applicants say in these forums. I even know some of their user IDs. They would be very disappointed to see people advising others to commit unethical acts. Anyhow, SDN gave me awesome help when I was a predent and a dental student. I'm just returning the favor. For the most part, you guys are giving great advice and suggestions.
. the best option is contact with schools admissions and explain your situation, it is not bad idea you do some research in schools websites which you are interested. 
