podiatry or dentistry?

[JimmerN]

so I am new here and just want to introduce myself. went to community college and transferred to USC and got a B.A. in biology. had a difficult time looking for jobs with a bio degree so I ended up working for a car shop fixing cars. This is where I got my interest in doing a career involving surgery, which both dentistry and podiatry school teach you to do

I took my DAT last month and got a 18 AA which is nowhere near the score I need to get in. However, after looking at the insane tuition at most of the dental schools, I am beginning to ponder if it is better to go to podiatry

I know podiatry and dentistry are two different things but I have shadowed both for the past 5 months and liked the atmosphere at both of them. Even though I am not in it for the money (otherwise I would have just tried being a banker), being that I am pretty old applying (25 years old), I dont want to make the wrong investment.

current podiatrists can you tell me any cons or things you wished for in your career? would you say podiatry school is a good investment vs dentistry school (one has residency and the other doesnt, but dental school would cost me twice the amount)

sorry for the long post but I am sort of stuck and concerned about which pathway should I do.

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[heybrother]

Committing to something on a falsely escalated time-table is a sure-fire path to buyer's remorse (holy crap - its senior year - what do I do?). You are not that old. Don't walk away from dentistry (if its what you want) because you feel like you didn't measure up on one take of the DAT. In school we are on a constant countdown to tests. You are not. You have the ability to take your time and not take the DAT until you are completely prepared for it. Podiatry has its ups and downs. If you aren't aware of them then you need to investigate more. I would at least have a solid understanding of podiatry attrition, scope, and the residency crisis before I made any commitments.

 

[Poit]

dentistry

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

The average dental practice owner probably makes more than the average solo pod practice owner. That being said, now that all pods are graduating from 3 year surgical residencies, I've heard of some AMAZING offers being given to grads (over 300k in some cases...). I personally feel that will last for a decade or so, and then the market will be over-saturated in highly skilled FA surgeons, but hey, what do I know?

Anyways, as you can probably surmise from my name, I picked podiatry over dentistry just because I personally found GD to be extremely monotonous. The dental specialties I looked at were intriguing and exciting for me, but every single one of those specialists said to me, "You can't go to dental school expecting or hoping to get a specialty. You need to go to dental school for the love of GD, and if you can end up specializing and loving that more, great."

A pods caseload is significantly more varied than a GD, in most cases. Drilling, filling, and billing for 40 years just didn't intrigue me.

 

[rainynights]

I most certainly would not expect to earn $300k coming out of residency.

According to PM's 30th Annual Survey, the median net income of a solo practice podiatrist as $117,750.

For those who have not viewed the survey, search it and read it. The survey contains great information!

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Well, yeah, I wouldn't expect it either. APMA news just published their salary report this last month, and the average wasn't anywhere close to that. But it's possible, is what I'm saying

 

[Gigantron]

Does that survey take into account pods who choose to pursue a solo practice and those who join a group practice? Wouldn't there be a salary discrepancy based on that alone or no?

 

[heybrother]

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/apma/news_201310/#/24

 

[ldsrmdude]

Anytime someone mentions either of those surveys (or really any surveys when it comes to salary), I feel like I have to throw a word of caution out there. I wouldn't focus too much on specific numbers that show up in the surveys, but would look more at general ranges and trends. Just my $0.02.

 

[JimmerN]

thanks for the replies everyone, I apologize if I came off uninformed, I am just having this "is this what I have to live with for the rest of my life" moment.

People will say dont do it for the money, but lets just say in the future podiatry heads for the worse, how exactly would I be able to pay off my house or student loans (im not expecting to buy a mercedes/luxury house, just a house in general), or I am just overly freaking out here.

I have also taken the survey results with a grain of salt bc my friends in med school have found some of their specialties to have low pay or pay that they did not expect. But where then can I find info on starting salary, buy in, pay per hour? all the results seem all over the place (and part of it depends on location)

MaxillofacialMN, I too know that dental school specialties are no where near easy to get and even then those specialties are not as great as they used to be

if there are any current podiatrists that can message me for advice that would be awesome. im planning to shadow the same podiatry office that i went to earlier, hopefully they can answer some of my questions.

 

[rushrhees]

Both professions earn similar, as for future I think it is fine. More diabetics out there and more sports medicine cases. One DPM who spoke here was going saying how every decade going back to the formation of medicare was going to be the end of physicians.
If you into running your own practice I would say dentistry would probably be your better bet. DPM is heading much more to group practice (as with just about everything in medicine)
Shadow both and see what you like and keep an open mind. FWIW also, in our class there are a good number of students who's parents are DPM and have asked them what their parents think of your choice. Just about everyone said while it is not as good as it used too (back in the days of the $1500 bunion) it is still good. Also these students who's parents are DPMs seem to have a lot of allowance money or money other than student loans given the lifestyle they have at school

 

[Screwtape]

How are your grades OP?

 

[JimmerN]

How are your grades OP?

3.75 overall
3.69 science
2 W's in non-science/non pre-req classes
68 credits done at CC, rest done at USC
lowest grade: B
all pre-reqs done

 

[Screwtape]

3.75 overall
3.69 science
2 W's in non-science/non pre-req classes
68 credits done at CC, rest done at USC
lowest grade: B
all pre-reqs done

Well seems like you have the grades for dental school. Both professions will allow you to live comfortably. Podiatry and dental school can be very good investments for the future, depending how you play your cards. This is your future career, you will be practicing for decades, choose the career you can see yourself doing day in and day out for the rest of life.

Also to note, there is a huge price difference between some dental schools. Act wisely when dealing with debt and always be financially mindful of your actions. If you follow those simple guidelines, then you can find success with either career, you just need to decide which career's daily activites and perks (and drawbacks) are best for you.

Cheers

 

[JimmerN]

thanks Screwtape for the kind advice, the reason I asked about podiatry and dentistry, is that as a CA resident I may have to apply to OOS dental schools which can easily rack me up 320k and USC/NYU/others can be up to 360k which I believe is insane.

Do you think it is late to apply to podiatry school this yr? I believe Temple accepts DAT scores and correct me if im wrong but some schools will interview you before you take the MCAT?

when is it pretty late to apply to podiatry school?

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

thanks Screwtape for the kind advice, the reason I asked about podiatry and dentistry, is that as a CA resident I may have to apply to OOS dental schools which can easily rack me up 320k and USC/NYU/others can be up to 360k which I believe is insane.

Do you think it is late to apply to podiatry school this yr? I believe Temple accepts DAT scores and correct me if im wrong but some schools will interview you before you take the MCAT?

when is it pretty late to apply to podiatry school?

You have plenty of time to apply. I would recommend applying now, and taking the MCAT in January. This will still give you plenty of time for most schools

 

[JimmerN]

im researching further about podiatry, and while the podiatrists are saying the job prospects are great (as there are not that many pods in the first place) but I do keep seeing about residency shortages on SDN, will this likely get worse in the immediate future? what do these pod grads do if they dont match then?

 

[heybrother]

Its always better to be the final product. That's a common theme on this forum.

There's a guy on the optometry forum who summed it up really well a long time ago - people are going to school looking at this future final product (current practitioners) that just isn't going to be available to them down the road.

Grads who don't match are screwed. There's no sugar-coating it. And there's a lot of bodies lost along the way. I'm sort of surprised the attrition numbers haven't been posted on here yet. They are dreadful and I'm pretty sure they are white-washed.

 

[JimmerN]

Its always better to be the final product. That's a common theme on this forum.

There's a guy on the optometry forum who summed it up really well a long time ago - people are going to school looking at this future final product (current practitioners) that just isn't going to be available to them down the road.

Grads who don't match are screwed. There's no sugar-coating it. And there's a lot of bodies lost along the way. I'm sort of surprised the attrition numbers haven't been posted on here yet. They are dreadful and I'm pretty sure they are white-washed.

these students that drop out is it largely bc of their ugrad GPA/MCAT score or is it just more of these pod schools dont care about the students?

what percentage doesnt match if you dont mind me asking?

 

[Zalligan]

these students that drop out is it largely bc of their ugrad GPA/MCAT score or is it just more of these pod schools dont care about the students?

what percentage doesnt match if you dont mind me asking?

From my understanding, a good portion of those that drop out, drop moreso for personal issues (family crisis, realizing it's not what they want to do, etc.) than the difficult curriculum and a schools unwillingness to help.

The overall rate of those that don't match in podiatry is similar to that of MD/DO classes. That being said, rates vary from school to school.

 

[heybrother]

Attrition numbers in the double-digits can't be explained away by "personal reasons" and what not. It would be self-affirming to learn that the students who don't make it are the students who showed up unprepared, but I doubt evidence supporting that conclusion will be forthcoming.

 

[Zalligan]

Attrition numbers in the double-digits can't be explained away by "personal reasons" and what not. It would be self-affirming to learn that the students who don't make it are the students who showed up unprepared, but I doubt evidence supporting that conclusion will be forthcoming.

It would be hard in our position (as students) to gather information supporting any conclusion. One could assume that those that drop at the end of first year do so for academic reasons, while those that drop in later years do so for personal reasons, though while somewhat logical, that would be a complete assumption. Schools can drag students through who may have been otherwise unprepared, meeting their final obstacle at boards, but that opens a whole other can of worms and numbers, and I've never liked statistics.

 

[KSUCPM2015]

It would be hard in our position (as students) to gather information supporting any conclusion. One could assume that those that drop at the end of first year do so for academic reasons, while those that drop in later years do so for personal reasons, though while somewhat logical, that would be a complete assumption. Schools can drag students through who may have been otherwise unprepared, meeting their final obstacle at boards, but that opens a whole other can of worms and numbers, and I've never liked statistics.

Yeah, numbers, especially anything that you get from this site need to be taken with a grain of salt at best because they're fun to throw around, but most don't mean anything when it comes down to it. For what it's worth I tend to think its about 50/50 personal reasons and just not being up to it. I do think that the larger schools especially tend to admit more people that probably shouldn't be there in the first place only to show them the door after a year or two. Honestly, of the 25 some-odd people we've lost from my class (that didn't transfer or come back in another class), I would say we lost maybe two people who would have been really good podiatrists.