Pre-med Vs. Pre-dent

[Cooolguy]

Hey guys, I have a quick question for everyone out there. I have been doing a lot of research about what i want to pursue as my profession. I feel like I have a strong passion for both medicine and dentistry. Ive been thru the advantages and disadvantages of both. I was wondering if you guys could help share some thoughts with me between being a dentist or a physician. Please share your thoughts, do not restrict. Anything works... This should be an interesting thread

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Unemployed]

Hey guys, I have a quick question for everyone out there. I have been doing a lot of research about what i want to pursue as my profession. I feel like I have a strong passion for both medicine and dentistry. Ive been thru the advantages and disadvantages of both. I was wondering if you guys could help share some thoughts with me between being a dentist or a physician. Please share your thoughts, do not restrict. Anything works... This should be an interesting thread

I don't think its going to be interesting at all. All its going to do is a create pissing match between big ego dental and medical students. Do a search of previous threads that deal with this topic. All of them have been pretty much closed. Good luck.

 

[duh?]

Hey guys, I have a quick question for everyone out there. I have been doing a lot of research about what i want to pursue as my profession. I feel like I have a strong passion for both medicine and dentistry. Ive been thru the advantages and disadvantages of both. I was wondering if you guys could help share some thoughts with me between being a dentist or a physician. Please share your thoughts, do not restrict. Anything works... This should be an interesting thread

May I suggest that you spend time observing a dentist and a physician. Talk to them and then talk to your classmates. Visit dental/med schools you may be interested in to hear from the students there. Most of the threads on this topic end up 'ugly.' search through the threads and you will find some answers.

 

[Sprgrover]

May I suggest that you spend time observing a dentist and a physician. Talk to them and then talk to your classmates. Visit dental/med schools you may be interested in to hear from the students there. Most of the threads on this topic end up 'ugly.' search through the threads and you will find some answers.

I agree, especially about the part on shadowing practicing dentists and physicians. Those individuals not only have been through the schooling but are dealing with the realities of their professions and will be able to give you some honest answers from a professional standpoint.

With that aside, I'll list a few of reasons why I was/am attracted to dentistry: Amazing job stability, dentistry will allow me to pretty much choose where I want to live and practice, the profession is largely self-regulated and relatively free of the political quagmire that the medical field has become trapped in, it's possible for me to reject all insurance (it's a hideous industry) and operate on a cash only basis if I so choose, and I get my weekends and evenings free.

 

[I'mFillingFine]

Those are all true, though I want to add that for me, a lot of it has to do with the work itself. There are TONS of variations among dental procedures; though they're all pretty micro in scale, a gingivectomy is far from ortho, and you can do fillings, root canals, and crown inserts all within a few hours of each other, every day! That was a huge appeal to me, since you get TONS of patient contact and meet all sorts of interesting people, while getting your hands into all these great procedures. The balance was crucial in my decision.

Also, the mouth is pretty cool stuff! Hard AND soft tissue, all sorts of microbial species, pulp (cool stuff!!) it tells a lot about the rest of the body, etc. etc. Sometimes physicians are pushed into a corner with little variation. Or, if they're general internists or internal medicine docs, they don't even touch the patients and just hand out scrips or referrals. I figured dentistry has the manual fascination of surgery with the face-to-face contact of a psychiatrist!

One of them will likely excite you more than the other!

 

[Mustt Mustt]

People in Dental field think that dentistry is the best profession and that is the reason they are in it. Mediacal guys think the same thing, and that is the reason they go to Medical school. They both are good or they both are bad. It depends on you. Which one do you like. Which one is better fit for you. You may not like either one and decide to become a Investment borker. Just try to explore each one with an open mind. Try by starting volunteering in both fields and see if you can see yourself doing it for 30+ years. One thing to remember is that you don't have to absoloutely love the job but you Must like it. If you don't like it than there is a sign that you shouldn't go into it. There are tons of variable in deciding what you want to do with your life. Just remember both of these fields are different but each one is rewarding. They have different things to offer and they attract people with different personality and goals. You need to find out which one fits you better and only you can figure it out we can't really make that decision for you. Good Luck.

 

[darius99]

I'mFillingFine, i couldn't have said it better myself

 

[Richnator]

Hey guys, I have a quick question for everyone out there. I have been doing a lot of research about what i want to pursue as my profession. I feel like I have a strong passion for both medicine and dentistry. Ive been thru the advantages and disadvantages of both. I was wondering if you guys could help share some thoughts with me between being a dentist or a physician. Please share your thoughts, do not restrict. Anything works... This should be an interesting thread

Just shadow both fields and see for yourself. Then just follow your heart.

Best of luck,
Rich

 

[LNinlove]

I have always wanted to be a doctor of some sort. Because helping people is my passion and I would love to do it in a professional setting. First, I thought I might get a Ph.D. in Psychology, then I got to talking to my psych teacher/advisor and I felt like the psych field wasn't for me personally.
I then took a step back and looked at my life and everyone that was in it. I realized that one of the coolest guys I knew was my dentist! I was in the dentist office ALOT. Every time I was in there, he seemed genuinely excited to see his patients and he would always hang out and talk with them for a while. His DA's have always been very friendly and cordial.
My story continues with me inquiring about dentistry and what it involved and the required education and what it was generally all about. He offered to have me come in and shadow whenever I wanted and the rest is history.

Another side to this story...I have a cousin who is in his second year of residency as an ear, nose and throat specialist, and I ansked him about that side of medicine. He said that if HE could do it over, he would have chosen dentistry instead. He simply did not like the whole insurance side of things. He also commented on the residency, 5 years for him. Needless to say, he will be 40 years old when he gets out on his own. Which is not a bad thing, I like having a mature doctor.

Finally, my dentist called me up one day and he had an article that he wanted to read to me. It was about two brothers, one a dentist and the other a medical doctor. It was about how the md had to work 40-60 hours a week and was always tired and worn out, and a bit of a slap in the face, his pay was decreasing. Yet, the dds brother was working around 35-40 hours a week, and had time to be with his family in the evenings and on the weekends. My dentist then said, "I work on average 4 days a week, and I am blessed to have time with my family...you chose the right profession."

I realize we are all different and are called different ways, and I don't want to start the infamous pissing match, but this is why I chose dentistry.

Good luck in your decision, and God bless!

 

[I'mFillingFine]

the md had to work 40-60 hours a week and was always tired and worn out, and a bit of a slap in the face, his pay was decreasing. Yet, the dds brother was working around 35-40 hours a week, and had time to be with his family in the evenings and on the weekends. My dentist then said, "I work on average 4 days a week, and I am blessed to have time with my family...you chose the right profession."

EXACTLY!!!

 

[duh?]

EXACTLY!!!

I second that!

 

[TiggerJSA]

Hey guys, I have a quick question for everyone out there. I have been doing a lot of research about what i want to pursue as my profession. I feel like I have a strong passion for both medicine and dentistry. Ive been thru the advantages and disadvantages of both. I was wondering if you guys could help share some thoughts with me between being a dentist or a physician. Please share your thoughts, do not restrict. Anything works... This should be an interesting thread

Now, this may be off the mark, but I have a feeling that both medicine and dentistry have a unique quality in that the interest and devotion to each respective profession is almost impossible to truly develop until you are actually immersed in the field. That being said, I believe making your decision before starting your education comes down to 2 things: preference in lifestyle and desire to be or not to be more hands on. If you want to facilitate a more comfortable lifestyle with more hands on services, dentistry is probably the way to go. If you want to get a more comprehensive education about the human body and want to open up more opportunities of education, medicine is probably the way to go. The nice thing is if you want to combine both, you can always become an oral maxillofacial surgeon. This opportunity is available through both routes, although the medical route is a little more limited in this respect.
Anyhoo, since I'm biased in being a dental student, I'd obviously say dentistry. But, in my opinion I think it's a no-lose situation if you do either, as long as you're doing what makes you happy. (I think I counted at least 7 cliches in this post )

 

[toofache32]

If you decide on dentistry, make sure you go to a DDS school and not a DMD school. DMDs can't perform surgery and have to have a DDS sign their prescriptions for them.

 

[darius99]

If you decide on dentistry, make sure you go to a DDS school and not a DMD school. DMDs can't perform surgery and have to have a DDS sign their prescriptions for them.

lol

 

[dinesh]

A pissing contest?
My @#$%^ is bigger than yourssss..

This post has been edited by javadicavity.

 

[Audio]

If you decide on dentistry, make sure you go to a DDS school and not a DMD school. DMDs can't perform surgery and have to have a DDS sign their prescriptions for them.

hahah watch out though cuz these pre-meds really don't know that this is a joke so they'll go around telling people this. Then the next time they meet a DMD from Harvard, they'll laugh at him

 

[toofache32]

...Then the next time they meet a DMD from Harvard, they'll laugh at him

...and maybe they should.

 

[toofache32]

A pissing contest?
My penis is bigger than yourssss..

But i can pee farther.

 

[JavadiCavity]

A pissing contest?
My @#$%^ is bigger than yourssss..

This post has been edited by javadicavity.

Dinesh, keep comments appropriate.