Questioning Pursuing Dentistry...

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WumboDebt

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Hello! I’m a senior in undergrad and have everything set to apply to dental school. However, due to COVID I didn’t start actually shadowing until recently.
I find dentistry very boring. The first few days I came in I was kind of interested in what all the dentists were doing, but now that I’m almost 30 hours in it’s all just so boring. I don’t really care about teeth or oral health/pathology, which now has me wondering what’s even the point of pursuing dentistry if I don’t even like it now?
Is this normal or should I go in a different direction?

(( got interested in dentistry bc of good work/life balance, helping people, the teaching aspect, love science, and stable employment))

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Oh maybe I should’ve worded this better - upon actually shadowing I find it all very boring.
 
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I found that shadowing was also incredibly boring, however I was able to find a position as a dental assistant and actually being hands on made it so much more interesting and exciting. I’m very much a handy person, a huge reason I’m pursuing dentistry is to be able to use my hands/tools to fix things. So to me shadowing provided very little of that.
 
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Coming from a dental student - doing a procedure is great and keeps your mind engaged the whole time - watching someone do or assisting someone on a procedure gets very dull especially if it's something you've done yourself many times. I would recommend you shadow multiple specialties and volunteer (if possible during the pandemic). Do you like working with your hands - any activity? Or do you prefer more conceptual activities that don't involve physically doing something? I've got some classmates who quickly learned they dislike clinical care but love radiology and are now pursuing a dental radiology residency.
 
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Coming from a dental student - doing a procedure is great and keeps your mind engaged the whole time - watching someone do or assisting someone on a procedure gets very dull especially if it's something you've done yourself many times. I would recommend you shadow multiple specialties and volunteer (if possible during the pandemic). Do you like working with your hands - any activity? Or do you prefer more conceptual activities that don't involve physically doing something? I've got some classmates who quickly learned they dislike clinical care but love radiology and are now pursuing a dental radiology residency.
Thanks! You and everyone else here are making me feel better. I actually really do like working with my hands, which is part of what got me interested in dentistry.
 
Don't do it. Find another career, or do hygiene. Dentistry honestly isn't worth the four additional years and $$$. If I could go back in time, I would not pursue a DDS.

Just my two cents
 
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Don’t go to dental school if you’re not interested in the day to day operations of a dental office. Dentistry is highly repetitive, and offers little flexibility. I’d consider alternative career choices.
 
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Could you please elaborate? I am a pre-dent but I just wanna get more realistic picture. Thanks!!
Unless you genuinely like the tedious work a dentist does and patient interactions they have on a day to day basis, don't do it. Because you won't like it. Dental hygiene has a wonderful worklife balance, nursing isn't half bad. Be a PA, a lab tech, a radiology tech, etc. etc.

Don't do dentistry because you "want to help people" because you don't. You fix teeth, that's it. And you charge a large amount of money to do so. The patient usually feels robbed, not helped. Those who actually need help are almost always on Medicaid... which is horrible and only reimburses like 30%, so most dental offices don't even accept those patients. Oops, so much for helping people. You only help people who can afford it, which doesn't feel very helpful. Just being honest.

Don't go into dentistry because you think you will be respected. You're not an M.D. and never will be. Most patients give you the save amount of respect they would a mechanic who has ripped them off in the past. They will sit there with their $1,200 dollar brand-new phone and complain about the $100 filling (which will save the tooth from needing a RCT in the future) and wonder why it "cost so much". And this is at dental school! Where everything is half the price of private practice. Doesn't matter! They don't respect the work you do and just want it cheap cheap cheap.

If you like dentistry, it's great. Not perfect, but a nice career. If you can see yourself doing something else that won't cost $300,000+ dollars, please, do that. It will save you lots of heartache later on.

Again, just the ramblings of a D3 soon to be D4...
 
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Unless you genuinely like the tedious work a dentist does and patient interactions they have on a day to day basis, don't do it. Because you won't like it. Dental hygiene has a wonderful worklife balance, nursing isn't half bad. Be a PA, a lab tech, a radiology tech, etc. etc.

Don't do dentistry because you "want to help people" because you don't. You fix teeth, that's it. And you charge a large amount of money to do so. The patient usually feels robbed, not helped. Those who actually need help are almost always on Medicaid... which is horrible and only reimburses like 30%, so most dental offices don't even accept those patients. Oops, so much for helping people. You only help people who can afford it, which doesn't feel very helpful. Just being honest.

Don't go into dentistry because you think you will be respected. You're not an M.D. and never will be. Most patients give you the save amount of respect they would a mechanic who has ripped them off in the past. They will sit there with their $1,200 dollar brand-new phone and complain about the $100 filling (which will save the tooth from needing a RCT in the future) and wonder why it "cost so much". And this is at dental school! Where everything is half the price of private practice. Doesn't matter! They don't respect the work you do and just want it cheap cheap cheap.

If you like dentistry, it's great. Not perfect, but a nice career. If you can see yourself doing something else that won't cost $300,000+ dollars, please, do that. It will save you lots of heartache later on.

Again, just the ramblings of a D3 soon to be D4...
I've had the opposite experience of where most of my patients are extremely grateful for the work I've done. I think your dental school experience really depends on what school you go to and that area's patient base. It's also what you make of it. I view every single patient/case as a learning experience to grow as a provider, regardless how the patient views it. Yes a lot of people will complain about the price of dentistry, but it's expensive everywhere in the US. If you take the time to really explain to your patients the benefits of oral care and how it can improve their overall health/function many will accept the treatment. With cost being a barrier, you can't help everyone, but if you're truly passionate about serving others you can volunteer a lot at free community dental clinics. Some of my best dental experiences have been at volunteer clinics, and the patients you see there are beyond grateful for your services.
 
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Don't do dentistry because you "want to help people" because you don't. You fix teeth, that's it. And you charge a large amount of money to do so. The patient usually feels robbed, not helped. Those who actually need help are almost always on Medicaid... which is horrible and only reimburses like 30%, so most dental offices don't even accept those patients. Oops, so much for helping people. You only help people who can afford it, which doesn't feel very helpful. Just being honest.


The above advice is 100% accurate.
 
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We can think of shadowing as a spectator sport. If being a spectator is boring, there is a good chance that full fledged participation will be equally unappealing. It is hard to imagine how bored one would be a year, five or ten years into the profession.
 
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When I was shadowing as a pre-dent I thought to myself "Oh god this s**t is really boring, please save me if I need to do this for the rest of my life." However I also saw how profitable it can be so I decided to go with it. Now I am 6 weeks away from receiving my DDS and I love doing the clinical work in dentistry! Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but while observing a root canal or an extraction is really boring you get an adrenaline rush when you go in there and do it yourself. So don't count it out just yet.
 
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We can think of shadowing as a spectator sport. If being a spectator is boring, there is a good chance that full fledged participation will be equally unappealing. It is hard to imagine how bored one would be a year, five or ten years into the profession.
I’m not sure that is the best example. Watching professional soccer puts me to sleep, yet in college my world revolved around the sport. Practices, games, traveling, film sessions, workouts, ext... It has consumed my life from a young age and I wouldn't trade it for a thing. So I’m solidly in the camp that watching something and doing something are two different beasts.
 
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I’m 3 years out of school working as an associate at a private practice that also sees Medicaid patients who need sedation.

Here are the cons:
- as someone above said, there are ungrateful patients that don’t realize your efforts at all, Medicaid or not.
- You kiss ass all the time even when you know the customer is wrong. It’s just a part of customer service and trying to avoid bad reviews.
- piggying back off the previous: it is an expensive form of customer service, and some people are hard to please.
- the debt really sucks. I graduated with 315k.
- when you’re having a crappy day at home and are feeling anti-social, you can’t bring that with you to the office.
- tons of people hate and are fearful of the dentist, so it can be frustrating when dealing with some patients.
- it is somewhat monotonous. But each case is always different, so not completely monotonous. Not all teeth are the same.

Here are the pros:
- for now, it’s a stable career. This is location dependent, I’m sure.
- it pays relatively well. Also location dependent. Debt to income ratio sucks, but you can’t deny that it pays well.
- you get to meet tons of people, if you’re into that. I consider myself to be pretty introverted, so being around a lot of people really drains my energy. But even so, I’ve still found joy in meeting people from all walks of life. Some of the conversations I’ve had with patients are fun, interesting, etc.
- I don’t care what the above person said. You ARE making a difference in someone’s life. You’re not just “fixing teeth.” I mean, sure, if you work at an office where you do fillings that just touch the DEJ all day, you’re not going to feel fulfilled. It’s more likely because of the patient pool I see, but I have kids and adults that come in saying they haven’t slept in days because of tooth pain, kids/teens with cavities that have eaten away at their front teeth so much that they are too self conscious to smile.
It makes my day when a patient says, “thank you so much,” after I’ve done something to take them out of pain, or to give them the confidence to smile, as cheesy as that sounds.

Summary:
- there are pros and cons to ALL jobs, not just dentistry.
- if you don’t feel like you’re making a difference, find a new place to work at.
- I enjoy my job 20% of the time, hate it 20% of the time, and am indifferent 60%.
- at the end of the day, it’s still a job. 99% of the world works to make money, not because of pure enjoyment. Dentistry makes you decent money.
- here’s my final say: if I won the lottery and never had to work for the rest of my life, I’d still try to do dentistry 1-2 days a week just for the heck of it. Maybe volunteering or something.
But would I go into the field knowing that I’d be 400k+ in debt? NO, I would not recommend that.

Editing to answer your question:
I would not recommend dentistry to you. If you have zero interest in teeth/oral health, you won’t like dentistry. Caveat here is that job shadowing sucks and is quite boring after a while.
 
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But would I go into the field knowing that I’d be 400k+ in debt? NO, I would not recommend that.
Thank you so much for your input and well thought out response. Also, I don’t see a way that I could exit dental school without about 400k in debt. I’m in SC, so my in-state school is MUSC which is insanely expensive. You’ve given some great info. Thank you
 
Thank you so much for your input and well thought out response. Also, I don’t see a way that I could exit dental school without about 400k in debt. I’m in SC, so my in-state school is MUSC which is insanely expensive. You’ve given some great info. Thank you
Aim for schools that give you in-state tuition after a year, that should mitigate some of the cost but it'll be over 300K guaranteed without something like HPSP.
 
Unless you genuinely like the tedious work a dentist does and patient interactions they have on a day to day basis, don't do it. Because you won't like it. Dental hygiene has a wonderful worklife balance, nursing isn't half bad. Be a PA, a lab tech, a radiology tech, etc. etc.

Don't do dentistry because you "want to help people" because you don't. You fix teeth, that's it. And you charge a large amount of money to do so. The patient usually feels robbed, not helped. Those who actually need help are almost always on Medicaid... which is horrible and only reimburses like 30%, so most dental offices don't even accept those patients. Oops, so much for helping people. You only help people who can afford it, which doesn't feel very helpful. Just being honest.

Don't go into dentistry because you think you will be respected. You're not an M.D. and never will be. Most patients give you the save amount of respect they would a mechanic who has ripped them off in the past. They will sit there with their $1,200 dollar brand-new phone and complain about the $100 filling (which will save the tooth from needing a RCT in the future) and wonder why it "cost so much". And this is at dental school! Where everything is half the price of private practice. Doesn't matter! They don't respect the work you do and just want it cheap cheap cheap.

If you like dentistry, it's great. Not perfect, but a nice career. If you can see yourself doing something else that won't cost $300,000+ dollars, please, do that. It will save you lots of heartache later on.

Again, just the ramblings of a D3 soon to be D4...
I'm amazed that you have this negative perspective as a D3 -> D4. Don't get me wrong. Alot of what you said is correct, but wow. Usually dental students are not concerned with the financial dynamics of the $100 dollar filling vs the patient's expensive Apple phone.

Any plans to do something different .... like specialize? Not saying that is the answer, but it's an option.
 
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I’m not sure that is the best example. Watching professional soccer puts me to sleep, yet in college my world revolved around the sport. Practices, games, traveling, film sessions, workouts, ext... It has consumed my life from a young age and I wouldn't trade it for a thing. So I’m solidly in the camp that watching something and doing something are two different beasts.

Some practitioners are likely to find "shadowing" their peers, while performing routine procedures, equally soporific. The op is not exactly in that group.


When I was shadowing as a pre-dent I thought to myself "Oh god this s**t is really boring, please save me if I need to do this for the rest of my life." However I also saw how profitable it can be so I decided to go with it. Now I am 6 weeks away from receiving my DDS and I love doing the clinical work in dentistry! Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but while observing a root canal or an extraction is really boring you get an adrenaline rush when you go in there and do it yourself. So don't count it out just yet.
A stack of Franklins is certain to be mesmerizing.
 
Hello! I’m a senior in undergrad and have everything set to apply to dental school. However, due to COVID I didn’t start actually shadowing until recently.
I find dentistry very boring. The first few days I came in I was kind of interested in what all the dentists were doing, but now that I’m almost 30 hours in it’s all just so boring. I don’t really care about teeth or oral health/pathology, which now has me wondering what’s even the point of pursuing dentistry if I don’t even like it now?
Is this normal or should I go in a different direction?

(( got interested in dentistry bc of good work/life balance, helping people, the teaching aspect, love science, and stable employment))
Dont waste your time if you feel like you won’t change. Dental school sucks lol the profession as a whole is great to me.
 
I'm amazed that you have this negative perspective as a D3 -> D4. Don't get me wrong. Alot of what you said is correct, but wow. Usually dental students are not concerned with the financial dynamics of the $100 dollar filling vs the patient's expensive Apple phone.

Any plans to do something different .... like specialize? Not saying that is the answer, but it's an option.
Nope, I enjoy this profession quite a bit. My plan is to work in community dentistry, hopefully an FQHC or equivalent in a high HPSA. I genuinely enjoy dentistry despite the negatives. And the few patients that actually appreciate it makes it all worth it. I wouldn't say it is a negative perspective as much as a realistic one. And based on the OP's statement, I thought they needed a realistic view of the profession. Not a sugar coated one.
 
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Dentistry is doing procedures day after day with your hands, getting to know the people attached to the mouths, and then charging enough for those procedures so you can take home some income. Before you can put your fingers in someone's mouth, you have to convince them to pay for the procedure. Shadowing is very boring, I agree.
 
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Hello! I’m a senior in undergrad and have everything set to apply to dental school. However, due to COVID I didn’t start actually shadowing until recently.
I find dentistry very boring. The first few days I came in I was kind of interested in what all the dentists were doing, but now that I’m almost 30 hours in it’s all just so boring. I don’t really care about teeth or oral health/pathology, which now has me wondering what’s even the point of pursuing dentistry if I don’t even like it now?
Is this normal or should I go in a different direction?

(( got interested in dentistry bc of good work/life balance, helping people, the teaching aspect, love science, and stable employment))

Try shadowing some medical fields. My personal story. I was set on entering medical school and was interested in orthopedic surgery. But just like you .... in undergrad as a senior .... I started to have doubts about the medical direction. Spoke to a few predents and I was immediately fascinated with the idea of being a small practice owner. Also dentistry seemed more laid back, less life and death decisions, etc. etc. Once I entered dental school .... I soon discovered that I had ZERO interest in general dentistry. Therefore I headed into orthodontics.

The point is. You need to make a decision regarding your direction. This is obviously a huge decision. Neat thing about dentistry (and medicine) is that there are different related fields. All the different specialties. Even anesthesia. You don't like teeth .... consider perio, oral surgery, anesthesia. You like kids ....pedo. You like old people .... Geriatric dentistry. You like watching zombie movies .... consider the morticians of dentistry ..... Endo. More of a cerebral thinker? Think ortho.

Seriously. You've got time. Do some more research. Dental school is expensive. You need to make the right decision.
 
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Dentistry involves a lot of people pleasing, and by that I mean pleasing not only your patients but also your staff. All day you are going to hear about people's problems and it's up to you to fix them or offer a solution because you're not only a dentist, but the owner of a business. Patient's see you as an overpaid mechanic who most people hate seeing. Movies portray us as evil villains who inflict pain and when things inevitably go wrong with procedures you will be blamed. They also think that we make money doing "nothing" and golf every day. The view that patient's have about dentists is unfortunately rigged from the start.

It's not all bad though, in fact a very grateful patient who is happy to receive your care can make your day. The adrenaline rush from a successful busy day can be oddly addicting. It's a job that requires a constant "happy face" and confidence when presenting treatment plans. The day-to-day grind though is worth it when you look at the positives such as flexible hours and good pay. If you can avoid 500k+ in debt then this is still a great field with a flexible lifestyle. You might need to move away from your favorite city to find a job that's worth it, and you might need to grind it out in corporate for a few years. You just need mental stamina to be able to handle the messiness and chaos that is bound to occur in this field. It's a niche job though that is still pretty well protected when you compare it other professions.
 
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Don't do dentistry because you "want to help people" because you don't. You fix teeth, that's it.

Dentists save many lives through the prevention and treatment of oral disease.

The Journal of Endodontics found that, between 2000 and 2008, over 61,000 hospitalizations in the United States were tied to dental infections, specifically periapical abscesses (infection of the tooth's root). 66 patients died from complications related to the infection.”

edit: I agree with others, don’t do dentistry unless you’re interested in oral diseases and their treatment.
 
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Dentists save many lives through the prevention and treatment of oral disease.

The Journal of Endodontics found that, between 2000 and 2008, over 61,000 hospitalizations in the United States were tied to dental infections, specifically periapical abscesses (infection of the tooth's root). 66 patients died from complications related to the infection.”

edit: I agree with others, don’t do dentistry unless you’re interested in oral diseases and their treatment.
That is like saying mechanics save lives through the proper maintenance of motor vehicles. While it is true, it is not very honest... Or sexy.

Also notice how those 61,000 patients were being treated in the hospital, not the dental office? If things go south and a patient's life is actually in danger, they go to a real doctor, either an oral surgeon or an MD (most of the time the OS is also an MD). If a patient is suffering from Ludwig's angina and is experiencing difficulty breathing, I don't know any general dentist that would treat that in their office. And 66 patients died of a tooth issue within an 8-year period? Not a very significant danger to anyone when you look at the statistics.

The only time a dentist is going to save a life is when they properly recognize oral cancer at an early stage and make the proper referral to the MD/OS who is actually going to be providing the real life-saving treatment.

If you want to save lives be a nurse/PA/MD in the ER. You are not going to be saving lives doing a MOD on #4, sorry.
 
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That is like saying mechanics save lives through the proper maintenance of motor vehicles. While it is true, it is not very honest... Or sexy.

Also notice how those 61,000 patients were being treated in the hospital, not the dental office? If things go south and a patient's life is actually in danger, they go to a real doctor, either an oral surgeon or an MD (most of the time the OS is also an MD). If a patient is suffering from Ludwig's angina and is experiencing difficulty breathing, I don't know any general dentist that would treat that in their office. And 66 patients died of a tooth issue within an 8-year period? Not a very significant danger to anyone when you look at the statistics.

The only time a dentist is going to save a life is when they properly recognize oral cancer at an early stage and make the proper referral to the MD/OS who is actually going to be providing the real life-saving treatment.

If you want to save lives be a nurse/PA/MD in the ER. You are not going to be saving lives doing a MOD on #4, sorry.
So the only time an intervention counts as helping someone is when one is on deaths door? You can rule out almost all medical interventions then too. Modern dentistry saves lives, as does vehicle maintenance, as do medical interventions. In the case of the MOD, that intervention may be causal in preventing morbidity or mortality through eliminating caries and what follows (see my previous post). Dentists work directly on humans, improving their health. Thereby satisfying most people’s definition of helping people.

I have actually worked in an ED (it’s not an ER) and you may be surprised at what actually goes on there; it’s mostly primary care for the uninsured to keep them from being on deaths door.
 
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Hello! I’m a senior in undergrad and have everything set to apply to dental school. However, due to COVID I didn’t start actually shadowing until recently.
I find dentistry very boring. The first few days I came in I was kind of interested in what all the dentists were doing, but now that I’m almost 30 hours in it’s all just so boring. I don’t really care about teeth or oral health/pathology, which now has me wondering what’s even the point of pursuing dentistry if I don’t even like it now?
Is this normal or should I go in a different direction?

(( got interested in dentistry bc of good work/life balance, helping people, the teaching aspect, love science, and stable employment))

Shadowing is boring AF. Watching dentistry from afar is even more boring.

The point of pursuing dentistry (or any job) is to make money, unless you're drowing in money to where you don't care about the money, then go pursue whatever you want to your heart's content. Everything else is a plus (job satisfaction, hours, work/life balance, stability, etc.). The most satisfying things about dentistry is the money, hours, and getting people out of pain. Where else can you make a few k per hour, with only 3-4 years of training, and not have to work too hard to get in - looking at you guys in medicine. Contrary to others, I don't think I save lives, I improve the quality of life of others that can afford it. Not gonna sugarcoat it with the whole class warfare and medicaid population - I don't take medicaid for a variety of reasons.

Don't go into this wanting respect or the "glories" of medicine. The whole point is to go in, make money in a relatively short period of time, not take any work home, and enjoy the fruits of your labor. If in any of those steps, I happen to help people, so be it. In the office, I'm a doctor, when I step out, I'm just TanMan. If someone's dying, I don't want the liability of trying to save them, but in the very least, I know to direct them to someone who can.
 
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That is like saying mechanics save lives through the proper maintenance of motor vehicles. While it is true, it is not very honest... Or sexy.

Also notice how those 61,000 patients were being treated in the hospital, not the dental office? If things go south and a patient's life is actually in danger, they go to a real doctor, either an oral surgeon or an MD (most of the time the OS is also an MD). If a patient is suffering from Ludwig's angina and is experiencing difficulty breathing, I don't know any general dentist that would treat that in their office. And 66 patients died of a tooth issue within an 8-year period? Not a very significant danger to anyone when you look at the statistics.

The only time a dentist is going to save a life is when they properly recognize oral cancer at an early stage and make the proper referral to the MD/OS who is actually going to be providing the real life-saving treatment.

If you want to save lives be a nurse/PA/MD in the ER. You are not going to be saving lives doing a MOD on #4, sorry.
Why is it that you can include early detection of oral cancer as “life saving” but you won’t include pre-treatment of a tooth abscess (root canal or extraction) as life saving?
Yes, the chances of dying purely from a tooth infection are slim, but they’re still there and it can happen to anyone.

Editing to add: Just to be clear, I’m not walking into work everyday thinking I’m saving lives by doing root canals, but I’m also not gonna completely downplay the profession and say, “I don’t actually help people, I only fix teeth.”
 
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Why is it that you can include early detection of oral cancer as “life saving” but you won’t include pre-treatment of a tooth abscess (root canal or extraction) as life saving?
Yes, the chances of dying purely from a tooth infection are slim, but they’re still there and it can happen to anyone.

Editing to add: Just to be clear, I’m not walking into work everyday thinking I’m saving lives by doing root canals, but I’m also not gonna completely downplay the profession and say, “I don’t actually help people, I only fix teeth.”
I did, technically. I said that "While it is true, it is not very honest... Or sexy." in regards to preventative treatment being "life-saving".

To the point about cancer: I think that early detection of oral cancer is the closest a dentist gets to actually saving a life - Just my opinion. Unlike death from a tooth abscess which is more like a freak accident (less than 9 patients a year according to that article), oral and oropharyngeal cancers kill around ~10,000 patients a year. Early detection can make a huge difference in the 5-year survival rate, which drops from 85% to 68% as soon as it spreads to lymph nodes.

Okay, you caught me. I was being too cynical about the profession. Dentists do indeed help people, it just doesn't always feel that way. The majority of the time I feel more like I am in customer service than a medical profession - Probably a personal problem, I get it. But there are those rare patients that are incredibly grateful and I am able to feel like I made a real difference in their life.
 
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I have actually worked in an ED (it’s not an ER) and you may be surprised at what actually goes on there; it’s mostly primary care for the uninsured to keep them from being on deaths door.
You showed me.
 
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The majority of the time I feel more like I am in customer service than a medical profession - Probably a personal problem, I get it. But there are those rare patients that are incredibly grateful and I am able to feel like I made a real difference in their life.
Unfortunately this is the case in almost all fields of healthcare. The public wants their provider to be pleasant and affirm their wishes and desires similar to hospitality. Even in the ED, where one would envision the purest form of health care delivery, patients can be very demanding. Hospitals are interested in keeping these patients happy due to customer survey programs that influence reimbursement like Press Ganey. Customer service is even more important in outpatient medicine.

It looks like you’re in dental school, I remember also hating dealing with the patient population there and the position I was put in as a student. It wasn’t till I changed my perspective; that I’m there to learn and not be a dentist, that things got better. Dental schools exist to train dentists, not to treat patients. Unfortunately this causes a lot of friction and the poor dental student is caught in the middle. Private practice has been MUCH better for me.

Edit: Are you interested in oral surgery or endo? I ask because at my DSO patients are very motivated to have those treatments due to pain and infection. Also, discussion and decision for treatment has already been established by the GP prior to referral.
 
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I don’t really care about teeth or oral health/pathology, which now has me wondering what’s even the point of pursuing dentistry if I don’t even like it now?
If you're questioning this field then I would go a different path. Either you're in it with your heart, or not at all. :horns:
 
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The first few days I came in I was kind of interested in what all the dentists were doing, but now that I’m almost 30 hours in it’s all just so boring. I don’t really care about teeth or oral health/pathology

Does anyone really care about teeth as a body part? It's like art appreciation, the more we learn about it, the more we can appreciate the part we're studying. You don't have to care about the teeth as a whole, but understand that the oral cavity does play an important role in nutrition, speech, function, esthetics, airway, etc. You don't have to care about all of them or even any of them. You could be a dentist because you like personal interaction with patients, you like the hours, you like working in small dark spaces that flood with saliva and muscles that push you around, the money, getting patients out of pain, letting people eat better, making people happier when they smile, and so on.

Oral pathology is boring AF and that is what's great about a GP... you can pick and choose! Anything look different/oral path/cancer? Refer them out. Don't care about esthetics? Refer them out. Hate dentures? Don't do them/refer. I don't care to do a lot of procedures, you don't have to care about everything in dentistry. You just have to care about taking care of your patients by doing clinically acceptable work in the very least (or from a financial perspective - not generating a ton of future liabilities). Whatever your motivations are, that's on you and no one else.

If you're questioning this field then I would go a different path. Either you're in it with your heart, or not at all. :horns:

It's really hard for people to know if they want to be a dentist without being a dentist. It's the biggest catch 22 out there. However, once you're a dentist, you're stuck with debt that needs to be paid and if you hate it, you're a prisoner of your own life, but at least you're not a prisoner of your income ceiling (relative to other allied healthcare professionals). I'll agree with you though, if you're going to try and get into dental school, your heart needs to be into it and you're in it to win it/get in. Once you're in, then it's easy-peezy from there... you just need to graduate(not get kicked out).
 
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Does anyone really care about teeth as a body part? It's like art appreciation, the more we learn about it, the more we can appreciate the part we're studying. You don't have to care about the teeth as a whole, but understand that the oral cavity does play an important role in nutrition, speech, function, esthetics, airway, etc. You don't have to care about all of them or even any of them. You could be a dentist because you like personal interaction with patients, you like the hours, you like working in small dark spaces that flood with saliva and muscles that push you around, the money, getting patients out of pain, letting people eat better, making people happier when they smile, and so on.

Oral pathology is boring AF and that is what's great about a GP... you can pick and choose! Anything look different/oral path/cancer? Refer them out. Don't care about esthetics? Refer them out. Hate dentures? Don't do them/refer. I don't care to do a lot of procedures, you don't have to care about everything in dentistry. You just have to care about taking care of your patients by doing clinically acceptable work in the very least (or from a financial perspective - not generating a ton of future liabilities). Whatever your motivations are, that's on you and no one else.



It's really hard for people to know if they want to be a dentist without being a dentist. It's the biggest catch 22 out there. However, once you're a dentist, you're stuck with debt that needs to be paid and if you hate it, you're a prisoner of your own life, but at least you're not a prisoner of your income ceiling (relative to other allied healthcare professionals). I'll agree with you though, if you're going to try and get into dental school, your heart needs to be into it and you're in it to win it/get in. Once you're in, then it's easy-peezy from there... you just need to graduate(not get kicked out).

Totally agree man
 
Don’t go to dental school if you’re not interested in the day to day operations of a dental office. Dentistry is highly repetitive, and offers little flexibility. I’d consider alternative career choices.
I was told it offers a lot of flexibility. Could you clarify?
 
I was told it offers a lot of flexibility. Could you clarify?
Flexibility can mean different things.

One aspect of flexibility is the option of being a small business owner (private practice). An employee for a DSO. Or some form of public health profession. Academics. Obviously being a private practice owner will give you the most flexibility towards days worked. Hours. Vacation. Etc. Etc. An employee at a DSO has less flexibility, but can work PT or FT. Re: Academics. My dentist friend works at Midwestern AZ. He says the worst part is always working 5 days per week. But the benefits are better than most DSOs.

Another aspect of being a general dentist is that you have options on what procedures you like to do and what to refer. Easier in the private practice setting. Can be done at the DSOs.

Also .... you can specialize into different areas which offers more flexibility. Like surgery? OMFS. Like kids? Pedo. Like straightening malocclusions? Ortho. Like old people? Geriatric dentistry. Like complex rehabilitative treatments? Pros. Like low overhead. hi dollar per procedure/patient. Small staffs. Looking into small holes .... go endo. Like tissue, bone, implants surgery. Perio.

You want a huge practice or a smaller practice? Large staff vs. small staff? You want to see one patient at a time or a dozen patients? You want to work in a large city or maybe a rural area?

Maybe you're more interested in the business side? Have multiple offices with others working for you. Anything is possible.

Lots of flexibility.
 
It's like saying you're interested in penises and therefore you want to be a urologist. Or proctologist.... no one is "interested" in teeth, you mean you don't feel the heavens open up telling you to be a dentist as you stare at the back of their head for 100 hours?!!!!
 
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Not the place for this, cmon now
 
The dentist sees dozens of patients with various complaints every day — from gum inflammation to the most severe forms of caries. Therefore, I would not call this work boring... The dentist may also incur criminal liability - for example, if he did not assist in time, accidentally infected the patient with an HIV infection, or caused serious harm to health. Or even death. This happens infrequently, but a dentist always works with the human body, so he must comply with sanitary requirements and all developed medical rules. Higher dental education can be obtained here https://www.dental-detective.com/homemade-temporary-tooth-filling-a-how-to-guide/
 
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