Second Thoughts.. Help!

[Domalana]

So, I originally started off pre-med and after spending countless hours shadowing in the emergency room.. I realized the life style was a bit too gloomy for me and wanted to try something else.
I started to shadow in smaller practices and really enjoyed that and then later down the road, someone introduced me to dentistry and I loved it! I love the idea of being able to own my own practice and want to make all of my patients enjoy coming to the dentist. I love that I problem solve and decide on treatments that fit the patients personal life styles. I love that dentistry is very hands on and that I can physicaly make a difference on how someone sees themself. I also love that I will be able to come home to my family at a reasonable hour and will still be able to have a strong relationship with my future children.
All and all, there are many aspects that I love about dentistry.

I am in my junior year and have already taken my DATs, am involved with several dentistry associates and have an executive board position on one, have shadowed many hours, am going on a dental brigades mission, and had a few internships so I am very invested in the field.

butt... I am having second thoughts.

I love medicine! expecially endocrinology and still want that to be a part of my everyday life. I feel like it is way too late now to switch back to medicine but I do not want to give up dentistry either. Does anyone have any suggestions on implanting medicine in a career as a dentist or any advice for me?


I really want to pursue dentistry but do not want to let medicine out of my life either 🙁

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[Eilat87]

Do both! You can do it!!

 

[thewingman]

Do both! You can do it!!

Yeah, you actually can - it is called oral and maxillofacial surgery.

 

[yappy]

Stick with dentistry, as you suggested, then apply for Oral Maxillofacial surgery residency. There are two options for OMS- option 1 will take 4 years and you will get a certificate and sit for boards. Option two takes 6 year and will be the same as option one; except, you will also do two years of medical school (4 residency + 2 years medical school = 6) to earn an MD degree too. Once in practice there is no difference between these two paths.

If you are concerned with matching, or the cost of your education, you should look into HPSP (military scholarship) where matching into OMS is a little easier and you will also not owe anything - except time to the military.

If they pay for four years of dental school & you do an OMS residency you will owe them 8 years (4 for school - 4 for residency); however, you can pay it back concurrently such that 1 year of pay back counts for both 1 year of residency and 1 year of school. This will allow you to pay back all your commitments four years post residency.

GL

***note: the military only offers the four year option for OMS.

 

[AmpedUp]

Just go with what your heart wants. Weigh the pros/cons and come to an affirmative decision. The debt for both medical and dental schools are too much to make a snap decision. Whatever makes you happy...just because you have connections with dentistry doesn't mean you should fully pursue it. Sounds like you still have a little exploring left to do. You'll get there! Trust me, schools love applicants who have had an open mind and have done a little exploring...you'll be a stronger applicant for it as long as you give concrete reasons.

Been there done that. Happy with my decision to pursue dentistry. Can't think of anything else to do as a career.

 

[DMDWANNABEE]

Stick with dentistry, as you suggested, then apply for Oral Maxillofacial surgery residency. There are two options for OMS- option 1 will take 4 years and you will get a certificate and sit for boards. Option two takes 6 year and will be the same as option one; except, you will also do two years of medical school (4 residency + 2 years medical school = 6) to earn an MD degree too. Once in practice there is no difference between these two paths.

If you are concerned with matching, or the cost of your education, you should look into HPSP (military scholarship) where matching into OMS is a little easier and you will also not owe anything - except time to the military.

If they pay for four years of dental school & you do an OMS residency you will owe them 8 years (4 for school - 4 for residency); however, you can pay it back concurrently such that 1 year of pay back counts for both 1 year of residency and 1 year of school. This will allow you to pay back all your commitments four years post residency.

GL

***note: the military only offers the four year option for OMS.

This works I guess, but OMFS is brutally hard to get into. Plus, if I'm not mistaken you would need to go the 6 year route if you want to do much more than pull third molars and place implants every day. You're qualified to do the other stuff either way, but I don't think the hospitals like to touch you unless you have the MD.

Regardless oral surgery is much more more surgical than medical.

I'd say you either have to give up on the idea of medicine (especially things like endocrinology) being part of your day-to-day, or go to med school. Which do you want more: Short hours and an entrepreneurial career, or longer hours and a career you might find more interesting?

 

[jwdent]

Go to a school where the dental students take many of their sciences classes with the med students. This will allow you to get a physician's education in the the sciences and will fulfill some of you passion for medicine while becoming a dentist.

 

[Duriel]

Theres always Oral Medicine

 

[doubledizzle13]

I am a pediatric dental resident right now doing my anesthesia rotation in the OR and I have contemplated this topic a bit through the years, whether dentistry was the right choice or if I should have pursued medicine. I still would not be the optimal person to talk to as I have not actually practiced dentistry or medicine in the real world so I can't truly compare how I feel about either career. Looking back on my career choice now I think that if I had a large desire to go for medicine before I began (I did not, I was dentistry 90 % Medicine 10%), I think I would have quite a bit of regret not pursuing that route (unless I was in Oral Surgery). I say this for a few reasons and this is definitely a personal perspective, other dental students might not agree
1.Despite the fact that we take most of the same basic science classes our first two years, most of us aren't forced to apply as much of that knowledge as you would in medicine, and sometimes it bugs me that I memorized butt loads of histo, patholgy, pharmacology only to consistently apply 5-20% of it (this may be vary depending on your specialty and perspective-perio and pedo probably have to apply more than pros or gp)
2.Unless you become an oral surgeon you will probably always feel somewhat like a second class "doctor," despite the fact that all of you patients will call you doc, it is just a little different route and you would have to be able to come to terms with that slightly lowered status in society (I could care less because I would take a better lifestyle over prestige any day, but there are a lot of students that feel somewhat insecure about this, and it might eat away at you that you could have been at the absolute top of the power totem pole and you passed that up)
3.There are a lot of pretty awesome specialties in medicine and sometimes I wish I could get paid to think like a lot of these medical specialists do as opposed to dentistry where you get paid by procedure and that means you can't really slack off throughout your day,
don't have time to finish this thought..that's all I'll say

 

[CMistry]

It is certainly not too late for you to switch back to medicine. I suggest you spend some more time shadowing an endocrinologist, internist, dentist, etc. Taking a year off after college will not kill you (in fact it will improve your odds of getting into either school) and hopefully by then you will know which path is better for you.

Being a dentist does not require a significant amount of medical knowledge and therefore you will not be educated about medicine like a physician would. It does require a separate set of skills and an interest in working with your hands / being artistic. This is not unique to dentistry, however, as most surgeons have these desires as well.

Many people say they prefer dentistry because of the "lifestyle"; I think this is because they are misinformed about medicine. There are plenty of fields in medicine where you can set your own hours, work is not terribly stressful, and you can have your vacations. Not all of them are extremely competitive to match into. It is true, however, that dentistry can get you there quicker. Also many pre-dental/dental students don't like the prospects of a grueling 3-6 years of residency during the peak of their young lives.

I think the most important thing right now is to figure out if you'll be happy with dentistry or if you want to help people on a larger scale (i.e. medicine). I will guarantee to you, however, that over time everything becomes routine (even trauma surgery). Hence why it is important that you enjoy what you're doing.

If you have any more questions feel free to shoot me a PM. I'm a dentist now in med school as part of my OMFS residency.