specialize?

[HoT-ExCeLsIoR]

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I'm just wondering if I should specialize or just go into regular dentistry..

 

[Sprgrover]

I would recommend that you become a general dentist and if you feel your calling is in some other area then go for it. For one, there is a big demand for general dentists and I have met several that love what they do and wouldn't consider specializing. Personally, right now, my goal is to work hard in dental school and strive to become a great general dentist. Perhaps I'll specialize down the road, but for now I don't have the knowledge and experience to give such a decision due diligence.

 

[msf41]

Hey if you can score in the top 2-3% of your class I would go for it!!! That's what it takes to specialize. The specialties are very competitive. As for me I think I'll fit in well as a general dentist. I don't really want to spend 80 hours a week studing for the four years of dental school. I'm not saying I want to just barely get by, but you can graduate as an excellent general practitioner while still enjoying life during dental school. On the other hand if you are staying up till 2am every night stressing about getting a 95% on the last exam and wondering if you are #5 in your class instead of #1 than I think four years of dental school is a little more stressfull.

In addition don't forget that specializing takes several years (3 or more) after four years of dental school. I will be ready to be done with school after 4 years of dental school. Imagine the day when there will be no more homework.

 

[adamlc18]

I think that you really can't make a call on whether you want to specialize or not until you have had classes and given treatments in the clinic at dental school. You really dont know what you like doing until you have done it. Best advice is do the best you can while in school so you have the option to specialize if you feel so inclined after doing some procedures. I wouldn't sweat it now.

 

[busupshot83]

I'm just wondering if I should specialize or just go into regular dentistry..

Specialize. THere is no turning back, go do it! MAke me proud! Bailamos!

 

[DrTacoElf]

If its $ you are after NO. If you have a specific experience or calling to a specialize then do it. If you fall in love during dental school with a particular thing follow it. Otherwise i think general is superior for its inherent variety.

 

[HoT-ExCeLsIoR]

hmm busupshot gives good advice.

 

[busdriver]

I'm just wondering if I should specialize or just go into regular dentistry..

interviewers will probably ask you this and i think the answer that they're always looking for is that you should wait and see if you really like the field by taking classes during dental school as opposed to just going into dental school thinking that you're gonna be an orthodontist or something. of course there may be circumstances where you might have a family member that is a specialist and you know the insides and outs of the specialty in which you can answer that you DO want to specialize...but definitely the former answer is most common...IMO...

 

[busupshot83]

hmm busupshot gives good advice.

I am the primare advice-giver since 2003. Don't get it twisted.

Wherever... whenever there are fellow pre-dents in need... I am there.

 

[HoT-ExCeLsIoR]

I am the primare advice-giver since 2003. Don't get it twisted.

Wherever... whenever there are fellow pre-dents in need... I am there.

.........



do you make housecalls?

 

[River13]

I was pretty sure I wanted to specialize before starting dental school, so I did some observing at the local ortho and endo office...in my interviews I always gave the above "wait and see" answer, though I was pretty sure I wanted to. Best advice is to just do the best you can so you have the option, though admittedly dental school is more stressful once you've made the decision to do it.

 

[busupshot83]

What do you plan on specializing in HOt?

 

[aphistis]

The above answers all seem to suggest you shouldn't indicate an interest in specialization during an interview. I'd like to amend that slightly; I see nothing wrong with demonstrating a knowledgeable, reasonably founded interest in a particular specialty during an interview, but you'd better be ready to deliver an articulate justification when they ask you about it.

 

[trypmo]

[....]I see nothing wrong with demonstrating a knowledgeable, reasonably founded interest in a particular specialty during an interview, but you'd better be ready to deliver an articulate justification when they ask you about it.

Yes, and backed up with shadowing experience. Otherwise, if I were on an adcom, I'd tend to take the person a lot less seriously even if s/he were articulate and otherwise well-informed. Some things can't be learned by anything but being there!