Strongly considering switching from pre-dental... few questions

[BTR1208]

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Hi guys..

So up until now I have been set on dental school.

The reason of switching from dentistry is the atrocious debt. $400k for 4 years is ridiculous and take home after all that work would be ~40k after loan payments. It is scary to think I may not even be able to support my family the way i have envisioned.

The one thing that really drew me to dentistry is the lifestyle and I am worried with DO I would not be able to get that. I want to be able to spend time with my family and see my kids grow up, etc. Is there certain specialties that allow this kind of lifestyle? I do not want to be on call and working 80+ hours a week.

I am really strongly considering the switch however I am just curious if I can still live a certain lifestyle as a DO and what specialties I should look into to do so.

I need to decide very soon as I need to either take the MCAT or the DAT this summer.

My stats:
3.7 oGPA
3.8 sGPA

Any advice is greatly appreciated.. Thank you so much and I hope everyone is having a good evening. 🙂

 

[doapplicant2015]

I am just a pre-med/starting med school next year but I will warn you that this thread is going to have a lot of "don't go into medicine unless you're absolutely sure" and the like. While it shouldn't be the deciding factor, money is an issue and you need to consider where you want to be financially coming out of school, and 10-20 etc years down the road. Medical school is obviously not cheap although it is (for the most part) significantly cheaper than dental school.

If you haven't checked out the PA route go ahead and do that. As a med student your life during school will be similar to dental school so that isn't an issue. Your first year out of school will be your intern year which will be rough no matter the speciality you have chosen. Other than that there are "lifestyle" specialities that have residencies with more normal working hours and easier hours as an attending. Typically these are also the more competitive specialties although not all. They include derm, radiology (rad onc and diagnostic), PM&R, psych, even family med and ER depending on your definition of lifestyle. Start checking out some of the medscape surveys and the med forums on this site.

 

[100111]

400k seems on the high side of estimates for dental school.

I will tell you that at a D.O. school you're also looking similar loan burdens. D.O school tuitions mostly fall between 30k-60k/yr, with most schools being close to the 50k mark. We'll also be accruing interest during residency while getting paid 50k/yr whereas a dentist would be paying down their loans and making 120-160k/yr.

At the attending level a general dentist and a primary care physician will have similar incomes. Dentists also have the edge on lifestyle given that: they avoided doing a residency and that the average dentist works 40hrs/week while the average physician averages 50-60hrs/week.

Dentistry is the lifestyle field, and medicine is really meant more for those that are passionate about practising medicine.

 

[doapplicant2015]

400k seems on the high side of estimates for dental school.

I will tell you that at a D.O. school you're also looking similar loan burdens. D.O school tuitions mostly fall between 30k-60k/yr, with most schools being close to the 50k mark.

At the attending level a general dentist and a primary care physician will have similar incomes.

These points are becoming increasingly less true. More and more dental schools are approaching double the price of average med schools and high paying dental jobs (specialties included) are becoming more scarce than they have been.

 

[F#&$#^&&@theMCAT]

it seems that your heart lies in dentistry. It is a awesome and respectable profession. You can do surgery, radiology, and general practice, all in one. You fill be faced with similar debt in med school. Med school requires residency and is extremely cut throat as it goes on. I am a med school applicant but just giving you some honest advice. You will have more time with the family, being a dentist. Dentistry also has some pretty cool specialties!

But PM me if you want to discuss more about this, I like to think I know a lot about both professions.

 

[pink/\floyd]

You will be nose deep in debt regardless. Medicine is all about putting your patients first and this may compromise your family life. I would suggest shadowing both dentists and doctors and seeing what you really want from your career.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

You will be nose deep in debt regardless. Medicine is all about putting your patients first and this may compromise your family life. I would suggest shadowing both dentists and doctors and seeing what you really want from your career.

You can drop the commentary. You're not being interviewed.


Honestly, I think dental school today is an enormous scam. You're going to pay 400k and then become a salaried associate that is working in multiple clinics when they choose to fill you in. Now combine the fact that if you decide to do OMS or Endo or Ortho you're actually going to pay for the training for another 2+ years and you've really got yourself in a hole.

OP, go shadow a MD or DO.... or five. See if you like medicine and if you like any particular specialties in medicine outside of oral health.

 

[F#&$#^&&@theMCAT]

You can drop the commentary. You're not being interviewed.


Honestly, I think dental school today is an enormous scam. You're going to pay 400k and then become a salaried associate that is working in multiple clinics when they choose to fill you in. Now combine the fact that if you decide to do OMS or Endo or Ortho you're actually going to pay for the training for another 2+ years and you've really got yourself in a hole.

OP, go shadow a MD or DO.... or five. See if you like medicine and if you like any particular specialties in medicine outside of oral health.

Your response is pretty exaggerated, serenade. Dental school is deff. not a scam. I am a medical school applicant and its not fair to bag the dental profession. It is respectable in its respect. It is also medicine. Clearly, you are not knowledgeable about the profession. We will be in enormous debt to with medical school and will have to face 3+ years with residency. The avg. salary for general dentist is up there with general physicians. It comes down to what the individuals is interested in.- but in no means is the profession a scam. I once considering becoming a dentist, which is why I have respect for the profession. I suggest you go shadow a general dentist, endodontist, periodontist, or a orthodontist just to clear your misconceptions.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Your response is pretty exaggerated, serenade. Dental school is deff. not a scam. I am a medical school applicant and its not fair to bag the dental profession. It is respectable in its respect. It is also medicine. Clearly, you are not knowledgeable about the profession. We will be in enormous debt to with medical school and will have to face 3+ years with residency. The avg. salary for general dentist is up there with general physicians. It comes down to what the individuals is interested in.- but in no means is the profession a scam. I once considering becoming a dentist, which is why I have respect for the profession. I suggest you go shadow a general dentist, endodontist, periodontist, or a orthodontist just to clear your misconceptions.

Maybe a scam was too strong, I think it's more economically unreasonable. My dentist recently hired a new associate, a U Penn grad with over 500k debt. He's working as an associate for about the same as an engineer and since he actually has openly stated he has no business skills or interest he's basically coldly realized he's going to be working in other people's clinics for the rest of his life. And this not to mention that if he does open up a clinic he'll need to basically buy one for the cost of almost a house.

I respect dentistry a lot, and my dentist in particular. But the truth is that from at least the specialists I've spoken to most of them including my general dentist believe similarly that becoming a dentist is far too costly and too business oriented.

 

[F#&$#^&&@theMCAT]

It's really not. My dentist recently hired a new associate, a U Penn grad with over 500k debt. He's working as an associate for about the same as an engineer and since he actually has openly stated he has no business skills or interest he's basically coldly realized he's going to be working in other people's clinics for the rest of his life. And this not to mention that if he does open up a clinic he'll need to basically buy one for the cost of almost a house.

I respect dentistry a lot, and my dentist in particular. But the truth is that from at least the specialists I've spoken to most of them including my general dentist believe similarly that becoming a dentist is far too costly and too business oriented.

A lot of these issues are analogous to medical doctors. Both professions have their drawbacks. I'm sure i can find some physicians that are struggling just as your able to find some dental doctors that are struggling. Again, I know some pretty dam successful dentist as well as some pretty dam successful physicians. If you don't think your going to be in great debt too coming out of KCUMB, i dont know what to tell you... but anyways, both professions are incredible and I applaud anyone who decides to go into medicine or dentistry.

 

[feeling-dizzy]

Maybe a scam was too strong, I think it's more economically unreasonable. My dentist recently hired a new associate, a U Penn grad with over 500k debt. He's working as an associate for about the same as an engineer and since he actually has openly stated he has no business skills or interest he's basically coldly realized he's going to be working in other people's clinics for the rest of his life. And this not to mention that if he does open up a clinic he'll need to basically buy one for the cost of almost a house.

I respect dentistry a lot, and my dentist in particular. But the truth is that from at least the specialists I've spoken to most of them including my general dentist believe similarly that becoming a dentist is far too costly and too business oriented.

Agreed with you 100%. You must have people-skill to succeed in dentistry since most the time you have to spend time convince pt to do the whole treatment instead just extracting whatever one tooth that hurt the most (most private-practice dentists fail that way when the managing dentist has no people-skill to talk to pt even though he is a great clinician otherwise). Moreover, dentistry salary is very different based on regions. i suspect the U Penn grad work in California (Orange County?) or big cities where they are saturated with dentist. To make good money in dentistry you will have to work in more rural area, so there will less competition for price or patients (yes, we talking about competition in medicine, but thats the way it is)

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

A lot of these issues are analogous to medical doctors. Both professions have their drawbacks. I'm sure i can find some physicians that are struggling just as your able to find some dental doctors that are struggling. Again, I know some pretty dam successful dentist as well as some pretty dam successful physicians. If you don't think your going to be in great debt too coming out of KCUMB, i dont know what to tell you... but anyways, both professions are incredible and I applaud anyone who decides to go into medicine or dentistry.

Eh, I think post residency most doctors are doing well. Post-Dental School most dentists tend to be relegated to an in between of owning a clinic/starting up and working under someone for low pay.

But I could be wrong I suppose. I certainly have little insight into this beyond my dentist and her collaborators.

 

[pink/\floyd]

You can drop the commentary. You're not being interviewed.


Honestly, I think dental school today is an enormous scam. You're going to pay 400k and then become a salaried associate that is working in multiple clinics when they choose to fill you in. Now combine the fact that if you decide to do OMS or Endo or Ortho you're actually going to pay for the training for another 2+ years and you've really got yourself in a hole.

OP, go shadow a MD or DO.... or five. See if you like medicine and if you like any particular specialties in medicine outside of oral health.

It wasn't commentary. I meant what I said.
PS: Stick to giving OP advice. I don't need your comments.