Originally posted by CutIt
1) What makes ENT more/less desirable than another area of surgery
This is, of course, a matter of opinion.
For me, and for those training where I train, the residency is just as long and time consuming as general surgery. And with trauma, our list of consults runs pretty long at times.
So, it certainly isn't the "easier" residency that drew me to the field. And, now after working for 3 months with private practice general surgeons, I now realize that it isn't necessarily that ENT's have a better lifestyle than general surgeons. These private practice general surgeons lead pretty good lifestyles.
What it boils down to -- and I never really fully supported this in the past -- is that you have to do what you find is interesting. ENT is a field that has a great balance of surgical and clinical practices, and it has a wide breadth of specializations. To me, the head and neck is just a lot more interesting and complex than the rest of the body. You're not mucking around in some amorphous field defined by tissue planes and tubes that all look the same. Some of the surgeries require a great deal of technical skill. Some require the use of microscopes. We get to play with drills as well as 10-0 Prolene. We use cameras and scopes like some other surgical fields. We provide emergency airway assistance and often pull off what the anesthesiologists can't.
ENT is a pretty broad field, and it's a damn cool field.
2) What are the advantages and/or drawbacks of ENT
See above. Some places have cake residencies where all you do is operate, operate, and operate. Others have highly academic programs and VERY long hours.
Drawbacks of ENT: general surgeons often operate in the neck (thyroids, parathyroids); plastic surgeons compete with you as well (face lifts, rhinoplasty, blephs, etc.); neurosurgeons often can do their own approaches; vascular surgeons want to take out their own carotid body tumors sometimes. There's a lot of overlap.
3) How in demand are ENT positions, both academic and private (also is it true that non-academic ENT docs are relegated to "tubes and tonsils" strictly?)
There's usually a stead demand of otolaryngologists around the country. The board tightly regulates residency programs to ensure quality and demand. Of course, certain areas are saturated -- just like in other specialities.
The notion that nonacademic ENTs are relegated to tubes and tonsils is silly. And that's all I have to say about that.
Of course, if you really want to spend 20 hours wacking out a base of tongue tumor and doing your own flap and then rounding with all your residents the next day, then good on ya.
As for academics, pediatric and facial plastic otolaryngologists are in VERY heavy demand at programs.
