Thinking Dentistry isn't for me

[sasoriboi]

Hey everyone,

So I recently finished my first year in dental school. Needless to say, I felt like my passion for dentistry has gone down..a lot. Even when just starting, I noticed i felt negative about a lot of things. Up to this point, it seems like I just do not like it anymore, as much as I try to force it. I've put in a lot of work and effort, and thought that maybe it's because I feel like I'm not doing as best as I could be. But to be honest, I feel like there's more things I dislike than like about the field now. It gets to the point where I don't enjoy clinical rotations, or volunteering events- and that's a problem. I know family and friends have said to stick it out, especially since it will be a good paying job, stable, etc. But if I don't have true passion for it, why stick it out and waste more time and money? That's what I feel like I'm doing right now. Yeah, I'd feel bad leaving and all, but I gotta do what makes me happy at the end of the day. Money isn't going to make me happy. I feel like I jumped into the career too quickly, and right now, it just feels like I just don't know what the best answer is. Sure, I'd like to stay in a health profession, but I just feel that now I'm discouraged because I need to start later, when I could've been done with something earlier. I just feel down about the whole thing, and feel very lost. It's a big decision that will affect the rest of my life, and I'm hoping whatever chocie I make will be the right decision.

Does anyone have any advice, input, comments? Anything is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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[aggietxdent]

Better to get out now than waste another 3 years and blow up your debt 3x more. Whenever I stress about stuff, I use the 10-10-10 rule. Will it matter in 10 days (definitely). 10 months? (maybe still trying to figure it out). 10 years? Nope!

 

[careerchanger09]

Hey everyone,

So I recently finished my first year in dental school. Needless to say, I felt like my passion for dentistry has gone down..a lot. Even when just starting, I noticed i felt negative about a lot of things. Up to this point, it seems like I just do not like it anymore, as much as I try to force it. I've put in a lot of work and effort, and thought that maybe it's because I feel like I'm not doing as best as I could be. But to be honest, I feel like there's more things I dislike than like about the field now. It gets to the point where I don't enjoy clinical rotations, or volunteering events- and that's a problem. I know family and friends have said to stick it out, especially since it will be a good paying job, stable, etc. But if I don't have true passion for it, why stick it out and waste more time and money? That's what I feel like I'm doing right now. Yeah, I'd feel bad leaving and all, but I gotta do what makes me happy at the end of the day. Money isn't going to make me happy. I feel like I jumped into the career too quickly, and right now, it just feels like I just don't know what the best answer is. Sure, I'd like to stay in a health profession, but I just feel that now I'm discouraged because I need to start later, when I could've been done with something earlier. I just feel down about the whole thing, and feel very lost. It's a big decision that will affect the rest of my life, and I'm hoping whatever chocie I make will be the right decision.

Does anyone have any advice, input, comments? Anything is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks for sharing your experience and your willingness to be vulnerable. Everyone has moments of doubting oneself throughout their education even though they don't always share them openly.

Does your dental school have any psych services or counseling services that you can talk to? I'm sure that they have spoken to other students who are in your specific shoes and may have some good perspective or words of advice. I have gone to counseling many times in my life and I have always found it to be a good way to have a candid third party to talk to and gain perspective.

Have you considered reaching out to D3 & D4's? I'm sure that some of them have also struggled with similar feelings and may have some good advice or words of wisdom.

Have you considered talking to the deans or associate deans of your dental school? Are their options to take time off? Maybe a year off would help you regain your passion for dentistry.

I don't think there are right or wrong decisions in this situation. In any caregiving profession, you have to take care of yourself first before you can take care of others. Hope some of this helps.

 

[setdoc7]

The first year of dental school is tough. Lots of basic science and preclinical stuff that seems monotonous and boring. Second year is not much better. It all turns around when you start seeing patients and put all of that pre clinic stuff together. You spent a lot of time in college preparing for this. Don't give it up lightly. There are hundreds of members and lurkers out there who would love to be in your shoes. I agree that talking to upper classmen would be a good first step.

 

[Vicviper]

Depending on the school, first year really sucks. You're really not doing anything dental other than waxing, maybe preclinic amalgam. Starting second year you start getting into actual dental subjects, and focusing more on clinically relevant areas instead of basic sciences you're only taking to pass boards. Starting year 3 you start true patient care, and that is where dental school really takes off and becomes interesting. Rotations can be very boring if you're just shadowing - shadowing can be very lame if you're just standing in the corner if they're not letting you do anything, and so it's really nothing to be excited about after a while.

There have been a lot of people in your shoes, I would recommend holding it out, and strongly recommend talking to a counselor - don't see this as a weakness, see it as someone to bounce ideas off of in a non-judgemental way. Sometimes actually talking out your concerns lets you consider them in different perspectives.

Good luck!

 

[charlestweed]

I don’t think leaving dentistry for another profession is the solution. The reality is the job that makes you happy at the end of the day never exists. Nobody likes working. Every job has its own set of problems. At least dentistry allows you to make money fast. And hopefully, you’ll know how to invest the money properly so you can get out of this “miserable” job soon. Because of their hard work and wise financial investments, many of my female dentist friends (including my wife and my sister) no longer have to work full time and are able to spend more time with their kids. They wouldn’t be able to this if they picked a different profession.

You feel the money doesn’t make you happy right now because you are still in school. You still have to rely on either your parents or student loans for financial help. Wait until you have to start to work for a living, you will realize how important it is to have a good stable income. Wait until you get married and have kids, you’ll realize it sucks to have to live on paycheck to paycheck. Who wouldn’t want their kids to have a better life than their own childhood life? Life without money is hard.

 

[TanMan]

Hey everyone,

So I recently finished my first year in dental school. Needless to say, I felt like my passion for dentistry has gone down..a lot. Even when just starting, I noticed i felt negative about a lot of things. Up to this point, it seems like I just do not like it anymore, as much as I try to force it. I've put in a lot of work and effort, and thought that maybe it's because I feel like I'm not doing as best as I could be. But to be honest, I feel like there's more things I dislike than like about the field now. It gets to the point where I don't enjoy clinical rotations, or volunteering events- and that's a problem. I know family and friends have said to stick it out, especially since it will be a good paying job, stable, etc. But if I don't have true passion for it, why stick it out and waste more time and money? That's what I feel like I'm doing right now. Yeah, I'd feel bad leaving and all, but I gotta do what makes me happy at the end of the day. Money isn't going to make me happy. I feel like I jumped into the career too quickly, and right now, it just feels like I just don't know what the best answer is. Sure, I'd like to stay in a health profession, but I just feel that now I'm discouraged because I need to start later, when I could've been done with something earlier. I just feel down about the whole thing, and feel very lost. It's a big decision that will affect the rest of my life, and I'm hoping whatever chocie I make will be the right decision.

Does anyone have any advice, input, comments? Anything is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Money won't make you happy, but the lack of money will definitely make you miserable. Since you're in pretty deep, I'd say just finish it, become the most efficient and profitable dentist, work a few years, retire and never touch a patient ever again. I still think dentistry is one of the best options for making money out there, but it all starts with owning your own office first. Once you have your own office, you can retire in a few years.

As long as you're willing to suck it up and make money, I hope you can see past the hatred of dentistry and look at the big picture.

 

[Faux]

I had doubts way into first year, even into second year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most of us don't really know if we like the field until we're actually the one behind the person with a hand piece. Just the nature of the field unfortunately.


One thing is for certain, I'm enjoying third year a lot more than the last two years. I'd even go far to say that things are actually......kinda fun.

 

[ysrebob]

What charlestweed said.

Do not leave D school. IMO with maybe a few fortunate exceptions, this "passion for work" thing is a myth. The reason work pays is because people don't really want to do it.

It's good if you choose a profession that you have a talent for, and don't mind too much, and for which there is a need, and that you are willing to work very hard at... but at the end of the day it is normal if you'd rather be with your kids, or out fishing, or etc.

 

[dahlia161]

Hey everyone,

So I recently finished my first year in dental school. Needless to say, I felt like my passion for dentistry has gone down..a lot. Even when just starting, I noticed i felt negative about a lot of things. Up to this point, it seems like I just do not like it anymore, as much as I try to force it. I've put in a lot of work and effort, and thought that maybe it's because I feel like I'm not doing as best as I could be. But to be honest, I feel like there's more things I dislike than like about the field now. It gets to the point where I don't enjoy clinical rotations, or volunteering events- and that's a problem. I know family and friends have said to stick it out, especially since it will be a good paying job, stable, etc. But if I don't have true passion for it, why stick it out and waste more time and money? That's what I feel like I'm doing right now. Yeah, I'd feel bad leaving and all, but I gotta do what makes me happy at the end of the day. Money isn't going to make me happy. I feel like I jumped into the career too quickly, and right now, it just feels like I just don't know what the best answer is. Sure, I'd like to stay in a health profession, but I just feel that now I'm discouraged because I need to start later, when I could've been done with something earlier. I just feel down about the whole thing, and feel very lost. It's a big decision that will affect the rest of my life, and I'm hoping whatever chocie I make will be the right decision.

Does anyone have any advice, input, comments? Anything is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I felt the EXACT same way when I started dental school. I jumped into it too quickly. To be honest, everyone told me the same thing and that is to stick it out. And I did. I graduated about 2 years ago. And I have never developed a passion for it. If you don't have passion for dentistry and if you don't like it. Get out now! Because once you graduate, you will be in debt and you have no other option but to pay your debt off. If you are not sure, try to take a year off and try to realize what you want to do. I personally wished I went into medicine. Even though its a longer road, it is much more beneficial in the end. Dentistry in private practice is tough atleast your first couple of years. I only wished someone told me all these things before I started dental school and I would have maybe made another decision. I don't mean to discourage you but I honestly think that If you don't feel passionate about it now, you will never feel passionate about it. Unless you can try to specialize in some area of dentistry that you think you may like, otherwise get out and figure out what you want to do.

 

[8_man]

Stick with it, ye bakayaro konoyaro

 

[InformMe123]

Money won't make you happy, but the lack of money will definitely make you miserable. Since you're in pretty deep, I'd say just finish it, become the most efficient and profitable dentist, work a few years, retire and never touch a patient ever again. I still think dentistry is one of the best options for making money out there, but it all starts with owning your own office first. Once you have your own office, you can retire in a few years.

As long as you're willing to suck it up and make money, I hope you can see past the hatred of dentistry and look at the big picture.

When you say one can retire "in a few years" from owning, how many years roughly? 5? 10? 15?

 

[number22]

I felt the EXACT same way when I started dental school. I jumped into it too quickly. To be honest, everyone told me the same thing and that is to stick it out. And I did. I graduated about 2 years ago. And I have never developed a passion for it. If you don't have passion for dentistry and if you don't like it. Get out now! Because once you graduate, you will be in debt and you have no other option but to pay your debt off. If you are not sure, try to take a year off and try to realize what you want to do. I personally wished I went into medicine. Even though its a longer road, it is much more beneficial in the end. Dentistry in private practice is tough atleast your first couple of years. I only wished someone told me all these things before I started dental school and I would have maybe made another decision. I don't mean to discourage you but I honestly think that If you don't feel passionate about it now, you will never feel passionate about it. Unless you can try to specialize in some area of dentistry that you think you may like, otherwise get out and figure out what you want to do.

I think I can share my story since it relates. I did 2 years of dental school. Now in my first year of medicine.

I think dentistry is great, but I wasn't getting any personal satisfaction. I needed to deal with vital problems. I'm much happier now, though I 'wasted' 2 years. It's important to note that my debt was low, allowing me to make this move.

If any of you need to talk about this type of thing, feel free to pm me

 

[yappy]

Before you leave dentistry make sure you know what you're getting into. Medical school is not practicing medicine. I implore you to separate the study of a field from the day-to-day work of a field before you jump ship.

Best of luck to you whatever you decide.

 

[SnozzBerry]

I think I can share my story since it relates. I did 2 years of dental school. Now in my first year of medicine.

I think dentistry is great, but I wasn't getting any personal satisfaction. I needed to deal with vital problems. I'm much happier now, though I 'wasted' 2 years. It's important to note that my debt was low, allowing me to make this move.

If any of you need to talk about this type of thing, feel free to pm me

How much harder is medical school ?

 

[number22]

How much harder is medical school ?

A lot more studying, but no labs... About equal? Just a different type of work.

 

[SnozzBerry]

A lot more studying, but no labs... About equal? Just a different type of work.

What kind of medicine do you want to pursue?

 

[number22]

Suck it up and finish the rest of the 3 years. Pay off your debt and re-enroll in med school or nursing or PA. Too many dental school students chose dentistry because they couldn't get into med and are paying the price because they find out that they got substandard hand skills and/or the adcoms were too oblivious to see through the BS and simply want tuition money from their students/parents/rich uncles. You chose to go to dental school, and there are thousands of students getting rejected, so I'd highly suggest dealing with it and at the very least come out with a degree instead of being a dropout. Good luck.

I think this is extremely stupid, no offense to you of course.

I was near top of my class both 2 years of DDS. I have no issues with my hands. I was accepted to medicine and dentistry at the same time. I chose dentistry, but things changed and I reversed my decision, after 2 years.

I am planning on pursuing a surgical specialty in medicine. I still love working with my hands.

I highly highly highly recommend cutting your losses. Don't keep paying the price for a bad decision, lol.

 

[number22]

I'm glad it worked out for you, but unfortunately success stories like yours are not common. There's too many D1's that will outperform in classes like gross anatomy, but when it comes to dental-specific classes like oral anatomy/histology and waxups, they will go to no end to b*tch and moan about how they hate dealing with teeth

Well, I don't think it's that rare. I think the key is to NOT drop out until you have your medical school acceptance though. Or whatever else you want to do.

 

[Swole DMD]

Take a good hard look at it.. Is it DENTISTRY you dont like or DENTAL SCHOOL?.. As a now 2nd year dental student, you dont know jack about dentistry lol, no offense, none of us do. I know plenty of recent grads who say "yea about 2 days into private practice I realized I dont actually know anything about dentistry".. Just make sure you think through this decision deeply, Dental school (and life) is full of ups and downs, make sure you dont make a permanent decision based on a temporary down.

 

[TanMan]

When you say one can retire "in a few years" from owning, how many years roughly? 5? 10? 15?

It depends on the lifestyle you want to lead. From my experience, without making any mistakes, you could retire in 5 years minimum with an above average (top 2%) lifestyle. At this point, I'm looking more at 7-9 years for the retired life I'd like to have for the rest of my life. Retirement isn't the hard part, but having enough money to make your retirement feel like a permanent vacation is. If you wanted to keep a simple life, you could probably pull it off in 3 years and are willing to make sacrifices.

 

[allantois]

It depends on the lifestyle you want to lead. From my experience, without making any mistakes, you could retire in 5 years minimum with an above average (top 2%) lifestyle. At this point, I'm looking more at 7-9 years for the retired life I'd like to have for the rest of my life. Retirement isn't the hard part, but having enough money to make your retirement feel like a permanent vacation is. If you wanted to keep a simple life, you could probably pull it off in 3 years and are willing to make sacrifices.

Lol, you are suggesting one can pay off their dental school loan, practice loan, home mortgage and save for decades of “simple” retirement after 3 years of practice ownership ??

 

[TanMan]

Lol, you are suggesting one can pay off their dental school loan, practice loan, home mortgage and save for decades of “simple” retirement after 3 years of practice ownership ??

Yes. As I said though, you probably won't have a mansion, you'll have to be very frugal and make good investment decisions (no mistakes), live in a rural/suburb area with lower house prices, and this assumes you are not going all out on a practice (supercheap 100k startup). Also, kids are not in that equation. Now, this does not mean retire in 3 years after dental school, as you'll probably associate first to start your office. This path does not make too much sense to me, as I'd rather retire with a much better life in exchange for a few more years of my life (beyond the 3).

 

[number22]

Yes. As I said though, you probably won't have a mansion, you'll have to be very frugal and make good investment decisions (no mistakes), live in a rural/suburb area with lower house prices, and this assumes you are not going all out on a practice (supercheap 100k startup). Also, kids are not in that equation. Now, this does not mean retire in 3 years after dental school, as you'll probably associate first to start your office. This path does not make too much sense to me, as I'd rather retire with a much better life in exchange for a few more years of my life (beyond the 3).

Take tanman's words as exception, not fact. He is a known exception to the rule...

 

[doc toothache]

Dental school is not dentistry especially the pre clinical years.

 

[number22]

Dental school is not dentistry especially the pre clinical years.

Very true. That being said, don't try to force a square in a triangle. But make daaaamnnnnnn sure you a square

 

[Michael_Scott]

Dental school is not dentistry especially the pre clinical years.

OP, this is right on.

Dental school's 1st 2 years are rough but 3rd and 4 year get a little better. HOLD ON.

If you go ask a lot of faculty, they will tell you that they had doubts and trouble their 1st 2 years. It is draining but the end result will be sweet. Don't make a rash decision but go talk with someone and really give it thought.

 

[lemoncurry]

There aren't a lot of successes early in dental school. Everything you do in lab is wrong to some extent and you have to redo, redo, redo. Once you start seeing patients and start treating them, it becomes a whole other ballgame. When you start seeing the fruits of your labor from sim labs and classes in the patients that you are treating, then it starts to become all worth it.

Not sure what is best for you, but that is my experience.

 

[sgv]

Preclinic is nothing like clinics in dental school. Clinics in dental school is nothing like private practice dentistry.

Go volunteer at a mission outreach program and you might spark an interest again. You might even find some enjoyment. The only enjoyment I got from preclinic is seeing my skills improve. One big part that's missing in preclinic is the human component and you'll realize dentistry can be fulfilling because people are in pain and want your help or people want to be able to smile confidently or they just want to be able to eat normally again.

 

[TanMan]

Preclinic is nothing like clinics in dental school. Clinics in dental school is nothing like private practice dentistry.

Go volunteer at a mission outreach program and you might spark an interest again. You might even find some enjoyment. The only enjoyment I got from preclinic is seeing my skills improve. One big part that's missing in preclinic is the human component and you'll realize dentistry can be fulfilling because people are in pain and want your help or people want to be able to smile confidently or they just want to be able to eat normally again.

I'll definitely agree on the first statement. Dental school is nothing like private practice and you essentially are forced to learn to pass an exam. You get to know the real dentistry in the first month of practicing.

There is definitely that human component that's missing from preclinic, but unfortunately, even helping people get out of pain/nice smile/restore function can get old pretty quickly too. It's not the patient's fault, but there's plenty of asinine patients that can frequently overrule the joy you may get from helping people.

You'll definitely have to search within to determine what brought you into dentistry and just keep that goal in mind. Whether it is to help people, money, lifestyle, parents wanted you to be a dentist, etc... only you can determine if it's worth staying. I remember in my first year of dental school, we had 2-3 people drop out because it wasn't for them. However, their parents were extremely loaded and money was not an issue for those that dropped out. If you are in that boat, then deciding to leave dentistry/dental school is the easy answer. If you are not in that boat and you have money at stake here, then you have to ask yourself whether you want to invest another year (or 3 or more, if you're going to specialize) in a profession that you may or may not like. Unfortunately, to get a better answer to that question, you have to play the game of life/dental school a bit more.

As I said before, if you're in it just for the money and willing to suck it up, this is probably one of the best professions. Work hard, retire, and get the hell out. If you're looking for optimal job satisfaction for the long term, you'll have to play the game a bit more to find out what true dentistry is all about.

 

[amariesa]

Why do you hate it? Workload? No care for teeth? Dentistry is a wide field. You can become a surgeon or you can be on of those dental radiology people that are DDS but work on a computer. Or you could teach. One day in the office and 4 days teaching local hygenists/assistants. Or go into research with your degree. If you need to feel like youre making a difference, work 2-3 days a week with poor kids. Go to schools to make speeches on tooth caring. Or help rich college kids get into dental school by setting up a consulting firm. There are so many paths.

 

[Bernie Sanders]

It is good you are reflecting this early. I would advise taking a year off. During that year shadow an MD and apply to medical school. If you like it, drop out and go to MD school. Medicine has more variety and more avenues of success and is more stable.

 

[Swole DMD]

It is good you are reflecting this early. I would advise taking a year off. During that year shadow an MD and apply to medical school. If you like it, drop out and go to MD school. Medicine has more variety and more avenues of success and is more stable.

Just my 2 cents... this is terrible advice

 

[TanMan]

It is good you are reflecting this early. I would advise taking a year off. During that year shadow an MD and apply to medical school. If you like it, drop out and go to MD school. Medicine has more variety and more avenues of success and is more stable.

As @Swole DMD said, this is horrible advice. That's a year lost of your life that you will never get back, with no guarantees you're going to get into medical school. Can you stand to be a student for that much longer and what if you are more miserable in medicine. Medicine has more variety, but also takes a lot longer. I doubt that medicine is necessarily more stable than dentistry.

If you were in a position between choosing dentistry or medicine, then maybe the above advice may be a good idea while you were in undergrad. You're in a little deeper now with real debt, stick with dentistry knowing that you will most likely make more money, have better hours, and don't have to subject yourself to the years and sacrifice with medicine. If money and years working/school mean nothing, then you can spend your time dilly dallying. Otherwise, work is work, but dentistry is easier and can be more profitable with the years you spend.