Type of Dentistry

[inconshivable]

Hi all!

Just looking for some background on different types of specialties and general dentistry. When I was shadowing my general dentist, I saw him do the same types of procedures day in and day out. I don’t know if that’s because he’s getting older and doesn’t want to take the burden of complicated cases, or if that’s because he’s a general dentist. I also shadowed an oral surgeon, and I was really intrigued by that speciality, but I don’t think I have the smarts or patience to be one.

I’d really like my career in dentistry to welcome change, and allow me to constantly hone my skills. Basically I don’t want to eventually get bored. I’ve researched prosth, so I was thinking that could be a specialty I could persue.

tldr: what type of dentistry doesn’t become monotonous over time?

THANKS

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[THS]

As long as you continue to receive education throughout your career, you can learn and implement new techniques and procedures to offer your patients that will keep things from getting monotonous. Implant placement and restoration, orthodontics, molar endo, TMD, sleep apnea, dermal fillers, digital dentistry, etc. The bread and butter stuff will pay the bills, but you'll continue to enjoy dentistry more when you put more into t.

 

[2TH MVR]

The dentistry may become monotonous, but meeting new people and improving their lives through quality dentistry never becomes boring.

 

[BluntForceTrauma]

Better question, what kind of *job* doesn't become monotonous over time?

At the end of the day, all jobs do the same thing, with slight variation, every day. In dentistry, no patient is the same, no mouth is the same, so each case that comes to you whether you do endo, pedo, perio, OMFS, GP, etc, will be different, though you do similar treatments on average.

If you're looking for a way to do lots of different things so you reduce the monotony, I'd say go GP, as you can dabble in lots of things you like, and refer out what you don't.



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[inconshivable]

As long as you continue to receive education throughout your career, you can learn and implement new techniques and procedures to offer your patients that will keep things from getting monotonous. Implant placement and restoration, orthodontics, molar endo, TMD, sleep apnea, dermal fillers, digital dentistry, etc. The bread and butter stuff will pay the bills, but you'll continue to enjoy dentistry more when you put more into t.

Oh yea, for some reason I forgot about CE course. Thanks!

 

[luisfigo]

My buddy, a GP, just recently added implants to his repertoire, no CE, just did it. There are a bunch of things you can add like that all the time, go to an AGD conference, learn to do botox and fillers, better diagnoses of different oral pathologies, go on mission trips. Any specialty/non specialty can add things, change things to keep them stimulated.

 

[charlestweed]

Like the dentist whom you shadow, I like to perform the same types of procedures every day. I love the monotony. I love doing the same easy things day in and day out. Since my assistants are already familiar with my treatment style, I just need to give out the same quick instructions for them to perform and the chance of these assistants making clinical errors is very low. That’s how I am able to see a high volume of patients a day (and have a productive day) and get almost zero complaint from patients. Happy patients = good for the business and no headache for the doctor.

Working and running a practice (dealing with staff, patients, and referring dentists etc) are already stressful enough. Why create more stress by performing some new complicated procedures that you are not familiar with or procedures that have higher chance of getting post op complications (pain, bleeding, dry socket etc)? I specialized because I didn’t want to perform a wide variety of procedures, especially the ones that I hate such as extractions, molar endos, dentures etc. I don’t want a lawsuit. I don’t want to hear complaints from patients. I am lazy. I just want to do the easy monotonous job and then go home to spend more quality time with my family.

Every time the sale reps visited my office to convince me to buy new products or to try new procedures, I always rejected them. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

 

[setdoc7]

I’ve been a dentist over 35 years. Some days are interesting, some days are monotonous. Bet Brad Pitt feels the same way.