Unable to continue dental school due to medical issue with eyes, moving to medicine, need some advice

[malikhind]

Hello, I'm a first year dental student and have diagnosed with a condition in my right eye which is preventing me from performing dental procedures at a clinically acceptable level. Due to this, I will not be able to continue dental school and am planning on applying to medical school for Fall 2021 (would've preferred this cycle but it seems too late for that).

My current plan was to withdraw from my current courses fairly soon, and study for the MCAT, do a lot of volunteering/work in order to prepare for the application cycle. I wanted to take the MCAT by mid January so that I could have a fallback incase I need to retake.

So the advice I need is: My current undergrad GPA is not the greatest: oGPA: 3.681, bcp GPA: 3.56. I had 2 semesters which are clearly worse than the rest (due to personal reasons). No C's on my transcripts. This is somewhat low for the schools I want to apply to. This semester I am in 3 science courses: Neurology/neuroanatomy, Microbiology, General Histology (aside from 5 other dental courses). Should I complete these courses and try to get A's in order to compensate for my low undergrad GPA, but delay my MCAT time since I won't be able to start studying as early and remove the possibility of retaking?

Thank you for reading, any advice appreciated!

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[907914]

Hello, I'm a first year dental student and have diagnosed with a condition in my right eye which is preventing me from performing dental procedures at a clinically acceptable level. Due to this, I will not be able to continue dental school and am planning on applying to medical school for Fall 2021 (would've preferred this cycle but it seems too late for that).

My current plan was to withdraw from my current courses fairly soon, and study for the MCAT, do a lot of volunteering/work in order to prepare for the application cycle. I wanted to take the MCAT by mid January so that I could have a fallback incase I need to retake.

So the advice I need is: My current undergrad GPA is not the greatest: oGPA: 3.681, bcp GPA: 3.56. I had 2 semesters which are clearly worse than the rest (due to personal reasons). No C's on my transcripts. This is somewhat low for the schools I want to apply to. This semester I am in 3 science courses: Neurology/neuroanatomy, Microbiology, General Histology (aside from 5 other dental courses). Should I complete these courses and try to get A's in order to compensate for my low undergrad GPA, but delay my MCAT time since I won't be able to start studying as early and remove the possibility of retaking?

Thank you for reading, any advice appreciated!

Before the ADCOMS swoop in and give you their impressions, I think it would be beneficial if you gave your impression as to whether this eye condition will also cause you to fail to meet technical standard for medical school. I understand the visual acuity needed for dental clinic is likely higher, however there are still procedures and the like for almost every specialty as well.

Sorry not giving any advice ahora and sorry to hear about needing to drop dental school, but this information would likely be beneficial for anyone before they give you feedback.

 

[malikhind]

Before the ADCOMS swoop in and give you their impressions, I think it would be beneficial if you gave your impression as to whether this eye condition will also cause you to fail to meet technical standard for medical school. I understand the visual acuity needed for dental clinic is likely higher, however there are still procedures and the like for almost every specialty as well.

Sorry not giving any advice ahora and sorry to hear about needing to drop dental school, but this information would likely be beneficial for anyone before they give you feedback.

Yeah I've definitely thought about that. It's very hard to describe what I see in words. Margins that required 5-6mm of work space (i.e. waxing teeth) is fine for me, however getting down to 0.5m-1mm became very difficult. I'm not too familiar with many medical procedures but from what I've seen (again I could be completely wrong) there aren't many specialities that require that level of precision aside from like ophthalmology, neurosurgery etc... I spoke to my ophthalmologist about this a lot and brought in some tools/examples we use and he said with my specific condition I'd be a lot better at something like general surgery with regards to my vision.

I hope that helps, if i could provide anymore information please let me know!

 

[candbgirl]

Are these grad classes, part of your dental curriculum? Grad classes don’t usually count in MD GPA calculations but they do count in DO GPA calculations. Your GPAs are below average for MD but perfectly fine for DO.
Is your condition stable? Is it likely to get worse? I’m sorry for you troubles. Good luck on your new path.

 

[ciestar]

I have esotropia with amblyopia (im also severely near-sighted) and only ran into issues in the OR due to lack of real depth perception when cutting sutures (I was very good at the laproscopes lol). Otherwise, since im so adapted to my messed up vision, i have zero issues doing an procedural things.

 

[TheIllusionist]

I have amblyopia but not due to strabismus. I wore an eye patch for years and the whole nine yards. I still lack binocular depth perception. I am fine for any field that doesn't use loops. Lot of options. Just be honest on interviews and even in your essay.

 

[ciestar]

I have amblyopia but not due to strabismus. I wore an eye patch for years and the whole nine yards. I still lack binocular depth perception. I am fine for any field that doesn't use loops. Lot of options. Just be honest on interviews and even in your essay.

I was never patched for whatever reason and didnt have the esotropia actually corrected until i was like 24 which required surgery

 

[TheIllusionist]

I was never patched for whatever reason and didnt have the esotropia actually corrected until i was like 24 which required surgery

Nice to find someone with the same issue. I felt the EXACT same way in OR with sutures vs. laproscope. How good are you at sports? I tend to go for those with repetitive movements like weightlifting vs. the depth heavy ball sports (except for racquet sports for whatever reason where I have fewer issues)

 

[ciestar]

Nice to find someone with the same issue. I felt the EXACT same way in OR with sutures vs. laproscope. How good are you at sports? I tend to go for those with repetitive movements like weightlifting vs. the depth heavy ball sports (except for racquet sports for whatever reason where I have fewer issues)

Im terrible at sports lol
I whif when it comes to any racquet sports. I am excellent at hitting a baseball but i cannot catch worth anything
I used to be a swimmer though

 

[malikhind]

I have esotropia with amblyopia (im also severely near-sighted) and only ran into issues in the OR due to lack of real depth perception when cutting sutures (I was very good at the laproscopes lol). Otherwise, since im so adapted to my messed up vision, i have zero issues doing an procedural things.

Wow I have exactly all 3 of your conditions. This gives me a lot of hope then, thank you!

I have amblyopia but not due to strabismus. I wore an eye patch for years and the whole nine yards. I still lack binocular depth perception. I am fine for any field that doesn't use loops. Lot of options. Just be honest on interviews and even in your essay.

Yup same here. Had eye patches for a long time when i was younger. Thank you for your input!

Are these grad classes, part of your dental curriculum? Grad classes don’t usually count in MD GPA calculations but they do count in DO GPA calculations. Your GPAs are below average for MD but perfectly fine for DO.
Is your condition stable? Is it likely to get worse? I’m sorry for you troubles. Good luck on your new path.

Our microbio/general histo are through our universities regular curriculum. I believe there are some undergrads in our classes. However Neruo is through the dental school itself. I wouldn't mind if these classes didn't go towards my GPA but I feel like it would still look good if they saw me do well in these classes.

In terms of my condition, it is stable. It won't get better but it may get worse in the distant future. Thank you!

 

[DarkKnight835]

Do you have a reason why you want to go into medicine? Have you shadow, volunteer, etc. that relate to medicine?
Unfortunately I don’t have any real advice here, but I know that adcoms will want to see a track record of medicine-related activities, and I’m not sure if one year of doing them (since you said you want to apply next cycle) will suffice..

 

[malikhind]

Do you have a reason why you want to go into medicine? Have you shadow, volunteer, etc. that relate to medicine?
Unfortunately I don’t have any real advice here, but I know that adcoms will want to see a track record of medicine-related activities, and I’m not sure if one year of doing them (since you said you want to apply next cycle) will suffice..

During undergrad I was always debating between medicine and dental, ended up leaning towards dental because it fit my lifestyle more and dentistry had a larger impact on my life growing up, I did a lot of volunteering (some medical related, a lot dental related, and some related to neither). During my short time in dental school I enjoyed the patient care aspect a lot more than i expected and I also loved the science courses/medical sciences we learned so far.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

During undergrad I was always debating between medicine and dental, ended up leaning towards dental because it fit my lifestyle more and dentistry had a larger impact on my life growing up, I did a lot of volunteering (some medical related, a lot dental related, and some related to neither). During my short time in dental school I enjoyed the patient care aspect a lot more than i expected and I also loved the science courses/medical sciences we learned so far.

Total speculation but if you have any medical (that’s not dental) volunteering in ug it’ll go a lot farther in showing adcoms you’ve always had interest in medicine. How much weight that’ll have though, I can’t say.