What is the lifestyle difference between a Dentist and a Physician??

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kov82

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What is the lifestyle difference between a dentist and a physician in terms of the job??

one thing ill ask specifically is do you all agree that the day to day job of a dentist is more stressful than that of the average general physician? by the nature of the work, where every single procedure requires complete concentration not making a mistake in any of the steps etc.

but add anything you want or know.....
 
Though I'm still a dental student, I've always heard that the hardest part of working as a dentist isn't the dentistry, and it just becomes second nature to you. Even now for me, a cavity prep that took me forever to do and took up all of my concentration a few weeks ago, I can do in my sleep now. Anyone else have any input?
 
I actually spoke to someone who was a physician (not general, cardiologist) and decided to go back to school and become a general dentist. For him, he said that being on call was what stressed him out the most and that being able to avoid that with dentistry was a huge factor for him.
 
What is the lifestyle difference between a dentist and a physician in terms of the job??

one thing ill ask specifically is do you all agree that the day to day job of a dentist is more stressful than that of the average general physician? by the nature of the work, where every single procedure requires complete concentration not making a mistake in any of the steps etc.

but add anything you want or know.....

I've shadowed my fair share of physicians and dentists and I can tell you that dentists have it a lot easier than physicians. That's pretty much the main reason for why I switched from pre-med to pre-dent. (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=686097)
 
"easier" how? I guess they're not "on call" as much as physicians, but they probably have to deal with more crap from patients than physicians do, I would guess that law suits are more common in dentistry? a physician really doesnt seem to have much responsibility other than listening to the symptoms putting those symptoms together into a diagnosis, or sending off for blood tests and procedures, and they have the power to prescribe meds, many people use the internet to at least come close to self diagnosis, so what is it about a physicians job that makes it more stressful than a dentists?
 
"easier" how? I guess they're not "on call" as much as physicians, but they probably have to deal with more crap from patients than physicians do, I would guess that law suits are more common in dentistry? a physician really doesnt seem to have much responsibility other than listening to the symptoms putting those symptoms together into a diagnosis, or sending off for blood tests and procedures, and they have the power to prescribe meds, many people use the internet to at least come close to self diagnosis, so what is it about a physicians job that makes it more stressful than a dentists?

are you joking? ....seriously?
 
"easier" how? I guess they're not "on call" as much as physicians, but they probably have to deal with more crap from patients than physicians do, I would guess that law suits are more common in dentistry? a physician really doesnt seem to have much responsibility other than listening to the symptoms putting those symptoms together into a diagnosis, or sending off for blood tests and procedures, and they have the power to prescribe meds, many people use the internet to at least come close to self diagnosis, so what is it about a physicians job that makes it more stressful than a dentists?

...... 😱....wow.
 
whats with all the dramatics and 4 word reply's that say nothing? please........enlighten me on the stressors of a physician......I think that was the point of my original post.....no?
 
whats with all the dramatics and 4 word reply's that say nothing? please........enlighten me on the stressors of a physician......I think that was the point of my original post.....no?

It sounds to me as though you're confusing a family practitioner with all physicians.
 
I meant family practitioner as "average physician" but I guess I should have been more specific.

aside from that I recently saw a gastro specialist, typed up my symptoms down handed it to him, along with what it possibly could be from what I found online, H pylori, celiac disease and more, I even mentioned I should possibly get an endoscopy, so what did he do? he ordered the endoscopy, and sent me to a lab for a blood test for celiac the visit was a total of 5 minutes, 100 bucks for that test, 30 copay for the visit, (he gets a total of 150 after billing insurance, not bad for 5 min of "work"), then he got money upfront for the endoscopy (a 5-10 minute procedure), plus charging insurance, then I had to pay for the room the endoscopy was done in, not counting my premiums, I ended up paying 900 bucks on credit cards for the whole thing, to be told I had mild inflammation, GERD, he just threw out the regular stuff a 5 year old could have diagnosed me with, I had to call him for the follow up, to find out I would be charged another visit to see him just to get my results, another 150 in his pocket if I agree, instead I opted to speak on the phone, he couldnt get off the phone fast enough, he said simple things I already knew, stay away from chocolate, caffeine, spices, when it came down to it I asked "but why is this happening now? I used to eat pizza and I was fine" his answer............"because your special"...........he was trying to be funny, but didnt follow up with an actual answer to my question......and because I respected him as a doctor I laughed even though I didnt think it was funny and I just said bye, but after paying all that money I should demand something more than a stupid joke, all he offered was the changing my diet advice, which was not specific at all, and he offered samples of nexium.

lets face it, he simply doesnt know why my acid problems suddenly started, and used the joke to cover it up, and before people pile on about "that was one bad doctor" etc, please, these guys spend less then 5-6 min per patient and even then rely mostly on tests to give answers, if they even can tell you whats wrong with you, otherwise they send you off to another specialist, now it sounds like I'm going off on them, I'm not, I just think that they get respect from the general public they really dont deserve, I think people who have real illnesses, and experience waiting in lobby's or being sent from doctor to doctor really know that a lot of them make their money off of easily diagnosable stuff, for the rest when it gets complicated they send you off to someone else and that guy may not know what to do with you, its rare to find a doctor who will spend time with you, not joking around but discussing your symptoms, ask you questions and then use that info to come up with a diagnosis, but even then, with the internet...they really are becoming less useful...just my thoughts on it, I feel that when a dentist gets paid, hes actually providing a service that matches the money they make, even if its $60, the dentist had to have actually DONE something to get that money, $150 for 5 minutes of nothing.....not that stressful if you ask me.
 
I dentist might have a better "lifestyle" and more time off, don't go into dentistry because of peripheral benefits. No matter what the lifestyle is , it is still going to be a job that you spend most of your awake hours doing.

I dont know many doctors so I guess I'm pretty surprised by the position most people are taking, 2 dentists I've shadowed were pretty stressed out guys, maybe it was a coincidence for me? I've seen others that were chill too, but I just wanted to compare and see what everyone else in the forum thought.
 
I meant family practitioner as "average physician" but I guess I should have been more specific.

aside from that I recently saw a gastro specialist, typed up my symptoms down handed it to him, along with what it possibly could be from what I found online, H pylori, celiac disease and more, I even mentioned I should possibly get an endoscopy, so what did he do? he ordered the endoscopy, and sent me to a lab for a blood test for celiac the visit was a total of 5 minutes, 100 bucks for that test, 30 copay for the visit, (he gets a total of 150 after billing insurance, not bad for 5 min of "work"), then he got money upfront for the endoscopy (a 5-10 minute procedure), plus charging insurance, then I had to pay for the room the endoscopy was done in, not counting my premiums, I ended up paying 900 bucks on credit cards for the whole thing, to be told I had mild inflammation, GERD, he just threw out the regular stuff a 5 year old could have diagnosed me with, I had to call him for the follow up, to find out I would be charged another visit to see him just to get my results, another 150 in his pocket if I agree, instead I opted to speak on the phone, he couldnt get off the phone fast enough, he said simple things I already knew, stay away from chocolate, caffeine, spices, when it came down to it I asked "but why is this happening now? I used to eat pizza and I was fine" his answer............"because your special"...........he was trying to be funny, but didnt follow up with an actual answer to my question......and because I respected him as a doctor I laughed even though I didnt think it was funny and I just said bye, but after paying all that money I should demand something more than a stupid joke, all he offered was the changing my diet advice, which was not specific at all, and he offered samples of nexium.

lets face it, he simply doesnt know why my acid problems suddenly started, and used the joke to cover it up, and before people pile on about "that was one bad doctor" etc, please, these guys spend less then 5-6 min per patient and even then rely mostly on tests to give answers, if they even can tell you whats wrong with you, otherwise they send you off to another specialist, now it sounds like I'm going off on them, I'm not, I just think that they get respect from the general public they really dont deserve, I think people who have real illnesses, and experience waiting in lobby's or being sent from doctor to doctor really know that a lot of them make their money off of easily diagnosable stuff, for the rest when it gets complicated they send you off to someone else and that guy may not know what to do with you, its rare to find a doctor who will spend time with you, not joking around but discussing your symptoms, ask you questions and then use that info to come up with a diagnosis, but even then, with the internet...they really are becoming less useful...just my thoughts on it, I feel that when a dentist gets paid, hes actually providing a service that matches the money they make, even if its $60, the dentist had to have actually DONE something to get that money, $150 for 5 minutes of nothing.....not that stressful if you ask me.



I dont know many doctors so I guess I'm pretty surprised by the position most people are taking, 2 dentists I've shadowed were pretty stressed out guys, maybe it was a coincidence for me? I've seen others that were chill too, but I just wanted to compare and see what everyone else in the forum thought.

:laugh:

(i laugh because I don't have the time, energy, or interest in correcting your beliefs to explain to you why I think you are misguided)
 
If you consider dentistry a narrowing down of medicine to just oral-facial issues, most dentists know how to treat what they treat and when to refer what they don't. However, most issues are narrowed down geographically. OK, so some things in dentistry are systemic - dentists typically don't treat systemically just the oral manifestations.

Physicians have more geography and diagnosis can be a little trickier than identifying a bombed out tooth, or smelling ANUG, or feeling a loose denture. Physicians are actually expected to manage systemic conditions and deal with patient noncompliance with not only lifestyle changes but medications, and referals to a large range of specialties and following what the specialist did. However, most physicians typically do less refined regular work with their hands than a dentist.

I'm not sure either of these is more stress just by the nature of the work. Personality and ability to deal with patients is probably to the larger stress indicator.
 
I meant family practitioner as "average physician" but I guess I should have been more specific.

aside from that I recently saw a gastro specialist, typed up my symptoms down handed it to him, along with what it possibly could be from what I found online, H pylori, celiac disease and more, I even mentioned I should possibly get an endoscopy, so what did he do? he ordered the endoscopy, and sent me to a lab for a blood test for celiac the visit was a total of 5 minutes, 100 bucks for that test, 30 copay for the visit, (he gets a total of 150 after billing insurance, not bad for 5 min of "work"), then he got money upfront for the endoscopy (a 5-10 minute procedure), plus charging insurance, then I had to pay for the room the endoscopy was done in, not counting my premiums, I ended up paying 900 bucks on credit cards for the whole thing, to be told I had mild inflammation, GERD, he just threw out the regular stuff a 5 year old could have diagnosed me with, I had to call him for the follow up, to find out I would be charged another visit to see him just to get my results, another 150 in his pocket if I agree, instead I opted to speak on the phone, he couldnt get off the phone fast enough, he said simple things I already knew, stay away from chocolate, caffeine, spices, when it came down to it I asked "but why is this happening now? I used to eat pizza and I was fine" his answer............"because your special"...........he was trying to be funny, but didnt follow up with an actual answer to my question......and because I respected him as a doctor I laughed even though I didnt think it was funny and I just said bye, but after paying all that money I should demand something more than a stupid joke, all he offered was the changing my diet advice, which was not specific at all, and he offered samples of nexium.

lets face it, he simply doesnt know why my acid problems suddenly started, and used the joke to cover it up, and before people pile on about "that was one bad doctor" etc, please, these guys spend less then 5-6 min per patient and even then rely mostly on tests to give answers, if they even can tell you whats wrong with you, otherwise they send you off to another specialist, now it sounds like I'm going off on them, I'm not, I just think that they get respect from the general public they really dont deserve, I think people who have real illnesses, and experience waiting in lobby's or being sent from doctor to doctor really know that a lot of them make their money off of easily diagnosable stuff, for the rest when it gets complicated they send you off to someone else and that guy may not know what to do with you, its rare to find a doctor who will spend time with you, not joking around but discussing your symptoms, ask you questions and then use that info to come up with a diagnosis, but even then, with the internet...they really are becoming less useful...just my thoughts on it, I feel that when a dentist gets paid, hes actually providing a service that matches the money they make, even if its $60, the dentist had to have actually DONE something to get that money, $150 for 5 minutes of nothing.....not that stressful if you ask me.

I have some really cheap Ocean Front Property in Arizona if you're interested!
 
This sounds like when my friends tell me how their dentist does nothing all day...

"All he/she does is come into the room, look at my x-ray, tell me to smile and say that everything looks good..."

Well they don't realize that the dentist is in his operatory for most of the day performing extractions, fillings, root canals and everything else that we have all come to love🙂. We'll be pretty busy (Which I like).

Perhaps your GI Dr. is busy with Upper GIs, endoscopy and colonoscopy all day too, among other things. I don't know...
 
:laugh:

(i laugh because I don't have the time, energy, or interest in correcting your beliefs to explain to you why I think you are misguided)

:laugh:

(I laugh because you've managed to take the time to put three posts......without saying ANYTHING, just leaving us with this impression that you somehow have this superior intelligence and then poof....leaving.....then again, you did make 3 trips to this thread to type up responses that say nothing, lmao) :laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:
 
This sounds like when my friends tell me how their dentist does nothing all day...

"All he/she does is come into the room, look at my x-ray, tell me to smile and say that everything looks good..."

Well they don't realize that the dentist is in his operatory for most of the day performing extractions, fillings, root canals and everything else that we have all come to love🙂. We'll be pretty busy (Which I like).

Perhaps your GI Dr. is busy with Upper GIs, endoscopy and colonoscopy all day too, among other things. I don't know...

I'ts fair of you to make the comparison, but either way, the reason I made the thread was because I DID NOT KNOW, so I asked, I gave my opinion on it and even asked people to tell me if I was wrong...... too many douche bags like the guy with the 24 avatar
 
repeat
 
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You can't compare a family physician to a dentist b/c the scope of work is very different. We as dentists use our hands hence our work is more similar to a surgeon. My husband is a physician and as a result I know a lot of doctors. After you've been at a job for a while, that's all it is... a job. Every occupation has it's stresses. Being on call is definitely a big drawback to medicine. My husband has to go to see patients in the middle of the night a lot when he is on call, and comes home very late, but that's for his specialty. Other specialties have a much more predictable schedule. In family medicine, you go through seeing a lot of patients per day, could be more than 40. My friends often say that it means that you don't get to spend that much time with everyone, and you're forced to know a little bit about a lot, which can be frustrating at times and intellectually unchallenging (that's what they have told me).

As a dentist, I like the fact that my patient flow is usually limited to 1-2 per hour. As my husband puts it, his work requires only thinking, mine includes both thinking and using my hands which can be stressful b/c it's sometimes unpredictable. But for me it's more interesting. But of course in medicine, you could do surgery and have it both ways as well, but at least as a dentist I never have to worry about killing anybody (I know it's possible, but not common), and if I "screw up", it's easily fixable.

Knowing what I know about medicine, I would say that dentistry is much easier if you want to have a career and a family life. None of my female family physicians took any time off after having kids, and work full time.
But none of this really matters. It all comes down to what you love. Like people here have said, if you don't like working with your hands, than there is lots of medical specialties that will give you similar lifestyle. It will take you a lot longer to get there though.
My husband hates being on call but none of it matters, b/c he loves what he does. Hope this helps.

WOW thank you, what a proper reply to my original post, I shouldn't be surprised it took a dentist to do it.

I've always thought that dentists are more comparable to surgeons in the nature of the work, now theres a stressful job!

One thing I know is that you wont fully know (even if you've spent time observing the dental environment) the small details until your in the dentists shoes or you specifically ask a dentist specific questions about the job.
 
"easier" how? I guess they're not "on call" as much as physicians, but they probably have to deal with more crap from patients than physicians do, I would guess that law suits are more common in dentistry?

wrong.

a physician really doesnt seem to have much responsibility other than listening to the symptoms putting those symptoms together into a diagnosis, or sending off for blood tests and procedures, and they have the power to prescribe meds, many people use the internet to at least come close to self diagnosis, so what is it about a physicians job that makes it more stressful than a dentists?
when career day does come at your high school, be sure to go to the one with the doctor and tell him all about this theory. Physicians range from neurosurgeons to family practice doctors. Yes, FP is more straightforward diagnoses:remedy. But most physicians are specialists. A cardiologist knows how to identify an arrhythmia and how to read a stress test. He also knows how to conduct a physical (there's much more to one than webMD will tell you) and understand the biochemical processes of the body and the mechanism for how a medication will act.

I meant family practitioner as "average physician" but I guess I should have been more specific.

most physicians aren't in family practice. that's a bad way to generalize about an entire subset of professionals.

aside from that I recently saw a gastro specialist, typed up my symptoms down handed it to him, along with what it possibly could be from what I found online, H pylori, celiac disease and more, I even mentioned I should possibly get an endoscopy, so what did he do? he ordered the endoscopy, and sent me to a lab for a blood test for celiac the visit was a total of 5 minutes, 100 bucks for that test, 30 copay for the visit, (he gets a total of 150 after billing insurance, not bad for 5 min of "work"), then he got money upfront for the endoscopy (a 5-10 minute procedure), plus charging insurance, then I had to pay for the room the endoscopy was done in, not counting my premiums, I ended up paying 900 bucks on credit cards for the whole thing, to be told I had mild inflammation, GERD, he just threw out the regular stuff a 5 year old could have diagnosed me with,
i think you're problem is more with the health care system...it's kind of naive to have a problem with all doctors because you had mild inflammation and -$900 net worth. But if you want a tech or someone without extensive training doing your endoscopy, be my guest...I would prefer to have someone with and MD/DO in case there was something serious.

I had to call him for the follow up, to find out I would be charged another visit to see him just to get my results, another 150 in his pocket if I agree, instead I opted to speak on the phone, he couldnt get off the phone fast enough, he said simple things I already knew, stay away from chocolate, caffeine, spices, when it came down to it I asked "but why is this happening now? I used to eat pizza and I was fine" his answer............"because your special"...........he was trying to be funny, but didnt follow up with an actual answer to my question......and because I respected him as a doctor I laughed even though I didnt think it was funny and I just said bye, but after paying all that money I should demand something more than a stupid joke, all he offered was the changing my diet advice, which was not specific at all, and he offered samples of nexium.
besides your had mild inflammation was their anything wrong with you? if you could've diagnosed yourself with mild inflammation...why didn't you?

lets face it, he simply doesnt know why my acid problems suddenly started, and used the joke to cover it up, and before people pile on about "that was one bad doctor" etc, please, these guys spend less then 5-6 min per patient and even then rely mostly on tests to give answers,
I really appreciate your years in the medical field and the vast knowledge you have about the human body but how do you really know about "these guys" from a 5-10 minute appointment and a diagnoses of minor inflammation?

if they even can tell you whats wrong with you, otherwise they send you off to another specialist,
no.

now it sounds like I'm going off on them, I'm not, I just think that they get respect from the general public they really dont deserve, (:cry:"they"clearly don't have your respect :scared:) I think people who have real illnesses, and experience waiting in lobby's or being sent from doctor to doctor really know that a lot of them make their money off of easily diagnosable stuff, for the rest when it gets complicated they send you off to someone else and that guy may not know what to do with you,
firstly it's a for-service field. do you expect your mild inflammation to be diagnosed and treated for free? do you expect them not to charge you for a procedure whether or not the diagnoses was favorable?

secondly, the simple stuff is going to RNs and PA's...you had a specialized problem, so a specialized physicians took care of it, not an RN or PA. His skills are more valuable and marketable than an RN or PA and you were charged accordingly.



its rare to find a doctor who will spend time with you, not joking around but discussing your symptoms, ask you questions and then use that info to come up with a diagnosis,
you had some mild inflammation, lets cool down the "discussing symptoms" thing...Physicians have many patients on their service some of them more serious than others. I doubt they want to absorb more time than necessary on someone with mild inflammation, which they have probably seen thousands of times before. Physicians who see patients with real problems do spend time with the patients. I shadowed a physician who spent half an hour to do a physical and make sure that all the patient's questions were answered before surgery.

but even then, with the internet...they really are becoming less useful...just my thoughts on it, I feel that when a dentist gets paid, hes actually providing a service that matches the money they make, even if its $60, the dentist had to have actually DONE something to get that money, $150 for 5 minutes of nothing.....not that stressful if you ask me.
So you would be fine with a dentist that makes you wait for 30 min, sits you in his chair for 5 min, tests your hurting tooth with some Endo-ice, and refers you to an endodontist?

WOW thank you, what a proper reply to my original post, I shouldn't be surprised it took a dentist to do it.

I've always thought that dentists are more comparable to surgeons in the nature of the work, now theres a stressful job!

One thing I know is that you wont fully know (even if you've spent time observing the dental environment) the small details until your in the dentists shoes or you specifically ask a dentist specific questions about the job.

You're right, the dentist who is married to a physician is a better reference than most. But the answer to your question is fairly obvious so I though I need not waste the time telling you what pretty much everyone knows. But I have some free time on my hands...why not explain my reasoning? 😛

Medicine is easier than dentistry from the get-go. Getting into medical school is a lot tougher than getting into dental school (will be less true in the future) so pre-meds need to work a lot harder to be competitive and study the extra sections on the MCAT.
Once at medical school, students learn a lot more material than dental students in the same amount of time (first 2 years), their exams are more difficult and mean more for getting matched into a residency, Step 1. They go through something called "clinical rotations" in their 3rd and 4th year where they rotate from hospital to hospital and specialty to specialty. They are given work by attending, residents, and interns who evaluate them. These evaluations are also extremely important in matching into a residency.
After they match, they must do a residency so that their MD can be used, only 5-6% of dental students do a residency. Medical residencies range anywhere from 3-7 years. Dental residencies are generally 1-3 years with the exception of OMFS and only 1-2% of d-students can actually match into OMFS, which is actually considered both a medical and dental residency. Medical residents work 70-80 hr/week and get paid around $50-60k/year. They deal with sick patients who aren't in their "everyday lives" they are there because they are seriously ill. And they usually get patients who are scared they are going to die or like you, people who think they know better than them because they can google something without really understanding anything about the problem. They are subordinate to attendings and more experienced residents, in malignant programs, they are given more work than they can handle. As interns, nurses often tell them how to do their jobs...which can be demeaning. On top of it all, when they get out of residency (again from 3-7 years), they have their debt to pay off, which can range anywhere between $150 and $200k. The majority of dentists would have started paying their debts off in that time.
Opening a practice is more difficult for physicians, lawsuits are more likely (and common) for physicians. Physicians deal with sick, dying patients and their families. Their function can't be remedied by "going on the internet." Lay people like you and me don't understand the biochemical processes, mechanisms, and interactions, and they deal with people who think they can do the job by using the internet...which they can't. Physicians who are attached to a hospital are obligated to take call. I was able to spend a few nights on call and it is no picnic...it's hell. You don't sleep for days straight, you are dealing with emergent patients who are agitated and upset. Dentists call is extremely rare and they mostly work Monday - Thursday with a long lunch. Dentists don't have to deal as much with insurance companies (thanks to those excellent dental lobbyists) and they deal with patients who aren't afraid for their lives, but for their comfort.

I could go on but I think you get my gist. I also think that you formed your opinion from one bad experience with one practitioner...that hardly makes you unbiased and it makes me skeptical about your opinion.
 
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anonymousername, why do you feel as if you have to prove that dentistry is better than medicine to Kov82? I feel like you are still insecure about your decision and are trying to rationalize it to yourself by trying to get others to conform to your beliefs. Let Kov82 go to medicine. I hear there's a FP shortage 🙂
 
Umm, i am not a dentist nor a doctor, but I would imagine doctors have a pretty stressfull job (ALL DOCTORS). I mean can you imagine waking up in the morning 5 days a week and going to work just so that you can make CORRECT decisions about people's lifes (and they better be correct cause if you miss something, you can complicate that patients life or even kill him/her), now add to that the guild factor when you miss something, then add to it that the person you screwed up has a family and a few children. Now imagine doing this job for 25-30 years (basically till retirement).... its not easy, this is some serious stress

compare that to a dentist whos work style is generally designed so that majority of the time you screw up (if you screw up) doesn't really end up costing the patients life

I've said this many times before, I believe that 90% of pre-dental / dental students used to be pre-med at one time in thier life. and in the process of looking around and asking the right questions, they came accross this field of dentistry, and it looked very attractive to them.
 
Okay I just finished reading most of the posts here, seriously everyone needs to chillax.

first of all [to OP], seriously, not many people can answer your question, most people are either dentists or doctors (rairly both). Gary Ruska is OMFS with an MD degree around here, but I highly doubt he'll be answering to the sillyness of this thread

second of all, people shouldn't throw terms like "general physical" or "family practitioner" or "cardiologist" like they some professions anyone can land. To become a physican in the united states is REALLY hard. I feel really bad for those hard working residents (even those who go into "family practice") for the amount of hours they push through JUST so they can complete their residency requirements. LOL, people say cardiologist like, its nothing, did you know you have to do 4 years of med school, 3 years of internal medicine, and 4 years of fellowship JUST TO BECOME A CARDIOLOGIST? thats 11 years of training.
 

there will be, after their job is taken over by PA's and RN's.

And yes, I am insecure about going into dentistry. It is less competitive, interesting, important, and prestigious than medicine. I think that dentistry is the better career choice but I would prefer others don't make stupid judgments (with inaccurate information) about either career.
 
oh, and kov asked me for my reasoning. I didn't say anything he didn't ask for.
 
i wouldn't want to be a physician based on the time it takes to actually become one alone. on top of that, i work evenings/nights at a hospital, and i'm constantly putting calls out to doctors who are on call up until 11 pm, when i go home. i'd imagine they're still being called even after that. add up those things with whatever's going on with the health care bill and constant insurance problems, and they all equal one big "no thank you" in my book. plus, i happen to like teeth.
 
And yes, I am insecure about going into dentistry. It is less competitive, interesting, important, and prestigious than medicine. I think that dentistry is the better career choice but I would prefer others don't make stupid judgments (with inaccurate information) about either career.

Honesty.... I like it 👍
 
Kov, I am going to have to agree with your GI Specialtist, you are special, as in Special Ed. I would have paid to been in the consult room when you came in with your diagnosis typed on a letter. If there is such a thing as Karma, you will no doubt have many patients with Myofascial Pain and Burning Mouth Syndrome. All of which will think you are a fool because you cant cure their fictitious diseases.
 
🤣

kov82 consider yourself

granny_owned-12246.jpg
 
^ I don't even know what the argument is about, but the above post made me almost spit my water out of my mouth! Hee-larious!
 
Kov, I am going to have to agree with your GI Specialtist, you are special, as in Special Ed. I would have paid to been in the consult room when you came in with your diagnosis typed on a letter. If there is such a thing as Karma, you will no doubt have many patients with Myofascial Pain and Burning Mouth Syndrome. All of which will think you are a fool because you cant cure their fictitious diseases.

wow some of you guys are seriously *****s.....when I go to a doctors office often I end up forgetting to mention this or that, so I typed up my symptoms, doctors appreciate this, I also mentioned that maybe an endoscopy would be the right thing to do and to check for H pylori and maybe a blood test for celiac, and guess what? the doctor scheduled an endoscopy and ordered a blood test for celiac!

I havent responded because I was in the hospital friday night and have been feeling crappy the past week and a half, I read anonymousername's response and was sort of laughing that he did take the time to do all that after telling me he didnt want to waste his time (but had to justify that he had free time to write it up :laugh: it amused me that he couldnt help himself but to respond)

I was just happy he gave a response that actually addressed the issue so hes 1/5 on this thread..... although I'm now really doubting his reading comprehension skills......

he was trying very hard to be a smart ass which I can appreciate but he wasnt actually doing a good job at it like 12345a seems to think, he just sounds aggressive and angry and forgets to mention that I ASKED BECAUSE I WAS ASKING PEOPLES ADVICE ON WHERE IM GOING WRONG, he also ignored that I said "and before people pile on about "that was one bad doctor" etc," but he mentioned that "I also think that you formed your opinion from one bad experience with one practitioner"

he expanded on medical school for a huge chunk of hes response, which I can appreciate the difficult nature of med school and stress while in med school as ANOTHER TOPIC BUT AGAIN, this has NOTHING to do with what I asked, I was askings specifically about the day to day on the JOB stressors of a physician (which I already mentioned as meaning family physician, but anonymousername ignored that I addressed it and brought it up anyway)

When I read he was insecure about his decision about medical or dental school I then started viewing him a different way and realized where the aggression and anger came from,

anonymousername : "It is less competitive, interesting, important, and prestigious than medicine."

wow where are all the dentists out there? is this a dental forum? between DO/MD/Specialties/Caribbean/all the SPM's and post bacc's tailored for pre meds, getting into med school is slightly more competitive than getting into dental school, I guess I should say that if you have a 4.0 and 25's on your DAT you can get into dental school EASY and if you have a 4.0 and 34 on your MCAT you would still have some trouble getting into med school, I recognize that, but if you mess up either your GPA or DAT, dental school suddenly becomes VERY difficult to get into, its VERY competitive, and "interesting" is relative, "important"? if your a family physician, you deal with prescribing antibiotics all over the place, so yea someone would have died of that infection.....in 1930, but I guess the researchers at pharmaceutical companies can feel just as good about "saving lives" in that regard as the guy who signs a prescription slip, and I guess anonymousername hasnt had a tooth ache in a while, well let me tell you....its a b!tch, and "prestigious" WOW whooooooo cares????? is your dad a doctor? I guess in a lot of ways what I was trying to say with my other posts was that society respects doctors TOO much, so much so that my GI doctor felt ENTITLED to the money I gave him, he didnt sit down and try to explain what happened how it happened, what dietary changes I should make, he mumbled "dyspepsia" and walked out, I felt rushed out of his office, that questions would annoy him and that he just wanted the money for the visit and didnt do anything in return.

Anyway, I guess I should ask people with half a brain to go back and read my original post....see if you undersand and can grasp the intention of my question, and see how it progressed and snowballed into a back and forth, and even when anonymousername responded, see if what he said had much to do with what I was asking.


I know a lot of nice supportive people come to this forum, I forget that equally.. there are a lot of angry bitter A'holes here too.

So I guess from my own experience, I would say if you have a doctor that spends time talking to you, explaining what you have, why you have it, what you should do to fix it etc. HANG ON TO HIM/HER....ITS RARE!!!!!!!!!
 
I've seen some crazy things on this forum: NP's trying to replace doctors. CRNAs claiming to be superior to Anesthesiologists.....

But I have never, NEVER heard any one claim that dentistry, which has a set schedule with roughly 40hrs/wk with a 100K+ salary and no responsibility for a patient's life, is more stressful than a doctor, which can end up being twice the work hours plus a call schedule with malpractice insurance and legal and ethical responsibility for your patients lives.

You have got to be out of you're mind. Seriously. You can't give us 5 reasons why dentistry is more stressful but we can give you 500.
 
I've seen some crazy things on this forum: NP's trying to replace doctors. CRNAs claiming to be superior to Anesthesiologists.....

But I have never, NEVER heard any one claim that dentistry, which has a set schedule with roughly 40hrs/wk with a 100K+ salary and no responsibility for a patient's life, is more stressful than a doctor, which can end up being twice the work hours plus a call schedule with malpractice insurance and legal and ethical responsibility for your patients lives.

You have got to be out of you're mind. Seriously. You can't give us 5 reasons why dentistry is more stressful but we can give you 500.

I'm not out of my mind, you people are soooooo dramatic, calm down already

honestly I wasnt trying to make that argument, just asking a question

and just venting about my experience with my GI doc, I'm frustrated since I'm having a hard time with my health.

I guess the stress I was referring to was the fear of screwing up the crown or the root canal, something going wrong in the middle of the procedure that type of thing, concern about the quality of your work etc. thats what I was referring to, it wasnt a "me vs all of you" post, I was just asking a question stop freaking out "You have got to be out of you're mind. Seriously. You can't give us 5 reasons why dentistry is more stressful but we can give you 500."
 
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I'm not out of my mind, you people are soooooo dramatic, calm down already

honestly I wasnt trying to make that argument, just asking a question

and just venting about my experience with my GI doc, I'm frustrated since I'm having a hard time with my health.

I guess the stress I was referring to was the fear of screwing up the crown or the root canal, something going wrong in the middle of the procedure that type of thing, concern about the quality of your work etc. thats what I was referring to, it wasnt a "me vs all of you" post, I was just asking a question stop freaking out "You have got to be out of you're mind. Seriously. You can't give us 5 reasons why dentistry is more stressful but we can give you 500."

you're not really that intelligent are you?
 
you're not really that intelligent are you?

I guess by asking me, that tells the rest of us you must be really really intelligent hu? 😉 lmao f'n clown
 
bro, me thinks you need to chill out. While I dont agree with all of the comments that have been posted, these people are trying to help you and you clearly don't like their help. I think you should go into medicine and be the envy of all people. 🙂
 
Ok, so it's pretty obvious that dentists have a lower stress level than say a cardiac surgeon.

But don't negate the stressors of a hard working dentist: pissed off patients, "selling" the treatment, running a business, back/neck pain, etc. etc., on top of running a tight schedule where efficiency is a top priority. SO while not life threatening, sure, it can be stressful...more so if you are a solo doctor.

just sayin

but yeah, one of the reasons i didn't want to be an anesthesiologist would be the life or death responsibility of the work...one of the only life threatening things could be prescribing the wrong antibiotics for a kidney failure pt.
 
"easier" how? I guess they're not "on call" as much as physicians, but they probably have to deal with more crap from patients than physicians do, I would guess that law suits are more common in dentistry? a physician really doesnt seem to have much responsibility other than listening to the symptoms putting those symptoms together into a diagnosis, or sending off for blood tests and procedures, and they have the power to prescribe meds, many people use the internet to at least come close to self diagnosis, so what is it about a physicians job that makes it more stressful than a dentists?

i think most posters don't agree with the OP's comment here...

as someone else has already noted it's easy to diagnose run of the mill conditions, but if you self-diagnose and get it wrong you have no one to blame but yourself...whereas if the physician gets it wrong, he/she will bear the guilt of complicating/ending your life and have to deal with a hefty lawsuit. is that not stressful?

granted, dentists do get stressed as well, like when you are running behind schedule or inadvertently perforate a tooth, but not quite on the same level as some of the stuff physicians deal with.

personally i think the big thing dentistry grants you is the freedom to decide your own schedule
 
Really kov, just think about it.

Lives aren't at stake in dentistry.
--> Thus, less litigation.
--> Thus, less stress.
--> Thus, you're never on call.
--> Thus, you can work 9-5.

Why do you think plastics and dermatology are some of the most highly sought after specialties?
 
Really kov, just think about it.

Lives aren't at stake in dentistry.
--> Thus, less litigation.
--> Thus, less stress.
--> Thus, you're never on call.
--> Thus, you can work 9-5.

Why do you think plastics and dermatology are some of the most highly sought after specialties?

yea I guess I had really been looking at it from a dentists point of view, my dentists has three patients in chairs at once, gives one a shot, moves to the next chair to work on them then jumps to another chair etc, it always looked stressful to me, plus the slightest thing could go wrong even months down the line and you would be blamed, the cost of the school is one thing, but the cost of starting your own practice is a huge thing in itself, you basically have all that and if you get out of dental school late 20's early 30's you get married, want to buy a house, then kids, but I guess its unanimous that a family doc has a more stressful job.....I say good, haha since I've made my mind up about dentistry :laugh: I just thought that it would be pretty stressful but its probably mostly from the school/business start up bills I'm worried about.
 
I've had many of my medical colleagues these last few years say that if they had to do it over again, given all the BS they have to deal with with getting paid these days and the volume of patients they need to see, that they would probably go dentistry seeing what they see/hear from me about my practice. I can't remember the last time I heard one of my dental colleagues say they wish they went the med school route rather than the dental school route.

Additionally within my practice, between myself and my partner we have 3 local MD's who have children either set to enroll this fall or already enrolled in DENTAL school, and none that are enrolled in med school.
 
i wouldn't want to be a physician based on the time it takes to actually become one alone. on top of that, i work evenings/nights at a hospital, and i'm constantly putting calls out to doctors who are on call up until 11 pm, when i go home. i'd imagine they're still being called even after that. add up those things with whatever's going on with the health care bill and constant insurance problems, and they all equal one big "no thank you" in my book. plus, i happen to like teeth.

👍 I whole heartedly agree. Having been fortunate enough to see the rigors and stresses that come with being on call, it is definitely not something I want any part of.
 
I've had many of my medical colleagues these last few years say that if they had to do it over again, given all the BS they have to deal with with getting paid these days and the volume of patients they need to see, that they would probably go dentistry seeing what they see/hear from me about my practice. I can't remember the last time I heard one of my dental colleagues say they wish they went the med school route rather than the dental school route.

Additionally within my practice, between myself and my partner we have 3 local MD's who have children either set to enroll this fall or already enrolled in DENTAL school, and none that are enrolled in med school.

My GP tells me the same thing every time I visit, and from having spoken to many of the physicians at the local hospital, several of them express that sentiment.
 
👍 I whole heartedly agree. Having been fortunate enough to see the rigors and stresses that come with being on call, it is definitely not something I want any part of.

So you don't mind having to bend over constantly and selling or convincing patients to get certain dental procedures done? Can you do this 10 hours a day for at least five days per week on patients who perceive dentistry as painful and expensive? And if you work in insurance mills, you will be forced to do this on multiple patients at once. In a number of offices, if you can't produce you will be let go. This is not a field that many people are interested in. And don't start telling me how that's not true because dental schools don't accept everyone because even the kindergarden and community college nearby me both have acceptances <50%.

It's a fact that dentists don't have lives at their stake. Nor are they usually required to be on call. But the career lifestyle of dentists is very unusual and not a comfortable one either. As a dentist, you will be a technician first and then a salesman. I say technician because there isn't really a whole lot to diagnose in dentistry. Even dental office managers are trained to read xrays and criticize the associates if their treatment plans are too conservative and not profitable. Every dentist have different opinions and much of dentistry is not an exact science. A dentist is a doctor alright because no other practitioner treats teeth. Still, it's not the same allure as when you have to treat medical conditions. It eventually boils down to how much you can sell, how fast you can do it, and how much the patient likes it. Dental diagnosis eventually takes a back seat in your mind when you're in private practice.

I'm a dentist and not a physician, so I can't comment on how much better medicine is. But from my firsthand experience, the lifestyle and salary of dentists happen to be highly overrated.
 
one thing ill ask specifically is do you all agree that the day to day job of a dentist is more stressful than that of the average general physician? by the nature of the work, where every single procedure requires complete concentration not making a mistake in any of the steps etc.

Hi. I'm a dentist and here is an indirect answer you may be looking for.

Most dentists are not good at what they do. ( but you will trained to think that you are confident and competent because you will otherwise be scared to treat anyone )As a patient, aside from pain, comfort, and appearance, you really don't know what is good quality dentistry. And it is difficult to satisfy certain patients because of unrealistic expectations, and so you might get complaints even if you do the best work possible. But other than that, as a patient, you have no way of knowing whether that recent filling is leaking or if all canals were thoroughly instrumented during the endo as long as there is no pain. And if you end up being treated in an insurance mill, you can bet that the dentist will spend less time treating you, using lower quality materials and lab, all while seeing multiple patients at once. A stressed dentist will have an awful day at work. Invariably all this will affect the procedural quality to some extent. Also, what one dentist won't treat might be a suggested procedure by another dentist. Depending on how you look at it and depending on the practice, especially if they are heavy on insurance, you can say that crap work sometimes come in and crap work sometimes go out.

I would venture to say dentists clinically make more mistakes than physicians except the latter can potentially kill patients. It is true that the threat of lawsuits against physicians are higher. Then again, people are more aware of dental malpractice nowadays than ever before. An ex-colleague of mine was sued numerously in one year alone. All the cases were dismissed because the plaintiffs had no merit but his liability premium skyrocketed to 25k/yr. ( is this really fair? )Another ex-colleague injured the IAN during an exo and settled the case. I don't know the settlement amt or how much he now pays for insurance. Someone else I know was sued in a small claims court but, because the plaintiff couldn't find a lawyer to take the case, this was also dismissed. Luckily for this dentist, his NPIB data wasn't adversely affected because this unsuccessful lawsuit didn't go his malpractice carrier. I'm not trying to scare anyone, as there are countless dentists who never have been served by a legal courier even once. I'm just to trying to make the point that dental malpractice cases, which may not be common, aren't considered rare either. Luck also plays a big part in this. So none of you should go making a big deal of how dentists are less likely to get sued.

I'm not persuading or discouraging anyone from being a dentist. It has its pros and cons like everything else. I'm posting because a lot of comments here are naive and do not pertain to the original question in a helpful way. The other disclaimer is that this is from the perspective of a general dentist who worked mostly in insurance-run offices that have few FFS patients. I don't know what it's like to be a general dentist at a high end office that only takes cash patients but these clinics are few in numbers. And I don't know how the specialists are faring but I do refer out routinely for ortho. I never referred a single patient out for pros and perio. I probably refer out 4 patients/yr to endo and I only refer out impactions to OS. It'll be nice if we can get some feedback from either a specialist or a GP working for a high-end office because I think they have it easier.
 
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Strippers are more impressed with you when you say you are a doctor vs. a dentist.
 
Even now for me, a cavity prep that took me forever to do and took up all of my concentration a few weeks ago, I can do in my sleep now

I'm calling you out on this, meet me up at the sim clinic at 4pm tomorrow, I'll bring my 1st year typodont and head, you bring the ambien... haha
 
Classic reaction from someone who "self-diagnosed" on the internet, went to a specialist with 10 years of training, was told there was nothing seriously wrong, then got mad because he received an "expensive" workup. What you are paying for is that 10 years of training plus countless hours in the trenches learning how to find and treat people who are actually sick. Just because you don't like the way the process works doesn't make you smarter than the physician.

And I'm absolutely sure being a dentist is rife with stresses. They are just different kinds of stresses than physicians face (no better, no worse). We choose our careers carefully and try to go in with our eyes wide open. Some of us believe we can handle the stresses of running a dental practice, or working with difficult patients, or taking call on a surgery/trauma service where people's lives depend on our making the right call and taking the correct action.

Apparently some of us cannot.
 
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