forthekiddies
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2023
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
Last edited:
Which specialty should I pursue, pedo or ortho?
- Thread starter forthekiddies
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2013
- Messages
- 286
- Reaction score
- 281
Pedo Pros/Cons
Pro: you are essentially the core player in the referral chain for ortho and oral surgery. Kids grow up, they need braces so you refer to the orthodontist. They get done with braces and need their wisdom teeth out, you refer them to the oral surgeon. Don't need to schmooze for referrals. You can have a wide ranging scope of practice (frenectomies, oral conscious sedation, general anesthesia, etc). You can have a balance of check-ups and actual hands on operative. The restorative work is not clinically challenging (class II fillings, sscs, extractions); no implants, wisdom teeth extraction, not a ton of adult dentistry (unless you choose to). Most of the time you can start up a practice and be pretty busy from the get go.
Cons: parents can be difficult, burnout for pediatric dentists are common, behavior management day in and day out can be exhausting. Some providers realize they don't like sedating children or doing heavy restorative work while the child is under general anesthesia. Sometimes it feels like you are married to the speciality (I.e. it's the weekend #8 is avulsed so you need to go in and splint the tooth, kid wakes up with a swollen face from an infected tooth).
Sounds like you are pretty flexible with where you are at (low debt, single and can move freely). I suggest shadowing various practices in pedo and ortho. I would shadow a range of younger to older providers to get different perspectives. The closer they are to our age (1-10 years out), the better they can relate. Another point is your work style personality (I.e if you don't like blood, don't do OS); sometimes this is hard to figure out until you have been practicing a bit. I had a few friends who did adult dentistry for a little bit, realized they liked working with kids more so they went back for peds.
Pro: you are essentially the core player in the referral chain for ortho and oral surgery. Kids grow up, they need braces so you refer to the orthodontist. They get done with braces and need their wisdom teeth out, you refer them to the oral surgeon. Don't need to schmooze for referrals. You can have a wide ranging scope of practice (frenectomies, oral conscious sedation, general anesthesia, etc). You can have a balance of check-ups and actual hands on operative. The restorative work is not clinically challenging (class II fillings, sscs, extractions); no implants, wisdom teeth extraction, not a ton of adult dentistry (unless you choose to). Most of the time you can start up a practice and be pretty busy from the get go.
Cons: parents can be difficult, burnout for pediatric dentists are common, behavior management day in and day out can be exhausting. Some providers realize they don't like sedating children or doing heavy restorative work while the child is under general anesthesia. Sometimes it feels like you are married to the speciality (I.e. it's the weekend #8 is avulsed so you need to go in and splint the tooth, kid wakes up with a swollen face from an infected tooth).
Sounds like you are pretty flexible with where you are at (low debt, single and can move freely). I suggest shadowing various practices in pedo and ortho. I would shadow a range of younger to older providers to get different perspectives. The closer they are to our age (1-10 years out), the better they can relate. Another point is your work style personality (I.e if you don't like blood, don't do OS); sometimes this is hard to figure out until you have been practicing a bit. I had a few friends who did adult dentistry for a little bit, realized they liked working with kids more so they went back for peds.
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2011
- Messages
- 582
- Reaction score
- 668
Between the 2, IF you can get into Ortho I would take that over pedo all day long given your debt load.
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2002
- Messages
- 3,044
- Reaction score
- 371
I don’t like dealing with kids younger than 7. Pedo is mostly that.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2015
- Messages
- 2,636
- Reaction score
- 2,462
Ortho >>>>> peds
do you actually want to do fillings? need I say more
do you actually want to do fillings? need I say more
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2018
- Messages
- 326
- Reaction score
- 533
What drives your interest in these specialties? After your GPR you could probably get into a practice that sees a lot of kids and does Invisalign. There are lots of practices like that, especially if your open to taking state insurance for kids.
