Originally posted by logistical99
But you do know that dentistry is associated more with being a business. Remember that most patients could afford to hold off on dental treatments for a while and have a large selection of dentists. The business aspect of dentistry is what makes it a more risky endeavor.
Also, doctors are more readily employable because medicine is overwhelmingly associated with groups and HMOs, where doctors secure a six digit salary. New dentists do not find jobs as easily as doctors and places like NYC and LA ( if dentists can't make it here, then maybe dentistry isn't really all that affluent ) are notorious for having full dentists that net around 40k - 75k per year along with failed dental clinics. It doesn't stop with employment; it even goes beyond. As an employed dentist, you are likely to have to report to the senior dentist that owns the clinic. The same type of anxiety and pressure doesn't exist for doctors in the sense that they work for an HMO corporation, not controlled by a "boss" but a group of executives instead of some office that is owned by one person. Some of you young ones won't know the difference but, believe me, the feeling at work is reallly different between the two.
logistical, so you've chosen dentistry as your career b/c you can't do medicine due to your health. That's fine, everyone has their reasons for coming to dentistry. But if you are going to continually point out why medicine is much more stable and secure than dentistry, you are going to have a tough time making it through dental school. Since you're joining dentistry, maybe you should research some facts about why dentistry is not all about "business" and how dentists also have "readily employable" positions available like physicians. That way you can sound knowledgable about dentistry and not come off as "I really wanted med school but had to settle for dental."
Here are some places for you to start. Academic dentistry has hundreds of positions available. Know why? Because recent grads can make way more money in private practice that academics. But if you want stability, work in a dental school. You teach 2 - 4 days and see your own patients 1 - 3 days per week. You are your own boss when it comes to managing your patients, but you don't have to deal with a lot of overhead because you practice in the Dental School's Faculty Practice.
Also, there are dental corporations all over the country that hire dentists. Two names I know of: Aspen Dental, Monarch Dental. There are more of them - these are the "chain" dental offices. If you really want to work for a corporation and not just one boss, then work for these places because that's exactly what they are.
Or you can go work for the Indian Health Service. There are definitely tons of underserved areas they can send you to where you will be the ONLY dentist for miles. No reporting to anyone - you do tons of operative, extractions, and pedo because that's what they need. The IHS will give you a pretty good salary and tons of benefits you don't get in private practice. You don't have to worry about business and convincing people to get implants or bleaching because there is a true need for basic dental care in those populations.
So our medical colleagues don't have the "anxiety and pressure" of reporting to the senior dentist in the clinic, but what about reporting to the senior MBA executives of the HMO? The HMOs have a very strict set of rules of what you can and can't do - what procedures, lab tests, even which prescriptions you can and can't write! The closest thing to an HMO I've had to encounter is when I get a Medicaid patient. Medicaid in NY state covers a lot, but it is tough to come up with treatment plans for them because Medicaid will not always cover the most efficient treatment for the patient. I'm not talking about doing implants and 8 unit bridges, but things like if a 19 year old has an infected molar and is in pain - all Medicaid will let you do is extract the tooth, the end. They can't get a root canal - because root canals are only covered for anterior teeth, not posteriors. Crowns are only covered if you are making a partial denture. Partial dentures are only covered if the patient has a certain number of teeth left that touch. For example, a patient comes in and is missing a bunch of teeth all over her mouth. But she doesn't qualify for a Medicaid partial denture because her teeth touch in five places when she bites down. She can only have them touch in four places if Medicaid will pay for the partial. What can we do for her? Either send her home without a partial, or extract a perfectly healthy tooth so her teeth touch in only four places now and make her the partial. I can go on about the NY Medicaid rules, I can't imagine that HMO rules for our medical colleagues give them plenty of freedom to keep them from "anxiety and pressure."
I'm not trying to say that dental job choices are better than medicine. My point is that as a dentist, I don't really care too much about the job market for physicians and if they really have more security than dentists. And if you keep obssesing over why they might have it better than us, you will find it very difficult to get through dental school.
