Why Dental?

[Paulz]

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I am currently a pre-health/pre-med, but never really thought of life as a dentist or anything all involved with the mouth. What inspired you people to go dentistry?

 

[rkamsterdam]

nm

 

[SugarNaCl]

I am currently a pre-health/pre-med, but never really thought of life as a dentist or anything all involved with the mouth. What inspired you people to go dentistry?

For some reason I have always had a plaque fettish... er ehm...sorry, biofilm fettish.

 

[jigabodo]

1. Better working hours.
2. There is a growing need for dentists. Aprox. 6,000 retire each year and only 4,500 new grads come in the field.
3. Being able to be your own boss.
4. Nice pay.

There is much more, but I am too lazy to type it all out right now.

 

[Danny0230]

1. Better working hours.
2. There is a growing need for dentists. Aprox. 6,000 retire each year and only 4,500 new grads come in the field.
3. Being able to be your own boss.
4. Nice pay.

There is much more, but I am too lazy to type it all out right now.

agree on 1-4, also essentially no emergency calls, short/no residency, own your own business, hire your own staff, great career for family life, more

 

[TheWiredNerv]

So I can buy an awesome tv set up and play some sick games on it.

 

[jigabodo]

agree on 1-4, also essentially no emergency calls, short/no residency, own your own business, hire your own staff, great career for family life, more

The residency part is very true.

Consider a traditional predent who would go straight into dental school after he graduates college. He would enter dental school at the age of 22, and graduate by the time he is 26. Most likely by this time, he can start working already and begin to earn respectable wages.

Now, consider a traditional premed who goes straight into med school after college. He would enter at the age of 22, and graduate by the time he is 26. THEN, he HAS to go through 1 year of internship, followed by 3 years of residency. This would make him 30 already. If he then decided to do a fellowship, it might take even longer.

So essentially, you will spend at least 4 extra year if you decide to go premed. 4 years might not sound like a lot to some people. But if you take out loans to pay for dental/medical school, your debt would just compound like crazy during those 4 years and you will not be able to do anything about it.

 

[armorshell]

I'll go ahead and add on some of the non-financial, non-perks reasons why dentistry is interesting. In primary care dentistry, you're basically performing hard tissue surgical procedures on a daily basis, as opposed to our medical primary care colleagues who will spend most of their time behind a clipboard. Having day to day activites that require dexterity and finesse are a huge part of why people apply to dental school as well, including with it the creative aspect of dentistry.

Other than that, many people have similar reason to pursue dentistry as those who pursue allopathic medicine. We have people interested in general dentistry who want to see to their patients care throughout their lifetimes, and take care of their comprehensive oral health care, and we have people who are pursuing specialized fields of dentistry to open themselves up to more complex and interesting care within those fields.

 

[jigabodo]

I'll go ahead and add on some of the non-financial, non-perks reasons why dentistry is interesting. In primary care dentistry, you're basically performing hard tissue surgical procedures on a daily basis, as opposed to our medical primary care colleagues who will spend most of their time behind a clipboard. Having day to day activites that require dexterity and finesse are a huge part of why people apply to dental school as well, including with it the creative aspect of dentistry.

Other than that, many people have similar reason to pursue dentistry as those who pursue allopathic medicine. We have people interested in general dentistry who want to see to their patients care throughout their lifetimes, and take care of their comprehensive oral health care, and we have people who are pursuing specialized fields of dentistry to open themselves up to more complex and interesting care within those fields.

Great post. 👍

 

[oldschool99]

Satisfaction of administering definitive care is my #1. I have also had the opportunity/training to give local blocks and extract teeth. I loved the challenge of extracting teeth (even though it is not that difficult) and I'm looking forward to everything else that encompasses dentistry.

 

[ChrisM07]

1. The amount of creativity that can go into dentistry is something that caused me to be interested.
2. I dont really want to work for anyone but myself.
3. The hours (approx 35 hrs a week compared to 70+ with medicine)
4. I guess the pay is also a perk 🙄

 

[armorshell]

Satisfaction of administering definitive care is my #1. I have also had the opportunity/training to give local blocks and extract teeth. I loved the challenge of extracting teeth (even though it is not that difficult) and I'm looking forward to everything else that encompasses dentistry.

I sould have tied this in with my other post. There's a huge difference to many people between taking care of all of someone's problems in a single appointment, and managing chronic conditions. You see both of those situations in each field, but I believe it's much more day-to-day in dentistry.

 

[ThePreDentLife]

I think all the points have been covered,

What got my into dentistry was when I got braces in high school. All the amazing appliances and technologies they use to straighten out your teeth was really cool for me.

I really liked how dentistry was a really hands on job, after liking these reasons, great other reasons came along like amazing hours, be your own boss, moneys good, etc...

 

[Paulz]

Thank you all for your feedback!

I have one more question about the whole process. After college, do you go to dentist school? What are the requirements/how competitive is it to get in?

 

[DSpagnoli]

Thank you all for your feedback!

I have one more question about the whole process. After college, do you go to dentist school? What are the requirements/how competitive is it to get in?

Yes, you apply to go to Dental School which is 4 years long, after 4 years of undergrad. After that, you can choose to be a general clinician or specialize. The requirements in simple basic terms are:

-make extremely good grades in all required science and pre-req courses (try to maintain above a 3.5), do copious amounts of volunteer/community service work, get a lot of dental shadowing/clinic experience, research, score well on the DAT, apply early, 4 letters of recommendation, personal statement, interview, hope for the best.

Currently, dental school is becoming extremely competetive. It is not uncommon for kids with amazing stats to be applying for a 2nd or even 3rd time. The numbers say it all: 2000-4000+ applicants for roughly 90 seats. The problem is that a lot of these kids are well qualified.

 

[oldschool99]

I completely agree.

 

[oldschool99]

Don't half a** it. If you do, you will only spend alot of money and not reach your goal of getting into dental school. Dental school is extremely competitive and is only getting more so. You can do it if you commit yourself. Good luck.

 

[dr bojangles]

why dental? why not?

 

[Frederico Albin]

you can go to dental school after your junior year if you have all your pre-reqs and few upper level courses done, but you're going to have to go to summer school of course. Even though its really tough to get accepted after your junior year... it is possible.

 

[apollo2bd]

A little off topic but thought of it after the last post mentioned starting after junior year. At my Stony Brook interview one of the 4th year students said one of their classmates was only 19 at the start of their first year...just thought that was pretty crazy.

 

[gonzomalan]

A little off topic but thought of it after the last post mentioned starting after junior year. At my Stony Brook interview one of the 4th year students said one of their classmates was only 19 at the start of their first year...just thought that was pretty crazy.

maybe they started school early and somehow got accepted after 2 years of college. i was seventeen when i started college, not because i skipped any grades, but because my mom started me in school a little early.

in addition to all the really great reasons in the previous posts, i want to become a dentist because, if i go into private practice, i can literally afford to work less and volunteer more. my dentist, for example, works 4 days a week, and his office closes at 4:30, which beats traffic. i started thinking that i could work maybe 3 days a week and volunteer as a dentist (non-profit) maybe 1 or 2 days a week. Who knows, i may come up with something even more innovative and humanitarian later.

 

[armorshell]

A little off topic but thought of it after the last post mentioned starting after junior year. At my Stony Brook interview one of the 4th year students said one of their classmates was only 19 at the start of their first year...just thought that was pretty crazy.

One of our classmates had his 19th birthday on the last day of finals last quarter.

 

[jigabodo]

One of our classmates had his 19th birthday on the last day of finals last quarter.

Genius!?

 

[armorshell]

Genius!?

Yep, we got a bunch of Doogies at Pacific. With the 2+3 program they start D1 2 years after high school, and brainiacs that they are lots of them skipped grades anyway.

 

[qwerty86]

Are the reasons above something you would mention at the interview, if they ask why dentistry?

 

[CaliGirl15]

why dental? why not?

Thats what I was exactly what I was going to post when I read the title of this thread...why not?

 

[Lipoxygenase]

Are the reasons above something you would mention at the interview, if they ask why dentistry?

I was asking the same question but don't be naive and get wise. Obviously, certain things should be avoided saying. For instance, when they ask you why dentistry, don't tell them, "money is good," then zip your lips with a smily face. It's certainly a very difficult way of getting into a school with that response.

 

[tamkhan]

Everyone has the same reasons, more or less. It's about how you present them. Also, an important thing to keep in mind is that you shouldn't be comparing dentistry to medicine when the "why dentistry" question comes up. Obviously, if they specifically ask you why you chose this career over medicine, then it makes sense. Otherwise, just give them a general idea of why you wish to pursue it. No pre-dent is 100% sure of what dentistry is like, because none of them are dentists, yet.🙂 So, everyone will have their reasons -- there's nothing specific that the adcom is looking for.

 

[rkamsterdam]

Everyone has the same reasons, more or less. It's about how you present them.

exactly. I think pre-dents try so hard to distinguish themselves from the others by creating some super reason for pursuing dentistry.

The truth- we all desire more or less the same thing,, no one has some novel idea about dentistry.

 

[USU24]

Word. I feel like anything I might say has been said a hundred times before. Sometimes I just want to say "I just want to be a dentist, okay? Why does it matter why? Gosh!" I don't think that would go over too well though.