I'd like to hear some reasons of why you chose to pursue dentistry. I'm on the fence with med and dental but the dental lifestyle is more appealing and I don't want to go into medicine if I am not 110% devoted to it.
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Why dentistry?
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Me & dentistry... Definitely a hate at first sight. Ive gotten a lot of dental treatments and I hated going to my dentist. I also moved around a lot so my dental records were all over the place.
My mom suggested dentistry. I immediately rejected it cause I wanted to be a neuro person. (Pitts has a great neuro program btw seeing from your username) anyway, I shadowed a dentist and a neurosurgeon. Even though I had rejected dentistry, I thought it would've been ****ty of me to let it go without knowing anything about it.
Now I'm here... Interviewing for dental schools. To put it simply, dentistry provides the freedom, finance and family(when I decide to start one..) not only that, it's a field that fulfils the three things that I strive to develop over life time... Creativity, communication and curiosity. The detailed hand work is pretty unique to dentistry, the continuing education, the patient interaction.
Everyone got teeth. Not everyone's gonna have a neurological condition. It's pretty universal. Almost every single dentists I talked to would go down this path again but I get way more hesitation and varied answers from doctors.
Initially I was repulsed by the concept of staring at ones mouth but my perspective has shifted. Now the teeth are like little statues that represent something about the person. (I come from an arts background)
Best of luck! PM me if you want more info
My mom suggested dentistry. I immediately rejected it cause I wanted to be a neuro person. (Pitts has a great neuro program btw seeing from your username) anyway, I shadowed a dentist and a neurosurgeon. Even though I had rejected dentistry, I thought it would've been ****ty of me to let it go without knowing anything about it.
Now I'm here... Interviewing for dental schools. To put it simply, dentistry provides the freedom, finance and family(when I decide to start one..) not only that, it's a field that fulfils the three things that I strive to develop over life time... Creativity, communication and curiosity. The detailed hand work is pretty unique to dentistry, the continuing education, the patient interaction.
Everyone got teeth. Not everyone's gonna have a neurological condition. It's pretty universal. Almost every single dentists I talked to would go down this path again but I get way more hesitation and varied answers from doctors.
Initially I was repulsed by the concept of staring at ones mouth but my perspective has shifted. Now the teeth are like little statues that represent something about the person. (I come from an arts background)
Best of luck! PM me if you want more info
Lifestyle for sure, very handsy, have the opportunity to build patient-doc relationship, etc
I think it'd be pretty rewarding to give someone pretty teeth or the ability to chew again. When someone new is first speaking to you, what's the first thing you look at (or at least one of the first)?
I think it'd be pretty rewarding to give someone pretty teeth or the ability to chew again. When someone new is first speaking to you, what's the first thing you look at (or at least one of the first)?
Thanks for your responses, great input. I'll definitely try to shadow both. My personal dentist is a Pitt alum so I would love to shadow him and get to know more
Great idea, shadow as much as possible in any field you are remotely interested in. This is the only way to get a good feel for your potential future career. Also, try to shadow different types of people in different types of settings.
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I prefer quick results than long treatments, I feel motivated to be the best, it's more fun than reading some patient labs results and prescribing some pill , great pay, great lifestyle when you're established and NO STUPID PRE-MEDS.
In addition to what everyone said. I really like the fact that you can see the results of your treatment almost instantly. I enjoy the instant gratification aspect that comes with most dental procedures ^_^
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👍 to a lot of the reasons above.
obviously there is some overlap here with dentistry and medicine, but here are some of mine:
- lifelong pt relationships and constant human interaction while performing a necessay human service
- very hands on profession often with quick, tangible results
- I like to teach and explain, so pt education is appealing
- scientific field with frequent advancements and opporutnity for lifelong learning
- cutting edge technology and opportunity to embrace what technology you see useful, pass on things you don't
- opportunity to own and operate a business
- and of course, killer hours and pay that is conducive to being a family man
But like others have mentioned, get out and shadow some docs. You'll know fairly quickly whether or not this is for you.
obviously there is some overlap here with dentistry and medicine, but here are some of mine:
- lifelong pt relationships and constant human interaction while performing a necessay human service
- very hands on profession often with quick, tangible results
- I like to teach and explain, so pt education is appealing
- scientific field with frequent advancements and opporutnity for lifelong learning
- cutting edge technology and opportunity to embrace what technology you see useful, pass on things you don't
- opportunity to own and operate a business
- and of course, killer hours and pay that is conducive to being a family man
But like others have mentioned, get out and shadow some docs. You'll know fairly quickly whether or not this is for you.
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Uhm, I work in an office and a lot of patients take pre-meds
I was not referring to pre-meds as patients.
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I don't think you're speaking the same language. 🤣
One of you is talking about students on a pre-medical track and the other is talking about patients who take pre-medication for visits to the dentist.
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yup. it's called hiring support staff.
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for the pre-dent... the most lucrative thing about dentistry is the life-style vs compensation. Many dentists work in the 40 hour range and still manage to make 100-150k a year (and we are talking early graduates whom don't partner up or own practices).
but the true art and science of dentistry is something you'll never enjoy/appreciate until you start dental school and start learning its principles, techniques, procedures, diagnosis, treatment planning... thats the REAL fun part about it. I come from an engineering background and never knew how interesting dentistry is until I started seeing and treating patients. I describe it as micro engineering.
Elaborate.
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don't worry about it. as a 'pre-omfs' you're golden.
When little kids like the dentist/taking care of their teeth because of you. You did the damn thing, you made them like the dentist, you saved a mouthful of future teeth. Kanye-Power.mp3
Also meeting a wide variety of people and getting to know them. I love talking to strangers.
Also meeting a wide variety of people and getting to know them. I love talking to strangers.
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I was a pre-medical student that landed a job as a dental assistant by luck. At that time, I never considered dentistry as a career. But as I progressed at my new position, I saw the wonders of dentistry. There are many aspects of a dentist that surpass a doctor's. The two greatest aspects of dentistry are the doctor-patient relationship and that it is very hands on. To me, there is one other aspect: dentistry is fun and exciting! There are no dull moments. But the absolute greatest part about dentistry is the instant treatment, the opportunity to treat your patients' problems, show instant results and put a smile on their faces.
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I would not pick a career just because of the lifestyle it affords.
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Treatment in dental school is SLOW. At least at Baylor as a D3 it is. Consults in every department involved, working without an assistant, before you pickup your hand skills you're only doing 1 filling per appointment. Perio treatment, evaluation 6 weeks later before you can continue with the operative/fixes treatment. 2 handed dentistry is SLOW.
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bruh, i dunno how but make sure you like doing dentistry...it can get real boring real quick. sometimes your mind can't help but get numb during procedures. try making a really detailed, meticulous, time consuming art project and tell me how you feel after working on it for a couple hours. not a creative art project but a copy of someone else's detailed, meticulous, time consuming art project. that's what dentistry's like to me right now...i haven't even been to clinics tho...think about it, a large % (in hours) of your life, your mind will be imagining about millimeter dimensions of teeth...is that appealing to you?
otherwise go into medicine cuz i think its more interesting and gives you a chance to figure out if you like handy work or not. if you like blue collar type work you could go into ent, gen surgery, whatever but if it turns out you hate blue collar type work and just want to think and order nurses all day, you won't be screwed either. you could still go into internal medicine or whatever...options are good and if you find out dentistry blows while in dental school, you have no choice but to suck it up for the rest of your life or drop out and trust me, people do drop out
who's telling you guys that dentistry is instant treatment??? fixed pros., implants, and basically all of invasive dentistry takes months of follow up and up keep...and if they fail, well the patient expects you to fix it for free...unlike in medicine where patients are okay with replacing a misplaced hip at full expense. it's a weird world...
For real, pick a career you enjoy doing!!! Not f**king around. when i was in high school and college, older working people would tell me the same advice and in my head, I was thinking "f**k you old man, i need to pay the bills and make it rain. job ain't supposed to be fun." i was an idiot and probably still am but you definitely should choose the job you'd be genuinely happy at. not many people have the intellect or work ethic to be able to "choose" a satisfying career. a lot of them are stuck at their job because one, it pays the bills, and two, they have no other choice. You, on the other hand, have a choice. gud luck
some dentists work 4 days a week not because they want a 3 day weekend but because they're that tired. dentistry is hard work man. you're bending over people. straining your eyes. taking bs from all directions...all while running a business
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how long does it take for a patient to fully recover from corrective jaw surgery? what if they have orthognathic + orthodontics, how much longer then? pretty darn long if you ask me
Most of bread and butter dentistry takes one visit, pretty immediate there. Dentistry relies on mostly surgical interventions, which compared to medically treating chronic diseases is much more instantly gratifying comparatively speaking.
When physicians screw up they get sued. We have the opportunity to fix our mistakes usually, which is a better deal than many physicians get. (yes, I know dentists get sued too)
Most any job becomes pretty repetitive, especially in health care. The more repetition, the less room for mistakes due to experience and less surprises. How many cataract surgeries does an ophthalmologist perform in a lifetime? How many times does a FM doc prescribe antibiotics for a UTI? How many appendectomies does a GS perform? I am sure these procedures eventually become pretty boring too...
Dentistry is physically demanding, totally agree, but there are techniques and technologies to help save your back these days.
When physicians screw up they get sued. We have the opportunity to fix our mistakes usually, which is a better deal than many physicians get. (yes, I know dentists get sued too)
Most any job becomes pretty repetitive, especially in health care. The more repetition, the less room for mistakes due to experience and less surprises. How many cataract surgeries does an ophthalmologist perform in a lifetime? How many times does a FM doc prescribe antibiotics for a UTI? How many appendectomies does a GS perform? I am sure these procedures eventually become pretty boring too...
Dentistry is physically demanding, totally agree, but there are techniques and technologies to help save your back these days.
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you be dr. jekyll and i'll be mr hyde
