So why does everyone here want to pursue a career in dentistry?
why dentistry?
- Thread starter r0entgen
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r0entgen said:
i dunno.. so i could look like this guy
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Welcome to SDN! This is a wonderful question. My reasons are:
1. Lifestyle fits well with family life
2. Money (avg income $150,000)
3. Serving people
4. Relieving pain
5. business owner
6. no weekends or holidays
7. Not dealing with life and death treatments (MD's can kill people, not many are killed by their dentist. I work in a hospital and see people die all the time. I don't want to work in an environment like that for the rest of my life.)
8. Average work week for active dentists is 35 hours/wk.
9. No residency
10. variety of cases
11. independence (no medical director hanging over your shoulder)
12. if I don't like my co-workers...I can just fire them cause I'm the BOSS
1. Lifestyle fits well with family life
2. Money (avg income $150,000)
3. Serving people
4. Relieving pain
5. business owner
6. no weekends or holidays
7. Not dealing with life and death treatments (MD's can kill people, not many are killed by their dentist. I work in a hospital and see people die all the time. I don't want to work in an environment like that for the rest of my life.)
8. Average work week for active dentists is 35 hours/wk.
9. No residency
10. variety of cases
11. independence (no medical director hanging over your shoulder)
12. if I don't like my co-workers...I can just fire them cause I'm the BOSS
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It took me 4 times to get into med school which i subsequently failed out of so i decided to pursue a tract in dentistry. Someone told me it's 2 years long, but at least it's only on the weekends, right?
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Pikeyman said:
You are sounding a little judgemental Pikey...chill bro.
When I was still exploring dentistry, I really appreciated hearing other people here on SDN give their reasons for being interested in it. Frankly they thought of things that I never did. It has only added to my desire to pursue dentistry through education, not just stealing ideas to put in an essay.
I think everyone here on SDN is trolling for info and ideas that they haven't come up with independently. That is the point of a forum like this isn't it. Sharing ideas?
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Med school dropouts have been trying out dental school for YEARS- these are two entirely different disciplines.
Good example of why I want to be a dentist:
I had a middle-aged ady come in Tuesday for an extraction and she was extremely nervous. We had her flagged for nitrous so I knew she was a tough case from the beginning. Her hands went numb, she was crying... It took her 45 min to get a full block going. I finally got her to calm down- it was just a basic atraumatic extraction. After we were done, she turned to me and said, "I never used to be afraid of dentists until my last one dropped something down in my mouth during RCT (obviously he didn't have a rubber dam on her). You really helped, thank you so much." Its the difference between that and "AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! Dat urts ike ell!!"
The best aspect of this job is earning the trust of your patients and making their wishes a reality. Having your patients praise you is very gratifying and knowing that you helped them is even more fulfilling. Working with your hands and being able to say you made something with your bare hands is an added bonus. The lifestyle that comes with.... should be an afterthought. People who think of that first make lousy dentists. If you love what you do, the money will come naturally. Besides, a devoted dentist is the one who wakes up at 1:00 am and does RCT on a procrastinating patient who just can't make it through the night on just Vicodin or coming in on a Sunday on a snowy afternoon after your patient falls in an icey parking lot and splits her anterior bridge in half. I just absolutely love dentistry... and can't say it enough!
Good example of why I want to be a dentist:
I had a middle-aged ady come in Tuesday for an extraction and she was extremely nervous. We had her flagged for nitrous so I knew she was a tough case from the beginning. Her hands went numb, she was crying... It took her 45 min to get a full block going. I finally got her to calm down- it was just a basic atraumatic extraction. After we were done, she turned to me and said, "I never used to be afraid of dentists until my last one dropped something down in my mouth during RCT (obviously he didn't have a rubber dam on her). You really helped, thank you so much." Its the difference between that and "AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! Dat urts ike ell!!"
The best aspect of this job is earning the trust of your patients and making their wishes a reality. Having your patients praise you is very gratifying and knowing that you helped them is even more fulfilling. Working with your hands and being able to say you made something with your bare hands is an added bonus. The lifestyle that comes with.... should be an afterthought. People who think of that first make lousy dentists. If you love what you do, the money will come naturally. Besides, a devoted dentist is the one who wakes up at 1:00 am and does RCT on a procrastinating patient who just can't make it through the night on just Vicodin or coming in on a Sunday on a snowy afternoon after your patient falls in an icey parking lot and splits her anterior bridge in half. I just absolutely love dentistry... and can't say it enough!
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I don't have a problem with sharing my reasons:
I've been helping take care of people since I was 16. I started as a junior volunteer on the fire department in my hometown, worked my way up from first responder to EMT to Intermediate EMT. I went in the military and became a respiratory therapist and echocardiographer. I've seen a lot of people survive because of the skills of my coworkers and the skills I myself possess.
But to everything there is a dark side, and medicine is not exempt from this. For every person we save, there are some we can't. I'm 24 years old, and off the top of my head I would guess I have seen somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 people die. That's about 4 times the population of my hometown to put in sharp perspective. There are times where I feel as though I am 10 years older than I am in a chronological sense. The long hours and stress have taken their toll on my family and me, I've ruined a good number of relationships because of the idiosyncracies one develops as a result of this work.
I've seen people die in nearly every way imaginable: I've heard the screams of a man burning alive in a car because we couldn't get him out quick enough; I've watched countless people die from drowning in their own fluids because of failing hearts and kidneys, I've watched cancer patients cry blood because they don't have enough platelets to stop the bleeding. I've seen them die in fields and on highways, in ICU's and in mansions and in tar paper shacks. I've seen children face death with great dignity and I've seen grown men cry like babies. Lives ended in the middle of the night or on the brightest of afternoons. Friends, colleagues, and family.....there was nothing we could do to save them. In ones and twos, sometimes more, but not as often, they left this world. I worked the wreck that killed my three best friends. If I hadn't stayed at work to cover for another friend of mine who was running late, I would be dead too because I was supposed to be in the truck with my friends who died. EMS saved my life you might say, but then again the stress damn near killed me.
Emergency medicine, for all the reasons above and many more, takes a toll on people, it's been said the average career of an EMT is about 4 years. I've made it 8. I still do EMS as an avocation, but I've seen too many people die to want to do it as a career ever again. I thought about becoming a physician, but I realized that all I would be doing is limiting the suffering I see into a permanently indoor setting. The fire I once felt for medicine was gone, extinguished like so many of the lives I had seen end before me, despite my best efforts. I began to think of a career in academia, away from the blood, the vomit, and the sundry other bodily fluids I had become so familiar with.
Then I went into to have my teeth worked on by one of the local dentists. I was talking to him and he asked if I was still planning on becoming a doctor (I had treated his child as a respiratory therapist and he knew of my prior ambitions). I told him, no I was not. He seemed disappointed and he asked why. I gave him the same reasons you have just read over, to which he stated, "Have you ever thought about dentistry? You seem to be very talented at taking care of people". He went on to say that he'd been a dentist about 10 years and had never seen anyone die. The hours were stable, the pay is decent, the work is steady and the schooling is challenging, as is the practice of dentistry.
The more I looked into it, the more I became convinced I should become a dentist. The hours would give me the time to pursue hobbies and spend time with my kid (I'll become a dad for the first time in September of this year) and my soon-to-be wife who I adore. But most of all, I think it's a good fit because I get to take care of people and none of them will die on me (hopefully), and I won't be required to stand idly by and watch people suffer. Treating patients and helping them lead better lives is something I enjoy doing more than anything else on this planet. If all the death, destruction and torment I have played witness to have taught me anything that it is this: nothing can put an end to my drive to help people.
I grew up without the benefit of proper dental care- my parents didn't see the value in preventing problems, only trying to fix them and only then when things got really bad. I'm still trying to get all the problems fixed that I have. If I can become a dentist, my goal is that no kid will have to go through what I went through as a child. I run into burning buildings now for no pay, so what could stop me from doing pro bono dental care? Those who can pay, will. Those who can't, well they can be taken care of by those who can.
OK....it's 2 am and I'm rambling.....I'll end this now before it gets too confusing.....
I've been helping take care of people since I was 16. I started as a junior volunteer on the fire department in my hometown, worked my way up from first responder to EMT to Intermediate EMT. I went in the military and became a respiratory therapist and echocardiographer. I've seen a lot of people survive because of the skills of my coworkers and the skills I myself possess.
But to everything there is a dark side, and medicine is not exempt from this. For every person we save, there are some we can't. I'm 24 years old, and off the top of my head I would guess I have seen somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 people die. That's about 4 times the population of my hometown to put in sharp perspective. There are times where I feel as though I am 10 years older than I am in a chronological sense. The long hours and stress have taken their toll on my family and me, I've ruined a good number of relationships because of the idiosyncracies one develops as a result of this work.
I've seen people die in nearly every way imaginable: I've heard the screams of a man burning alive in a car because we couldn't get him out quick enough; I've watched countless people die from drowning in their own fluids because of failing hearts and kidneys, I've watched cancer patients cry blood because they don't have enough platelets to stop the bleeding. I've seen them die in fields and on highways, in ICU's and in mansions and in tar paper shacks. I've seen children face death with great dignity and I've seen grown men cry like babies. Lives ended in the middle of the night or on the brightest of afternoons. Friends, colleagues, and family.....there was nothing we could do to save them. In ones and twos, sometimes more, but not as often, they left this world. I worked the wreck that killed my three best friends. If I hadn't stayed at work to cover for another friend of mine who was running late, I would be dead too because I was supposed to be in the truck with my friends who died. EMS saved my life you might say, but then again the stress damn near killed me.
Emergency medicine, for all the reasons above and many more, takes a toll on people, it's been said the average career of an EMT is about 4 years. I've made it 8. I still do EMS as an avocation, but I've seen too many people die to want to do it as a career ever again. I thought about becoming a physician, but I realized that all I would be doing is limiting the suffering I see into a permanently indoor setting. The fire I once felt for medicine was gone, extinguished like so many of the lives I had seen end before me, despite my best efforts. I began to think of a career in academia, away from the blood, the vomit, and the sundry other bodily fluids I had become so familiar with.
Then I went into to have my teeth worked on by one of the local dentists. I was talking to him and he asked if I was still planning on becoming a doctor (I had treated his child as a respiratory therapist and he knew of my prior ambitions). I told him, no I was not. He seemed disappointed and he asked why. I gave him the same reasons you have just read over, to which he stated, "Have you ever thought about dentistry? You seem to be very talented at taking care of people". He went on to say that he'd been a dentist about 10 years and had never seen anyone die. The hours were stable, the pay is decent, the work is steady and the schooling is challenging, as is the practice of dentistry.
The more I looked into it, the more I became convinced I should become a dentist. The hours would give me the time to pursue hobbies and spend time with my kid (I'll become a dad for the first time in September of this year) and my soon-to-be wife who I adore. But most of all, I think it's a good fit because I get to take care of people and none of them will die on me (hopefully), and I won't be required to stand idly by and watch people suffer. Treating patients and helping them lead better lives is something I enjoy doing more than anything else on this planet. If all the death, destruction and torment I have played witness to have taught me anything that it is this: nothing can put an end to my drive to help people.
I grew up without the benefit of proper dental care- my parents didn't see the value in preventing problems, only trying to fix them and only then when things got really bad. I'm still trying to get all the problems fixed that I have. If I can become a dentist, my goal is that no kid will have to go through what I went through as a child. I run into burning buildings now for no pay, so what could stop me from doing pro bono dental care? Those who can pay, will. Those who can't, well they can be taken care of by those who can.
OK....it's 2 am and I'm rambling.....I'll end this now before it gets too confusing.....
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IcemanDDS said:
Man, no one gets my sarcasm. I guess it's hard online. I graduated from Ole Miss may of 2004, and now I'm a D1 at UT-Memphis and will graduate May 2008. I thought the stats part was a little ridiculous. And it would have been pretty damn difficult to have applied to med school that many times considering I'm 22
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Sacrasm is cool, as long as its very apparent and not used all the time. So, your stats are made up too or what??CJWolf said:Man, no one gets my sarcasm. I guess it's hard online. I graduated from Ole Miss may of 2004, and now I'm a D1 at UT-Memphis and will graduate May 2008. I thought the stats part was a little ridiculous. And it would have been pretty damn difficult to have applied to med school that many times considering I'm 22
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IcemanDDS said:
Now that's really funny. I tried to put the most ridiculous stats possible, and the highest schools to apply to, and people thought I was serious.
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Ok that's cool then. You have no idea how much I laughed at those stats, thinking "my God this kid is a *****." I wanted to say something but I dont like shattering fragile hopes 😀 Now that I know, HAHA! Just take it easy on the sarcasm, eh?CJWolf said:
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CJWolf said:
dont listen to them.....your sarcasm is funny as hell and breaks the seriousness of this forum....keep it up...ppl who dont get them can..well...just not get them and take them as facts...but KEEP 'EM COMIN!
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CJWolf said:Man, no one gets my sarcasm. I guess it's hard online. I graduated from Ole Miss may of 2004, and now I'm a D1 at UT-Memphis and will graduate May 2008. I thought the stats part was a little ridiculous. And it would have been pretty damn difficult to have applied to med school that many times considering I'm 22
hey cjwolf,
i got your sarcasm!!! 😉 I liked it, it was cute.
