Why should I be a medical doctor instead of a dentist?

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Cofo

Cofo

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  1. Pre-Dental
I think you should become a teacher because you can do that career.
 
yes those are the only 2 careers in the world
 
You shouldn't become either. Just drop out and become a plumber. According to lots of people on here, they make bank...
 
You could get the first combined degree of its kind, the MD/DDS, and continue to show people how confident you are that you're great at both (despite never having been either up until the point at which you got both degrees).
 
Cofo said:
Why should I be a medical doctor instead of a dentist? I'm positive I could do either career.
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I wouldn't be a dentist because I don't want to be hunched over working in someone's pie hole. That's got to be bad on the back. On the same token I wouldn't be a surgeon because I don't want to stand for long periods focused like that. Oral biology is also not all that interesting to me.
 
Most ppl I talk to that have this 'dilemma' say theý choose MD because they can't stand teeth. Just remember you start making $$ once you graduate dental school..maybe a year later..medicine..not exactly. That usually helps solve this 'dilemma'.
 
Cofo said:
Why should I be a medical doctor instead of a dentist? I'm positive I could do either career.
Click to expand...

Assuming you're serious about this question...

Just some simple PROS about being an MD over dentistry: 1. Gives you lots more options with your career 2. On average, higher earning potential 3. Can focus on the whole body or any part of your choice

Some PROS of dentistry over MD: 1. Better lifestyle on average (work hours + stress level) 2. Shorter training period

Either way, really figure out what career you want by trying to talk to as many ppl as you can and getting as many first hand experiences. Try getting experiences in other non-healthcare fields too. Then make a choice.
 
Not you shouldn't be a doc. You should be a dentist 👍
 
DrChuck24 said:
Most ppl I talk to that have this 'dilemma' say theý choose MD because they can't stand teeth. Just remember you start making $$ once you graduate dental school..maybe a year later..medicine..not exactly. That usually helps solve this 'dilemma'.
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That's probably true if you have an honest conflict. Most SDNers are pretty certain of what they want, however.
 
Beta Cell said:
You could get the first combined degree of its kind, the MD/DDS, and continue to show people how confident you are that you're great at both (despite never having been either up until the point at which you got both degrees).
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There ya go. Get both degrees and problem solved.
 
go dental...much bettter hours and lifestyle.
 
Cofo said:
Congratulations. You're an @sshole.
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Hey, don't ask a stupid question, don't get a stupid answer. How the **** am I supposed to know what you should go into. That's like saying, "why should I eat chocolate ice cream when I can have vanilla? I'm sure I could get either one at the store."
 
I think it's a great question and I've thought of it often. I just don't think I can do the whole teeth and saliva thing, though I still haven't ruled it out. OOH, saliva sprayed through one's hair..........shudder, shudder............I could maybe do it in an astronaut suit.........something to think about?...hmmmm.........
I think Dentists might make more $, face less malpractice issues, and have a better life style.
Hey and Cofo>>I love your avatar!!
 
I don't think anyone grows up thinking they want to clean and fix other people's teeth for a living. If you don't really have a genuine enthusiasm for diagnosing and curing sick patients, and care more about having a six-figure income and good lifestyle, then you should be a dentist. Although you could have both in some of the more competitive medical specialties, like dermatology.
 
Bunny Fru Fru said:
I think it's a great question and I've thought of it often. I just don't think I can do the whole teeth and saliva thing, though I still haven't ruled it out. OOH, saliva sprayed through one's hair..........shudder, shudder............I could maybe do it in an astronaut suit.........something to think about?...hmmmm.........
I think Dentists might make more $, face less malpractice issues, and have a better life style.
Hey and Cofo>>I love your avatar!!
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It is a good question to ask oneself. It's just a crappy question to ask other ppl to answer since they have absolutely no clue who you are, what you want, and why you're asking it.

The answer is also kind of complex and very dependent on what you go into in both medicine and dentistry. Dentists may or may not make more $, they may or may not have a better life style, and who the hell knows if they have more or less malpractice insurance (also very dependent on the state you live in for physicians)
 
monomania said:
Actually, earning potential is markedly higher in dentistry than in medicine.
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Maybe I should've rephrased that.. I mean on average, you will earn more as a physician than a dentist.

Im not sure about earning potential being higher for dentist. In what way? Even as specialist, do you think a dental specialist will get reimbursed more than the highest paid medical specialist?
 
Bunny Fru Fru said:
I think it's a great question and I've thought of it often. I just don't think I can do the whole teeth and saliva thing, though I still haven't ruled it out. OOH, saliva sprayed through one's hair..........shudder, shudder............I could maybe do it in an astronaut suit.........something to think about?...hmmmm.........
I think Dentists might make more $, face less malpractice issues, and have a better life style.
Hey and Cofo>>I love your avatar!!
Click to expand...

I think you'll probably see worse things than saliva in medicine. Much worse things, much worse smells..

It's mostly a tooth/mouth thing though, for me anyways. I wouldn't want to operate inside of someone's mouth all day every day my whole life.
 
Sorry to say that, but it's usually " I can't get into med school, should I become a dentist?"

I was asking this question myself, then I figured I should rather stop playing computer games and study for my classes and MCAT.

Do what you think you will enjoy most.
 
todds said:
Maybe I should've rephrased that.. I mean on average, you will earn more as a physician than a dentist.

Im not sure about earning potential being higher for dentist. In what way? Even as specialist, do you think a dental specialist will get reimbursed more than the highest paid medical specialist?
Click to expand...

It wouldn't stretch my imagination for a high-end dentist to get paid more per hour than a high-end doctor. Just depends on the field of dentistry. I just wouldn't compare the top 1% of each since it's unlikely any of us are going to be among the top 1% paid in our field (and it is true that I don't know if a dentist can compete with the top 20 plastic surgeons in hollywood, Miami, and NYC).
 
Being a doctor opens you up to so many specialties that vary tremendously.

Derm-----------------------ER DOC

Ped------------------------GER

Psych----------------------Surgery

It all depends on what you want in a job: thrill, challenge, etc.

If you are a dentist, you would have to love staring at mouths and all that jazz.

If you really don't care what you become, then flip a coin I guess.
 
FuturaDocta said:
Being a doctor opens you up to so many specialties that vary tremendously.

Derm-----------------------ER DOC

Ped------------------------GER

Psych----------------------Surgery

It all depends on what you want in a job: thrill, challenge, etc.

If you are a dentist, you would have to love staring at mouths and all that jazz.

If you really don't care what you become, then flip a coin I guess.
Click to expand...

Some of us prefer EM Doc 🙂 Others of us roll our eyes at those of us who prefer EM Doc. Good post btw.
 
I kind of disagree about this being a useless question. Medicine and Dentistry overlap in many ways. They have similar training, at some places the dental students sit in the medical school class for the first two years/anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, etc.
Inpatient and Outpatient dentistry are vitally linked with patient care in that, for instance, patients who will be getting organ transplants, yet have a lot of dental pathology will need to have their teeth pulled first, same is true for folks with head and neck cancer who will need radiation therapy, kids and adults with facial deformities (cleft lips/palates) need dental restoration, facial trauma victims, .......just to name a few scenarios. Oh, I forgot, the new buzz in the cardiac world is the link between cardiac disease and dental disease. I've been shadowing a lot.
Dentistry is very important to the overall health of a patient, it is foolish to downplay it's impact to the medical/surgical care of patients.
 
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Bunny Fru Fru said:
Rendar5 and others,
I kind of disagree about this being a useless question. Medicine and Dentistry overlap in many ways. They have similar training, at some places the dental students sit in the medical school class for the first two years/anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, etc.
Inpatient and Outpatient dentistry is vitally linked with patient care in that, for instance, patients who will be getting organ transplants, yet have a lot of dental pathology will need to have their teeth pulled first, same is true for folks with head and neck cancer who will need radiation therapy, kids and adults with facial deformities (cleft lips/palates) need dental restoration, facial trauma victims, .......just to name a few scenarios. Oh, I forgot, the new buzz in the cardiac world is the link between cardiac disease and dental disease. I've been shadowing a lot.
Dentistry is very important to the overall health of a patient, it is foolish to downplay it's impact to the medical/surgical care of patients.
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Who's downplaying the importance of dentistry? I have nothing but respect for the profession. It's a dumb question because there's no way to give him an answer that'll be of any use to him since we have absolutely no clue what to base the answer on. It'd be like me asking everyone in this forum why should I go into Cardiology when I can go into Pulmonary since I could get into both if I applied.
 
Bunny Fru Fru said:
I kind of disagree about this being a useless question. Medicine and Dentistry overlap in many ways. They have similar training, at some places the dental students sit in the medical school class for the first two years/anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, etc.
Inpatient and Outpatient dentistry are vitally linked with patient care in that, for instance, patients who will be getting organ transplants, yet have a lot of dental pathology will need to have their teeth pulled first, same is true for folks with head and neck cancer who will need radiation therapy, kids and adults with facial deformities (cleft lips/palates) need dental restoration, facial trauma victims, .......just to name a few scenarios. Oh, I forgot, the new buzz in the cardiac world is the link between cardiac disease and dental disease. I've been shadowing a lot.
Dentistry is very important to the overall health of a patient, it is foolish to downplay it's impact to the medical/surgical care of patients.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone serious is downplaying dentistry. It is a branch of medicine. Just a branch that you can go into directly from undergrad.

But in terms of degrees: MD, or DDS, MD provides more options.
 
There is this stereotype about dentists that they could not make it to med school. Don't blame me for it, I did not come up with it.

Dentistry is good field for some........sorry not for me. I just don't like it....I would rather become a pharmacist.
 
like some others mentioned, some people dont like working with teeth... but than u can argue that MD's like working with someone's anus..lol...

its a matter of choice, I just don't see a dentist saving someone's life... if that what u want to do...lol
 
Cofo said:
Why should I be a medical doctor instead of a dentist? I'm positive I could do either career.
Click to expand...

o_rly.jpg
 
just ignore this guy. Look at his post history. He's asked the same question for the past few years. Bouncing back from premed to predent.

You can't help anyone that doesn't want to help themselves
 
todds said:
Maybe I should've rephrased that.. I mean on average, you will earn more as a physician than a dentist.

Im not sure about earning potential being higher for dentist. In what way? Even as specialist, do you think a dental specialist will get reimbursed more than the highest paid medical specialist?
Click to expand...

Don't ever to forget to factor in the lifestyle. Physicians might make a bit more on average than dentists, but dentists work around a 35-hour work week. Compare it hour-for-hour and dentists win. Not to mention less training and low malpractice and not having to deal with insurance as much!

OP, I thought about this question a lot. Dentistry or Medicine? To me, both have the science, the human body, and patient-interaction at somewhat comparable levels. What tipped the scales for me is that, deep down and after some shadowing and talking with both, I felt that medicine interested me more and I was more excited about it. Really, though, I've never been a dentist or doctor, so how do I know what I really like? I hope that I'm not kicking myself in the future for not taking the shorter training, better pay per hour and better lifestyle of Dentistry! (especially if some big bad changes happen with the new health care.) As for competition, at my undergrad the Dental applicants are pretty insane. If students keep on wising up, Dentistry could be the new Dermatology!

P.S., you really could do both. Look at U Mich's director of their up and coming Oral and Maxillofacial program and he's got an MD, DMD. Does some awesome, intense cases with reconstruction, cancer, and the like!

EDIT: the guy is a MD, DDS. Not DMD. But it's the same. 🙄

http://surgery.med.umich.edu/maxillofacial/education/oral_surgery.shtml
 
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I can't tell you how many dentists have tried to convince me to steer clear of med school and become a dentist instead. The reasoning they use: shorter training, better compensation & lifestyle, little malpractice insurance, and less hassle with 'socialized medicine' in the future. Dentistry is very appealing unless you REALLY want to be a doctor.
 
You can always go back to some kind of dentristry related work with an MD (e.g. oral and maxillofacial surgery). You don't really have that flexibility with a DDS.
 
loveoforganic said:
You can always go back to some kind of dentristry related work with an MD (e.g. oral and maxillofacial surgery). You don't really have that flexibility with a DDS.
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Haha, I hope this is a joke. 🙂 (It's actually the reverse)
 
I'm really curious about this. So, when pre-dentals are asked to justify their reasons for wanting to go into dentistry without sounding superficial (i.e. compensation, better lifestyles..etc), what do they really say? I mean for medicine you can easily say you want to save someone's life for many many reasons, but do you say you want to save a tooth? I think if one cares about others' overall, not just oral, well-being, it makes more sense to go into medicine. I personally can't think of any real justification. Well, I guess that's why I'm going with medicine.😀
 
hewmanoid said:
I'm really curious about this. So, when pre-dentals are asked to justify their reasons for wanting to go into dentistry without sounding superficial (i.e. compensation, better lifestyles..etc), what do they really say? I mean for medicine you can easily say you want to save someone's life for many many reasons, but do you say you want to save a tooth? I think if one cares about others' overall, not just oral, well-being, it makes more sense to go into medicine. I personally can't think of any real justification. Well, I guess that's why I'm going with medicine.😀
Click to expand...
I read one PS which was about the fact that the mouth is obviously the site of important anatomy. Drug addicts can have important surgeries after damaging their mouths, musicians can be allowed to play instruments after reconstruction, and the poor can have teeth cleaned and not be embarrassed to smile.

I'm sure there are more diverse reasons than this, but the descriptions are not radically different from ours.
 
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Rendar5 said:
Hey, don't ask a stupid question, don't get a stupid answer. How the **** am I supposed to know what you should go into. That's like saying, "why should I eat chocolate ice cream when I can have vanilla? I'm sure I could get either one at the store."
Click to expand...

I have to agree with Rendar5. The question essentially isn't a stupid question. What makes the question stupid is the way it was asked. I would have taken the OP's in a better light if it was worded better.

"Why should I be a medical doctor instead of a dentist? I'm positive I could do either career."

I think the owl sums up my response.
 
Because being a dentist is like pulling teeth.
 
hewmanoid said:
I'm really curious about this. So, when pre-dentals are asked to justify their reasons for wanting to go into dentistry without sounding superficial (i.e. compensation, better lifestyles..etc), what do they really say? I mean for medicine you can easily say you want to save someone's life for many many reasons, but do you say you want to save a tooth? I think if one cares about others' overall, not just oral, well-being, it makes more sense to go into medicine. I personally can't think of any real justification. Well, I guess that's why I'm going with medicine.😀
Click to expand...

There's a lot dentists can do to help people, beyond the superficial stuff, while retaining a decent lifestyle.
 
loveoforganic said:
There's a lot dentists can do to help people, beyond the superficial stuff, while retaining a decent lifestyle.
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I have no doubt dentists help people in so many ways as I received those help myself many times. But, if helping others is their primary motivation for going into dentistry, why not medicine? Do you think better lifestyles and/or better compensations relative to woring hours play a big role in this? For me, medicine was an obvious pick over dentistry because medicine would allow me to do so much more, not simply focusing on one part of human body as you would in dentistry, and at the same time I can help people in the process.
 
hewmanoid said:
I have no doubt dentists help people in so many ways as I received those help myself many times. But, if helping others is their primary motivation for going into dentistry, why not medicine? Do you think better lifestyles and/or better compensations relative to woring hours play a big role in this? For me, medicine was an obvious pick over dentistry because medicine would allow me to do so much more, not simply focusing on one part of human body as you would in dentistry, and at the same time I can help people in the process.
Click to expand...

The reason I mentioned in my post. Lifestyle is a really important factor.
 
hewmanoid said:
I'm really curious about this. So, when pre-dentals are asked to justify their reasons for wanting to go into dentistry without sounding superficial (i.e. compensation, better lifestyles..etc), what do they really say? I mean for medicine you can easily say you want to save someone's life for many many reasons, but do you say you want to save a tooth? I think if one cares about others' overall, not just oral, well-being, it makes more sense to go into medicine. I personally can't think of any real justification. Well, I guess that's why I'm going with medicine.😀
Click to expand...

I think dentistry will always have a "superficial" component about it- that's why you see dentists at the butt of a lot of jokes. But I think to say going to medical school to "save lives" is also a superficial concept, a la Grey's Anatomy.
 
Work hard, do good, save lives. IMO.

If you don't mind sacrificing your personal life for the sake of improving the lives of complete strangers, be a doctor. It's a long, painful road but it's worth it.

If you want the financial stability and lifestyle to be able to support a family and be an active parent, be a dentist. It's a short road, but you get what you want.
 
ensuii said:
Work hard, do good, save lives. IMO.

If you don't mind sacrificing your personal life for the sake of improving the lives of complete strangers, be a doctor. It's a long, painful road but it's worth it.

If you want the financial stability and lifestyle to be able to support a family and be an active parent, be a dentist. It's a short road, but you get what you want.
Click to expand...


Or, you can be a PhD, researcher, PA, CRNA, RN, etc. They all make great pay and have relatively nice lifestyles.
 
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