Women in Dentistry

[dentalgirl360]

Hello everyone,
I am currently a female dental student and I am interested in hearing about the different experiences of women who are currently practicing in the field of dentistry.
I have heard rumors that women don't typically own their own practices or they work less hours compared to their male counterparts. Is this true? What does a typical female GP schedule look like and do you work as an associate, in corporate, or are you your own boss?

Also, besides ortho, which specialties would you recommend for a women, or would you recommend just being a GP? How successful are women GPs? I haven't necessarily come across many of them in my life and I'm interested to hear different opinions and stories. It is interesting to see how male faculty can sometimes go easier on females in school compared to male counterparts--which is frustrating at times.

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[ncide]

I worked at a specialty group practice of almost all women. Endo, perio, OMFS, and ortho were all staffed by women doctors. It was a corporate office, but other offices had mostly males so I didn't see a predilection for a certain gender in the corporate sphere. Same goes for owners.

The only specialty that I would imagine would be hard would be OMFS because of the time commitment. Our surgeon delayed having kids for years because of her training, and she only had the opportunity to start a family much later in life than she would have liked. She was not so happy about that.

But on the flip side one of our school's residents was pregnant during her residency and she was able to finish her training, graduate, and open up her own practice.

 

[lemoncurry]

Women are everywhere in dentistry. I tend to see more females in peds, perio, oral medicine, pathology. I don't see as many in prosths or OMS, but the tide is changing in OMS, in my opinion. Ortho is probably about 50/50 and endo seems to be moving in that direction.

The point is to do what you want to do! The tricky part is if there is a pregnancy involved, but you'd have to go to a really backwoods place that won't accommodate you on that.

 

[TheSusieB]

I am a full-time oral and maxillofacial surgeon in academia. I am also fellowship trained. I can't speak for other specialties, but OMS is a wonderful profession for women. Unfortunately, we still get a bad rap due to a few bad apples, but overall it is an extremely rewarding profession. There is always this impression that OMS isn't friendly to women, you can't have a family, etc, but this is just untrue. I trained at what most consider one of the best programs in the country. I am married and I just had my third child. My two best friends from dental school, one is a general dentist and the other an orthodontist, neither have children older than mine. My advice to women in dentistry is to do what you want to do, not what other people think you are capable of. You don't want to have regret!!

 

[surfline]

I am a full-time oral and maxillofacial surgeon in academia. I am also fellowship trained. I can't speak for other specialties, but OMS is a wonderful profession for women. Unfortunately, we still get a bad rap due to a few bad apples, but overall it is an extremely rewarding profession. There is always this impression that OMS isn't friendly to women, you can't have a family, etc, but this is just untrue. I trained at what most consider one of the best programs in the country. I am married and I just had my third child. My two best friends from dental school, one is a general dentist and the other an orthodontist, neither have children older than mine. My advice to women in dentistry is to do what you want to do, not what other people think you are capable of. You don't want to have regret!!

You’re an inspiration to me, and I’m a male

 

[lemoncurry]

I personally like to see more women in oral surgery, as my usual perception of OMFS is that it is the jock's club and all the surgeons are The Todd.

 

[harrymandlekar]

keep it up . You choose dental professional as your carrier . You proved girls are always better then boys.