Dental School To Med School?

[nounours_l0l]

Hello,

 

I'm a 2nd year dental student looking for a change as I got to realized that dentistry wasn't for me. I thought i could finish my DMD but i just don't enjoy dentistry in general (and med school was my second choice back then). Will my D school grades count as much as my undergrad grades when I apply to med school? They are clearly not as good as my undergrads given the program is way harder (and subjective with all the practicals exams) than any undergrad degree. I'm guessing they will but just hoping not haha

 

Thanks  

[JohnGrisham]

Hello,

 

I'm a 2nd year dental student looking for a change as I got to realized that dentistry wasn't for me. I thought i could finish my DMD but i just don't enjoy dentistry in general (and med school was my second choice back then). Will my D school grades count as much as my undergrad grades when I apply to med school? They are clearly not as good as my undergrads given the program is way harder (and subjective with all the practicals exams) than any undergrad degree. I'm guessing they will but just hoping not haha

 

Thanks

Contact schools and find out. My understanding is that your dental school grades wont count for most med schools bc they are professional school grades.

 

I know of a few dents who transferred out and restarted in med. Don't expect to be able to continue from where you are, you'll have to start at day 1 year 1.  (Plus side is, youll breeze through much of preclin if your DMD clin was very similar. )

[InstantRamen]

To my understanding, Doctor of Dental Medicine is still considered an undergraduate degree. Weirdly, so is an MD.

[ralk]

Contact schools and find out. My understanding is that your dental school grades wont count for most med schools bc they are professional school grades.

 

I know of a few dents who transferred out and restarted in med. Don't expect to be able to continue from where you are, you'll have to start at day 1 year 1.  (Plus side is, youll breeze through much of preclin if your DMD clin was very similar. )

 

Seems to vary school-to-school. Dental school is an undergrad degree, so will count unless a medical school specifically does not look at professional programs.

 

To the OP, have to ask the obvious question - if you don't like dentistry, what makes you think medicine will be better?

[rmorelan]

To my understanding, Doctor of Dental Medicine is still considered an undergraduate degree. Weirdly, so is an MD.

 

somewhat strange I guess Still it kind of makes sense in an academic sense. Doctor is latin for to teach which clearly is not the focus of medical/dental training. A phd on the other hand primary function from again an academic point of view is to be qualified to become a professor. This is all historic of course ha. If you feel phDs are now instead training for doing research - well we don't do that either. Research is clearly a secondary endeavor 

[nounours_l0l]

Seems to vary school-to-school. Dental school is an undergrad degree, so will count unless a medical school specifically does not look at professional programs.

 

To the OP, have to ask the obvious question - if you don't like dentistry, what makes you think medicine will be better?

 

the things i like about dentistry; the patient-professional relationship, being able to actually help, all my general medicine classes (anatomy, pathology, histology..). i even like my general dentistry courses.

 

Thing i don't like in dentistry: procedures/practicals aspect. it's totally personal but i realized that i do not enjoy spending hours bend in someone's mouth to cut a few mm of a tooth. something even shadowing didn't actually show me. i'm not enjoying the art of dentistry and no one really knows if it's for them until they are actually doing it. Working with 1/2 or 1/4 of mm is not for everyone. It's not even a "it' too hard".. no, there is just no passion and i don't wanna be spending my life doing something i really don't enjoy. 

[s2MD]

Perhaps you can take a year off to reevaluate?

[ralk]

the things i like about dentistry; the patient-professional relationship, being able to actually help, all my general medicine classes (anatomy, pathology, histology..). i even like my general dentistry courses.

 

Thing i don't like in dentistry: procedures/practicals aspect. it's totally personal but i realized that i do not enjoy spending hours bend in someone's mouth to cut a few mm of a tooth. something even shadowing didn't actually show me. i'm not enjoying the art of dentistry and no one really knows if it's for them until they are actually doing it. Working with 1/2 or 1/4 of mm is not for everyone. It's not even a "it' too hard".. no, there is just no passion and i don't wanna be spending my life doing something i really don't enjoy. 

 

Well, that's fairly legitimate - you won't get away from procedures entirely in medical school, but could certainly pick an area with less focus on procedures, or at least one with procedures requiring less precision. It'd be a big expense of time, money, and effort to make the switch, but you're right, no point spending your life doing something you don't enjoy at all.

 

Anyway, back to the original question of making the switch. Since it's more of a school-to-school consideration as to whether your DMD grades will count, you'll likely have to check out each school you're thinking of applying to. Since you're in a unique situation, it may be worth contacting these schools directly to confirm how they would consider your grades.

[Guest]

You're québécois. If you apply to schools in Quebec, they will look at your grades in dental school. This may be a good thing, since dentistry is very well regarded by french schools (one of the highest CRUs)... Your previous degree was psychology, and it would be much harder to get an interview at the french schools, even with a perfect GPA!