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Do You Regret Doing Medicine Over Dentistry?


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My brother is a dentist. He regrets his choice going into dentistry rather than medicine and he's been practicing for 8 years now.

 

I am a family resident. I love my job and what I do. I have a general knowledge of every field and dealt with an acute hypoglycemic episode on a plane last spring. I may not have been able to do that as a dentist. I've never had any interest in dentistry.

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I love medicine, I'm in a surgical specialty, so 5 + 2 residency & fellowship, it is grueling but well worth it. You need to love what you do to be fulfilled. Dentistry was on my radar as a Plan B, but I got in on my first attempt. The debt will take care of itself in time, and to have a life, you need to be organized and plan breaks way in advance, all is doable. Work hard, play hard, I seek out challenges professionally and personally, so on breaks, I go for challenging, exciting sports.

 

Matching at CaRMS involves planning and luck! I don't see undergrad research helping really. In 3 weeks, during part of a summer during med school, I did a literature review that was published but it was irrelevant for matching. I had completed 1 week of an elective when I applied to this specialty, the attending and resident liked working with me, I was enthusiastic, a hard worker and easy to get along with. These attributes got me to the interview and an acceptance. I had not considered this field 2 weeks before the CaRMS application deadline, so it was circumstances and luck that led me to apply and to acceptance. I wouldn't change any part of my life if I could. I have another 5 years until private practice and am enjoying this stage of my life, notwithstanding the apparent hardships. Sure, others my age are established, earning a ton of money and didn't have all the years of studying. But I would not enjoy doing what they are doing, so our lives are not comparable. I am on track, enjoying, constantly learning and have no regrets.

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My brother is a dentist. He regrets his choice going into dentistry rather than medicine and he's been practicing for 8 years now.

 

I am a family resident. I love my job and what I do. I have a general knowledge of every field and dealt with an acute hypoglycemic episode on a plane last spring. I may not have been able to do that as a dentist. I've never had any interest in dentistry.

Not that I'm disagreeing with you but I think you could probably deal with that one as a plumber. :P Assuming you knew they were diabetic I guess.

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Not that I'm disagreeing with you but I think you could probably deal with that one as a plumber. :P Assuming you knew they were diabetic I guess.

I didn't know beforehand. I just went through my top differentials of why someone passes out all of a sudden. Could've been a lot of things.

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I'm glad to be in medicine and as Mithril said, to have a general knowledge of every health field, even as a surgical resident versus a dentist.

 

I don't care much about the lenght of training and I couldn't be less bothered by the total income at the end of the line between a dentist or a physician. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

dentistry wasn't ever for me, don't like teeth at all (I still have some minor residual fears of the whole dentist thing because they are the first people I knew of who casually inflicted regular pain + bleeding on me and I couldn't do anything about it, was relatively doctor free as a kid) and the specialty itself is too narrow for me. I can't say I would prefer dent over med as well because I like the life saving acute stuff and dentistry doesn't have that. Its too much of a day to day job for me.

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For sure psych is probably the pinnacle of "least amount of gross."  Neuro has a low amount of gross things.  Like its not zero, but its pretty rare.

 

 

Having spent some time on the psych crisis team in the ED, psych isn't without it's "grossness". Many patients unfortunately lack the capacity/insight to care for themselves, and may not have showered in months or changed their clothes that has been heavily soiled in bodily fluids of others.

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I was accepted to both and ended up choosing dentistry. I couldn't be happier with my decision. With that said, I don't think anyone can tell you which is "better". It depends on you - what do you like, what can you absolutely not stand? I like the flexibility, the control I have over my lifestyle. I absolutely love working with my hands. I could not just talk to people all day long and type notes of our discussion on the computer. Most medical specialties that involve surgery have terrible hours. Dentistry is a little niche where you get to work with your hands but can have an awesome lifestyle as well. There is a lot more to say for pros and cons of each, but that's the first thing that comes to mind. And it's just my lens. Others will view it totally differently. At the end of the day you have to think about what you want from your career. 

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I was accepted to both and ended up choosing dentistry. I couldn't be happier with my decision. With that said, I don't think anyone can tell you which is "better". It depends on you - what do you like, what can you absolutely not stand? I like the flexibility, the control I have over my lifestyle. I absolutely love working with my hands. I could not just talk to people all day long and type notes of our discussion on the computer. Most medical specialties that involve surgery have terrible hours. Dentistry is a little niche where you get to work with your hands but can have an awesome lifestyle as well. There is a lot more to say for pros and cons of each, but that's the first thing that comes to mind. And it's just my lens. Others will view it totally differently. At the end of the day you have to think about what you want from your career. 

 

too bad dentistry wont be using monoclonal antibody anti-platelet agents :( 

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1 dentist in family, 2 specialty dentists in family, 1 medicine specialist in family.....hmm I have to say the overhead for those in dentistry is way way up there. The medicine one no overhead, works really hard and long hours and have way more money than the dentists. The dentists regret not going into med. the dentists are continually promoting themselves. Nah,

Yes I do agree teeth, feet and eyeballs are not everyone's cup of tea.

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Looking bad I have to say, If i had to do it all over again I would not.

Before going into med, i was the type of person who thought i could only be happy with med and nothing else.

I dont regret going into medecine, i am happy at the place I am at the moment, but what ever passion pursued me to go into this as opposed to anything else has long died off by now.

I think there are many jobs that can make someone happy, and if you dont get into medecine its not the end of the world either (something a lot of premeds and myself failed to recognize).

 

At the end of the day its a job like anything else.

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I was accepted to both and ended up choosing dentistry. I couldn't be happier with my decision. With that said, I don't think anyone can tell you which is "better". It depends on you - what do you like, what can you absolutely not stand? I like the flexibility, the control I have over my lifestyle. I absolutely love working with my hands. I could not just talk to people all day long and type notes of our discussion on the computer. Most medical specialties that involve surgery have terrible hours. Dentistry is a little niche where you get to work with your hands but can have an awesome lifestyle as well. There is a lot more to say for pros and cons of each, but that's the first thing that comes to mind. And it's just my lens. Others will view it totally differently. At the end of the day you have to think about what you want from your career. 

 

I don't thin i could have said this better myself!

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