Does anyone have regrets about not going to Medical school?

[ddsd1love]

I was one of those who was on the fence of Medicine vs Dentistry - I saw Dentistry as a specialty of medicine, but I do sometimes wonder if I made the wrong decision.

As a field, I love it and have no doubt that I will love practicing. But, would that have differed in medicine at all? I love people and patient care, both of which are in said fields...

The massive debt that is accompanied with Dental School as well as the lower income coming out is what is making me second guess my decision - purely financially because I see Dentistry as Medicine

I mean coming out, I will probably end up doing a GPR paying me 50k and than working as an associate for a couple of years making ~150k if I am lucky...than I will be lucky to making 200 while my Medicine counterparts are making ~300k+ after a 3 year residency

Anyone else hear share my sentiments?

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[Saddleshoes]

I graduated from DS a long time ago so my comments may not have any relevance in regard to the student debt issue but...

I know I made the right choice in going to DS!
I know my life has been much better then the lives of my two high school buddies that took the medical route.
--They MAY have made more money then me but they worked MUCH longer hours to get it. (One had a failed marriage which I suspect was directly related to his professional time commitment.)
--I found that I had much greater flexibility with my life than my two buddies. They were slaves to their practices.
--I was able to twice drastically change direction over the course of my career. (Both times I took time way from dentistry for fun stuff in life with my loved ones.) My MD friends tell me they could never do something like that.
--Lastly, after several decades in my career I still love what I do. My MD friends really dislike going into work every day and are counting down days to retirement.

 

[gatorfan99]

Ugh, I remember as a pre-dental student and going to one of the pre-med society meetings - I hated everyone in there, a bunch of trolls comparing grades, I'm so glad I never went that route .. At my school, there was no pre-dental society so it felt like I was "on my own" and never experienced that from pre-dents (lucky me, I guess).

Are you a dental student?

You never know what might happen - but don't base future happiness on your expectations for future salary >> honestly, who cares if you are doing what you enjoy doing for a living? Obviously, be smart about what school you go to and how much debt you accumulate (yup, I'm talking about certain southern CA/Northeastern schools).

Have you treated patients yet?

 

[Faux]

I'm a D1, about to finish the spring semester.

The thought lingered in my head during the fall, but really subside after gross anatomy. I was only really interested in EM or surgery. So, seeing the body like that every other day was a bit of a turn off.

I'm sure I could have found something I would have enjoyed in medicine. At the same time, I would have never found out some of the cool stuff in dentistry, especially the things you get to make and the toys you get to play with

grass is geneer and all that jazz.

 

[ncide]

No. My boss donated 10 million of his personal wealth to a dental school the other year and I was reading about a 30 year old dentist on DentalTown who is making $900,000 take home. I know a few who make $400,000 a year. If you are business savvy, you can do very well in dentistry.

A lot of doctors work 30 hours a week, so that leaves you with flexibility to do other things outside of dentistry.

 

[Kittenz]

I'm a D1, about to finish the spring semester.

The thought lingered in my head during the fall, but really subside after gross anatomy. I was only really interested in EM or surgery. So, seeing the body like that every other day was a bit of a turn off.

I'm sure I could have found something I would have enjoyed in medicine. At the same time, I would have never found out some of the cool stuff in dentistry, especially the things you get to make and the toys you get to play with

grass is geneer and all that jazz.

Similarly enough, I thought I'd be interested in OMS because I liked medicine, surgery and dentistry, but after spending tons of time, and still spending time, cutting cadavers and taking med school classes, I have realized how unappealing surgery and medicine is to me.

I still like dentistry as I did in the beginning, but when I chose dentistry I liked medicine and surgery as well. I made my ultimate decision to attend dental school over medical school because I knew that I just liked dentistry more than the other two.

You just don't know what you're going to like until you're in the situation. My advice to OP is to follow what interests you most because that's all you've got to lead you.

 

[jokersmiles]

I graduated from DS a long time ago so my comments may not have any relevance in regard to the student debt issue but...

I know I made the right choice in going to DS!
I know my life has been much better then the lives of my two high school buddies that took the medical route.
--They MAY have made more money then me but they worked MUCH longer hours to get it. (One had a failed marriage which I suspect was directly related to his professional time commitment.)
--I found that I had much greater flexibility with my life than my two buddies. They were slaves to their practices.
--I was able to twice drastically change direction over the course of my career. (Both times I took time way from dentistry for fun stuff in life with my loved ones.) My MD friends tell me they could never do something like that.
--Lastly, after several decades in my career I still love what I do. My MD friends really dislike going into work every day and are counting down days to retirement.

wouldn't you say a huge part of your success is due to the fact that you had minimal student loan debt?
knowing that most schools these days are 400K, do you think its still worth it to go into dentistry?
compared to how most medical schools are still around 250K.
With all of this debt most future dentists will not be able to take those long term vacations and will have to work more hours.

 

[jokersmiles]

Ugh, I remember as a pre-dental student and going to one of the pre-med society meetings - I hated everyone in there, a bunch of trolls comparing grades, I'm so glad I never went that route .. At my school, there was no pre-dental society so it felt like I was "on my own" and never experienced that from pre-dents (lucky me, I guess).

Are you a dental student?

You never know what might happen - but don't base future happiness on your expectations for future salary >> honestly, who cares if you are doing what you enjoy doing for a living? Obviously, be smart about what school you go to and how much debt you accumulate (yup, I'm talking about certain southern CA/Northeastern schools).

Have you treated patients yet?

aka.... don't go to USC or NYU.

 

[DoctaFauci]

I love people and patient care, both of which are in said fields...

You realize that dentists spend far more time in patient care and developing actual patient relationships than physicians, right? Medicine is based on insurance reimbursement and volume; the average patient encounter is now less than 15minutes as physicians are being required to see more and more patients in a day. You spend far more of your time involved with paperwork and insurance than you do with individual patients in modern medicine. If you want to develop long-term patient relationships, a general dentist is probably the best professional option.

I mean coming out, I will probably end up doing a GPR paying me 50k and than working as an associate for a couple of years making ~150k if I am lucky...than I will be lucky to making 200 while my Medicine counterparts are making ~300k+ after a 3 year residency

Why are you probably going to do a GPR if finances are your principal concern? If you can't monetize the GPR, start practicing right away. The main reason I can justify my GPR is b/c I had a full federal scholarship to dental school... You can rapidly make up deficiencies in your skill set with CE. So you just made a solid point that you have a 4-year head start on your medicine counterparts to accrue some solid wealth and equity while they have the opportunity cost of continuing education.

You also should realize that hourly a general dentist makes significantly more than a GP, often twice as much. The average dentist also has far more autonomy than a physician, plus a much shorter work week (~34-36 hours). And while dental students are usually encumbered by greater debt load, a DDS/DMD is still a "license to print money." An efficient dentist knows no limit to income potential. Plus a set salary vs. other forms of income have huge tax implications; be wary of that when comparing pay among professions.

So you're really comparing apples to oranges. To answer your question: No, I haven't met a dental student or a dentist who wishes they had gone to med school.

 

[CanaDMD]

To answer your question: No, I haven't met a dental student or a dentist who wishes they had gone to med school.

That's shocking! I've met people in med who wished they've done dent, and people in dent who've wished they done med.

I'm surprised you haven't found at least ONE person you know who admits it ;o

 

[UltraTooth]

No. My boss donated 10 million of his personal wealth to a dental school the other year and I was reading about a 30 year old dentist on DentalTown who is making $900,000 take home. I know a few who make $400,000 a year. If you are business savvy, you can do very well in dentistry.

A lot of doctors work 30 hours a week, so that leaves you with flexibility to do other things outside of dentistry.

I am calling Bullsh** on this. $900K take home?! From a solo practice? Go back and re-read the article. And your "30 hours a week" comment? That won't come until about a decade of building up a practice and bringing an associate on board.

Loving the clinical aspects of dentistry and loving the private practice of dentistry are two completely different things...

 

[ncide]

I am calling Bullsh** on this. $900K take home?! From a solo practice? Go back and re-read the article. And your "30 hours a week" comment? That won't come until about a decade of building up a practice and bringing an associate on board.

Loving the clinical aspects of dentistry and loving the private practice of dentistry are two completely different things...

He's got 10 associates working for him.

 

[CanaDMD]

He's got 10 associates working for him.

Definitely possible, I know another

 

[Bernie Sanders]

I regret sometimes not going to med school. Feel like I would really enjoy psych, cause it is much more interesting, not as physically tenuous as dentistry, salaries for psych are increasing, and it's not that long/grueling of a residency

 

[PocketRocket]

If I was accepted to harvard med and touro dental I will go to touro dental

 

[Sublimazing]

If I was accepted to harvard med and touro dental I will go to touro dental

If you're just not interested in med school that's an obvious chooce, but financially that wouldn't be a good choice. Tuition would be ~40k more after 4 years at touro +interest, and I can promise you HMS graduates are making more than Touro dental grads

 

[PocketRocket]

If you're just not interested in med school that's an obvious chooce, but financially that wouldn't be a good choice. Tuition would be ~40k more after 4 years at touro +interest, and I can promise you HMS graduates are making more than Touro dental grads

Oh I'm sure they are making more $$$ and the life long prestige of graduating from Harvard Med is unmatched by anything. But yeah, zero interest in medicine... Now that I think about it my parents would murder me

 

[CanaDMD]

Oh I'm sure they are making more $$$ and the life long prestige of graduating from Harvard Med is unmatched by anything. But yeah, zero interest in medicine... Now that I think about it my parents would murder me

You're going to be learning a lot of medicine in dental school... Just saying!

 

[PocketRocket]

You're going to be learning a lot of medicine in dental school... Just saying!

You know what I mean

 

[CanaDMD]

You know what I mean

ish?

 

[Dent5291]

The prestige of medicine appeals to me, like going to Harvard Med or working for the Mayo Clinic. However, the day to day life of an MD does not interest me.

 

[Sublimazing]

The prestige of medicine appeals to me, like going to Harvard Med or working for the Mayo Clinic. However, the day to day life of an MD does not interest me.

The day to day of an MD really varies though. I think a lot of pre-dents (myself included back then) had this idea that all physicians work crazy hours and take horrible call...and while many many physicians do work like that many do not.

And in terms of the "type" of work, it's even more diverse. Where as all dentists and dental specialists (except a handful of academic specialists) do pretty much the same thing...physicians range from completely office based non-procedural diagnosis/tx of varying complexity (think family doc treating allergies and htn all the way to the heme/onc diagnosing treating cancer) to office based procedures (gastro docs, cosmetic) to the full time academic surgeons scrubbing in most of the week.

Dentistry definetely has its high points:
-easy and short training
-great earning potential
-fantastic in terms of easiest money in healthcare
-very easy to maintain a good lifestyle
-zero encroachment by midlevels
-no real impact thus far by obamacare

Medicine has:
-more prestige
-cheaper training
-far more variety
-more money
-academics pay very well
-many specialties with great lifestyle and compensation
-more interesting (as a generalization, not an absolute)

But the whole med vs dental that pops up on these boards a few times/month are really irrelevant to the poster because it's such a personal experience. People are happy in dentistry and medicine. The best advice is to be VERY specific in what you're looking for before you apply to either, and then shadow many people doing exactly what you think you want to do where you want to do it. Shadowing a GP when you want to do omfs is completely pointless...just like talking to a family med doc when you'd want to do radiology is pointless.

 

[CarpenterDntist]

Not even a single letter.

 

[HealthNombreUno]

Well, if you're like me, interested in both medicine and dentistry, you could always specialize in OMFS. Great blend of the two fields imo.

 

[HealthNombreUno]

Well, if you're like me, interested in both medicine and dentistry, you could always specialize in OMFS. Great blend of the two fields imo.