Unusual Dental Fields - Please help

[W19]

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[Hedgy]

TMD-still palpate muscles in the mouth. Still touch people externally as that seems like it may be an issue for you.
Ortho-still deal intraorally

The two fields I think would suit you best are:

Forensic odontology
Oral pathology

Neither requires live intraoral interaction. Odontology may fit your personality better as you seem to like to figure things out.

 

[Sublimazing]

TMD-still palpate muscles in the mouth. Still touch people externally as that seems like it may be an issue for you.
Ortho-still deal intraorally

The two fields I think would suit you best are:

Forensic odontology
Oral pathology

Neither requires live intraoral interaction. Odontology may fit your personality better as you seem to like to figure things out.

Oral pathologists still do clinical exams on patients. And I've never heard of a forensic odontologist who didn't practice GP as well.

 

[Hedgy]

I never saw the oral pathologist either attend or examine a patient at Marquette. The Navy oral pathologists didn't do exams either. They may have attended surgery to ensure all margins were removed, but they never did exams. The forensic odontologist at Marquette was employed by the state and worked on cases nationwide. He would occasionally be seen on the floor. I agree that most are GPs.

 

[metallicat]

Can you tell me more about what they do? Are they much different than TMD dentists?

There are TMD/Orofacial pain dentists. This is different than Neuromuscular dentists who do same shady things to treat TMD. Not a true specialty, but people do limit their practices to this. People that actually understand pain patients realize that the treatment doesn't usually involve touching the teeth at all (although occasionally it does). You will be in the mouth a little bit but lots of extraoral examination. You WILL make a huge impact on peoples lives. You will NOT save lives however. You can manage things like neuropathic pains (trigeminal neuralgia) be involved in management of neurovascular pains (tension type headaches and migraines). There is lots of conservative treatment and you will also prescribe a variety of medications like anticonvulsants and antidepressants, so you will get an appreciation for that aspect of things much like physicians. You can also get into aspects like Botox as a treatment modality.

 

[periopocket]

Dental anesthesia

 

[faceman]

Outside the healthcare provider realm: dental Consulting, legal consulting, get MBA + work for a big oral products company (Check out Procter & Gamble's Subsidiaries) in product testing, development, etc...

If you really want to make a significant impact on a life go into Oral Maxillofacial Prosthodontics. I attended an open lecture at Columbia and the presenter was an OMFS Pros and the work they do is incredible. Giving people who have lost structures of their face, either from trauma or pathology, their features back so that they can re-enter society and feel welcomed again.

Saving Faces, Changing Lives !

 

[Scumbag_Steve]

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[faceman]

Seem some unreal **** related to this. Doing a fellowship in it would be awesome, somewhere very very very very far down the road from now.

Spoke to the OMFS Pros about this field and she said very few decide to specialize in it. She mentioned that you'd have to have an artistic eye as they recreate many body features (eyes, ears, nose, etc.) from scratch and must make them as real looking as possible. Also, i don't think OMFS can go this route as it is typically done through Prosth.. don't quote me though as I am not certain.