OP-check my posts; I’ve got a lot of experience in the process of medical school applications. Orioles, on the other hand, is a HS senior who can’t decide where to go to college. O giving advice to anyone regarding what career field to pursue is pointless. Many have opinions; it’s not a good idea to entertain opinions that have no factual basis. As O is neither a dentist nor a physician, and has not applied to either medical or dental school, any advice offered suffers from a complete lack of actual experience.
You can’t deny that the beuracracy in medicine makes it more stressful to the average physician over the average dentist. I know two specific physicians who have legitimately decided they will leave the field depending on the outcome of the election. One actually retired early becasue of the last election’s outcome.
I don’t really want to keep going back and forth, so I may or may not make any more posts.
Your anecdote is the sort of canard routinely trotted out in these discussions. You’re not a physician or a dentist, and have never applied to or attended the professional school for either, but you’ve got plenty of opinions to share about both professions. You have a clear misunderstanding if you truly believe that “you can’t deny that the beuracracy(sic) in medicine” is worse than that in dentistry. In fact, most health care is paid for with insurance-and 39% of Americans lack dental insurance, while only 13.2% lack health insurance(Source: National Association of Dental Plans). So the average dentist needs to squeeze actual cash payments out of more patients than the average physician, which is very difficult to do. You’ve got third-party payers footing the bill more often for physicians. All complaints about paperwork must be viewed cautiously-for example, Medicare covers routine medical care, but pays nothing for routine dental care. So which would you rather have-paperwork problems with insurance or the task of convincing a patient to pay out of pocket?
As such the average dentist has to be both a health professional and a businessman, as s/he is most likely running a small business which relies on direct payments from patients. It also requires much more advertising, which is both costly and time-consuming. Further, despite what you “know” there is no evidence-none-that physicians are retiring in rates any higher than dentists. And both professions have to deal with the problems and expenses associated with malpractice insurance and continuing professional education.
And it’s important to remember that the actual practice of both professions is very, very different. By 2011, only 18.6% of physicians were in solo practice(source: CMS); that same year 67% of dentists were in solo practice(source: Journal of Dental Education). If you’re running a small practice, as many dentists do, you’re probably the one dealing with the headaches associated with hiring/retaining/firing employees, and the mountain of paperwork associated with it-or you’ve got to hire(and pay) someone to do it. You are not just the dentist-you’re the boss- for better or worse.
So which profession is better? Both go to school for a long time, and both have average annual salaries at the top of the jobs list. Both work long hours, but many dentists practice on their own while physicians are moving more toward a group model. And both types of practices deal with a ton of paperwork. What they do is both similar and very different.
Finally, while many of the required college classes are the same, and both dental and medical schools are very expensive, it’s an entirely different process applying to dental and medical schools. They have different standardized exams(DAT v MCAT) and there’s no “common app” for dental and medical schools-each has its own separate process. And unless you are independently wealthy, you will take on a lot of debt to pay for dental/medical school-both are extemely expensive.
So OP you have a lot of work to do to research what these professions do, how they do it-and whether you’d want to do it. But please don’t listen to “experts” who have opinions but not facts.
Oh dear Lord. What a ridiculous statement. As if “borderline progressive” political views have anything to do with the topic at hand.
Sorry your thread got hijacked by squabbling, OP, if you’re still around.