<p>I've posted this on the career board but people are unresponsive there so I was wondering if you guys could help;</p>
<p>I've been hearing a lot of good things about being a dentist lately and was just wondering about some of the drawbacks.</p>
<p>good things Ive heard:</p>
<p>-High pay
-Flexible hours
-Doesnt matter which dental school you go to</p>
<p>You have to touch peoples' mouths and you have to take a lot of Chemistry and Science classes.</p>
<p>IMO it's kind of dull work. Also, there aren't really any options if you decide to change careers. The pay kind of hits a plateau and the hours aren't flexible until you've really established a stable practice which takes many years. You may be working weekend hours as well.</p>
<p>flexible hours? who told you that? most dentists do only work four days a week. however, most dentists arrive at 7-8am and leave at 9-11pm each night. of course i am getting my information from my mom who has been a dental assistant for 15-20 years.</p>
<p>i've heard that with the rise in number of dental hygienists (sp?) and better dental care at home (more using mouthwash, flossing regularly) that the demand for dentists is decreasing.</p>
<p>my moms boss, who is a dentistm makes about 2 million a year in his private practice in the bronx.</p>
<p>this guy is loaded. He also pays my mom for a 60 hr week when she only works 24 hrs a week.</p>
<p>my friend is in a dental school now and he complains a lot -- he says everyone's pretty miserable -- they make them study too hard or something, i dunno</p>
<p>he is mainly miserable because of the labs -- teeth are very small, and if he doesn't drill them at like 3 degree angle but 4 degree angle or if he is like 0.3mm off drilling, he has to do the lab over again -- and the re-takes are during finals week -- it may be unpleasant especially for those people who thought they were artsy and good doing things with their hands, it's like a cold shower if they can't work with small things -- you have to have a pair of steady hands AND be able to do very precise work with them</p>
<p>he also complains of back strain and some work-related pains in hands</p>
<p>my local dentist workd 40 hours a week -- mon-thu for 10 hours a day and then friday he is off -- he can be called on emergency during weekends, so in that way he's at the mercy of his patients -- fridays he also does surgeries</p>
<p>another downside is that you have a huge loan to re-pay -- and not only for school -- if you ever want to score big bucks you need to open up a practice and take huge loans to buy all equipment and hire people</p>
<p>you also have to have a certain personality to open up a practice -- have good managing and communication skills -- be friendly, instill confidence into your patients -- it's like a business: if you don't attract customers you either go bankrupt (which is unlikely with rising demand) or you'll just won't score those big bucks you've set out to score</p>
<p>so if you like managing people and money and being your own boss as well as working with patients, dentistry is for you</p>
<p>Pretty much any student in any professional school (law, med, pharm, dent) is fairly miserable and studies too hard. That's just part of the deal.</p>
<p>Dentistry, just like law and medicine are not for everyone. It takes a particular type of person to want to look into people's mouths all the time. And most people don't like going to the dentist, which could bother some people.</p>
<p>All in all the best advice is to go and actually shadow a dentist to see what their job is like.</p>
<p>I agree with one of the posters above-- it takes a certain person to be a dentist, etc.</p>
<p>If you want to be a happy dentist you need to be satisfied with seeing the same place every day as well as the same people for years. You are apart of the community. In addition to those social aspects you should know that sometimes you deal with very unpleasant patients..</p>
<p>I think that my mom is the right type of person to be a dentist and while she is happy, her major complaints are: unpleasant patients and stress from work in certain appointments.</p>
<p>i have a cousin at dental and medical school... they have compared syllabus, and both agree that dental school is actually harder than medical school (though slightly easier to get into) because you do all the medical school stuff PLUS teeth anatomy and that specifically for the first 2 years, before all the lab work.......dentists on average make from 100-150 K but obviosuly it can be more or less</p>
<p>well then again, they don't have to do residency or whatever and can go into practice right after four years while doctors can't. Plus, I doubt that dentists do ALL the medical school stuff. I know that they have to do gross anatomy and pathology and such courses, but then it wouldn't' be harder, it would be the same.</p>
<p>Yeah it's not so much that they (dental students) do extra, just that they get added emphasis on the mouth. So where medical students will get almost all the diesease processes system by system fairly equally, dental students will be exposed to them, but with greater focus of how that relates to the mouth (if a disease does).</p>