<p>Hi, this is the first part of a two part thread that I’m posting to try and figure out whether I should pursue a career in dents or med. So I was wondering if anyone could answer any of these questions below:</p>
<li><p>Which one is a more competitive field to get into in terms of residency, and actually, is med school harder to get into than dental school?</p></li>
<li><p>Which job has more interesting procedures? I understand that this is relative, but if all internists do is the general checkup stuff (ie taking height, weight, diagnosing minor diseases/referring to specialists, etc), while dentists do fillings, extractions, etc., then I would like dents better because I like doing that more than normal. So now that you know what I like, which one has more intersting procedures?</p></li>
<li><p>This is probably going to be a red flag, but yes, I asked it: Which one earns more? Please do not think I’m entering medicine/dentistry just for the money (or at least not anymore). The reason is because first of all, I like to be directly helping people to begin with, and also I like science, but can’t be an engineer because I hate physics. Secondly, if I’m going to shell out a TON of money to go there, I’ll need to be able to pay it off somehow. So yeah, which one earns more?</p></li>
<li><p>This is a just dentistry question, but since most GPs work in a private practice (from what I understand 2/3 of them do), do they still make good money, because what really scares me about dentistry is having a private practice, but not getting any customers and begging on the streets for money. So do most GPs in private practice still earn a good income?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1a.) I don't think dental school has residencies... does it?</p>
<p>1b.) At the respective margins (i.e. the last kid to get admitted to dental school vs. the last kid to get admitted to med school), dental school is probably easier.</p>
<p>2.) I believe you characterize internal medicine (no specialization) mostly correctly.</p>
<p>4.) Private practice earns more money - a lot more, on average - than the alternatives, which essentially involve being a professor at a dental school and doing research. And I don't think begging is a big concern for dentists. (I am not sure what you mean by private practice. To be precise, I am not clear on what you think the alternatives are. There is academic dentistry, and private practice dentistry.)</p>
<p>My fault completely. I'd forgotten about major corporations like Kaiser and such.</p>
<p>They do provide more security and stability. You could always try private practice and then, if things don't work out, move into such a corporation.</p>
<p>See the bureau of labor statistics info on dentistry at <a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos072.htm#earnings%5B/url%5D">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos072.htm#earnings</a>.
See the BLS info on physicians and surgeons at <a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/print/ocos074.htm#earnings%5B/url%5D">http://www.bls.gov/oco/print/ocos074.htm#earnings</a>.</p>
<p>Note that Medicare does not pay for dental care (except for a few exceptions), so most patients pay dentists directly or use employer sponsored dental plans. Since Medicare now currently pays only a fraction of private insurance rates for medical care, this likely represents an advantage for dentists. In addition, dentists can capture additional income by employing dental hygenists and selling products directly to patients.</p>
<p>copied from my other reply...</p>
<p>i spoke to my doctor (doctor who specializes with kids..[forgot what it's called] lol) at Kaiser and i asked him for advice for med school. he told me he went to both dental school and med school. talk about AMAZING!!!! anyway, he didn't practice as a dentist, but as a doctor. His brother is a gp dentist, and he told me that he should've picked to practice as a dentist since his brother has soooo flexible hours and more possibilities to make more money. so yeah, my doctor, who is both a doctor and a dentist, told me to pursue dentistry.</p>
<p>btw, the doctor told me i can call him for info. if you guys want, you can leave some questions here for me to ask him. cuz the guy's like...the holy grail of our questions between either being dentist or doctor.</p>
<p>btw, to pre meds..kinda makes you guys think about dentistry now ey?</p>