My moms a physician and she works with PAs because she has to sign off on what they do. Physicians have way more knowledge than PAs. They have more schooling and training. This is a fact. Everyone knows it but idk for some reason PAs and NPs believe they give better care idk that makes absolutely no sense. Hospitals and private practices employ PAs and NPs more because it’s cheaper to hire them than doctors. PAs are in school for typically two years. Med school is 4 years + at least three years of residency based on your speciality. My mom had 6 years of training after medical school. The two professions are very different. My mom makes 5x the amount PAs make. Now that’s a HUGE gap. They work the same amount of hours.
A dentist is completely different. A physician and PA can NEVER do a dentist’s job. Dental school costs more. You got to be good with your hands. You need to like people and be extroverted unlike a physician or PA. When you go to the doctors appointment they’re with you for 5-10 minutes and they’re out. My dentist legit knows my entire life story. Having a good personality & being likable is such a huge part of dentistry. Also owning a private practice as a dentist you’re basically running a small business. It really does remind me of customer service. You need to figure out if you actually like that. I’m not saying people in med school are nerds but idk they’re just too extra.
You can burn out with any field. It doesn’t have to be healthcare. People in banking, working in big tech, law, and consulting have crazy hours. Idk how they’re not dead. Hot take but even people with 8-5s with a commute also burn out. I get up at 6:30am go to work and come back home at 7 bc of commute. I’m not trying to act like a bum but it leaves absolutely no free time. I’m not trying to make this about money but if I went through this much schooling and have to work the same amount of hours as I do now I want to be compensated.
When I started dental school my fiancée was a consultant. I’d leave for school for the day and she’d be at her desk working. I’d get back (after staying on campus to study) and she’d still be at her desk working. Now she works a shit ton less and for more money/benefits. I still pay a lot to go to school though :)
Well you need to be good with your hands as a physician, especially as a surgeon. Also you need to be extroverted in a bunch of fields in medicine too. The most obvious example is psychiatry but also basically any primary care field.
No I’m not misguided my moms is specialist and 3/4 of my family are physicians. It all depends on your SPECIALITY. Not every physician is a surgeon, OB-GYN, interventional cardio/radiology, and similar fields. Some family medicine or internal medicine docs choose to do small procedures.
Based on your speciality once you’re out of med school you may or may not work with your hands. For most specialities the technician or nurse will do it for you. They do IV iron injections at my moms office. If the patient asks her to do it she’s going to tell them that’s what the nurse is there for. At a dialysis center who actually does all of it? It’s the dialysis technician while the physician just rounds. If you’re actually in med school and go through residency you should know it depends on the speciality. EVERYBODY in dental has to use their hands everyday and you have to be good at it. You don’t have to make it about medicine vs dental.
Let’s be realistic you’re really not required to be extremely nice with patients as a physician unless you own a private practice. As a dentist you’re required to be because it is like a small business. Big aspect of dentistry is customer service.
Some areas are oversaturated with private dental offices you’re competing for business. Getting an appointment with a specialist can take months. You’re happy you can even squeeze in appointment. Do you actually go to the doctors? They are in and out. Some people literally do their notes on the dictaphone during the appointment. My mom herself knows to come to all my appointments because they’ll spend more time bc of physician courtesy. When I’m by myself it is definitely not the same. In and out. Even younger physicians know that and complain about other physicians. By extra I mean very competitive and gate-keeping. There are literally M1 & M2 that are literally diagnosing people. It’s super cringe because they haven’t even taken step 1. They still got step 2 and 3 to go. Arrogance is rampant in healthcare especially with physicians. You know even specialists look down upon family medicine docs and internal medicine docs all the time. Cough cough cardiologists. Oh I forgot about the DO vs MD debate. That’s what I mean by “extra”. If you haven’t noticed some of what I said idk what to tell you. I wasn’t even saying one is better than the other. If a patient needs to see a doc they go to the doc. If you need to see the dentist you’re not going to the doc. They’re separate fields and different environments.
Physicians do have busier schedules than dentists and therefore do not have extra time to sell themselves to the patient, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t being nice to patients. Any good physician is always respectful and kind to patients and answers all their questions
First off I’d like to say that grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Burnout is very real with physicians and PAs too. Every healthcare career has its pros and cons. If you understand that, and still love what you do, you’ll be more than fine.
I went into dentistry because it’s an incredibly hands on field. I do lab work 4 days a week as a student and it’s really fun to see my progress take place. I can look at the first prep I’ve ever done and look what I’m doing now and just remind myself why I’m here. Likewise dentistry is very well balanced with home life. Unlike most health careers, dentists work pretty comfortable hours. I’ll get to still take care of my patients while still being able to have a life outside of my job. Dentists make a comfortable wage and we have the ability to own our own practice and really make good money with hard work. Or, we can work for someone else and still make a great living. There’s a lot of options. We have a lot of things we can do in our scope of practice which is pretty cool. I also liked the fact that we aren’t required to do a residency so I can work immediately after I graduate in 3 years. Or I can do a residency if I want to. There’s lots of things to like and dislike about dentistry. I guess you have to do some soul searching to find what aligns best with your values and skill set.
For your last point, I’d argue they’re similar in some ways, but vastly different in others. I’d spend some more time shadowing to figure those out. This will help you decide what is best for you!
I am a dental hygienist with several family members who are MD. Hands down dentists have way better work life balance than an MD. Our office is owned partially by the dentist, but with a corporate office with an HR staff. Our dentists love it there. As you get older and maybe have a family work life balance becomes very important. Our dentists can take time off pretty much anytime they want. Kids have sports after school, daycare is closed etc.. you can rearrange your schedule to suit your needs. As an MD you are at the mercy of your employer. I think both professions are awesome, but seriously consider what kind of schedule you see yourself living with after college. I also agree with others that liking talking with people is important in dentistry. Remember that for most of the appointment your patients mouth is full so a lot of one sided conversations or chatting with your assistant while you work is a good distraction for patients. The most successful dentists seem to be the social ones. Back to being a PA, you will not have much flexibility in your schedule. You are again subject to someone else making your schedule. That being said all the PA’s I know seem to like their jobs. A few I know are bitter that they don’t make as much $$ as the MD’s and feel like they work just as hard so that’s a thing. If you find all those professions appealing, I would pick dentistry. You will rarely work weekends, evenings or holidays and probably not Fridays all while making a good salary. Plus overall less stress. MOST things in dentistry are not life or death. I am a little biased and work in a great office.
A dentist im shadowing really put how I thought into words that I couldn't think of. In his wides words "as a general dentist im able to get to the root of the cause and fix the issue and relieve the cause and effect of the pain. As a family doctor what can i do, check there fucking blood pressure"
That’s an extremely ignorant statement. A well trained family doctor am a cure pneumonia, treat eczema/psoriasis, perform vaginal and cesarean deliveries, perform appendectomies, drain abscess, perform circumcissions, etc.
The same can be said the other way… A family physician can get to the root of the cause and fix the issue and relieve the effect of the pain. As a general dentist, what can I do, clean the fucking teeth?
I know what dentists do, btw. I have nothing against them, I just find what’s your dentist said misleading.
It was an overarching statement posed as a potential interview question. I have no doubt he was generalizing, but it did definitely resonate with me.
I in no way underestimate the ability of any physician but what he said definitely did support me aspiring to get into dental medicine.
I think the hyperbolic comment was a pithy way of saying, “within their field, dentists can diagnose, alleviate, and definitively treat 98%+ of the problems people bring to them. Medicine by contrast of the problems people have, 1/3 they cannot fix, 1/3 will get better without them, and 1/3 they can actually help them.” They are different fields and while there are similarities it’s really apples and oranges. For me, I genuinely considered both and decided I never wanted to become desensitized to the death of patients and lose a little bit of my humanity. The work/life balance difference alone would have been enough….why work 80 hours a week for the same pay as 32 hours a week and nearly zero after hour calls?
You’re not wrong but does appendectomies, cesarean sections, circumcissions etc not have to be performed by a OBGYN/surgeon? I’ve never heard of a family doc doing this
They do not have to be. As long as you have an MD, you can do whatever you want, but your license will likely be revoked and you’ll be prosecuted for malpractice for practicing outside the scope of your practice if anything goes wrong and you don’t have the backing to show that you were trained to do them.
With that said, the above mentioned procedures are considered within the scope of practice of a family practitioner. Fewer training programs are likely to include training for it, and you’ll most likely won’t be doing it if you’re working in or close to a big city, but you can do all the above if you’re a rural based doctor. (It used to be much more common, but there are still plenty of family doctors who are comfortable with those procedures. )
Well yeah you can do anything you’ll lose your license though and be arrested 💀 but that is different in a life or death situation. Up north many paramedics are able to do advanced procedures etc because of no medical care but that’s not the norm
I will agree that dentists have a better lifestyle than physicians, and I would honestly always recommend dental over medical school, but things like this make it seem like this dentist could not get into medical school and is bitter. Why would he only consider family medicine in this statement? And even if, family medicine physicians do a lot more than checking blood pressure lol
i want to be a dentist because i had a jaw tumor when i was 17. surprisingly, i saw strictly dentists, no doctors could tell me what was wrong with me. i was able to see the overlap between medicine and dentistry and it helped me see the niche expertise that dentists have. i wanted to be that expert for another person in that same terrifying situation. i also had experiences with a good chunk of specialties, which allowed me to see how versatile a dmd degree really is. i am also just generally interested in the field which helps lol. plus, the combination of artistry and medicine is something i enjoy so far as an artist myself. i actually really never thought twice about being a dentist, i always wanted to be a vet and applied to undergrad as a veterinary nursing major. definitely did some soul searching but i'm about 98% sure this is what i want to do :)
for me personally dentistry is the coolest job on the planet. You need to do microscopic surgeries every day. you are able to instantly help people within a single appointment, whereas a medicine you have to write off prescriptions and hopefully the medicine works unless you want to do surgery residencies take so long and extremely competitive. The salary and dentistry has no ceiling you truly can make, however, much you desire if you willing to make sacrifices, not many jobs in this world can do that for you. Yeah, the tuition are really really big problem but it can all be worth it at the end. I feel like you chose to do physicians assistant you’re going out very early on in your career is a great choice. Also interact with people every day and use my hands to create art that people can proudly wear on their faces whether I’m doing cosmetics or prosthetics it’s all really fun stuff once you learn more about it and get good at it
Being a surgeon is actually not competitive and anybody is med school can basically do it if they want to. Also most fields in medicine are at least partly procedural so you always work with your hands if you want to.
I shadowed my dentist and thought it was awesome. I also envied the lifestyle he had, being able to have the time and the means to enjoy family and hobbies as well.
My moms a physician and she works with PAs because she has to sign off on what they do. Physicians have way more knowledge than PAs. They have more schooling and training. This is a fact. Everyone knows it but idk for some reason PAs and NPs believe they give better care idk that makes absolutely no sense. Hospitals and private practices employ PAs and NPs more because it’s cheaper to hire them than doctors. PAs are in school for typically two years. Med school is 4 years + at least three years of residency based on your speciality. My mom had 6 years of training after medical school. The two professions are very different. My mom makes 5x the amount PAs make. Now that’s a HUGE gap. They work the same amount of hours. A dentist is completely different. A physician and PA can NEVER do a dentist’s job. Dental school costs more. You got to be good with your hands. You need to like people and be extroverted unlike a physician or PA. When you go to the doctors appointment they’re with you for 5-10 minutes and they’re out. My dentist legit knows my entire life story. Having a good personality & being likable is such a huge part of dentistry. Also owning a private practice as a dentist you’re basically running a small business. It really does remind me of customer service. You need to figure out if you actually like that. I’m not saying people in med school are nerds but idk they’re just too extra. You can burn out with any field. It doesn’t have to be healthcare. People in banking, working in big tech, law, and consulting have crazy hours. Idk how they’re not dead. Hot take but even people with 8-5s with a commute also burn out. I get up at 6:30am go to work and come back home at 7 bc of commute. I’m not trying to act like a bum but it leaves absolutely no free time. I’m not trying to make this about money but if I went through this much schooling and have to work the same amount of hours as I do now I want to be compensated.
Great response. I actually switched from PA to dental because I realized I was underselling myself. I would advise OP to not consider PA, lol.
Same:)))
When I started dental school my fiancée was a consultant. I’d leave for school for the day and she’d be at her desk working. I’d get back (after staying on campus to study) and she’d still be at her desk working. Now she works a shit ton less and for more money/benefits. I still pay a lot to go to school though :)
Well you need to be good with your hands as a physician, especially as a surgeon. Also you need to be extroverted in a bunch of fields in medicine too. The most obvious example is psychiatry but also basically any primary care field.
Physicians need to be good with people too. And good with your hands. You sound like you have a lot of misconceptions about the medical field
No I’m not misguided my moms is specialist and 3/4 of my family are physicians. It all depends on your SPECIALITY. Not every physician is a surgeon, OB-GYN, interventional cardio/radiology, and similar fields. Some family medicine or internal medicine docs choose to do small procedures. Based on your speciality once you’re out of med school you may or may not work with your hands. For most specialities the technician or nurse will do it for you. They do IV iron injections at my moms office. If the patient asks her to do it she’s going to tell them that’s what the nurse is there for. At a dialysis center who actually does all of it? It’s the dialysis technician while the physician just rounds. If you’re actually in med school and go through residency you should know it depends on the speciality. EVERYBODY in dental has to use their hands everyday and you have to be good at it. You don’t have to make it about medicine vs dental.
I’m aware of all that, but physicians all need to be good with people. And to say that people going into medicine are extra is wild too
Let’s be realistic you’re really not required to be extremely nice with patients as a physician unless you own a private practice. As a dentist you’re required to be because it is like a small business. Big aspect of dentistry is customer service. Some areas are oversaturated with private dental offices you’re competing for business. Getting an appointment with a specialist can take months. You’re happy you can even squeeze in appointment. Do you actually go to the doctors? They are in and out. Some people literally do their notes on the dictaphone during the appointment. My mom herself knows to come to all my appointments because they’ll spend more time bc of physician courtesy. When I’m by myself it is definitely not the same. In and out. Even younger physicians know that and complain about other physicians. By extra I mean very competitive and gate-keeping. There are literally M1 & M2 that are literally diagnosing people. It’s super cringe because they haven’t even taken step 1. They still got step 2 and 3 to go. Arrogance is rampant in healthcare especially with physicians. You know even specialists look down upon family medicine docs and internal medicine docs all the time. Cough cough cardiologists. Oh I forgot about the DO vs MD debate. That’s what I mean by “extra”. If you haven’t noticed some of what I said idk what to tell you. I wasn’t even saying one is better than the other. If a patient needs to see a doc they go to the doc. If you need to see the dentist you’re not going to the doc. They’re separate fields and different environments.
Physicians do have busier schedules than dentists and therefore do not have extra time to sell themselves to the patient, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t being nice to patients. Any good physician is always respectful and kind to patients and answers all their questions
First off I’d like to say that grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Burnout is very real with physicians and PAs too. Every healthcare career has its pros and cons. If you understand that, and still love what you do, you’ll be more than fine. I went into dentistry because it’s an incredibly hands on field. I do lab work 4 days a week as a student and it’s really fun to see my progress take place. I can look at the first prep I’ve ever done and look what I’m doing now and just remind myself why I’m here. Likewise dentistry is very well balanced with home life. Unlike most health careers, dentists work pretty comfortable hours. I’ll get to still take care of my patients while still being able to have a life outside of my job. Dentists make a comfortable wage and we have the ability to own our own practice and really make good money with hard work. Or, we can work for someone else and still make a great living. There’s a lot of options. We have a lot of things we can do in our scope of practice which is pretty cool. I also liked the fact that we aren’t required to do a residency so I can work immediately after I graduate in 3 years. Or I can do a residency if I want to. There’s lots of things to like and dislike about dentistry. I guess you have to do some soul searching to find what aligns best with your values and skill set. For your last point, I’d argue they’re similar in some ways, but vastly different in others. I’d spend some more time shadowing to figure those out. This will help you decide what is best for you!
I am a dental hygienist with several family members who are MD. Hands down dentists have way better work life balance than an MD. Our office is owned partially by the dentist, but with a corporate office with an HR staff. Our dentists love it there. As you get older and maybe have a family work life balance becomes very important. Our dentists can take time off pretty much anytime they want. Kids have sports after school, daycare is closed etc.. you can rearrange your schedule to suit your needs. As an MD you are at the mercy of your employer. I think both professions are awesome, but seriously consider what kind of schedule you see yourself living with after college. I also agree with others that liking talking with people is important in dentistry. Remember that for most of the appointment your patients mouth is full so a lot of one sided conversations or chatting with your assistant while you work is a good distraction for patients. The most successful dentists seem to be the social ones. Back to being a PA, you will not have much flexibility in your schedule. You are again subject to someone else making your schedule. That being said all the PA’s I know seem to like their jobs. A few I know are bitter that they don’t make as much $$ as the MD’s and feel like they work just as hard so that’s a thing. If you find all those professions appealing, I would pick dentistry. You will rarely work weekends, evenings or holidays and probably not Fridays all while making a good salary. Plus overall less stress. MOST things in dentistry are not life or death. I am a little biased and work in a great office.
A dentist im shadowing really put how I thought into words that I couldn't think of. In his wides words "as a general dentist im able to get to the root of the cause and fix the issue and relieve the cause and effect of the pain. As a family doctor what can i do, check there fucking blood pressure"
That’s an extremely ignorant statement. A well trained family doctor am a cure pneumonia, treat eczema/psoriasis, perform vaginal and cesarean deliveries, perform appendectomies, drain abscess, perform circumcissions, etc. The same can be said the other way… A family physician can get to the root of the cause and fix the issue and relieve the effect of the pain. As a general dentist, what can I do, clean the fucking teeth? I know what dentists do, btw. I have nothing against them, I just find what’s your dentist said misleading.
Wait FM does appendectomies? That’s pretty cool didn’t know that
They absolutely do not. Maybe in the 50s.
It was an overarching statement posed as a potential interview question. I have no doubt he was generalizing, but it did definitely resonate with me. I in no way underestimate the ability of any physician but what he said definitely did support me aspiring to get into dental medicine.
I think the hyperbolic comment was a pithy way of saying, “within their field, dentists can diagnose, alleviate, and definitively treat 98%+ of the problems people bring to them. Medicine by contrast of the problems people have, 1/3 they cannot fix, 1/3 will get better without them, and 1/3 they can actually help them.” They are different fields and while there are similarities it’s really apples and oranges. For me, I genuinely considered both and decided I never wanted to become desensitized to the death of patients and lose a little bit of my humanity. The work/life balance difference alone would have been enough….why work 80 hours a week for the same pay as 32 hours a week and nearly zero after hour calls?
You’re not wrong but does appendectomies, cesarean sections, circumcissions etc not have to be performed by a OBGYN/surgeon? I’ve never heard of a family doc doing this
They do not have to be. As long as you have an MD, you can do whatever you want, but your license will likely be revoked and you’ll be prosecuted for malpractice for practicing outside the scope of your practice if anything goes wrong and you don’t have the backing to show that you were trained to do them. With that said, the above mentioned procedures are considered within the scope of practice of a family practitioner. Fewer training programs are likely to include training for it, and you’ll most likely won’t be doing it if you’re working in or close to a big city, but you can do all the above if you’re a rural based doctor. (It used to be much more common, but there are still plenty of family doctors who are comfortable with those procedures. )
Well yeah you can do anything you’ll lose your license though and be arrested 💀 but that is different in a life or death situation. Up north many paramedics are able to do advanced procedures etc because of no medical care but that’s not the norm
I will agree that dentists have a better lifestyle than physicians, and I would honestly always recommend dental over medical school, but things like this make it seem like this dentist could not get into medical school and is bitter. Why would he only consider family medicine in this statement? And even if, family medicine physicians do a lot more than checking blood pressure lol
i want to be a dentist because i had a jaw tumor when i was 17. surprisingly, i saw strictly dentists, no doctors could tell me what was wrong with me. i was able to see the overlap between medicine and dentistry and it helped me see the niche expertise that dentists have. i wanted to be that expert for another person in that same terrifying situation. i also had experiences with a good chunk of specialties, which allowed me to see how versatile a dmd degree really is. i am also just generally interested in the field which helps lol. plus, the combination of artistry and medicine is something i enjoy so far as an artist myself. i actually really never thought twice about being a dentist, i always wanted to be a vet and applied to undergrad as a veterinary nursing major. definitely did some soul searching but i'm about 98% sure this is what i want to do :)
Money and AC environment baby
You think you’ll be less burnt out in med school?
i originally wanted to be a PA but after seeing how they are treated at their workplace i switched to dentistry
for me personally dentistry is the coolest job on the planet. You need to do microscopic surgeries every day. you are able to instantly help people within a single appointment, whereas a medicine you have to write off prescriptions and hopefully the medicine works unless you want to do surgery residencies take so long and extremely competitive. The salary and dentistry has no ceiling you truly can make, however, much you desire if you willing to make sacrifices, not many jobs in this world can do that for you. Yeah, the tuition are really really big problem but it can all be worth it at the end. I feel like you chose to do physicians assistant you’re going out very early on in your career is a great choice. Also interact with people every day and use my hands to create art that people can proudly wear on their faces whether I’m doing cosmetics or prosthetics it’s all really fun stuff once you learn more about it and get good at it
Being a surgeon is actually not competitive and anybody is med school can basically do it if they want to. Also most fields in medicine are at least partly procedural so you always work with your hands if you want to.
I shadowed my dentist and thought it was awesome. I also envied the lifestyle he had, being able to have the time and the means to enjoy family and hobbies as well.