Medicine Vs. Dentistry

My brother does dentistry so I know all about how he went about deciding - he sounds like a similar person to what you describe lol!! But good for you - and dentistry is a fantastic degree.

Thanks! Although A-Levels are tough, no? We've got our work cut out to achieve all of these A*s we've been predicted....

I've so far got offers from Birmingham and Cardiff. Waiting on the other 2 poat-interview although UCL although they told me I should here sometime this week so excited/nervous for that :s! UCL would be a fab uni to go to !!

And you?

hahaha really? yeah I know how I am as a person aint no fooling myself! Oh god to decide my parents sent me to do work experience in a hospital in Africa they so wanted me to choose medicine instead of dentistry haha

WOO congrats thats so good! I've got an offer from Cardiff and I'm waiting to hear back from KCL and Barts / QML

and yeah **** chemistry A2 is killing me atm its such a step up from AS - specially since I'm utter shite at maths!

Yeah I wonder why most parents would prefer their kids to go for medicine when they're interested in dentistry. Mine were the same with my bro...! The downside of dentistry though is that jobs are few and far between - that was their main concern with my brother doing it. But situations change in 5years so I guess we'll wait and see.

woop woop! Cardiff too?! Great stuff. Don't even get me started on A2 Maths....

haha I dropped maths! I'm so awful at it hahaha

Are they few and far between though? there's 100% post grad employment for most places.. anyway I'm planning on taking it to the states so hopefully it'll all pan out hahaha

yeah Cardiff is awesome! Its my first choice haha

Nice!

Just what I heard from newly qualified dentists when I did work exp in a local practice

Its the perfect blend of healthcare, diagnosis & treatment with good pay and flexible hours. Also have to opportunity to work both NHS and private easily. Comes down to personal choice though as both are super competitive so either way you go it won't be easy.
I'd say make sure you do work experiences in a couple of dental practices (private & NHS) as well as hospital experience to see which one you prefer and can see yourself in the most!

I wouldn't say obviously, I had my fair share of indecisiveness but I always found myself coming back to the idea of dentistry.
I found work experience to be the most helpful. Whilst there are differences between dentistry and medicine, they are still very similar and so exposure to the different professions and keeping a work experience diary really helps. Honestly, I'm one of those weirdos that actually finds the mouth/teeth genuinely interesting and I like how hands on dentistry is from the start. You also get the benefit of treating patients. (and yes you can save lives and improve people's mental wellbeing as well) Some people argue that in dentistry you get to know patient's better which is true to an extent as you don't only see people when they're ill but GPs can also get to know their patients aswell. I also feel like people's attitudes towards their oral health isn't quite as good as it could be and as a dentist you can help educate and advise people on how to improve their oral health. Also, there's quite a few things you can do with a dental degree so you're not completely restricted and that sealed the deal for me (:

I'm a dental applicant haha.

I wouldnt do any. Courses are long and lots of actual study that you can't fake or get by is required. After eating your soul out be ready to actually work hard in real life for not such a great job. Better proffesions out there.

But if you still want these 2, pick the one with better career path in terms of stress and money....I mean money and stress....meditate and exercise and no stress at work, but not much you can do if no money coming in

Thank you for your reply!

Could you possibly go into some detail as to why you'd chose dentistry so obviously?

I'm guessing you have a career/background in dentistry

This was 5 years ago damnnn... What did you end up picking btw? Medicine or dentistry? And do you have any regrets?