clinical psychology or dentistry?

i'm unsure whether i want to pursue a career in dentistry (i'd like to become an orthodontist specifically) or clinical psychology. both improve patients' wellbeing, are usually in hospital settings, involve problem solving and interacting with patients, have financial stability. both share similar flaws (eg issues with people being able to access services, general issues with the NHS, years of training and education)

case for orthodontics: currently, i am leaning towards orthodontics, mostly inspired by own fabulous orthodontist, but also the idea of developing long-term relationships with patients, working with a dental nurse (for some reason i feel like dentists are fun to work with), better work-life balance and pay, and seeing your patients concrete improvements (whereas with psychology, treating mental issues is more ambiguous, and you can't truly "fix" them). the perfectionist in my craves the idea of trying to improve someone's teeth. like one time i was in this UCL hospital for my teeth and the entire room of dental students, orthodontists, smart guys wearing cool dentist glasses gathered around me because my teeth were such a strange space, and i thought wow, this collaboration and excitement is pretty cool. also, everyones mental health is getting increasingly worse due to things like climate change, living crises, social media, and i feel like a lot of societal changes need to be made for me to make a real impact on peoples mental health.

case for clinical psych: but dentistry is so so competitive and hard to get into. im currently in year 13, will be taking a gap year and applying for 2024 entry. i plan to get work experience and volunteering etc. orthodontics is even harder to get into. what on earth is the ucat omg. whereas, i already have lots of experience and knowledge of psychology and feel like i will make a super strong candidate. and psychology is a big passion of mine. also, my uni choices for psychology (cambridge, bath, ucl, leicester, surrey) seem a lot more fun than the options for dentistry.(yes i know uni is temporary and instant gratification blah blah but STILL) and i feel more confident when discussing psychology in eg an interview than dentistry, and in general. i only recently realised i like dentistry so i feel a bit lost and overwhelmed with everything i have to do.

(yes in summer i plan to get work experience for both and hopefully that will influence my decision, i just like to feel prepared and secure)

rambling over:

1) what benefits/limits of orthodontics/clinical psychology are there?
2) which one would u pick out of the 2 and why?

(i'll repost this in dentistry too to get both views)

Reply 1

leonaslaughter

6

i dropped out of doing medicine for clinical psych just because it felt like i loved it more. i had more passion for helping peoples mental heath than i did physical health and being a psychiatrist wasnt for me either because i felt like it was a glorified pharmacist all they do really is diagnostics and perscriptions and i wanted the patient contact and to do talk therapies. i feel like the only reason i wanted to do medicine was because i had some sort of ego trip where i felt like i was 'too clever for a regular degree' then i realised that was just pretentious and that clinical psych is just as respectable as medicine and id be working in a very similar setting with very similar people. i csn take a pay cut to be happy chances are we will work into our 60s so might asell do something i actually love and im passionate about so i dont dread work everyday like. my parents do. my dads an engineer and my mum works in HR for the local council and neither of them wanted to do that so now theyre miserable 8 hours a day 5 days a week because they went into something that paid more than what they initially wanted and i dont want that for the rest of my life.

it took alot of thinking but i went with what i loved not what was the flashiest and now im excited about my prospects and what i can do to help people.

Reply 2

A1man

2

Original post by indizino

i'm unsure whether i want to pursue a career in dentistry (i'd like to become an orthodontist specifically) or clinical psychology. both improve patients' wellbeing, are usually in hospital settings, involve problem solving and interacting with patients, have financial stability. both share similar flaws (eg issues with people being able to access services, general issues with the NHS, years of training and education)

case for orthodontics: currently, i am leaning towards orthodontics, mostly inspired by own fabulous orthodontist, but also the idea of developing long-term relationships with patients, working with a dental nurse (for some reason i feel like dentists are fun to work with), better work-life balance and pay, and seeing your patients concrete improvements (whereas with psychology, treating mental issues is more ambiguous, and you can't truly "fix" them). the perfectionist in my craves the idea of trying to improve someone's teeth. like one time i was in this UCL hospital for my teeth and the entire room of dental students, orthodontists, smart guys wearing cool dentist glasses gathered around me because my teeth were such a strange space, and i thought wow, this collaboration and excitement is pretty cool. also, everyones mental health is getting increasingly worse due to things like climate change, living crises, social media, and i feel like a lot of societal changes need to be made for me to make a real impact on peoples mental health.

case for clinical psych: but dentistry is so so competitive and hard to get into. im currently in year 13, will be taking a gap year and applying for 2024 entry. i plan to get work experience and volunteering etc. orthodontics is even harder to get into. what on earth is the ucat omg. whereas, i already have lots of experience and knowledge of psychology and feel like i will make a super strong candidate. and psychology is a big passion of mine. also, my uni choices for psychology (cambridge, bath, ucl, leicester, surrey) seem a lot more fun than the options for dentistry.(yes i know uni is temporary and instant gratification blah blah but STILL) and i feel more confident when discussing psychology in eg an interview than dentistry, and in general. i only recently realised i like dentistry so i feel a bit lost and overwhelmed with everything i have to do.

(yes in summer i plan to get work experience for both and hopefully that will influence my decision, i just like to feel prepared and secure)

rambling over:

1) what benefits/limits of orthodontics/clinical psychology are there?
2) which one would u pick out of the 2 and why?

(i'll repost this in dentistry too to get both views)