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Neuroscience PhD or Dentistry?

Hi, so I have graduated last year with a 2.1 in my Biomedical Science degree. I've taken a gap year au pairing and now have a full time job, however I want to go back to studying.
My two dream jobs would either be a dentist or neuroscience research as I am fascinated by the brain. Below I will list pros as to why I would like to do both.

Dentistry:
Pros:
- Patient-based environment. I love interacting with people and I excel in this area.
-I've always been interested in dentistry and also love studying, so another 5 years does not bother me.
-I assume more job security than neuroscience?

Neuroscience:
- This is where my passion truly lies, in psychology and how the brain works.
- I believe this career would be more fulfilling as research into the brain is never ending.
- If I were to become a professor, I think I would enjoy the teaching side also.

Cons of Neuroscience:
-PhDs are very competitive and also there is no guaranteed job security as its more niche than dentistry for example.
-Scared to risk studying to not find a job, or not being able to fund a phd

Ok so my passion lies definitely within mental health and the brain and finding best drugs or therapies for treating mental illness as I suffer from depression and anxiety and have a family history of mental illness so it is quite personal to me.

I just need somebody to explain what life entails within a career as a dentist and a career as a neuroscience researcher, and how the job prospects are for each. I just need some guidance really. Thank you :smile:

Reply 1

EveAA

Hi.

From reading your post, if I’m being honest, it does sound like you already know where you passion aligns, with neuroscience, compared to dentistry. Both PhD and dentistry intake are extremely competitive so in terms of competition, you’re probably going to equally find it difficult.

I can’t speak for job opportunities, but I would say go for the thing you’re most passionate about. Not for job prospects. Though I’m sure neuroscience has some great job prospects, but I can’t speak on it as I’m not doing neuroscience. Research as a whole however, from the small glimpse I’ve seen, I would say it probably depends on what type of research you want to do, you could go into industry, which probably more stable but you might get stuck on doing the same thing. Academic research, you can do research that interests you, but grants are competitive and can be a bit unstable. I wouldn’t say it’s impossible though.
Dentists kinda get stuck doing very similar work everyday, unless you specialise. You could go into research from dentistry but you’ll end up probably needing to do a PhD.
I hope this helps 🙂