General What are the pros/cons between physician VS dentist?

[artist2022]

In your honest opinion, which is the better career in 2020: Family Physician or General Dentist?

They are completely different. This is like asking what's a better fruit, apples or bananas?

You need to shadow both to decide which one to pursue. You can't listen to opinions or look purely at job prospects/salaries/etc. and make a choice. They're both great, but very, very different. Working on teeth doesn't appeal to everyone and it's a lot harder than some may think too.

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[TheBoneDoctah]

Agree with the above. Better in terms of what? Salary, job prospects, flexibility?

To know which one you would fit with best you need to do some shadowing.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Yes these are the things I am asking about. I already made a decision but I am just curious to see what you guys have to say about things like salary, flexibility, lifestyle, etc. The only reason why I ask is because there is a lot of contradicting information out there and I am not sure which to believe.

I can say I am familiar with the admissions processes for dental admissions and medical admissions, but I am not a professional in either. You can ask the oral surgeons who may wind up having to have both degrees, but that's no cakewalk. Also there are differences within specialties, whether medical or dental, and utilization of technology that make any sort of comparison rather futile.

That said, there is probably a reason why dentists and orthodontists are rated higher on US News and World Report in career surveys compared to their medical counterparts. If you believe that sort of thing.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

From what I’ve heard it can be tougher to get started as a dentist as you have to buy a practice or building etc. in medicine you can just start working for a hospital system.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

From what I’ve heard it can be tougher to get started as a dentist as you have to buy a practice or building etc. in medicine you can just start working for a hospital system.

On the flip side, internship and residency are not so critical in dentistry. It's changing but not as much of a hassle as med. Match day in dentistry is not met with the same fanfare.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

On the flip side, internship and residency are not so critical in dentistry. It's changing but not as much of a hassle as med. Match day in dentistry is not met with the same fanfare.

True. There are for sure pros and cons to both sides.

 

[AlteredScale]

This is just my anecdotal experience is working along side some classmates going into dentist-

Accessibility wise: would say family medicine for sure at least in the prospects of finding a job in a bigger city. There are more hospitals than dental clinics and overall, access to health care is more sought after than dental care TBH.

Salary: hard to say. You can make a lot in each one just depend and what you are doing. I know alot of family medicine doctors who go into locus tenems or hospitalist gigs or nocturn gigs and make a ton but they are gone and away all the time. Not sure how much general dentists can "moonlight" in a medical center.

Flexibility/lifestyle: I would say dentists takes the cake on this. Most dental clinics are 8-5pm. As a family medicine doc you can still have a similar working in a clinic. But dealing with prior auths would probably making it busier (not sure how many prior