Yet another post stolen from Tumblr

It's been a long, long haul to get where I am. I've endured so much pressure from everyone, especially my dad because he had this initial idea that I couldn't cope with the workload and that I wouldn't be capable and so I'd rely on him. Yeah, hasn't happened. The only time I needed help from him was when I wanted him to test me on all the content and since I've proved myself and he's started to realise that medicine isn't the only profession I can be successful at. And I realise that there are a lot of people who would absolutely kill to be in my position.

People are often tossing up between medicine and dentistry and they've asked me what my opinions are on both, so I guess I'll dedicate this post to that. They're both very sought after because the general public perceives the following:

• To be a doctor or a dentist is considered prestigious
• The income is high
• You're dealing with people
• It's very difficult to get into either

The truth is that there is a lot, LOT more than that. See, I've always been interested in science/health sciences and I love working with people. I find it fascinating how we can incorporate the straight knowledge of science withe the art of interactions to improve people's lives. And I'm fairly independent and fixed on leading my own job and being my own boss, so that's why I prefer being a doctor or dentist instead of someone who has to answer to a higher authority.

I used to have this really fixed idea that I was going to do either ophthalmology or dermatology if I did medicine and orthodontics if I did dentistry but I've weighed up the study:success ratio and dentistry has thus far shown to be better. See with medicine, it's 6 years (2 years of undergrad + 4 years postgrad MBBS) but after you complete the degree, it's basically only the beginning of your education. From there, you must do internship, become a registrar and then choose a chosen specialty and complete the training. Thing is, it's one thing to get into medicine, but it's another thing to actually get an internship and THEN get into the college of a specialty. It's especially difficult particularly with ophthalmology, dermatology or surgery because they're so popular.

So that's 7-10 years providing you get in straight away. With dentistry, you do the 5 year degree - bachelor of dental science - and then you can begin working immediately. Although it's hard to get into specialties, you need to work for 3 years anyway and if you can't get into orthodontics or whatever, just keep trying while you work. You're earning an extremely high income anyway and if you go rural, your pay goes up something like 60-70% for first year pay.

I've got pretty good manual dexterity so I'm not worried about the technical skills. They can be learnt and playing instruments really helps with that. So yeah, I'm erring towards sticking with dentistry, but I'll keep my options open.