ARE YOU FIT FOR MDS ?

IS MDS REALLY WORTH? SHOULD YOU TRY FOR IT OR NOT? IS THERE MORE TO LIFE FOR A DENTAL STUDENT OTHER THAN MDS?

Its that time of the year when many fresh dental students would be finishing their internship and graduating as a doctor. All of them looking forward to the future with equal amounts of anxiety and excitement. Most them would be first generation dentists having absolutely no clue of how to go about. Majority of us feel doing a post graduation is the ultimate thing you could do after BDS. Many would be preparing for the upcoming exams seriously, some would be trying their best to study regularly, some would have began with full enthusiasm and gave up midway and some would probably be waiting to just try their luck without much effort. No matter what, the ultimate aim is always MDS.

But, what is strange is most of us are just repeating the same thing we did some years back. Just for a small recap, let’s think of how most of us actually ended up here.

It all probably started from your 9th or 10th when your parents started telling you to study well so that you would be getting science group. Anything other than a science group is a taboo in most of the Indian households.

Once you belonged to the science group, you gave up every other thing you ever loved to just to keep trying to get into any one of the “only” two professions that parents consider a profession-An engineer or a doctor. You gave multiple exams and kept slogging those two years and finally landed up in an engineering college or a medical college. Those of you who couldn’t get a medical seat compromised by taking up dentistry.

That almost sums up how most of us ended up doing BDS.If you notice, most us never had the choice or the chance to think of what we really wanted to do. We did most of these things because everybody else did it or probably what we were told to do. None of us really took time to think if we really wanted to do what we are going to do and how it really feels like. It’s sad that it happens mostly in our country that the biggest decision of our life was not our own but it was influenced by others.

Now that we yet again stand at the crossroads of our next big decision, why are we blindly doing things like a herd of sheep? All of us want to do a PG, but how many of you really enjoyed your UG? How do you think you would enjoy doing your MDS if you never really enjoyed BDS? Have you asked yourself this question? In my opinion here are some reasons why some people should not be doing a PG.

 Don’t do your PG just because -

1. Your every other friend is planning to do a PG.
2. You feel that your own batch mates who would be doing their PG would look down upon you.
3. Your parents probably have a lot of money to waste.
4. Your relatives are constantly asking about your future plans and trying to give their opinion.
5. Your neighborhood aunty who doesn’t even know how many branches are there in MDS says that BDS has no value these days and you need to study more.
6. You think it’s safer to fool around for another three years till you actually need to do something in life.
7. You are lazy to think of a better thing to do.

8.   You do not have the nerves to leave everything and pursue what you really enjoy doing.

Decide to do your PG when -

1. You genuinely develop an interest for a particular subject.
2. When you feel you lack in a particular aspect of dentistry that you would like to nurture.
3. When you yourself feel that doing a PG at this time would contribute to your skills majorly.
4. Only if you really enjoy dentistry.

We all are aware of how competitive this world is. Most of us might think that if we don hurry up we might fall behind our counterparts. But, I feel we need to give ourselves some time to make a clear decision to know what we want from life.

Why is it that all of us are rushing into something just because everybody is doing it or somebody else said so?

I believe it would be ideal to give yourself sometime (if you haven’t given) to assess where you lack and what you need to work on. Give yourself that time for self-assessment and then decide what to do ahead so that at least this time you would be really sure of the decision you would take. If you ever felt you do not enjoy this field do not be afraid to do what you love. Do not be afraid to chase your dreams and listen only to your heart.

Remember, success comes only to those who really love what they do.

Go ahead guys, and all the very best for your future and always remember,

“It is never too late to be what you might have been”

Dr.Keerthika Natarajan