Ten kinds of people who should never take up dentistry .
1. Not so artistically inclined:
If your artistic skills are poorer than a ten year old, you might have to reconsider because you would be made to carve out replicas of teeth with almost accurate measurements from wax blocks smaller than the size of your fingers and even have to draw almost perfect polyhedral shaped cells or to carve out your restoration to mimic the natural tooth. Now this definitely needs some skills and if you are just not good with your hands, it’s better to stay away !
2.The ones in for a quick buck:
This is one of the biggest misconception regarding dentists that they earn a lot of money! Yes, they do but that does not happen soon and nor does it happen to everybody. Be prepared to work for peanuts in your initial years and that too after spending a fortune on your education.
3.The ones who underestimate the dental course:
If you are the ones who think dentistry is an alternative to get a doctor’s degree and is easier than MBBS you should just go talk to a final year BDS student about to appear for their exam. After hearing them you might even think twice before going to a dentist again !
4.The ones who think dentists just have to pull out teeth:
Im sorry to say ,but life isn’t all that easy my folks, dentists not only pull teeth but they also fill them, clean them, save them, whiten them, straighten them, score them, find out what’s wrong with them and even slice them and study them under microscopes. But wait! That was just what we do with teeth; a dentist also has to worry about your gums and every other structure surrounding your teeth.
5. The fun-seekers:
If your ideal college life is like the one you see in the movies, then this is so not your territory. Yes, we do have our own share of college fun and culturals but life in a dental college would just seem like an extension of school to a point where your best days in college would include the day it rained heavily and the patients didn’t turn up.
6. The rebels of the system:
During your course of becoming a dentist there would be times when you would be yelled at, laughed at, sometimes ridiculed or even punished for some unreasonable things. Apparently these things are part of your training by the end of which you would become absolutely immune to everything. But if the rebel in you refuses to remain silent and listen, you would seriously be doomed. The golden rule would be-Never argue.
7. The weak hearted :
If you are the ones who would cry at the drop of a hat then you are just not emotionally made for this. Expect things to go terribly wrong at the most crucial moment. You might get ditched by your patient before your exam, your model might fall and break, your ‘just perfect’ restoration might just crumble in a moment and much more! If you aren’t strong enough to handle stressful situations you might just collapse midway.
8. The ones with money issue :
If you are among those who need to be a little careful about the money being spent on your education then you might have to give it a second thought. The course is quite expensive and the money spent would not only include your course fees but also on the books, the expensive equipments, conferences and programs and at times to even bribe your patient to come for your exam and if you are planning to join a private college ,then be ready with a bag of cash at your disposal.
9.The poor communicators:
If you are bad with convincing people you might have a tough time. Being a little street smart can help you get through and take you a long way in this profession. But if you are just not a people person and you find it hard to communicate with and convince people you might fall behind despite doing well academically.
10. The ones who give up easily:
If you got scared just by reading this then you are definitely not a dentist material. A good dentist is the one who is absolutely fearless and would take on any challenge thrown at them at any moment. They are the ones who are ready to go against all odds to make it big and have immense faith in them in the due course. Those who, despite being in the most stressful profession always manage to have a smile on their face and make sure they bring one on everybody else’s.
P.S. If you fall into any of these categories, it does not mean you just can’t make it through dental school. This is just to enlighten those aspirants beforehand about what they are getting into because everybody who joins dentistry eventually would say this one line at least once in their life. “I wish somebody had warned me before joining”.
Article by : Dr.Keerthika Natarajan
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