I was an engineer before deciding to go back to school for dentistry. However, for most dentists, they graduate high school, go straight to college, then right into dental school, and finally, their first, full-time, professional job is working as a dentist.

And I mean, let’s be honest, every job has its downsides and sucks just a little bit. I’ve come across a few dentists, especially young dentists right out of school, who seem disappointed and disillusioned.

I also read on dental forums/FB groups all the time how dentists would instead send their kids into finance, engineering, computer science, or some other field.

I chalk these feelings up to individuals who have never had a career outside dentistry or in that first scenario, never even had another serious job outside part-time or gig work before dentistry. So take them with a grain of salt.

At my dental school, we had ex-engineers, ex-PAs, ex-businessmen/women, ex-accountants, etc. One of our professors was a pharmacist that switched to dentistry. These individuals always had a brighter outlook of dentistry.

Ultimately, recognize that every career has its difficult, tedious, boring, frustrating, and exhausting aspects, and dentistry is no different. But there are a huge number of positives working in dentistry too. So, focus on the positives.

As far as if the positives outweigh the negatives depends on you and what you want to get out of your career.