I've been very interested in the fields of medicine and dentistry and am currently in year 12. I've looked into both fields and have found positives and negatives in both and that has made it extremely difficult to decide between the two and ideally if i do get admission into both dentistry and medicine, which one would be better in respect to both the degree (the experience/difficulty) and as a career (the experience/ fulfilment).
And also i have factored in pay and job availability and do not want either of those to influence which field i prefer
Hard to say unless there are any aspiring or actual oral maxillofacial surgeons around here. Suffice to say, I would guess that a medical degree is broader, but there is an absence of teaching on teeth. Medical contact hours are long, but this may be the case in dentistry. Dentistry has a specific focus, much like a medical specialty (eg ophthalmology), and you can further sub-specialise in both. Medical school is not difficult, but you do need to put in effort.
Criteria for liking dentistry in practice are likely to be narrower, eg day-to-day content and procedures may be more similar, less opportunity to work in hospital environment, and as a dentist, you will likely need to think about the financial cost to patients more due to local billing practices. Obviously this may apply more to certain parts of medicine too, but you have more options regard future career for medicine. The ability to think about and deal with most health issues that someone might come in with might make medicine more fulfilling—again, depends on the person. However, you must complete internship at a hospital in medicine, and may need to remain in hospital for a year or more to attain your chosen specialty. Dislike patient contact and want to do anatomical pathology? Too bad, you still have to do internship. Some people may find the hours long tiring and for them it may outweigh the reward. Regarding lifestyle, dentistry as a whole is more comparable with “lifestyle friendly” specialties in medicine (eg GP).
