The Cycle of a dentist's life?




Sometimes life can be like a Disney Movie. The innocent young struggle to learn how to become adults. Pinochio grew a longer nose, Sleeping beauty was put into an endless sleep. Belle ended up in imprisoned by a monster... and so it goes. 


A young aspiring dentist must undergo their own struggles. First getting into a college with a decent premed program, They must matriculate and maintain high grade averages and score well on their DAT's. If they are fortunate, and do not loose their way, they will apply to Dental School and go on interviews and get accepted. Money plays a role, since there usually aren't many scholarships for dental students seeking a free ride ( The military does provide this option if a student will serve afterward for the number of years that the scholarship provided). Most accepted dental students find a way to finance their education through loans. Its not unusual for students to graduate with hundreds of thousands in debt.



Dental School is an intense time of learning and can be extremely competitive for those students seeking good residencies and hope to get into a specialty program.  Once, a long time ago, I went through this process, getting through college, interviews, getting into dental school (whew!) and finishing with honors. I stumbled through my early career working for other dentists and eventually took over a small dental practice in Manhattan. I built it up and expanded it until it would provide a nice living for me, my wife and my small cub David.


Flash forward ten years more and by some luck of fate (and some hard work!) I have become the Virtual Best Dentist in New York  at least according to Google. I rode this wave for another seven years until younger and possibly more technologically proficient challengers arose. It didn't help that Google, an ever fickle lover , changed it's algorithm in such a way that it was increasing difficult to maintain my tittle without probably spending tons of money advertising.


Now my cub, David, is all grown and about to start dental school this fall at N.Y.U. and more and more I feel like an older Mufasa watching Simba climbing his way into adulthood. I am working, behind the scenes, helping him keep steady on track and fending off any and all predators who might derail his progress.


I must say that his decision to pursue a career in dentistry has possibly given me a new lease on my profession and certainly given me motivation for soldering on. After all I have to maintain my dental domain so that he can take my place in the dental cycle of life!

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-cycle-of-dentists-life.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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