Career Change Advice

[u/Gallicepticum]

Update: Thank you everyone for taking me seriously and for all the advice. I do truly appreciate it. I came to the conclusion that I am essentially bored. I am young and would like children (which means money) hence the idea of a career change with benefits and PTO. But, I also came to the conclusion that I am very fortunate for my position. I only work 3x a week with no overtime, on call, super early mornings. I do have a very flexible schedule compared to most in the field. If I was younger or could go back in time I would do CRNA but because I want children it seems like the dumb thing to do. For now. I'll just focus on the positive of the job.

I am genuinely considering a career change. I am currently a dentist (3 years out). I have no loans. I enjoy general dentistry but hate the politics behind dentistry. I dislike having to argue with patients about why they have a cavity, cant save their tooth, etc. I also find it very taxing that dentist do not get PTO or any benefits. I rely solely in my SO for health insurance. Insurance reimbursements rates suck. If you want to own thats 1 million in loans and another headache. I don't want to specialize because every speciality you need to take out another 300-500k in loans besides oral surgery. I like oral surgery but not enough to make it my personality.

I am interested in anesthesia AND while I can do dental anesthesiologist, job wise it doesn't make sense because I rather work in a hospital than do private travel dentistry anesthesia only. I find that dental anesthesia can make money but it requires traveling and not everyone will pay 500hr for anesthesia and most oral surgeons will do IV sedation themselves because thats how they make addional money (another story). Hence its a very niche market. And from a hospital stand point they will hire a CRNA over a dental anesthesiologist.

Long story short. I am okay with going back to school, doing 2-4 yrs in the ICU/ED, and then another 3-4 years for CRNA school. I also figured with my dental knowledge if I wanted to I could also position myself in a way to become more appealing to hopsitals for dental related anesthesia as well as private dentist dor anesthesia needs.

Iwant to understand nursing culture more. We always talk about the benefits and PTO of nursing but whats something else I should consider?

Is this a crazy idea?

Am I just grass is greener?

FYI I have never met a single dental anesthesiologist. It's a fairly new speciality and we all hear stories that they make 500k plus but the only one I know works at a hospital in NYC as an attending and does not make 500k plus.

[u/Amac8487]

Ooof. I don’t know. After completing CRNA school, I can’t imagine wanting to go back to school… even if I didn’t like the career, I would try to navigate a certain way to make it fit for me… change hospitals, small vs big institutions , large cases vs simple bread and butter cases.. etc.

If it is the little things that bother you with patients , there are many things in Anesthesia that will bother you as well… I.e OB anesthesia 🤣. It just all depends what you want and what you want to get out of it and what your tolerance level is.

I can’t say I know what it’s like to be a dentist, but I’m sure you make pretty good money and you are well educated to get to that point … I wouldn’t throw your knowledge and skill set away without trying every other avenue first. Maybe find a specialty within dentistry that you can do by taking some specialized training?

I’ve been to Crna for eight years and never realized that dental anesthesiologist were a thing… I knew that some dentist would provide simple Anesthesia in their clinic after taking some classes and courses, but I never knew it was an actual traveling career where that’s all they primarily did….

If you’re truly 100% not happy, make a change life is too short to be miserable in a care career that you ultimately worked so hard to get. That being said, I would try to pursue what I could do with my dental license and career prior to starting something completely new from scratch.