A lot of people, especially Pakistanis, assume that they know everything about the lives of dentists. They know what they study, what they have to go through, and how they feel. However, as a dentist-in-making there are some confessions, which I am sure all dentists would agree to, that I would like to bring to your notice, I bet many of you out there did not realise before.
We chose BDS over MBBS
Anyone who knows we are studying BDS in a medical college immediately considers it their duty to offer condolence to us. We have to listen to remarks such as: ‘Oh, poor you! You didn’t get admission in MBBS? That’s ok, BDS is fine too.’ People, some of us actually ‘chose’ BDS over MBBS. And the reason was not merely because we did not have enough marks.
We are called doctors too
Pakistani concept:
MBBS degree: Doctor
BDS degree: Not equivalent to a doctor
All right, guys! We know we aren’t on the same footing as MBBS students, but do you want to know a secret? On the first day of our medical college life, both of us take the same oath: after becoming doctors, we will follow our profession to treat the sick to the best of our knowledge. Besides, once we have that degree in our hands, there’s a ‘Dr.’ standing boldly next to our names, too.
We do have a social life
‘Chosen medicine as career? You must be a book-worm!’ ‘Don’t you get bored of not having a social life?’ Wait a second! What makes you people think that we do not go out or enjoy a social life? Sure, we have a lot to study, but then we also have a social life. We, too, get weekends. We are normal human beings, just like you guys. Period.
We hate it when you ask us treatments while we are eating food
Suppose you are at a party, happily munching on food, when out of nowhere your friend comes and introduces you as a ‘dentist’ to his acquaintances. As soon as the latter hears who you are, we get ready to be grossed out. They’ll show their teeth whilst we pretend that we are not irritated. At all. They ask for a free checkup right there at the party knowing we can’t refuse outright. The worst case of all occurs when Pakistani khaandan walay do the same at a family dinner.
But that’s not the actual confession; it is that we really hate such encounters. Do you see us at parties asking an engineer about our broken motor?
We will work after completing our degree
Yet another misconception, especially for the female lot, is that we’ll leave the profession once we are married and hence are the useless ones because we waste that particular seat. Here’s the truth to bust this myth: some girls are different as well. Many of us will work and do jobs for your betterment after completing our grade.
BDS is tougher than MBBS
You guys don’t even consider us as doctors - the label saved for the MBBS ones - and yet both of us study the same books, same course in the same universities with the same teachers. The only difference being we have more books than them. While they only study the medical books to become doctors, we have to study the medical and dental books to be called a dentist and a doctor. That includes studying medical-related things like how our mind makes a memory that’s irrelevant to dentistry.
Not all teeth are the same
Many people, particularly the MBBS doctors, ask us how our career is so difficult when we just have to study 32 teeth. After all, they all look the same, right? Wrong! You have no idea how different each one of them is. It’s like each one of them has a whole new story. Every particular tooth has a different size, angle, number of canals, number of cusps and their shapes, number of roots and their sizes, the lines passing through each one, the depressions, the depth of concavity and so many more things. And that’s not it. There is so much more than these 32 teeth such as the diseases and their treatments, etc.
A man and a dentist’s ‘I won’t
hurt you’ have the same meaning
Women say that when a man is in a relationship and he uses the words ‘I won’t hurt you,’ he definitely is going to hurt you. Sorry to say this, but these words from a dentist’s mouth have the same meaning. While you are on a dental chair, your dentist will tell you to relax because he won’t hurt you. Not that it’s our fault, but a lot of dental treatments require pain and we know that it will hurt a little. We can’t help it, guys.
We are not perfect
When you people hear the word doctor, I don’t know why you think of us as perfectionists. We are not. We are also not so nerdy. We are ordinary. We, too, sometimes get sick and have to be checked up by someone, for instance.
We sometimes forget that you can’t talk while on the dental chair
Many people say they hate dentists because they put several things in their mouth and then start asking questions even though the patient cannot speak. Well, the truth is we forget that simple fact. Sorry! It’s just that we get bored and tired after a long day’s work and would like to talk to someone; in other words, we see you as a hope.
Dentist = Doctor + Engineer + Artist
This line is true. Many of my friends ask me that why are we made to learn other skills when we just have to deal with teeth. We learn a lot of skills like wire bending, proper mixing, and proper shaping - the same as an artist does. We study the mechanism of the dental chair and dental products as an engineer and the rest of the stuff as a doctor.
People, I hope you understand these confessions and start respecting dentists the way they deserve. And all the MBBS folks out there, no hard feelings; we value you from the core of our hearts.
