Howard Speaks: What Is the Dentistry of Medicine?? by Dr. Howard Farran, DDS, MBA

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by Dr. Howard Farran, founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of Dentaltown magazine

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We’ve all heard the tired line that people only became dentists because they couldn’t get into med school. That tired trope never considers that maybe we actually wanted to be dentists, not MDs. For me, dentistry was always the first choice. If I hadn’t gotten into dental school, my backup plan was Creighton Medical School with ophthalmology as my second option, dermatology as my third, and if that fell through, I would have joined my dad in running a Sonic Drive-In franchise. What drew me to dentistry, ophthalmology, and dermatology was the independence. These doctors owned their own land, their buildings, and their practices. No bosses, no hospital politics, no partners to fight with. That appealed to me then, and it still does today.

So, let’s ask the question head on. Were the rumors true? Was medical school really your first choice? Did you flunk the MCAT and take the DAT as a backup?

The comparisons are fascinating. Some say optometry is the true dentistry of medicine, with its four-year degree and outpatient focus. Others say ophthalmology is the dentistry of the eyes. The surgical subspecialties line up more closely with oral and maxillofacial surgery. OMFS is not just the dentistry of medicine, it is the medicine of dentistry. Unlike general dentistry, where residency is optional, OMFS requires four to six years of training. The six-year track adds an MD, which fuels the old joke that OMFS are dentists who wanted to be “real doctors.” The reality is that OMFS training aligns more with surgical medicine than with the daily work of general dentists.

Could urologists performing vasectomies all day long be considered testicle dentists? Some say yes.

We’ve all known classmates who dropped out of dental school to pursue medicine, claiming they found dentistry boring. Many later discovered that medicine was harder, more toxic, and far less predictable. Some even admitted they missed dentistry’s lifestyle perks. Dentistry has its challenges, rising tuition, shrinking ROI, and the corporate consolidation of private practice, but for those of us who genuinely like teeth, it remains a fulfilling career.

Interestingly, most physicians I know envy dentists for their hours and earning potential. On the flip side, some dentists envy the prestige and scope of medicine. That divide has always amused me. I remember once flying to give a lecture when the pilot asked if there was a doctor on board. I clicked the call button, but when the flight attendant learned I was a dentist, she dismissed me. The American media has fueled this kind of ignorance for decades, painting “doctor” as synonymous only with a physician. That’s nonsense. A physician is just one type of doctor.

Consider this. Since I started college at Creighton in 1980, most Federal Reserve chairmen held PhDs in economics, yet no one called them “Doctor.” Alan Greenspan (PhD, NYU), Ben Bernanke (PhD, MIT, and Nobel Prize winner in 2022), and Janet Yellen (PhD, Yale) all earned doctorates, but were rarely addressed as such. Paul Volcker and Jerome Powell didn’t hold PhDs, but the point stands. The title doctor has never been reserved solely for physicians, despite what pop culture wants people to believe.

Both medicine and dentistry demand sacrifice, resilience, and no small amount of humor to survive the grind. Maybe there is no perfect “dentistry of medicine.” Dentistry stands on its own: demanding, unique, and sometimes underappreciated. The endless comparisons probably say more about our need to justify career choices than about any true mirror image between the professions.

So, here’s the real question for Townies: If you had to pick one specialty in medicine that feels like the closest mirror to dentistry, which would it be, and why?

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