The Cost of Becoming a Maxfac Surgeon

[sean89]

Does anyone know what has to be done to become a maxfac surgeon?

I've heard a degree in both medicine and dentistry is necessary, which in the U.K. will take around 10 years to acquire before your training can begin.

And then somewhere along the way, you have to pay £45k a year to do a course like this:

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/masters/courses/list/07776/oral-and-maxillofacial-surgery-msc-clin-3-year-course/

f**k me, no wonder surgery costs so much. After taxes, you'd probably have to work for another 10 years to break even by which time you're probably nearing your forties and have spent the best years of your life in debt.

[Modigliani]

Some of the butchering bastards should have saved their money.

[Gregor Samsa]

It depends on the country. In my country you need to become a dentist first (5 years) followed by 4 years of specialist training (jaw surgery). Many of the best jaw surgeons also have plastic surgery training which will add another 1-3 years of studies. In general, becoming a specialist doctor requires some serious dedication. I read that nine out of ten doctors would not recommend the profession to anyone else.

[PloskoPlus]

I wonder how many really hate their job, but having invested so much of their life into it just grin and bear it?

[Gregor Samsa]

I wonder how many really hate their job, but having invested so much of their life into it just grin and bear it?

"Male physicians have a 70% higher suicide rate than males in other professions; female physicians die by suicide at a 400% higher rate than females in other professions."

https://www.afsp.org/preventing-suicide/our-education-and-prevention-programs/programs-for-professionals/physician-and-medical-student-depression-and-suicide

[Alue]

Physicians know the human body very well and can execute a proper suicide ideally. They have access to the right stuff which the general population does not. This definitely skews the statistics. That being said, obviously, the stress levels are higher than on average, for sure.

It doesn't take a medical degree to know laying down on a traintrack or a bullet to the brain stem has a very high chance of success. 

[Gregor Samsa]

Physicians know the human body very well and can execute a proper suicide ideally. They have access to the right stuff which the general population does not. This definitely skews the statistics. That being said, obviously, the stress levels are higher than on average, for sure.

It doesn't say anything about how many suicides are attempted. Still, there have been many studies that show that physicians are unhappy in general and one study I read said that nine out of ten physicians would not recommend the job to anyone else. There's obviously a difference between a maxfac surgeon and a doctor that works in the ER (imagine that stress of that job), but physicians in general seem to be unhappy and overworked.

[PloskoPlus]

It doesn't say anything about how many suicides are attempted. Still, there have been many studies that show that physicians are unhappy in general and one study I read said that nine out of ten physicians would not recommend the job to anyone else. There's obviously a difference between a maxfac surgeon and a doctor that works in the ER (imagine that stress of that job), but physicians in general seem to be unhappy and overworked.

Could be worse.  A friend of a friend was a gastroenterologist, who had to tell patients all the time that they have cancer.  He spent all his free time doing high-risk hobbies and thinking of ways of making enough money to quit his job.

[dantheman]

I don't think it's the stress of the day to day job that affects physicians but rather the emotional exhaustion that comes with time. Either you emotionally invest yourself in every patient and end up having a mental breakdown, or you become an emotional cripple and lose the ability to empathize with others. Neither path leads to a happy life.

[jawbreakerbeach]

Dentists have higher suicide / unhappiness rates than doctors. A maxfac has to be both. 

I have a couple family members in medicine and what I hear is that no one wants to do the "hard" medical professions anymore. Increased cost + lawsuits + governmental regulation + insurance craziness make it not worth it. Life is too short. Guys who would have been maxfac surgeons 20 years ago are now going into elective plastic surgery or setting up medical spas.

So we're all gonna have great boobs in the next century but terrible jaws.

[PloskoPlus]

So we're all gonna have great boobs in the next century but terrible jaws.

Hopefully genetic engineering will be in full swing by then.