re: MD vs DO and DDS vs DMD

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And in about 4 years, all MDs and DOs will be applying to and trained in the same residency programs - so the distinction will be almost meaningless.

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They're currently applying to and training in the same programs with the caveat that there are more programs open to DOs.

Basically, DO are eligible for USMLE (MD) boards as well as osteopathic (Comlex) boards. They can apply to essentially all MD residencies (I've never seen one require an MD rather than a DO, but I've seen them require USMLE and not Comlex) as well as a second set of DO residencies.

The board exams will be merging, and Comlex will be disappearing. But it's not expanding where the DOs can go. Most of them wind up in allopathic residencies anyway.

The political shoving match between the two schools of medicine created a med school admission and residency match process which has not been at different times of the year. By being off by even a few weeks it has caused students to be funneled into one side or the other.

For instance if you were interested in 2 osteopathic residencies and 3 allopathic residencies you entered two matches. The match date for osteopathic was earlier. So, if you were selected to one of the osteopathic residencies you were legally bound to complete your training there and your allopathic residency apps were now void. Thus many docs for forced into hard decisions.

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The board exams will be merging, and Comlex will be disappearing. But it's not expanding where the DOs can go. Most of them wind up in allopathic residencies anyway

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yep and one of the things that will be lost with the merging will be the OMM portion of the Comlex which will now be done in a separate test for OMM qualifications as I understand it. I know I received a lot of negative responses for my earlier comments about testing. But the truth is OMM is not taught in allopathic schools (although some are now having DO's come in to teach courses on it) and thus allopathic med students are not tested on that material. Certainly if exposed they are all capable of learning the material but they would struggle with and fail a test where they have had no education on the material.

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I actually considered the DO route and applied to both. I wound up getting into an allopathic school first. The decision was made easier by not getting into an osteopathic school until a day before I moved to New Orleans.

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Yep I had apps into 3 allopathic med schools and 1 osteopathic. I had very good MCAT, GPA, and medical experience and was quickly offered interviews with all schools to which I applied. I interviewed with each and narrowed the list down to 3 schools. during this time I was rotating with a D.O. here in Texas and spent a great deal of time reading and learning more about osteopathic medicine as it was essentially unheard of in LA. I became increasingly convinced that desiring to be a "full scope" FP in a rural area with a desire to do lots of sports medicine, osteopathy would best suit my training. I called the two allopathic schools and set out a year between college and med school to attain residency and lower my tuition before reapplying to and being accepted at TCOM.

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How long until 911moto comes in and tries to convince everyone (mostly himself) that dentists are equal to doctors

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Let's see...one works a 60 hour week (and is on call or working many weekends) seeing 60 patients/day for constantly diminishing fees dictated by the insurance industry, which controls their profession.
The other works a 4 day, 32 hour week for the same income.
They are far from equal. One is vastly superior.

When it comes to income, statistics will consistently show that dentists and physicians have similar incomes. (If you look at the incomes of specialists and surgeons, then you have to compare to endodontists, orthodontists, oral surgeons, etc. )
But in dentistry, earning a very comfortable living can be accomplished under MUCH easier working conditions, seeing 8-12 patients/day. If you want to earn real baller money, it's just a matter of how hard you want to work. The dentist I worked for right out of school was taking home $450K/year, and that was in the early '90s. Of course, he was seeing 35-40 patients/day.

Why would you compare specialties to general dentists? Apples and oranges.
How many extra years beyond the 4 years of medical school did it take to earn that specialty?

LINK
Talk to a few dentists and a few physicians about their average work week and tell me who has it better.

From another article regarding specialists...

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Dentists and physicians who specialized in a particular field of practice tended to earn higher salaries than their general practice counterparts. Anesthesiologists earned average annual wages of $234,950 as of May 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Internists made $189,210, while obstetricians and gynecologists earned $218,610 per year. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons earned average annual salaries of $217,380, while orthodontists made $204,670.

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