Beginner Pre-Dental Advice? Non-Trad

Hi everyone. To keep it short and sweet, I've been a non-traditional* "pre-med" for the last two years now, but have been spending a lot of time talking to people in medicine and thinking, and I am starting to realize, for various reasons, that being a physician is not for me.

*(I dropped out of college 5 yrs ago, failed my first semester, withdrew my 2nd semester (mainly due to immaturity and anxiety, straight A in hs) and worked full time in food service afterwards)

Things that I would like in a career:
-to work with children (but not in a large supervisory role like a teacher)
-to be able to interact with patients one on one (which is why being a general pediatrician appealed to me)
-to help prevent or alleviate pain/suffering
-to have the option to own my own practice one day (first would want to work with a group to gain experience)
-to work with my hands
-to have a good work-life balance
-to be able to teach others something
-fairly calm environment

I am 24 years old, currently enrolled in CC on my 2nd semester of my "freshmen" year. My first semester, I had a 4.0 gpa (biology, english, intermediate algebra, and was working ~25 hours per week), quit my job (toxic environment, lucky enough that my boyfriend can support us) at the end of my first semester. 2nd semester, currently enrolled in 5 classes, on track for a 4.0 GPA for this semester too.

Currently I am going through orientation to start volunteering at a children's hospital (reading books, interacting with kids, helping clean the play areas), and volunteering with an organization where you read books to underserved children to help inspire reading.

I was looking at possible careers, and I feel that being a dentist meets those criteria. I never gave being a dentist any serious though before, only because I have an intense dislike of going to the dentist myself and my family convinced me going medicine would be better. I would want to be a general (pediatric) dentist.

I was planning on cold emailing or sending letters to nearby dentist offices (ideally pediatric dental offices) to see if I could shadow someone over my spring break. (If shadowing goes well and is inspiring, then I plan to start cross-stitching again to work on dexterity)

Some questions I had were:
1) Does major matter for dental schools?
I know for medical schools, it doesn't as long as you get your pre-reqs, but since I have 4 F's from 5 yrs ago in science courses, I would have to major in bio/chem/physics/math to make up for it. I'm assuming it's the same scenario for dental schools? (That I should major in BCP (not math, since it's sep from my understanding for dental schools to compensate for those 4 F's)
2) Does majoring in marine biology or ecology versus cellular or microbiology or general biology matter?
3) If my EC's (volunteering, shadowing, etc) are mainly children focused, is that bad? Should I try to get some variety?
3) Any general advice or comments you have?

I apologize if any of this seems premature since I still have ~3 years of undergrad left, I just am trying to make plans so I don't screw myself over again.

Thank you kindly for your advice, I appreciate any comments.

maga1994 said:

1) Major doesn't matter, although I would argue Biology graduates have an upper hand for dental school. Definitely major in a science so that you can raise your sGPA.
2) I wouldn't major in marine biology or microbiology, but cellular sounds OK. I'm definitely biased towards majoring in Gen Bio
3) Try to get in 100 hours shadowing a general dentist. Pediatric dentists are a specialty within dentistry and it is very competitive to specialize in dental school.
4) Congrats on working hard and getting good grades. I would recommend transferring to your local state university to finish up your degree.

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Thank you for the comments. I wasn't set on marine biology, just something I thought would be sorta fun. I've always have loved the ocean, water, and marine life (including protists and algae, not just dolphins and cuttlefish, anything living is fascinating to me. I can spend hours watching tide pool inhabitants), but have no desire to get a PhD and do research. I'd be happy with general biology too, so I will go that direction then. I am planning to transfer to either CSULA, or possibly UCLA. I'm leaning towards CSULA, as I wouldn't have to move apartments and it's cheaper. I just have to complete all my transfer prereqs first.

I'll start shadowing general dentists too, I had no idea specializing was so competitive.

Oh another question, I know for the MCAT, trig-based physics was recommended. For DAT or dental schools, does it matter if you take calculus-based or trigonometry-based physics? (I'm registering for physics next semester, different prereqs for each). Is one preferred?

Rekker said:

There is no physics on the DAT, and as far as I know dental schools don't care what kind of physics course you take. If you major in Biology you'll probably have to take the calculus-based course as a requirement.

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Good to know. The schools I'm looking at according to the transfer agreements accept either calculus-based or trig-based physics for bio/microbio/cell bio majors.

So, I managed to find someone who would let me shadow. I shadowed them the last few days, and.... I didn't like it. At all. Ironically, I had a really amazing experience shadowing a physician, and that ignited the feelings I had for medicine originally.

I just wanted to say thank you everyone for all your help and advice though, you guys are all so friendly and nice.

I really thought I would love dentistry, and really wanted to, as it is an amazing career, but no.

Thank you for the suggestions! I'm not going to write off dentistry completely, but definitely going to find more shadowing opportunities. I made an appointment with my school's career center as they should be able to help me find more shadowing opportunities for the other fields that were suggested above. I figure the more shadowing, the merrier!